Wednesday’s joint practice between the Chicago Bears and the Miami Dolphins provided Miami with a fresh look at themselves as a football team. It is one thing to measure yourself against your own talent and another thing all together when you first get exposed to what a different team can provide in the way of challenges.
And that’s where the second day of practice can become a very important part of the team’s maturation process. According to reports from practice, QB Tua Tagovailoa was sharp during practice but was under duress at times thanks to Chicago’s potent defensive front. How the team responds after a day of reviewing how Chicago got after them up front will tell us a fair amount about the potential of this group.
And it is also something Tagovailoa himself called to look for on Wednesday after practice.
“Yeah. I think this defense is really good up front. When you’re hitting your back foot on your throws, they’re right there and kind of in your face area. But that forces us, as quarterbacks, to kind of move the way we need to; and it simulates game-like pocket presence for us. I thought it was really good today. We’ll take a look at the film. We’ll try to correct a lot of the things that we didn’t do well today and we’ll come out tomorrow and hopefully it’s a better one,” said Tagovailoa.
What the Dolphins see upon review of the film and, more importantly, how they respond in turn during Thursday’s second act, will be interesting. That isn’t to say if there’s no growth that the unit for Miami is doomed up front. But it would certainly breathe some excitement into the possibilities of continued growth for Miami’s offense in 2021.
So keep an eye on the social media timeline if you aren’t at practice today. If the word is that Miami has a better day two in Chicago, then you know that the team’s overnight efforts bore fruit ahead of Saturday’s exhibition contest.