Ten Key Dolphins Week 1 Numbers and the Stories They Told

Another way to examine the Miami Dolphins' Week 1 loss against the Las Vegas Raiders is to do it through numbers, more specifically the key stats that made the difference.

THE NUMBERS THAT STOOD OUT IN WEEK 1 FOR THE MIAMI DOLPHINS

8 — That's the average yards needed on the Dolphins' 10 third-down situations, which helps explain why they were able to convert only two of them. That total included four situations of third-and-10 or longer.

5 — Third-down situations in the second half for the Dolphins, when they pulled an 0-fer after going 2-for-5 in the first half. Not one of the third downs was for less than 5 yards and three of those drives ended with a sack, again underlying the importance of the Dolphins not putting themselves in obvious passing situations (which applies to every team, but is more significant for those that are more talent-challenged).

3 — Pass plays of 25 yards or more for the Dolphins, which remarkably is more than in any game in 2025. The three went to Caleb Douglas and Malik Washington for 30 yards, and to Chris Bell for 25 yards. The Dolphins had four games with two explosive pass plays in 2025, none of them past the Week 7 game at Cleveland when Tua Tagovailoa had one before Quinn Ewers added another in relief in the 31-6 blowout loss. The ability to throw downfield was a major missing component last year, so this stat is very much welcome and this is where Malik Willis' superior arm strength can make a difference.

2 — This one has surfaced on social media, and it's the total of rushing first downs for Malik Willis, which surpassed Tua Tagovailoa's one in 14 games and 20 rushing attempts for all of 2025.

8 — That's the number of penalties for the Dolphins, not including a holding call that was declined. There were two delays, and Aaron Brewer and JuJu Brents both were flagged twice. While penalties aren't conducive to success, we should point out this isn't necessarily out of the ordinary for a season opener. As proof, there were 14 other teams around the NFL (almost half the league) that also were penalized eight or more times. The record of the 15 teams with at least eight penalties in Week 1 was 8-7. The Dolphins were 1-3 in such games in 2025.

3 — Breaking it down further, the Dolphins committed three pre-snap penalties, the two delays and a false start against Kadyn Proctor. That was tied for 13th-most in the NFL. Cleveland and Seattle each had seven. Buffalo and San Francisco each had none.

1,598 — That's the receiving yardage total for Caleb Douglas based on projecting his NFL debut over 17 games. As you probably have heard by now, his 94 yards against Las Vegas tied Tyreek Hill for most ever in a Dolphins debut. For comparison purposes, DeVante Parker (though he played only one snap), Jarvis Landry and O.J. McDuffie all failed to catch a pass in their NFL debut. Jaylen Waddle had four catches for 61 yards against New England in 2021 when he set an NFL record (since broken) for receptions by a rookie.

14 —

18 — The Dolphins' rushing attempt total, which certainly can be explained in large part by the fact they played from behind right after Las Vegas' touchdown on the opening drive. Game circumstances almost always factor in that kind of total, and it's not a coincidence that the four teams that had fewer than 20 rushing attempts in Week 1 all lost, just like the Dolphins were 0-4 last year in those games.

4 — That was the number of rushing attempts on the Dolphins' first four first-down plays, an indication that it wasn't like they weren't trying to establish the run game. But after De'Von Achane gained 5 yards on the first offensive play of the game, the next three first-down runs went for minus-2, 0 and 2 yards, so it's not like the Dolphins abandoned something that was working great.

32 — The Dolphins' ranking in kickoff return average allowed, which is only slightly better than their 30th place in punt return average allowed. At the risk of stating the obvious, the Dolphins aren't nearly good enough on offense or defense to be giving up that kind of yardage in the kicking game. This maybe shouldn't be unexpected given the overall lack of depth on the roster. When the Dolphins were going through their rebuilding 2019 season, they were 31st in the NFL in kickoff return defense, though they were much more respectable on punt returns, at 19th.

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