To up-tempo or not to up-tempo. To no-huddle or not to no-huddle.
Those are the questions Dolphins offensive coordinator Hamlet is pondering.
Fine, so Hamlet isn't the Miami Dolphins offensive coordinator. His name is Chan Gailey. But he's still pondering those potentially existential questions this week as the Dolphins begin to prepare for Sunday's game against the Kansas City Chiefs.
And let's just understand this from the top: The Dolphins obviously have a good no-huddle and up-tempo package in their offense. They can use it any time they wish and even use it for an extended amount of time as they did with good success against the Cincinnati Bengals last week.
So Miami will try it against Kansas City.
But on Monday and Tuesday, coaches were deciding whether to expand that package to use more against the Chiefs. They were also trying to understand how the Chiefs might react to such an approach.
They were figuring out if the strategy used extensively could work consistently.
"I think we will continue to use it," Gailey told reporters Tuesday. "How much? I think it will depend on the game. It will depend on the situation. We felt like that would help us in the second half of that game (against Cincinnati) and obviously it did.
"I think as time goes on, we'll just have to see how much of it we'll use or what direction it goes. It was obviously good for (quarterback Tua Tagovailoa) and for us. It will be a part of what we do, I'm pretty sure, from here on out."
So there are factors Gailey and Miami's offensive coaches must weigh to decide the degree to which they're going to commit to an up-tempo game plan.
Factor 1: Is the no-huddle and up-tempo stuff good for rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa?
Factor 2: Is it good or bad for Miami's defense?
Factor 3: Is Gailey willing to accept the liabilities of the up-tempo and no-huddle approach versus the possible dividends it offers? Said another way, is Gailey willing to get past not liking up-tempo too much?
Let's address those ...
With Tagovailoa at quarterback against the Bengals, it was clear he embraced the no-huddle and up-tempo approach the team employed in the second half.
In the first half when the Dolphins were using their base offense, Tagovailoa completed 12 of 19 passes for 111 yards with no touchdowns. Miami scored six points and generally lacked urgency during that half while falling behind.
In the second half when the Dolphins went to their up-tempo and no-huddle approach, Tagovailoa completed 14 of 20 passes for 185 yards with a touchdown. Miami scored 13 points and seemed invigorated on offense as they came from behind to beat the Bengals.
So, it makes sense to go with that which worked all the time, right?
Well, there are challenges to go with the benefits for the offense.
"The challenges are (Tua) doesn't get as much time to see what is happening," Gailey said. "The benefits are the defense doesn't get as much time to see what's happening. You have to decide the trade-off and that's where it is.
"Are you gaining more by being in the up-tempo or are you hampering the quarterback's ability to see everything that's going on? As we design it — what we might use each week — we try to take that into consideration and use it to however it might be the most beneficial to us, so we can get the most out of it. Those are the two things that I would say."
Dolphins defensive coordinator Josh Boyer says his defense has faced teams trying to use up-tempo to cause Miami problems. Arizona did it some. So did the Los Angeles Rams, although with mixed results.
"Whether they're huddling or not huddling or they're going fast or they're going at a normal pace, you're looking at what they're trying to do and what they're trying to attack," Boyer said. "You've just got to make sure that your communication, the calls get in quickly, the communication's at a high level. Those are the things that you're looking to do."
The Dolphins using up-tempo is meant to affect the opposing defense, as Boyer noted. But it could also potentially affect Miami's own defense.
If the Dolphins go to up-tempo and it doesn't work, they will be off the field quickly. And that will put the Dolphins defense on the field with much less time to rest and recover between series.
Indeed, even the Dolphins score quickly using their up-tempo package, that puts the Chiefs' offense back on the field quicker than normal. And that still is not optimal.
On Sunday when the Dolphins began to use up-tempo package, the game's broadcasters relayed a story of production meeting they had with Gailey weeks ago. And in that meeting, the broadcasters said, Gailey talked of not liking the up-tempo package too much because he preferred good execution over going fast.
The inference is Gailey thinks players do not carry out their assignments as well when he asks them to play faster.
"I probably said something along those lines because you don't get to take advantage of some things sometimes when you're going into the up-tempo because it is – you don't have your whole offense up-tempo," Gailey said.
"You have limited packages in that. You want to try to take advantage of what you can take advantage of. Sometimes the tempo does take advantage of some things. You've got to be flexible. You've got to be able to go do different things in order to move the football.
"If up-tempo is one of those things, we're going to use that to help us."
