Three Takeaways Miami Dolphins Week 9 at Chicago Bears NFL 2022

We’ve reached the copy-paste portion of the weekly three takeaways story. Tua Tagovailoa recorded a second consecutive day with at least 300 yards passing and three touchdown tosses without a turnover. He’s the first quarterback in Dolphins history to do that in back-to-back games. He leads the league in nearly every efficiency metric. He’s been aces on third down and he’s doing his part to maximize the most dangerous duo in the National Football League, Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle.

First, Head Coach Mike McDaniel on his quarterback:

“The growth has been unbelievable in how he’s playing the position, learning the whole system, and then how he’s handling the ebbs and flows of natural in-game momentum,” McDaniel said. “The players themselves can really feel the visceral confidence and energy that he’s bringing forth to play the position and responding to it on both sides of the ball, I feel like.”

Tagovailoa targeted Hill and Waddle 15 times Sunday in Chicago. The result: 12 receptions, 228 yards and two touchdowns. That’s 15.2 yards per target without accounting for the two defensive pass interferences the Cheetah and Penguin drew for a total of 79 yards. If you include the 79 yards from those infractions, Hill and Waddle have combined for 601 yards and four touchdowns in the last two games.

Hill’s 1,104 receiving yards are the most by a player through nine games in the Super Bowl era. He leads the league in yards, catches (76) and yards per game (122.7) with the next closest receiver (Justin Jefferson) trailing by 14.3 yards per game.

Waddle’s 11.6 yards per targets leads qualifying receivers (at least 40 targets). He’s tied for 10th in the league with 47 catches, fifth in yardage with 812 and tied for third with six touchdowns.

Their quarterback, Tagovailoa, leads the league in passer rating (115.9), QBR (79.9), yards per attempt (9.2), touchdown percentage (6.9) and expected points added per play (.19).