Sudden improvement by this Dolphins defender could pay dividends in 2018 and beyond
Very quietly, the Dolphins’ run defense has begun to figure things out.
The stats might not reflect that, since Bills quarterback Josh Allen went for 135 yards two weeks ago.
But that’s an anomaly. There are only so many players like that in the league, and Kirk Cousins — this week’s challenge — is not one of them.
Yet purely against running backs the last two weeks, the Dolphins have surrendered just 137 yards on 51 carries — for an average of 2.7 yards per carry.
And it’s no coincidence that the Dolphins’ run defense has improved at the same time when the light has come on for middle linebacker Raekwon McMillan.
After a shaky first half of the season, McMillan has been excellent. He tallied nine tackles Sunday and was the biggest reason the Patriots managed just 2.6 yards per rush in Week 14.
“The last game he killed it,” teammate Mike Hull said, unprompted, of McMillan on Thursday. “Killed it against the run.”
Matt Burke, McMillan’s boss, agreed.
“I thought he played his best game of the season,” Burke said. “I thought he was one of the main factors in our run game.
“It was a nice step,” Burke continued. “I don’t know if the light’s come on or whatever the saying is, but it was a good step for him. He played square, he played stout. He was very firm. I don’t think he misfit a run all day. Some stuff, they were doing a lot of two-back run game where we may have struggled a little bit early in the season with some of those fits and how they lined up. Yeah, he played well. Did a good job all day.”
If that continues over the season’s final three games, it will make the team’s task this offseason much easier.
The Dolphins had envisioned McMillan as their MIKE linebacker of the next half-decade when they took him in the second round of the 2017 draft. But he blew out his knee in the first preseason game and missed the whole season.
When he came back, McMillan won the starting job, but he was not the player the Dolphins had expected. It took another month until his knee was back to full strength, and he had to go through all the mental growing pains of a rookie despite technically being in Year 2.
Now, 13 games into his career, he seems to have put it together.
“I feel like I’ve progressed over the year,” McMillan said. “Learned a lot of football. At the beginning of the year, I wasn’t playing so hot, but now I’m getting into the groove of things and doing OK.”
McMillan’s improved play is reflective of the Dolphins figuring out how to best use him. McMillan’s strength is run defense, but he has struggled against the pass. So Burke ratcheted down McMillan’s exposure in the pass game, instead using Jerome Baker in Miami’s sub package.
In general, there’s a sense that the Dolphins’ defense is playing better, even though the unit gave up at least 30 points for the fifth time and at least 400 yards for the eighth time on Sunday.
Yet, since getting lit up by the Texans in Week 8, the Dolphins have allowed just 22.8 points per game.
If the Dolphins make the playoffs, that 42-23 loss to Houston will be seen as a turning point.
“That’s when we said, ‘Enough is enough and it’s time to tighten those screws up and play ball,’ ” McMillan said. “.... We sat down and said, ‘This is who we’re going to be, this is what we’re going to do.’ We just got together and we played ball. Nothing special to it. We just came, practiced, worked hard during the week, and it showed on Sunday.”
Up next: Dalvin Cook, Latavius Murray, and the Vikings, who insist they will run the ball more in the wake of offensive coordinator John DeFilippo’s dismissal this week. Minnesota ranks 30th in rushing (85.4 yards per game) and 28th in yards per carry (4.1) in 2018.
This story was originally published December 13, 2018 at 5:54 PM.
