Historical perspective on Hill, Waddle after latest big outings in Dolphins win over Lions

Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle making big plays has become almost a weekly occurrence for the Miami Dolphins this season.

It was more of the same in the Dolphins’ 31-27 comeback win over the Detroit Lions on Sunday at Ford Field.

Hill caught 12 passes for 188 yards, while Waddle had eight catches for 106 and two first-half touchdowns. It was the third time this season that both Hill and Waddle have reached 100 receiving yards in the same game.

“We saw what we liked,” Waddle said. “[Coach] Mike [McDaniel] did a good job of calling plays, getting us in position to make plays. It all goes hand in hand.”

But from a team and overall NFL standpoint, how good have Hill and Waddle been through Miami’s first eight games?

The duo has combined for 1,840 receiving yards so far this season — 961 for Hill, 879 for Waddle. That is the NFL record for most receiving yards by a pair of teammates in the first eight games of a season. The previous record was more than 200 yards fewer — 1,679 set by Torry Holt and Isaac Bruce for the 2000 Rams and matched by Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders for the 2014 Broncos.

For Hill individually, his 961 receiving yards are the third-most in the first eight games of a season in the Super Bowl era. Only Holt (978 in 2003 with the Rams) and Marvin Harrison (962 in 2000 with the Colts) had more to start a season.

And one more on Hill: He already has four games this season with at least 150 receiving yards. That is tied for the most in a single season in franchise history with Mark Duper in 1984.

Hill, however, said he isn’t going to stay content with his strong start. After all, there is still a little more than half a season left to play.

“I expect this of myself every time,” Hill said. “So do my parents. So do my kids. So does everybody that knows me. Everybody knows me as a workaholic. All I do is stay involved. The way I approach every week is I’m going to work my tail off regardless.”

Eichenberg injury

Dolphins left guard Liam Eichenberg injured his knee on the Dolphins’ go-ahead touchdown play late in the third quarter. He was carted off the field and did not return. Robert Jones replaced Eichenberg for Miami’s final offensive drive.

McDaniel did not have an immediate update on Eichenberg’s status postgame.

“My heart goes out to him,” McDaniel said, “but we’ll get some information back [Monday] as to the severity of that.”

Fullback impact

Fullback Alec Ingold first career rushing touchdown, a 1-yard rush on a direct snap to open the third quarter. He has three career receiving touchdowns, one in each of his three seasons with the Raiders (2019-2021) before signing with the Dolphins.

One drive later, Ingold had a key open-field tackle on a Tua Tagovailoa third-down run. Tagovailoa gained 18 yards on the play, which helped set up a go-ahead touchdown pass from Tagovailoa to Mike Gesicki five plays later.

“That was big,” Tagovailoa said of Ingold’s block. “As you can tell, I’m not a runner, but with that block, if anyone else is running behind Alec, that could have been a lot bigger [of a play]. It could have been a score. Who knows? But knowing me, Alec blocks the guy and almost pancakes him, and I run right into another guy for the tackle. If it was any other person, it probably would have been bigger.”

This and that

▪ Gesicki on Sunday moved into second place among tight ends in Dolphins history for most career receiving yards on Sunday. He finished the game with three catches for 38 yards and the go-ahead touchdown and now has 2,490 receiving yards in his career. He surpassed Bruce Hardy, who had 2,455 receiving yards. The team record is held by Randy McMichael with 3,096.

▪ Dolphins defensive lineman Zach Sieler, a native of Pinckney, Michigan (about an hour west of Detroit), logged Miami’s only sack on Sunday and also defended two passes.

▪ The Dolphins on Sunday committed 16 penalties, only seven of which were accepted. This included two separate instances, once on offense and once on defense, when two penalties were committed on the same play.