FIVE THINGS WE LEARNED:

Beat writer Omar Kelly’s and Steve Svekis’ five takeaways from Sunday’s game.

Hull held his own as Dolphins’ starting inside linebacker

Mike Hull, who had eight tackles against the Arizona Cardinals, pulled down a tipped pass for an interception in his first NFL start. That turnover set up Miami’s first touchdown and brought the Dolphins’ first-quarter scoring total for the season to 34, which is the NFL’s lowest total. If Hull keeps performing at this level the Dolphins might want to consider pairing him with Kiko Alonso when Alonso’s hamstring injury heals.

Miami needs to upgrade center position in absence of Pouncey

Mike Pouncey missed his fourth consecutive game because of a hip injury, and that forced Anthony Steen into the starting lineup again for the sixth time this season. Though Steen did a respectable job earlier in year, he’s become a liability of late, possibly because of the shoulder and foot injuries he has been dealing with.

Cardinals latest team to contain Dolphins’ rushing attack

Unlike in last week’s loss to the Baltimore Ravens, the Dolphins never abandoned the ground game against the Cardinals. Miami just wasn’t very productive against Arizona. Since Pouncey has been out, Miami’s run game has really struggled.

Dolphins become huge Patriots fans through end of 2016

The New England Patriots play the Ravens tonight and then at Denver. After a home game against the Jets, they will face Miami. Not only would a 13-2 Patriots coming to Hard Rock Stadium on New Year’s Day mean that they hung a loss on the Ravens and Broncos, against whom the Dolphins are competing for a playoff spot, but it would mean that the Pats might have home-field advantage for the AFC playoffs clinched, leading to very liberal substitutions of players.

Williams keeps scoring big touchdowns, but that last run ...

Backup running back Damien Williams logged his sixth touchdown of the season, despite only 49 touches. In his first two seasons, he had two scores in 94 touches. Now, one wonders what the coaching was on that second-to-last play when he went to the ground with a single second on the clock. He was one move from overtime.