The point was made by a couple of podcasters after yesterday's win that it was the 2nd most points per drive this season (after Detroit's crazy high scoring against JAX yesterday, as well). Ours was done in the style of long, grinding drives. Lower point output, but with fewer drives to produce.

Although I'm still thinking through this, I think that it's a much more repeatable/sustainable offensive approach than quick strike scores where sometimes the game gets out of hand and the opponent is essentially demoralized early and we can "easily" win by ~20 even while throttling down in the 2nd half or whatever.

Our approach (though not specifically our style) reminds me of the Patriots in the Moss/Welker era. They had probably the greatest QB of all time along with those two great receivers. Armed with that, quite often they would dink & dunk and run through long sustained drives. Brady would hit Welker with a 3 yard pass and Welker would take a step and dive forward before being tackled and suddenly it was 2nd & 2.

Important elements included:
- the threat of the game-changing long bomb at any given moment
- receivers who blocked well downfield
- a QB who understood how to take advantage of what the system gave in any given situation AND knew the importance of the drive over the play (i.e. throwing it away vs. taking a sack...or taking a sack but protecting the ball, etc.)
- complementary offensive elements: the OL probably looked better than its talent because the ball came out so fast. They could really gear up for a long pass attempt since they didn't have to sustain blocks crazy long on every pass play for it to develop.
- really good success on 3rd/4th and short. A lot to do with a pounding back, but also Brady was really good at sneaks.

By no means am I even insinuating that the 2024 Dolphins offense is the 2007 Patriots offense or anything close. But, what got me thinking about this is our offensive scoring & output since Tua came back and how it lacked the big plays we've grown accustomed to over the past couple of years. I've attributed that to defenses completely taking away that part of the game and us having no real response.

What we've seen over the past 4 games is our offense scoring 23-34 points every game. Not setting the world on fire, but getting to a number where our defense (especially if healthy) should keep the opponent under it the majority of cases. And the only really long score I can think of is Jonu Smith's - a complete blown coverage. Tua hasn't thrown for over 300 yards in any of them, but has a 7:1 TD/INT ratio. And, while rushing has been tough sledding for the past 2 games (no coincidence that Austin Jackson went down), it had been producing at a clip of about 170 yards per game even predating Tua's return by a couple of games. Tight ends and backs are getting a much higher percentage of targets and being productive in the passing game. I'm beginning to think (and I'm pretty slow, so it may be I'm just now coming to a conclusion many of you have had for a while) that this is the approach that mitigates defenses' ability to stop what we've done in the past, especially when the opponent is higher quality. And, in terms of quality opponents, the 4 opponents preceding Vegas is either presently in or just shy of the playoffs if the season were to end today. And, I think a good case could be made that we should have won each of the 5 individual games.

I do think there are things that could help this approach evolve to greater effectiveness (some sort of alluded to in the Pats section):
- making the long pass an even more real threat with some actual successes there
- Tua getting better at leading the meta-narrative vs. the individual play. He has to see that his health is paramount to the offense's success. He has to continue to improve in 'keeping his head' when plays break down. It's been good to see some scramble & off-script throws. Still see too much where he'll throw a dumb pass under pressure that is intercepted...or fumble during a sack. The overarching concern is him playing. Drives can continue even when a single play doesn't get the yards it should. Tua's better but not yet good enough here.
There are probably other things, as well.

Lots of thought went into that post.
I agree with all of it. Like TUA or not.....hes the key to success here.

GO DOLPHINS!!!!

I grew up watching the Dolphins in the 70s. Sustained drives were the Dolphins' middle name back then.

I agree 100% that this is the way to play football, but we can't play from behind this way--got to take the lead and just grind it out.

This is another argument, by the way, to have a bruiser fullback to run the ball reliably in short yardage situations. To be able to do that and combine the running threat with our speedy, lateral-movement passing plays is a recipe for success. Here's hoping.