3 specific things to look for in the Miami Dolphins 1st preseason game
By Matt Serniak
The anticipation is at a Fever Pitch(sneaky one of my favorite romcoms don’t care what you say) to see actual Miami Dolphins football. We finally get to see an extremely small sample size of things to come on Saturday night when the Miami Dolphins play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. There will be a lot to unpack and dissect when it’s over, but there are three specific things that I’ll be looking out for.
The Miami Dolphins had two solid days of joint practices with the Bucs on Wednesday and Thursday with Thursday particularly being a day where they took Tampa Bay to task. From all the reports from the boots on the ground who were there, Tua and the offense had their way with the Buc’s defense. Let’s not forget that the Buc’s defense is a very formidable one and Tua sliced and diced them. Hill and Waddle couldn’t be contained.
There weren’t any really deep shots that wowed everyone and lit up the internet which is, in turn, getting all the losers who want Tua to fail to come out and say that he can’t go deep against other teams. To that specific swath of losers, I say Tua didn’t throw any INTs and threw a few ropes to the intermediate part of the middle of the field, the part of the field which he struggles with the most. He’s not going to force the ball if it’s not there.
Oh and another thing since we’re on the topic; expect a good amount of games where Tua takes what the defense is giving him which will often be a real 2 deep zone that doesn’t allow Hill or Waddle behind them. Then Tua will hit everyone underneath and will certainly hit Hill and Waddle on comebacks all day long. Fine with me.
One of the biggest storylines heading into the game is whether or not Tua Tagovailoa will even play. I fully expected him to get at least a series on Saturday but Mike McDaniel may be adjusting his thinking on that.
Dolphins HC Mike McDaniel indicates he’s leaning toward Tua Tagovailoa not playing in preseason opener Saturday vs. Bucs after liking what he’s seen over last couple of practices. No final decision yet though McDaniel also indicated he expects Tua to play in preseason.
— Cameron Wolfe (@CameronWolfe) August 11, 2022
Selfishly I’d like to see Tua get a series or two just to get in the rhythm of an actual game compared to practice but I trust Mike McDaniel’s judgment. If he thinks he doesn’t have to for this one game, so be it.
As I said, there will a load of crazy and way too in-depth breakdowns of what happens in the game when it’s over. But here is my list of things that I specifically want to see out there.