Miami Dolphins week six key players belong to the offensive line
By Nick Belotto
On Sunday the Miami Dolphins return home to face the Chicago Bears and they are more than just banged up. The offensive line has a lot of questions surrounding it.
The Miami Dolphins are looking for a big win on Sunday against the Chicago Bears to stop their recent skid and reestablish winning ways in south Florida. Miami’s biggest issue the last few weeks has been the play of their offensive line. With Chicago’s pass rushing phenom Khalil Mack coming to town, Miami’s offensive line will need to play at their absolute best in order to keep him from wrecking the offensive game plan. That’s why, for this week, the player, or should I say players, of the week are the entire offensive line.
Whichever 5 players dress for Sunday’s matchup against the Bears need to prove that last weekends total collapse was a fluke as opposed to the norm. Of course, that won’t be easy. Chicago’s defense is vastly improved from last season and Khalil Mack is a one man wrecking crew. He already has 5 sacks on the season and 4 forced fumble. It seems like he is always making plays and Miami’s offensive line will need to keep that from happening.
Miami’s line has gone through a lot this season already. They lost Josh Sitton and Daniel Kilgore to season ending injuries. To add insult to literal injury, tackle Laremy Tunsil went down last week with a concussion. He is currently going through the concussion protocol, but it is still uncertain whether or not he will play on Sunday. That leaves Jesse Davis and Ja’Wuan James as the only week 1 starters guaranteed to play this week.
Enter Zach Sterup, Ted Larsen and Travis Swanson who will have to fill some big shoes on Sunday. For the first half of the game against the Bengals, Miami’s offensive line, featuring both Swanson and Larsen, played very well. Everything changed in the second half, roughly the same time that Tunsil went down with the concussion.
If the first half offensive line can show up on Sunday, Miami should have a decent chance of moving the ball down field and limiting the impact guys like Khalil Mack will have. Should the second half line show up, then Miami is going to have a long day.
Ryan Tannehill and the offenses success are all dependent on the offensive line play. I expect the line to improve on the second half of last week’s game and, hopefully, execute a game-plan deserving of a big win.