Dolphins seeking to extend win streak to 3 games, but will have to solve Saints’ secondary to do so

New Orleans (2-9) at Miami (4-7)

Sunday, 1 p.m. EST, Fox.

BetMGM NFL odds: Dolphins by 5 1/2.

Against the spread: Saints 3-8, Dolphins 6-5.

Series record: Dolphins lead 7-6.

Last meeting: Dolphins beat the Saints 20-3 on Dec. 27, 2021, in New Orleans.

Last week: Saints lost to Falcons 24-10, Dolphins had a bye following 16-13 OT win over Commanders.

Saints offense: overall (26), rush (29), pass (20), scoring (T-31).

Saints defense: overall (12), rush (21), pass (9), scoring (22).

Dolphins offense: overall (25), rush (18), pass (26), scoring (24).

Dolphins defense: overall (25), rush (29), pass (12), scoring (21).

Turnover differential: Saints minus-4; Dolphins minus-5.

Saints player to watch

QB Tyler Shough. The Saints are clearly in that see-what-we-have mode with Shough, who has started New Orleans’ past three games and completed 68.1% of his passes in that span — turning 94 throws into 701 yards, a respectable 7.46 yards per attempt. But the deep ball wasn’t there this past week; Shough completed eight passes for more than 10 yards against Atlanta, yet none of those throws gained more than 18 yards.

Dolphins player to watch

RB De’Von Achane. He’s one of only five players entering the week with 800 or more rushing yards in each of the past three seasons. Atlanta’s Bijan Robinson, Baltimore’s Derrick Henry, Detroit’s Jahmyr Gibbs and Buffalo’s James Cook are the others. Achane is averaging 5.5 yards per carry; he could join Mercury Morris and Larry Csonka as the only Dolphins to have multiple seasons averaging more than 5 yards per rush. Achane averaged 7.8 yards per rush in 2023.

Key matchup

Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa is facing a top-10 secondary this week, with the Saints allowing fewer than 200 yards passing per game. New Orleans’ secondary also gave the Saints their only touchdown last weekend on safety Justin Reid’s interception and 49-yard return.

Key injuries

Saints: Running back Alvin Kamara has a right knee injury that kept him out of the last three quarters of last Sunday’s loss to Atlanta. His timeline for returning remained unclear this week. Right tackle Taliese Fuaga who has missed two games with a high ankle sprain, has said he’d try to practice this week and see if he feels healthy enough to play.

Dolphins: The bye week gave everyone on the active roster a chance to heal up a bit. and TE Darren Waller’s 21-day window for returning off injured reserve opened when the team practiced Wednesday.

Series notes

New Orleans has won three of the past four meetings. … These teams met for the first time in 1970 in Miami’s Orange Bowl. New Orleans’ first victory in the series did not come until 1983 in the Superdome. … The Saints have only one victory in Miami against the Dolphins, a 46-34 victory on Oct. 25, 2009, — a game in which the Saints overcame a 24-3 deficit to match the largest comeback in franchise history.

Stats and stuff

The Saints played twice at the Dolphins’ home stadium in the 2009 season, beating Miami in Week 7 and then topping Indianapolis in the Super Bowl. New Orleans hasn’t played in what is now called Hard Rock Stadium since; its previous “road” game against the Dolphins was at London in 2017. The Saints have played in 38 different stadiums since their last trip to Miami Gardens. … The Saints beat the Dolphins 33-30 at New Orleans in 1995. All six of the meetings between the teams since have been decided by between 12 and 21 points. … Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa is 15-4 as a starter in November games. He’s 15-16 as a starter in September and October games. … Among quarterbacks with at least 2,000 career passes, Tagovailoa’s completion rate of 68.1% is second best in NFL history. Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow has completed 68.5% of his throws. … Saints RB Alvin Kamara passed the Eric Dickerson for 39th place on the NFL’s career rushing list with one team this past weekend. Kamara has 7,250 yards with the Saints; Dickerson ran for 7,245 with the Rams, one of four teams that the NFL’s No. 9 career rusher played with. … This trip is the first of two straight in Florida for the Saints, who visit Tampa Bay on Dec. 7. … New Orleans will finish under .500 in back-to-back years for the first time since posting three consecutive 7-9 records from 2014 through 2016. … The Dolphins are aiming to extend their winning streak to three games. They’ve had a streak of three or more games in every season since 2019.

Fantasy tip

It’s fairly obvious that players struck gold with Achane, who’ll be in lineups all over the fantasy world this weekend as teams make playoff pushes. For those seeking a surprise, Saints WR Chris Olave was targeted on 13 passes this past weekend — a similar approach by New Orleans this weekend will give him tons of fantasy-point opportunities.

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