Four things to know about the Miami Dolphins

Tagovailoa isn’t the only part of Miami’s offense pushing the Commanders’ defense. Of course, there’s speedsters Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle (more on them later), but the Dolphins also boast one of the best ground attacks in the NFL, and they are led by 31-year-old running back Raheem Mostert.

Mostert was a solid rotational piece for San Francisco from 2017-21, but he’s shaking out to have the best season of his career and is treading on some Dolphins franchise records as the franchise’s lead back. Mostert has 13 rushing touchdowns this season, which puts him three shy of tying Ricky Williams’ record of 16 in 2002. He has 785 yards this season, which is the second-best in the league, and with five weeks left this season, he’s on pace to hit 1,000 yards for the first time in his career.

Mostert’s efforts have led to the Dolphins averaging 145.2 yards per game this season, which ranks behind only the Baltimore Ravens. However, it could be argued that Miami, which has 13 players with at least one carry, has the more impressive run game. As a team, the Dolphins have 292 attempts, and yet they lead the league in rushing average (5.5) and average the second most rushing touchdowns per game.

The Dolphins only run the ball 42% of the time, but Mike McDaniel and offensive coordinator Frank Smith have managed to call run plays at the right time and found ways of putting their players in position to be efficient on each carry. Most of the attention will be put on the Dolphins’ pass attack, and rightfully so, but for the Commanders, who gave up 64-yard touchdowns to the Patriots and Seahawks, it will be important to invest some resources in bottling up the ground game.