Deep dive: Why do the Miami Dolphins look so different recently?

The Miami Dolphins suffered another brutal loss after facing the Los Angeles Chargers, my only question is why does this team look so different recently?

After 2 losses straight there is a trend on why the Miami Dolphins are malfunctioning, but is it because the team is not able to execute? Or did the Chargers and 49ers figure out a new blueprint? Let’s take a look at it.

Over the last few months, Tua Tagovailoa was lighting the league on fire and one big improvement in his passing game was the intermediate pass over the middle. I can show you better than I can explain.

Tua Tagovailoa passing numbers – the improvement:

The intermediate pass over the middle was one of my biggest criticisms of Tua Tagovailoa during his first 2 years, that’s the pass prime Tom Brady was consistently able to make on 3rd & long. That’s the pass that keeps drives alive.

And that’s the pass that unlocked Tua’s game to a whole new level, it was incredible to see. Of course, a big help in this was Jaylen Waddle and Tyreek Hill being speed demons down the middle, or down the sideline to open up space for others in the middle.

But what made it all take flight was Tua’s accuracy to hit these guys in stride, there is no defending it.

Or so we thought.

For 11 weeks of Miami Dolphins football, the intermediate pass was unstoppable with Tua at QB, but the San Francisco 49ers brought in a new game plan. Let’s take away the intermediate pass over the middle.

Of course they said that, don’t you think every other team in the NFL was also game-planning to hack this strategy in Miami? But some teams aren’t that bright, so I won’t give them that much credit.

But I will give credit to the 49ers.