Miami Dolphins-Arizona Cardinals Five Biggest Storylines

The Miami Dolphins will look to improve their record to 3-4 when they face the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium.

The Dolphins are coming off a 16-10 loss to the Indianapolis Colts, but quarterback Tua Tagovailoa will be back in the lineup for the first time since their Week 2 game against the Buffalo Bills. The Cardinals are 3-4 and earned a 17-15 victory against the Los Angeles Chargers on Monday night.

The teams meet for the first time since the 2020 season, when the Dolphins won 34-31 in Arizona.

Here are the five biggest storylines for this Week 8 matchup.

The main storyline in this game couldn’t be clearer, and in fact, it’s one of the biggest storylines in the NFL this week. Tua Tagovailoa is backand the hope is that his return can jump-start the Dolphins’ offense, which has been lacking all season, especially over the past four games with Skylar Thompson, Tim Boyle and Tyler Huntley at quarterback.

Despite being listed as questionable on the final injury report of the week, the expectation heading into the weekend was that Tyreek Hill could play against the Cardinals, and it could be that Tua’s return to the lineup is what he needs had. get started. After his 130-yard performance in the season opener against Jacksonville, Hill had 164 yards in the next five games combined. This won’t allow the offense to get anywhere close to the level it reached at its peak last season. Hill was downright giddy when talking about Tua’s return this week, and now it’s time for him to deliver.

The biggest challenge for the Dolphins defense will be stopping James Conner’s inside running, with a dose of Kyler Murray scrambling thrown in. This would be a much more manageable situation if not for it the absence of Zach Sieler due to that freak injury that reportedly left an eye socket broken. Sieler was the only constant for the front seven and his absence was felt. It will be up to longtime Cardinals D-lineman Calais Campbell to play more snaps and the rest of the front seven to compensate for Sieler’s absence.

The Dolphins are coming off two games in which they ran the ball at least 40 times, something they hadn’t done since the second and third games of the 2012 season. With Tua back, it is highly unlikely that there will be a third straight match, but the question is how much this number will decrease. The bigger question is how effective the running game can remain and how well it can complement what should be a better passing game.

It wasn’t a good stretch for the special teams. The biggest problem last week against the Colts was Jason Sanders’ missed 54-yard field goal attempt in the fourth quarter. It would be nice if the special teams could make some game-changing plays when necessary.