Miami Dolphins need their running game now more with Tua out

The Miami Dolphins are likely not going to have Tua Tagovailoa for the next game or maybe more making the running game a bigger need than before.

For the Dolphins’ offense, speed kills. Tua Tagovailoa is a fast-read quarterback who can get rid of the ball exceptionally quickly and accurately. With Tua out, we saw Teddy Bridgewater’s speed at QB and it wasn’t close. The Dolphins need him to be faster and that might be asking for a lot. If Bridgewater can’t get faster, the Dolphins need their running game to be better.

To date, the Dolphins running game has been an afterthought which is surprising given the Mike McDaniel “run-game” guru tag he showed up with. The Dolphins are not running the ball efficiently and there are many reasons why but whatever those reasons actually are, they need to be ironed out.

We saw on Thursday that Teddy-B needs more time than Tua did. I’m hoping that his game management was simply due to lack of preparation as the 2nd string QB but I honestly expected to see more. I thought I would see a guy come out and command the offense and I didn’t see that.

A strong running game will take pressure off of Teddy. It would take the pressure off Tua as well but the passing game has been working well so far this season because of Tua’s quick release. Miami can hide blocking problems because of that but can they if the QB is holding the ball a little longer?

There are positives to Teddy’s game. He is more apt to run for the first down rather than throw the ball to a covered receiver and that will lead to positive yards and first downs, and he tends to look over the field as a whole instead of a one-two read and throw.

Threw 4 games the Dolphins have rushed 80 times for 277 yards. They average only 3.5 yards per carry and have scored only two TDs on the ground. We thought entering this season those numbers would be a lot higher but when the Dolphins traded for Tyreek Hill, the system seems to have changed its focus to a quick passing game. So far it’s working but it would work a lot better if the running game was a lot better.