KEYS TO THEGAME

Four things the Miami Dolphins need to do to secure a victory on the road against the Arizona Cardinals:

Average more than 4.0yards per carry

The Dolphins’ running game has struggled most of this season, averaging 3.6 yards per carry, which ranks 31st in the NFL. And thatwas before Myles Gaskin being sideline with a knee injury, and Matt Breida nursing a hamstring injury that kept him from practicing on Wednesday. Sunday’s game could be a great opportunity for Jordan Howard, who is averaging 0.8 yards per carry this season, to resurrect his NFL career. He’s been inactive the past three games, but injuries and the fact new Dolphin De Andre Washington won’ t be cleared to play against the Cardinals because of the NFL’s COVID-19 rules could give Howard an opportunity to redeem himself. The Cardinals are allowing 131 rushing yards per game, 4.7 yards per carry.

Keep Tagovailoa comfortable in the pocket

Tua Tagovailoa was sacked by Aaron Donald on his very first pass attempt in last Sunday’s win over the Rams, but outside of that play Miami’s offensive line kept his jersey relatively clean. However, the Dolphins leaned heavily on movement plays, and a quick-passing attack. The Cardinals don’t have a dominant defensive lineman like Donald, so it’s possible that Miami can utilize five and seven-step-drop plays, giving its receivers more time to get open.

Limit Hopkins’ dominance

The last time DeAndre Hopkins played the Dolphins he had six catches on seven targets for 82 yards and two touchdowns during a 2018 win for the Texans. This time around the Dolphins have quite a few options to defend Hopkins, who has caught 57 passes for 704 yards and scored three touchdowns this season. Byron Jones’ size makes him ideally suited to defend Hopkins. Miami would be wise to leave Jones and Xavien Howard on each side of the field and give whoever is covering Hopkins safety help over the top.

Murray can’t be allowed to carve Dolphins’ defense up by scrambling around

Kyler Murray hasn’t just improved on his accuracy, he’s taking far less sacks

(48 last year, nine in seven games in 2020) and become the NFL’s top scrambling quarterback. He’s averaging

62.4 rushing yards per game, 6.7 rushing yards per attempt, and averages

9.2 carries per game. The Dolphins need to find a safety or linebacker capable of shadowing Murray.