What stood out in the first half of the Miami Dolphins’ Week 8 game against the Atlanta Falcons:

We’ll start with the list of inactives, where the biggest news involved the backup quarterback position, with Zach Wilson resuming that responsibility and Quinn Ewers going back to being the emergency third quarterback the way he was for the first six weeks of the season before the unexpected switch against Cleveland.

Wide receiver Cedrick Wilson Jr. was active for the first time since rejoining the Dolphins, and cornerback Storm Duck is back in action for the first time since the season opener.

QB Tua Tagovailoa wore a visor for the first time in his NFL career. He showed up on the injury report Sunday morning with an illness, and his left eye was swollen.

The Dolphins opened with an extra offensive lineman, something we haven’t seen from them. The first play was a shot down the right sideline for De’Von Achane, but it went incomplete.

The first drive ended with a sack when DB Robert Alford just sprinted through a hole between right guard Cole Strange and right tackle Larry Borom, which screams of a miscommuncation or failure to recognize where the blitz was coming from.

With all the concerns about the run defense against Bijan Robinson, the Dolphins sure did a great job on the first drive, with Bradley Chubb, Jaelan Phillips and Jordyn Brooks all making good plays.

The Dolphins then produced the kind of drive a lot of folks have been clamoring for, just sticking with the running game. Of the 13 plays on the touchdown drive, 10 were runs, one of the exceptions being Tua’s TD pass to Achane. The key here was converting a third-and-2, third-and-1 and fourth-and-1 with Ollie Gordon II runs. For all the team’s troubles this season, they have been really good at converting third-and-short situations in 2025.

Yes, Bijan Robinson got a 7-yard run early in the second quarter, but through two drives Atlanta had 7 yards rushing on five carries. Who had that on their bingo card?

Great to see Zach Sieler drop Tyler Allgeier for a 1-yard loss on third-and-1. He’s somebody who needs to step up on defense.

Not sure why the Dolphins passed on first down on their first two plays on their next drive after the success they had running the ball on their touchdown drive. It worked great with a 10-yard gain by Achane, but not so much on a no-gain by fullback Alec Ingold.

Bad miss on third down from Tagovailoa, who sails a pass to Malik Washington near the sideline, though he probably would have been short on third-and-4 from the 43. Question is whether the Dolphins would have gone for it on, say, fourth-and-2 from the 45.

This is where punter Jake Bailey continues to make a difference, with a punt inside the Atlanta 10.

More great work on run defense by Jordyn Brooks, playing like a man possessed, who almost gets a safety on RB Tyler Allgeier.

Nice job by Jaylen Waddle breaking a tackle in the open field, something we frankly don’t see very often, on his 22-yard reception that set up Riley Patterson’s field goal for a 10-3 lead.

Another three-and-out by the Dolphins defense, this one highlighted again by Brooks, who takes advantage of a combo blitz with Ifeatu Melinfowu. Brooks is having an AFC Defensive Player of the Week type of first half.

Tua started the next drive with his best pass of the first half, layering a throw to Nick Westbrook-Ikhine for an 18-yard gain.

Nice job of maintaining his balance by Gordon on his 11-yard run right before the two-minute warning, but not sure why he’s sliding before reaching the sideline since the clock would keep running even if he had gone out of bounds. This is a play to be made late in the game in a clock-killing situation.

Tagovailoa capped the two-minute drive with a couple of clutch throws, the third-down conversion to Waddle followed by the nifty touchdown pass to Malik Washington after he scrambled to his left, which replaces the pass to NWI as his best of the half.

This was the Dolphins’ best half of the season with every area contributing and a sign of what the Dolphins can be when they’re operating at peak efficiency.

More Miami Dolphins Coverage: