Billy Turner and Lamar Miller the key to success against the Vikings

The Miami Dolphins offense has been up and down throughout the entire season and you can point to a wide array of reasons as to why that has been so. Each game, it's a different thing so it's hard to pinpoint exactly where the issue lies.

On Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings, Billy Turner will likely get his first start on the offensive line, even though Joe Philbin hasn't come out and said it. This makes Turner an important part of the offense because the Vikings pass rush is one of the best in league. 

“They are getting good pressure on the quarterback, number one. They have 38 sacks or somewhere along that line," Philbin said. "They’ve got a number of sacks, so they get good pressure on the quarterbacks. They have a good mix of man coverages and zone coverages, so I think they keep you off-balance in the secondary. They tackle well. They do a good job just pursuing, tackling, good ole fashion defense. It is (good). They’ve done a good job in pass defense.”

Philbin said that he is pleased with Turner's development and growth over the course of the season thus far.

“He’s really been making a lot of progress. He’s made a transition. We’ve used him in a couple of different spots. He’s a smart guy. He really studied extremely hard to get acclimated to the system, the schemes and the techniques here. He’s getting better, better and better. He’s doing a great job in the weight room. I’m pleased with his development.” 
 
Lamar Miller will also be an important piece to the Dolphins offense on Sunday. Throughout the entire season, Bill Lazor and Philbin have refused to give him a heavy workload. Why has this happened? Philbin explained the situation in last week's game against the New England Patriots. 

“I think last week what happened a little bit was the game quickly in the second half turned into a two-and-a-half, three possession score. We felt like going into halftime it wasn’t like we were gashing them and had a ton of yards rushing the ball, but we thought we were effective with the run game. We’ve got to get to the situation where that’s a big part of what we do. It’s what we want to do to keep that balance. We want to stay out of those third-and-long situations this week. I would love to get him more (carries).”

We'll see what happens on Sunday but the outcome of the game will go a long way towards determining the future of this franchise.

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