Following last week’s 26-24 road victory against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Miami Dolphins host the Las Vegas Raiders Saturday night in Week 2 of the 2022 preseason.
This will be the first preseason game that the Dolphins and Raiders have had since Aug. 3, 1991, when they played in Tokyo, Japan. It’s only the fourth all-time preseason meeting between the two franchises with Miami winning all of the previous three. The other two games took place when the Raiders called Los Angeles home in 1984 and 1985.
Last week, Miami’s opening preseason contest saw a number of deep-rostered players showcasing their skills and fighting for roster and practice squad spots for the Dolphins.
While players like quarterback Skylar Thomson, safety Elijah Campbell and wide receiver Lynn Bowden Jr, arguably helped their causes the most to make the 53-man roster, Saturday’s contest against the Raiders could see some more first-stringer action.
With new offensive-minded head coach Mike McDaniel, he brings in his staff of veteran coaches. During the summer and training camp period media, the Dolphins’ fans and their detractors have been curious to see the product on the field. Albeit still preseason, there could be a taste of what’s to come in the regular season when Tua Tagovailoa leads an offensive on the field with more fire-power than Miami has had in a few decades.
While it’s highly doubtful there will be a ton of playing time with Miami’s first units in all phases Saturday night, there should be just enough put on film to indicate if some progress has been made.
It will be an interesting dynamic in a second-to-last preseason game, which is traditionally the dress rehearsal. In all years prior to 2021, of the four preseason games played, the third was usually the practice run for the starters. Now, with only three preseason games, it’s Saturday’s game at Hard Rock Stadium that will be your relative precursor to the look of the 2022 Dolphins.
Two new head coaches faceoff in McDaniel and Josh McDaniels, however, this is not the first rodeo for the latter. McDaniels was a head coach for the Denver Broncos for two seasons in 2009 and 2010 before he was fired.
On the Miami side, Tagovailoa has been one of the offseason’s most nationally polarizing quarterbacks. From scrutiny of arm strength and accuracy to his personal life and golf game, it seems there’s nothing he can do without the masses sharing their opinion on the matter.
Saturday night could be a night he slows down the negative banter spewed on social media. While there’s work to be done and progress still needed in his development, Tagovailoa has some eye-opening stats in his first two seasons in the NFL.
Since 2017, when including current quarterbacks, Tagovailoa has the fourth-highest winning percentage in a quarterback’s first two seasons at .619 with a 13-8 record.
Looking into deeper statistics, Tagovailoa’s accuracy has been on point, based on a metric called on-target percentage, according to Pro Football Reference. Tagovailoa was top-five last season at 80.1%, with the top mark being 82.8% from Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow.
On the flip side, Miami’s quarterback was among the 10 lowest in bad throw percentage, with a mark of 16.3%.
Also, there’s recently been some talk about his performance in the fourth quarter.
In his 21 career starts, Tagovailoa has led four game-winning drives and a pair of comeback victories. His fourth-quarter completion percentage in his two seasons is 71.4% while his quarterback rating in the final frame is 100.3. 11 of his career 27 touchdowns have also come in the fourth.
Last season in the last quarter, he completed 68.4% of his attempts, while throwing for 743 yards and seven touchdowns, adding another two scores on the ground. That completion percentage was seventh in the NFL among 2021 fourth-quarter passers.
Remarkably, Tagovailoa did this with a porous offensive line, who gave him an NFL-low average of 2.1 seconds of time prior to his pocket collapsing. With new linemen incoming for Miami in left tackle Terron Armstead and center Connor Williams, a stronger and more solidified line could help Tagovailoa progress even more. Although some adjusting is needed, Williams has transitioned from left guard to center, and despite some small snapping issues, he’s looked solid in the pivot.
Saturday night will be a chance for Tagovailoa to move the needle, slightly, heading into the 2022 regular season. A solid series or two, with sound decisions and quality throws, could be the perfect mix of momentum for him with just enough to hush the skeptics.
The first-teamers joining him in action tonight, and how long they will play, is still a decision that will go up until game-time, but the key to tonight is quality over quantity all-around. Although Dolphins fans are starving for a potent offense, tonight could just be a small appetizer.
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