3 sneaky underrated keys to victory for the Miami Dolphins vs. the Ravens
By Matt Serniak
Man alive, what a week it’s been. I’m not here to say that all of Dolphin’s Twitter looking to kill each other wasn’t foreseen or that folks from out of the woodwork would start to chime in about our quarterback situation, cough Sean Payton deep cough Ryan Fitzpatrick, is anything out of the ordinary. But the 2022 Miami Dolphins did actually win last week and looked good, in some areas, doing it.
I know that, at times, this week, I was what one might call glum about the future of this team this season. But, I’m feeling great being 1-0 headed into Baltimore. Baltimore, a place where the Miami Dolphins have been outscored somewhere around a billion to eight the last four times they’ve been there is where the Dolphins are looking to improve to 2-0.
I think the Miami Dolphins have an excellent chance to do it. To do that, they have to repeat much of what they did last week, especially on the defensive side of the ball. On offense, they really need to step up their game and take to the coaching I’m sure they received.
Yes, a lot of that is on Tua Tagovailoa. Tua, a guy who just absolutely needed(he didn’t need to do this at all) to come out in Wednesday’s press conference and lay it all out there that 1. he’s short which gives him trouble seeing his receives out there, and 2. that it’s on his receivers to do what they need to do to see him so that he can see him.
#Dolphins QB Tua details the struggles of smaller stature QBs and what he requires from his receivers in order to overcome it using spacing: "For me, I can't see", "So If I can't see you, you can't see me, I can't get you the ball." (@NUTTYxPROFESSOR)pic.twitter.com/DqXUZd9AKu
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) September 15, 2022
I get what he’s trying to say but holy hell does he do himself exactly zero favors in delivering the message. Tua doesn’t need to be so transparent. The question that led to this cringeworthy response was “how does practice translate to the games?). No idea how Tua Tagovailoa landed on this answer but it’s beyond awkward and there were an infinite number of ways to answer it instead of sounding like a guy who is admitting he’s limited.
You know what, go out there and shut me and everyone else up that is talking smack on you. Go ahead and do that. That would be my advice.
The Ravens are coming off a shellacking of the Jets and Lamar Jackson hasn’t forgotten about what the Miami Dolphins did to him and the team last year when the Dolphins season was on life support and the Ravens were flying high.
Lamar Jackson on Dolphins cover-0 blitzes: “I feel we’ll have an answer for it next this year.”
— Cameron Wolfe (@CameronWolfe) September 14, 2022
Jackson said they’ll go at teams weaknesses “like they came at ours”: “They just caught us off guard... We watched a lot of film on those guys b/c we don’t want it to happen again.”
I’m pretty sure this will not be a repeat of last year’s contest. I mean it be cool if it was but I don’t see many realities where the Miami Dolphins play the same exact way and get the same results. They will have to amend their game plan. That’s obvious I know.
We all know the obvious keys to any victory. Those are to dominate up front, establish the run, the quarterback needs to take what the defense is giving him and make the proper throw but also take calculated risks, keep the penalties down, tackle the ball carrier, and be sound on special teams. These things need to happen in most victories.
But to make my sneaky underrated keys to victory list, I needed to delve deeper into the nuances of the game and assimilate what the Dolphins did last week. I think I did that but let me know what other sneaky, off-the-beaten-path keys to victory the Miami Dolphins need to start the year 2-0 and be the talk of the NFL come Monday.