Miami Dolphins are Playing the Wrong Defense

After a hopeful 10-6, 2016 season, the Miami Dolphins regressed to 6-10 in 2017. The Vegas lines actually predicted such an outcome. The Dolphins won 12 consecutive games by 7 or less points, a feat that is impossible to sustainable over time.

This team needed to make significant strides in 2017, with more convincing victories, or the statistics would eventually even out against them. Miami endured a mountain of well-documented adversity, including losing their starting QB, which meant getting better in 2017, would be an uphill climb.

The Jay Cutler experiment was made out of desperation and the Miami Dolphins should not be ostracized for making this move. Matt Moore may have made it through a whole season, but his injury history did not indicate this being a serious option. Cutler clearly told Adam Gase he would only return from retirement if he was the starting QB.

Gase and the Dolphins threw the dice, seeing this move as perhaps the only real option to salvage the Miami offense for the 2017 season…

The Dolphins thought they could rely on their defense to make up for the uncertainty on offense, but they were wrong. The problems on offense were expected with the hurry up preparation of Jay Cutler. The holes in the defense came as a surprise and ruined Miami’s season.

The defense began to unravel during the 40 – 0 beat down by the Baltimore Ravens…

Baltimore exposed the gaping holes in the wide 9 alignment by rushing for well over 4 yards per carry. The 4-3 depends on the defensive line to hold up against the run and be dominant in rushing the passer. The wide 9 splits the defensive ends outside the offensive tackles. Baltimore was able to exploit this and open huge gaps in the middle of the defense.

Linebackers, Alonso, Timmons and Maualuga combined for 21 tackles in that game. Defensive linemen, Suh, Godchaux, Harris, Hayes, Philips, Fede, Taylor and Wake combined for just 7 tackles without a single sack…

The big money players on the DL were beaten badly, Suh had 3 tackles and Cameron Wake had none. The linebackers were finishing plays, but not before allowing gashing runs into the second level of the defense.

Miami’s offense gave up two pick sixes and a fumble recovery touchdown in this game. The defense did not seem to be an issue at the time, but the Dolphins were blindsided.

The blame was heaped on Matt Moore, starting for an injured Cutler, but the problem was far deeper. The Ravens forced Miami’s DE’s outside and pulled trapping guards into the resulting gaps, opening up huge running lanes.

Miami needed to get this fixed and they knew it. The LBs would have to play closer to the line and tighten up between the tackles, a safety would need to sneak into the box to assist.

The following week against the Raiders, the rushing lanes were somewhat shutdown, even though the Raiders ran for over 4 YPC, but the effort exposed what would be Miami’s Achilles Heel the rest of the season.

Raider TE Jared Cook slashed Miami’s secondary and LBs for 126 yards and a whopping 15.8 Yards Per Reception. The Dolphins were exposed, they had no answer for TEs or personnel to help solve the problem.

The Miami philosophy of playing from the inside out with a dominant defensive line was proving easy to defeat. In this defense, the 4 DL need to apply max pressure without blitzing because the three linebackers are needed to drop into coverage zones and shut down inside runs.

Miami ranked 27th in sacks per game…

To put that into perspective, 7 of the top 8 teams in sacks per game went to the playoffs and only 1 team in the bottom 8 made it to the dance…

Ndamukong Suh, Andre Branch and Cameron Wake accounted for over 26% of Miami’s 2017 salary cap…

Reshad Jones, Kiko Alonso, Lawrence Timmons, T.J. McDonald, Xavien Howard, Stephone Anthony, Reakwon McMillian, Bobby McCain, Cordrea Tankersley, Tony Lippett and Chase Allen accounted for less than 23% of Miami’s 2017 salary cap…

If there is any question about Miami's defensive philosophy, follow the money…

The problem is, Miami is paying for an ancient scheme that is no longer valid in the NFL…

The Patriots had 221 snaps in Dime (6-DB) Personnel this year and an astounding 161 snaps in Prevent (7-DB). Miami had SEVEN total snaps in a Dime defense. (Thank you whomever I stole these numbers from!) The Patriots faced 3rd & 10 or more on 54 snaps this year and yet they played 6 or more DBs on 382 snaps.

The Miami Dolphins used the Dime package only 7 times…

Of course Miami couldn’t cover tight ends, they were depending on low paid LBs and secondary when the rest of the NFL has evolved hybrid players capable of covering and assisting the run. Miami spent over one fourth of its salary cap on a defensive line that ranked 27th in sacks per game.

The Miami defense ranked 16th overall in 2017, 16th against the pass and 14th against the run…

On the surface, the defense looks average but because of the disparity between DL and the rest of the defense, Miami was a disaster at stopping crucial 3rd and long situations. Consider these stats…

3rd and 10 or more yards:

Cmp    Att    Cmp%    Yds    Y/A    Y/C
34       46     73.9      396    8.6    11.6

74% percent of the passes thrown against the Miami defense on 3rd and 10 or more yards were completed for an average of 11.6 YPC. This is atrocious and worse, these plays, that could get the defense off the field, are demoralizing.

On the opposite side, offenses converting these plays are laughing at the Miami defense…

30 total sacks for one of the highest paid position groups in the NFL…

All of this is not pointing out that the Miami DL is bad. It’s showing that the Miami philosophy of paying for a great defensive line is a faulty premise that no longer works in the NFL.

The ball comes out too quickly for DL to get to the passer. If the QB can run (Tyrod Taylor) the DL is not fast enough to contain him. Once the defense has stopped the opponent for 3rd and long, there are not enough good players in the secondary to finish the series.

It’s very apparent Miami needs to change its defensive strategy…

More to come on what changes could be made.

Dolphins Officially Defeated by the Raiders

The Miami Dolphins are 4-4 at the midpoint of the season and perhaps it’s expected from a mediocre team with stars that don’t shine at critical moments. Aside from Ndamukong Suh, the rest of Miami’s defensive “playmakers” took the night off, particularly on third down. Exasperation mounted on every third-and-long the Raiders made with inexplicable ease.

The joke in Oakland must have been Kiko Alonso in man coverage. According to the Miami Herald’s Adam H. Beasley, Alonso allowed five catches for 82 yards to Jared Cook and gave up a 12-yard pass to Michael Crabtree. Five of the six catches went for a minimum of 10 yards, including four third-and-long conversions.

It took Matt Burke a full quarter to switch from man coverage, to a holier than Swiss cheese zone. The zone was not helped by Cameron Wake who had only one tackle and no QB pressures. The poor defense also featured Rashad Jones trailing badly on third down and TD receptions.

There simply was no pressure on third down, no pass rush and with LBs and secondary unable to play man coverage, Burke could not blitz. For the second consecutive home game, the sod at Hard Rock Stadium came out of the ground in divots that would make Tiger Woods proud. These games each followed a Miami Hurricane home game the previous night and the next home game will also follow a Hurricane’s home game.

Stay calm Adam Gase, hopefully this is the worst the NFL can throw at a young coach when the officiating crew piles it on. On the surface, the crew for the Raiders game can point to parity in numbers as a justification of fairness. The Dolphins committed 11 penalties for 107 yards Sunday, including five in the fourth quarter. Oakland had 10 penalties for 105 yards, parity right? It was timing of these penalties that destroyed Miami.

Gase said. “We'd start a series out and Damien [Williams] has a huge play and we've got a holding call and we're on the 20. Who knows, maybe if we don't get the holding call he gets tackled at 10 yards, but we'll take, so it's not first-and-12 or whatever.” On a play with 12:46 left in regulation and the Dolphins down four. Williams caught a short pass, got to the right edge and raced down the sidelines. A big-gainer, wiped out because Jarvis Landry held. The Dolphins’ drive stalled immediately thereafter. Three minutes later, on another possession with good field position, Kenyan Drake ran for four yards on first down.Mike Pouncey held turning a second-and-6 into first-and-20, another Dolphins drive squandered.

The defense had two late secondary penalties on Oakland’s game-winning touchdown. A Xavien Howard pass interference call gave the Raiders a first-and-goal at the 3. It was perhaps the only legitimate penalty in the game. The Raiders got to that position because of a highly questionable flag thrown on the play before. The Raiders converted third-and-6 when Derek Carr connected with Seth Roberts for 29 yards along the right sideline. But the refs tacked on 15 more by saying Reshad Jones illegally hit a defenseless receiver – a debatable call, to say the least. Jones said after the game that there was nothing he could have done differently on the play.

The Dolphins still had a slight chance to make it a game late, but Jermon Bushrod all but ended that by holding on fourth-and-9, wiping out a 14-yard completion to Julius Thomas.

The Dolphins average of 7.5 accepted penalties per game. Many of these flags can be thrown on any play in an NFL game, yet the officials chose to pull the flag every time Miami made a play that would change the momentum of the game. Fans turn away when it appears officials dictate the outcome of games. Why bother playing or watching a game decided by referees?

Pointing fingers at officials inevitably leads to the standard comments about being poor losers, etc. The Dolphins have to figure it out or they will end up like the Miami Hurricanes with yellow flags littered field and officials dictating the outcome. Plays like Drake fumbling at the 18-yard line do not help overcome a flag filled game.

Miami must generate pressure from its defensive line. The DL features the highly paid Suh, Wake and Branch, plus 1st round draft pick Harris. Wake cannot come up empty and leave it on Alonso to cover receivers for 4 to 5 seconds. The defense will only go as far as the DL takes them. Suh played a great game, his diving strip-sack should have won the game if not for the flag happy referees.

If Miami is going to depend on speed rushing ends to generate pressure the playing surface must be built for speed. This surface is hindering Miami from getting the best performance from their best players. The field must be repaired or replaced.

In a season that has moved from one calamity to the next, add the field and the officials to the list of obstacles this Miami Dolphin team must learn to overcome.

Jet Net Suffocates Dolphins

Where does one begin?

Being one that focuses on the promising acts of every given day and/or The Miami Dolphins and/or NFL football. I guess the entire NFL displaying unity in an Americans right to Freedom Of Speech is worth mentioning!

Besides that.
Favored AFC projected playoff
teams such as Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Denver, and Oakland lost to what were suggested to be inferior teams.

As far as the second Sunday of the 2017 Miami Dolphins.
The above is about all that went right!

It started out innocent enough.

The first few minutes went well as Miami's D forced an opening series three and out with the aid of a Cameron Wake sack. Andre Branch logged a sack on the third defensive series, and that (for the day) was about all that was worth mentioning defensively.

The Dolphins first offensive play was a nice Kenny Stills scoop for a first down while the oppositions challenge failed. On the second play Miami's Jay Ajayi took an upper cut to the family jewels. Though he returned shortly thereafter for the games remainder, it seemed as though the entire team gasped for air from then on.

Miami's second defensive series began with back to back to back encroachment penalties and ended with a shanked field goal attempt. The Dolphins second offensive series began with back to back to back offensive line illegal procedure penalties while racing against the playclock which obviously led to one of numerous three & outs for the visiting team.

Midway into the second quarter the home team with 143 yards scored the first 3 points of the game. The Dolphins had 40 yards of offense to that point, 10 coming from Ajayi on 7 attempts. On Miami's next touch of the ball, Cutler (whom was swarmed relentlessly throughout the day) took a big sack. The Dolphins now have 30 total yards on the day as a third down attempt is dropped beyond the first down marker. Cutler is 3 of 6 for 23 yards.

BOOM!!!
Team green burns All-Terrain Verner for a 69 yard TD and a 10 - 0 visitors defecit at the half.


Ok, Ok, it's Ok, Miami's Dolphins are down by ten and they're a second half team, everythings Ok.
Right?
Wrong!

It gets no prettier folks, and becomes one of the most frustrating Dolphin game since the 1 - 15 season of 2007.
Miami opens the third quarter with another three & out. To this point they have seven ""touches"" of the ball that result in seven punts with just three first downs and the previously noted 30 to 40 yards of total offense.

The home opening team and Dolphin divisional rival drive their opening third quarter series for a touchdown and 17 - 0 lead.

The Dolphins become so desperate to make something happen early in the third quarter upon yet another three & out, and attempt a fake punt that results in the punter throwing an interception at the 50 yard line.

It's sooo bad that on NY's next series first down play they actually gain seven yards on an incompletion. Someone's head was up their A, as the following snap came without a zebra or Adam Gase blink of an eye. Upon a completed throwing motion the QB's arm was fully extended forward, as the ball released from his fingertips a Dolphin defender simotaneously tipped the ball, the ball went 20 feet high hit the ground rolled forward for seven yards and the QB recovered it for a seven yard gain. WTF? Another NY field goal and 20 - 0 score.


Hey Hey Yippy!
As the third quarter final second ticks off the clock,
The Miami Dolphins cross the 50 yard line for the first time.

Four down territory.
Miami drives to the 20 and has a fourth down back of the end zone pass fall incomplete.

Hey Hey Yippy!
Three ""touches of the ball"" later Jay Cutler hits DeVante Parker (great catch) for a four yard TOUCHDOWN as the game ends. 20 - 7. Right?
Wrong!
Dolphins miss the extra one point attempt,
and lose in a devastating manner 20 - 6.


In thirteen fewer minutes of possession the Dolphins actually ended up with as many first downs as the home team, and ran 4 more plays. Unfortunately, they went 1 of 12 on third and 0 for 3 on fourth downs while very few plays for Miami moved the ball forward, and just one resulted in points!

After two devestating road losses the 0 - 2 Jets came to play and weren't about to let their loud home opening crowd down. The Dolphins could do no right, T'was quite frustrating indeed!!!

Miami 225. NYJ 336 total yards.

Cutler 26 of 44 for 220 with a TD & a needless dagger of a pick,
(nothing but grass in front of you, run two more yards for the first down).

Parker 8 receptions for 76 with a TD.

((( JAY AJAYI ELEVEN ATTEMPTS FOR SIXTEEN YARDS )))


London Dolphins versus the Wembley Saints next Sunday at 9 : 30 am EST !!!


GOFINS!!!

The Miami Dolphins Need to Pay Jarvis Landry

“We’re building something special here…”

This quote leads to a curious case with Jarvis Landry and his value to the Miami Dolphins. Will it become a point of contention the longer the prolific wide receiver remains without a contract extension? As a slot receiver, Landry is rarely mentioned in the same sentence with his flashy college teammate Odell Beckham. Yet Landry holds the NFL record for the most receptions in his first two seasons, catching 194 passes. Landry and Beckham are tied for the most catches after three seasons with 288.

Landry is oft criticized for finding the endzone only 13 time in three seasons but he has a history of mastering perceived shortcomings. Overshadowed by Beckham and posting a pedestrian 4.61 40 yard dash allowed Landry to slip to the Dolphins in the second round. At 5’11” he’s not the biggest target, in fact, few of his tangible measurements stood out during the 2014 combine. Only when plugging in the tape does Landry’s value as a football player and teammate become apparent.

Landry is the spark plug that ignites the Miami Dolphin engine. Landry is the playmaker in moments of desperation. Landry is the leader when others lose confidence. These intangible assets, unlike 40 times, are his core value. On a team with a subdued Ryan Tannehill at QB, the fiery leadership comes from another position in the huddle. That position belongs to Juice Landry, he is the juice that gets the party started.

“We’re building something special here…”

A slot receiver is not typically a big money player, that designation goes to DeVante Parker with his first round pedigree and off the chart combine numbers. Clearly tangible measurements do not make a football player. Parker may one day live up to the team’s draft day expectations, but this is more an indictment of the process. Rewarding 40 yard dashes over demonstrated accomplishments on the football field has led to more Dion Jordan’s than Jarvis Landry’s.

Those first round mistakes created the rookie salary cap because the risk/reward of the unknown is a losing proposition. The notion of paying more to veteran players is a joke and a lie. The NFL power brokers grew tired of their own mistakes and decided to mitigate them by forcing rookies to demonstrate their worth before any big money changed greedy hands.

Under the leadership of Adam Gase, the Miami Dolphins have made a paradigm shift in personnel philosophy. Moving from perennial winners of March free agent Madness to a pay-for-play homegrown revolution. Gase’s message is simple and direct, “put it all on the field for me and you’ll get paid by me.” In the free agent age, where money-grabs rule, and players usually switch teams to obtain their perceived value, the approach is both refreshing and enlightened.

“We’re building something special here…”

The concept offers a subtle solution to the question, “how do you motivate players after they become multimillionaires?” Football players like Juice Landry are not as motivated by pure dollars as many outside the locker room would think. Football players know, a single hit or shift in a scrum pile can end their careers’ instantly. When the opportunity to get rich knocks, only a fool wouldn’t jump, especially after working their entire lives to achieve stardom in their chosen profession.

Clearly, the resounding drop-off in performance when players switch teams shows that dollars rarely motivate. The answer lies in the locker room where Jarvis Landry sits waiting on his payday and watches outsiders like Ndamukong Suh stride in with $100 million dollars in their pocket. Resentment is probably a word rarely uttered in NFL circles and yet, why did Suh leave Detroit to get paid? He now sits with two locker stalls in an obscure corner, his $100 million dollars flying like banner over his locker. Are the players around him not supposed to feel resentment?

Therein lies the answer… The Miami Dolphins (among other teams) flounder because, letting players walk out the door to get paid sends the wrong message. Bringing in players from other teams and paying them sends the wrong message. Kenny Stills could have a better contract, Kiko Alonso could have waited for free agency, Cameron Wake could have played out his contract, and Andre Branch would’ve received the same deal elsewhere. They chose to stay in Miami.

“We’re building something special here…”

Teammates motivate multimillionaires… Not coaches, not dollars, not accolades, teammates. When players jump ship to get paid, the locker room breaks down. When new players enter that are not part of the chemistry, the locker room breaks down.

Gase has made a brilliant observation, teammates motivate multimillionaires… 

When teammates hold each other accountable, the dollars are of no consequence. The bad ass defensive tackle in the corner is as much a part of the fabric as the geeky clutch kicker. Together, they strive for greatness and the dollars take care of themselves. “Play for me and I’ll get you paid.”

“We’re building something special here…”

Jarvis Landry is the embodiment of this philosophy because he does not need dollars to put it out on the field. He is the player Adam Gase envisioned when he thought through this personnel concept and now The Juice needs some oranges squeezed! Would it be surprising to learn Jarvis Landry asked his coach to, “take care of my boys first?” It is purely conjecture, but Landry making that statement rings true, because he’s the ultimate teammate.

And now, it’s time to pay The Juice.

“We’re building something special here…”