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In a week where NFL offenses largely struggled, the Miami Dolphins were an exception. Mike McDaniel’s unit piled up 536 yards against the Los Angeles Chargers, along with 36 points, in Week 1. No team gained more yards, and no offense scored more points. (The Cowboys and Packers scored more points overall, but that was thanks to defensive and special-teams scores.)
It was a continuation of what we saw from the Dolphins whenever Tua Tagovailoa was healthy last season, as McDaniel repeatedly schemed superstar receiver Tyreek Hill into wide-open space, Tagovailoa repeatedly hit him in stride at every level of the defense, and players like Jaylen Waddle, Braxton Berrios, Raheem Mostert, River Cracraft and more each made significant contributions.
Unsurprisingly, Tagovailoa did most of his damage throwing the ball over the middle of the field. Of his 466 passing yards, 291 of them came on throws over the middle, according to Tru Media. Those 291 yards were more than all but four quarterbacks in the league threw for overall. Again, this was a continuation of what Tagovailoa did last season.
In 2022, the league average quarterback threw 48.9% of his passes to the middle of the field. Tagovailoa was at 54.3%, the sixth-highest share among qualified passers. The average passer checked in with 8.14 yards per attempt on those throws, but Tua’s average pass to the middle of the field gained 10.71 yards, the best mark in the league. And while throws over the middle typically generated more expected points added (EPA) per play than throws to the right or left side, Tagovailoa shattered even the league-average mark. NFL quarterbacks got 0.25 EPA/play on throws over the middle; but Tagovailoa got more than twice that amount (0.53 per play).
By comparison, when forced to throw to one of the wide sides of the field, Tagovailoa got fairly ordinary results. Arm strength is not Tua’s best skill;…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/can-bill-belichicks-patriots-cool-tua-tagovailoa-tyreek-hill-and-dolphins-in-week-2-heres-what-to-expect/
Author : Jared Dubin
Publish date : 2023-09-15 15:23:59
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