3 players the Commanders must keep quiet vs. Dolphins in Week 13

Which Miami Dolphins players must the Washington Commanders keep quiet to stand any chance of a major upset in Week 13?

How do you contain Tyreek Hill and the Miami Dolphins? That's the nightmare question Washington Commanders' head coach Ron Rivera is grappling with ahead of Week 13.

Rivera's calling the defense after finally ditching Jack Del Rio as coordinator. The move may spell desperation for many, but the head coach handling the call sheet should be a good thing for the Commanders.

He's a proven commodity as a designer of some outstanding defenses, dating back to his stint as coordinator for the San Diego Chargers in 2010. Rivera will need all of the sophisticated pressures he can think of to try and derail Miami's offensive juggernaut.

The 61-year-old also needs a plan for keeping the NFL's premier big-play threat under wraps.

Commanders need numbers to contain Tyreek Hill

Press coverage is the key to stalling Tyreek Hill, and slowing him down is the best the Washington Commanders can hope to achieve. The wide receiver will get his big plays deep, but it's Ron Rivera's job to limit how many.

A bit of bump and run can work, provided the underneath coverage is supported by safety help over the top. It's what the New England Patriots did to bracket Hill back in the 2018 AFC Championship Game, with Taylor Kyles of Patriots on CLNS showing how.

Double coverage is one thing, but it takes numbers to keep Hill out of the deep third. It's an approach the Patriots used against the Dolphins in Week 2 when they put three safeties along the last line:

"The Patriots 3-high safety game plan was designed to control the areas where Tyreek Hill did most of his damage in Week 1: deep middle and deep sideline. The Pats controlled the middle and limited Hill (40 yards), but still started slowly because they had to pick a poison. That was Waddle (86 yards) and the Mostert-led run game"

Andrew Callahan of the Boston Herald

Rivera has the personnel to put a trio of safeties deep and force Hill to live in traffic underneath. Yet, as Callahan noted, the Dolphins have other weapons.

Commanders must be physical with Jaylen Waddle

Tyreek Hill's game is about vertical speed. While Jaylen Waddle is no slouch, he's more subtle than swift.

Waddle's got moves on top of moves coming out of his breaks. But he's not the most imposing at 5-foot-10 and 185 pounds.

The Washington Commanders can bruise Waddle's slight frame, provided they take a physical approach to covering No. 17. It'll mean jamming him at the line of scrimmage and then hitting the former first-round pick out of Alabama early into his routes.

Keeping a hybrid linebacker like Khaleke Hudson in the slant lanes will leave an enforcer in place to deck Waddle over the middle. Having a towering cornerback like Benjamin St-Juste or Kendall Fuller pushing the wideout toward linebackers is the key to the Commanders keeping one of the Miami Dolphins' best playmakers quiet.

Waddle and Hill can do the most damage. But the Commanders will need to be tougher up front to contain Miami's underrated threat on the ground.

Commanders have to swarm Raheem Mostert early

Raheem Mostert is a touchdown machine this season. The running back has personally outscored a host of teams - including the Washington Commanders - according to StatMuse.

Mostert's a natural one-cut-and-go runner, perfect for Miami's zone-based ground schemes. Stopping those stretch runs will mean Commanders' defensive linemen playing downhill and getting around the supreme backfield threat early.

Filling cutback lanes with linemen playing on the other side of the line of scrimmage can keep Mostert in check. It should mean Ron Rivera having his front four on defense narrow their splits and run some stunts and twists to split gaps and wreck running plays at their source.

Being proactive is how the Commanders can stop the run without stacking the box. Because Rivera needs all the numbers he can get covering the dynamic wide receiver tandem of Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle.