The Miami Dolphins are back in action at Hard Rock Stadium Sunday to face an unfamiliar foe, the Los Angeles Rams. As the Rams look to surge ahead of the rest of the playoff hopefuls in the NFC, the Dolphins will look to make a strong collective statement with the arrival of Tua Tagovailoa: that this team isn’t the same pushover that everyone has seemed to think they were from the early portions of 2019.
But that quarterback change is indeed a big piece of the puzzle here. How do the Dolphins navigate the changes to their offense and take advantage of some of the unknown for this week against the Rams? Here’s some areas that the Dolphins should focus on to optimize their offensive performance against Los Angeles.
Double-team Aaron Donald
This one feels obvious. But the Dolphins have to give extra attention to Donald up front if they’re going to avoid some disastrous results in both the run game and the passing game. Donald is lightning quick and his ability to get hip to hip on interior gaps will have a big hand in whether or not the Dolphins have any consistency in protection or up front. So to help their case, Miami should ensure they’ve got extra attention directed Donald’s way so that there are no easy 1 on 1 wins to the taking. Miami’s collective unit can help to minimize Donald’s dominant plays, but its going to take all of them together to get protections right.