Cheerio: Tua Expected to Lead Dolphins Against Jags in London

After coming off an embarrassing loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last Sunday, the Miami Dolphins will be playing another team from Florida this Sunday, the Jacksonville Jaguars, but across the pond in London, England. 

The winless Jaguars (0-5) will be looking to pick up their first win against a reeling Dolphins team (1-4), who have dropped four straight, inside Tottenham Hotspur Stadium at 9:30 a.m. eastern in the NFL’s second England game in as many weeks. 

Tua Designated as Questionable, But Expected to Play

However, starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa had a successful practice Friday and was cleared, as well as activated, to the game roster on Saturday, head coach Brian Flores confirmed. Tagovailoa will officially carry a questionable tag into Sunday’s national contest.

“We’re just going to try to continue to do our job. Me and Jesse (Davis), we’ve been playing together for a while since like last year, since I stepped in, since I’ve been in. We’ve been playing together for a while. I think we communicate well,” guard Robert Hunt said on if Tagovailoa returns and what it’ll do for the offensive line. “I think we play well besides each other, I don’t feel like there’s any pressure. I feel like we have a job to do. We know that. So we have to go over and try to compete and do our job the best we can.”

If he’s unable to go, however, it’ll be Jacoby Brissett (hamstring) making his fourth-straight start, with No. 3 Reid Sinnett close behind as Brissett still tries to recover from his minor injury.

“It’s our job to protect whoever is the quarterback – Jacoby (Brissett), Tua, me, you. It doesn’t matter who is back there, we’ve got to do our job to protect,” Hunt said. “We’re going to do the best that we can do with that and just keep trying to play football. Like I said, we have a job to do.”

So far, Tagovailoa has been the only QB to lead the Dolphins to a win this season – it coming in the only game he playing in its entirety.

Miami, Jacksonville Entering Game on Uncharacteristic Losing Streaks

Additionally, both of these teams are on less than ideal losing streaks, as the Dolphins have lost four in a row by a combined total of 76 points, and the Jaguars haven’t won a game since week one of the 2020 season. The Jaguars’ losing streak stands at 20 straight games, which is the longest losing streak in more than 40 years, and is six games shy of the longest losing streak in NFL history.

But Miami’s troubles run a little bit deeper than wins and losses.

Miami Not Gaining Yards this Season

The Dolphins are averaging less than 300 total yards per game. And with only 1,309 total yards on the season, they’re currently the No. 31 offense in the NFL in terms of total yardage. 

The problems don’t stop there, as they allow an average of 438.8 yards per game have let up 2,111 total yards on the season. This sits them No. 30 in the NFL in terms of total yards allowed.

Miami also doesn’t do much better on the scoreboard either, as it allows an average of 30.8 points per game, to only 15.8 points scored per game scored. For a team that missed the playoffs at 10-6 last year, a record of 1-4 with numbers like these is not a turnaround that was expected or what one would like to see through the first five weeks of the season.

Jacksonville Seeing Offensive Boost Again from James Robinson

The Jaguars aren’t doing much better defensively, and in a lot of ways, mirror a lot of similar flaws of the Dolphins.

Jacksonville ranks No. 27 for defense in terms of yardage allowed, and are one of just two winless teams left in the league after five weeks. 

However, the Jaguars come into this one with the 21st ranked offense as far as yardage goes. Jacksonville’s running back, James Robinson, has 387 rushing yards on the season, which is 37 more rushing yards than all of Miami has combined. 

Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence also comes into this game with eight total touchdowns on the season, six through the air and two on the ground, and the Dolphins as a team have scored eight offensive touchdowns so far this season, combined between QBs and backs.

Dolphins Dealing with Slew of Injuries that Could Open the Door for Jags

Miami has struggled with rush defense for multiple seasons now, not making it a good matchup for it across the pond with Robinson. That, compared with the veteran No. 1 cornerback Xavien Howard out for this game, will leave multiple gaping holes in a struggling secondary.

“Trevor is a great quarterback. James Robinson is a great running back. I think he’s in the top five this year (in rushing) or something like that. We’ve just got to make sure we do our job and execute,” defensive tackle Zach Sieler said. 

While the Jaguars will likely deploy wide receivers Marvin Jones Jr. and Laviska Shenault, it is yet to be seen whether No. 2 WR Preston Williams (hamstring) will be available for the Dolphins. Already ruled out for Miami is No. 1 DeVante Parker (hamstring), and formerly Will Fuller, who is serving his second game on injured reserve.

In preparation, the team announced Saturday morning that it has activated wideouts Kirk Merritt and Isaiah Ford.

The national game will be live on CBS Sunday morning.

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