- WHERE: SoFi Stadium (Inglewood, Calif.)
- WHEN: 8:15 p.m. ET | ESPN, ESPN Deportes, Â鶹¹ú²ú
The second half of the 2024 NFL regular season is in full swing, with Week 10’s slate of games set to wrap up Monday night with a cross-conference matchup.
The Miami Dolphins (2-6) will go west to visit the Los Angeles Rams (4-4) on Monday Night Football, with the two teams on opposite trajectories coming into this matchup.
In some ways the Dolphins and Rams followed similar paths through the beginning of the season. Miami started the year 2-3 and Los Angeles 1-4 as both teams dealt with their fair share of injuries to key offensive players.
Both have gotten back their key pieces the last few weeks, but that’s where the journeys have diverged. While the return of the Rams’ star wideouts has spelled victory, the Dolphins have yet to win a game since the return of their franchise QB.
The Dolphins have had quarterback Tua Tagovailoa back from injured reserve for their last two games, but nevertheless have been unable to record a win with him under center behind two consecutive last-second game-winning field goals by the Cardinals and then the Bills last Sunday. The Dolphins are tight with the Jets and Patriots at the bottom of the AFC East and multiple games back of Buffalo, with time quickly running out for the Fins to keep their already faint playoff hopes alive.
While Miami will be fighting to stay out of the bottom of its division, Los Angeles is looking to stay in contention at the top of its division.
Every team in the NFC West has either four or five wins, with the Rams sharing second place with the 49ers behind the surging Cardinals. After its slow start, Los Angeles has now won three straight since its Week 6 bye, including last week’s overtime thriller to take down Seattle.
Under the prime-time lights the Dolphins and Rams will face off for the first time since 2020, with stars and storylines aplenty for fans to feast their eyes upon.
Here are four things to watch for when the Dolphins and Rams kick off on Monday Night Football on ESPN and Â鶹¹ú²ú:
1) Can the Dolphins finish out a game? Miami has held leads in each of its last two games, but has lost both at the last second. Why? The offense did its part both times by putting up 27 points in each of the last two games and taking the AFC East-leading Bills to the wire last week. But the defense has failed to hold strong in the key moments, committing costly penalties or allowing big gains late. Last week, for example, the Bills looked to be about to punt with less than a minute left after a sack left them facing third-and-14. But back-to-back penalties by the Dolphins defense, one for unnecessary roughness, handed them the first down. Buffalo took advantage, moving down the field and running down the clock to set up a winning 61-yard field goal. What could have been an opportunity for Tua Tagovailoa to put together a game-winning drive ended up instead as a Bills victory lap. Miami has the talent, shown by its No. 7 rank in yards allowed per game. It’s about discipline and finishing teams off, which is where the Dolphins have struggled, as evidenced by the fact they’re only 17th in points allowed. If the Dolphins want to remain in the playoff equation past this week, they need to play a full 60 minutes of error-free football, not letting a few bad plays squander a good effort from the rest of the game.
2) Returning Rams highlight recent win streak. Much of the storyline of the Rams’ season thus far has revolved around the absence of their star offensive pieces for multiple weeks. Puka Nacua (knee) and Cooper Kupp (ankle) each missed multiple weeks with their respective injuries at the start of the season, correlating with Los Angeles’ slow start to the year. In the five-game span from Week 2 to Week 7 when one or both of them were out, the Rams averaged 194.6 pass yards per game, while in the last two games with both of them healthy that production increased to 288.5 yards per game. Kupp has 155 yards since returning, while Nacua has 117, despite the latter missing half of last Sunday’s game after being ejected. And the Rams will get back even more starters from injury this week, with offensive linemen Steve Avila and Jonah Jackson both activated from injured reserve in time for Monday’s game. The Rams offense is finally getting healthy at the same time, and it’s directly correlating with the team getting back in the win column. We’ll have to see whether this surging offense can continue its revival against the Dolphins, who rank fourth in pass yards per game allowed.
3) Rams' rookie defenders making presence felt. Just as the offense has gotten back on track the last few games, the Los Angeles defense has similarly found its stride since the Week 6 break. Before the bye, the Rams allowed an average of 27.8 points per game and never fewer than 24. The last three games, they haven’t allowed more than 20 points behind significant increases in production from their young core. After forcing four turnovers in the first five weeks, Los Angeles has seven during its win streak. Five of those came courtesy of rookie players, three interceptions from Jaylen McCollough and two from Kamren Kinchens -- one of which was a 103-yard pick-six in Week 9. Two other rookies, Jared Verse and Braden Fiske, are making big contributions on the defensive front as well. Verse has made his case for Defensive Rookie of the Year so far, ranking top-10 in pressures (39) along with 13 QB hits and 3.5 sacks. And of that total, 19 pressures, nine QB hits and 2.5 sacks have come just in this last three-game span. Lining up alongside him has been his former Florida State teammate Fiske, who enjoyed his own breakout game last week by sacking Geno Smith twice. Add these rapidly improving rookies to the talents of second-year players such as Byron Young and Kobie Turner, and the Rams’ youthful defense has spearheaded quite a turnaround in recent weeks. They’ll want to maintain that level of play in order to quiet the Dolphins’ potent offense.
4) Miami still looking for wideouts to spark. With Tagovailoa back on the field, the Dolphins offense saw an immediate boost in production, going from their previous average of 274.5 yards and 10 points per game during his absence to averages of 375 yards and 27 points the last two games. But the makeup of that production isn’t quite what would be expected, with both Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle not quite reaching their extraordinary potential. Hill has averaged 76 yards the last two games, but considering the otherworldly numbers Dolphins fans are used to seeing when he links up with Tagovailoa (eight games with 100-plus yards in 2023), it feels like there’s still another level the pair could reach. Will this be the week Hill breaks through for his best game since recording 130 yards in Week 1? That hope could hit a barrier in the form of a wrist injury to Hill that popped up Friday that leaves him questionable for this week’s game. The other wideout Miami will be hoping to jumpstart is Waddle, who similarly hasn’t quite bounced back with Tagovailoa’s return. He had 109 yards in the season opener, but has not surpassed 46 since. Last week, he had two receptions for negative-4 yards and a touchdown, becoming just the third receiver since 1950 to finish a game with negative receiving yards and a touchdown, per NFL Research. It was also only his first receiving touchdown of the year. The Rams defense has held its opponents to low point totals recently behind their pass rush and takeaways, but has nevertheless struggled to contain star wideouts, notably allowing the Seahawks’ Jaxon Smith-Njigba to record 180 yards last week. Can that matchup lead to a breakout for one or both of the Dolphins’ star receivers?
