Tua Tagovailoa and the Miami Dolphins kept their season alive with a 34-19 win over the Las Vegas Raiders Sunday afternoon. Returning home and building on last Monday night's victory over the Los Angeles Rams, Miami is now 4-6 and still alive in the AFC playoff picture.
The offense was extremely efficient against the Raiders, utilizing long drives, and keeping the punting unit on the bench. Punter Jake Bailey was not needed today, as Tagovailoa joked: "Free money for him. Good for him. Great for him. We took a picture. Had zero punts."
The Dolphins had scoring drives of 12, 14, and 16 plays, a bit different than last season's quick-striking tendencies. Tagovailoa detailed the difference saying: "I think what’s been different with the quarterback play is now not trying to force things down the field if it’s not there. Taking the checkdowns, allowing our runners in space to go get first downs."
On Miami's first possession Sunday, the Dolphins took 8:13 off the clock culminating with a 4th and goal one-yard score to tight end Jonnu Smith. Miami's quarterback praised Smith to reporters postgame: "It’s been really cool to see his progression from the prime time game we had against the Rams to now."
Smith started the season relatively slow. He saw a total of 21 targets in his first five games this season and made 14 catches. In his last four games heading into the Raiders contest, he had been targeted 23 times and reeled in 19 receptions including a Week 7 touchdown against the Indianapolis Colts.
Signed as a free agent this past offseason, Tagovailoa discussed the intent to utilize Smith saying: "We’ve had plans to implement him in the past within the offense, so be it, the defense doesn’t allow for him to get as many catches as we would like for him."
Smith scored the games first and last touchdowns and finished Sunday with six catches for 101 yards, capped by a game icing 57-yard score with a bit over three minutes left in the game.
Tagovailoa totaled 288 yards on 28-36 passing, three touchdowns, no interceptions and a quarterback rating of 127.8. He has been dialed in since his return from concussion protocol Week 8.
The Dolphins have now have put together a pair of victories within a short week. When asked about if he is playing his best football Tagovailoa said, "I think it’s a week-to-week thing. We’ve just got to build off of what we can learn from this week. We move forward."
He added: "We see what the next opponent is and things that we can do to get better to give us the edge to win that next game. And we’ll continue to move forward."
