When the Miami Dolphins made the decision to change quarterbacks, one of the big pieces of concern from some of the pundits in the national media was rooted in the Dolphins’ offensive line and their ability to protect rookie QB Tua Tagovailoa. It is a fair question to ask, given that veteran passer Ryan Fitzpatrick has been one of the NFL’s fastest triggers this season with an average snap to release of just over 2.4 seconds per pass attempt. It doesn’t really matter how good or bad your protection is — if you’re able to get the ball out that quickly, you aren’t likely to be hit a lot.
But given Tagovailoa’s inexperience and the questions about his durability, questioning how Miami would counter the presence of Aaron Donald in his first career start was a legitimate query.
Well, we have our answer.
The Dolphins would go on to win 28-17 in Week 8 in large part to the efforts of Miami’s defense and special teams, which provided 14 points on the day and started another Dolphins’ offensive possession on the Rams’ 1-yard line for another 7. But the Rams’ pass rush? It was mitigated by Tagovailoa and the Dolphins just fine. That is, of course, after you account for the strip-sack by Aaron Donald on Tagovailoa on his first drop back of the game.
The rest of the way Tagovailoa was barely touched; Miami’s line was credited with a total of four pressures on the day. How did Miami do it?
You can credit some offensive play design to get the ball out of his hand quickly. How quick? Quicker than Fitzpatrick’s 2.4 seconds per pass attempt on the season. Tagovailoa, according to NFL’s Next Gen Stats, averaged just 2.27 seconds from snap to release on 22 pass attempts on the day — a lightning fast number that was second to only Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger for Week 8. That number naturally comes with a very shallow average depth of target and Miami clearly tried to create some screens and routine throws to try to keep the Rams off their young quarterback.
It worked. And thanks to the efforts of the rest of the team, Miami was able to ensure that their young signal caller wasn’t put on a tee for the Rams to tee off on. It makes for a tough evaluation of Tagovailoa in his first start, but remember this:
Good coaches put their players in a position to be successful and aren’t reckless with their talent, especially in a 3-score game. The Dolphins showed that with their vanilla approach versus Los Angeles. And Tagovailoa executed what was asked of him well enough to get Miami the handful of big plays they needed to punch their ticket to 4-3.
