Tough love from Flores for Wilkins, who got chewed out, benched after ‘bad penalty’
Some 24 hours after Brian Flores ripped defensive tackle Christian Wilkins for illegally body-slamming Chargers running back Austin Ekeler, he was “still upset” at his rookie defender.
Refs hit Wilkins with a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty for his WWE takedown on Ekeler during a running play. Flores pulled the first-round pick from the game and chewed him out.
“Look, it’s 10-10, we just missed a field goal and we’re right in it,” Flores said. “We don’t need those. He knows that. I think everybody on the team knows that. I thought it was a bad penalty. We show plays like that on a weekly basis — this is what we’re not going to do, and we do it.”
The silver lining, if there was one, was that penalty did not cost the Dolphins points. They got a stop on fourth down and got the ball back on downs.
But the Dolphins won’t always be that lucky.
Flores and his staff have been determined to run a disciplined team, and Wilkins’ mistake aside, they have been seeing results. The Dolphins have been penalized just 23 times (for 174 yards) — third fewest among teams that have played four games.
Flores still have might been mad Monday, but knew he won’t stay that way for long.
“I love Christian,” Flores said. “He knows that. I’m going to coach him hard. Especially a kid like this who’s got so much ability and leadership potential. I think he’s going to be here a long time and be a face of what we want to be about, and that’s not it. Everybody on the team knows that. Yeah, I was upset and I’m still upset, but it’s football. You kind of get over things quickly.”
Odds and ends
▪ Jason Sanders has missed three kicks this year, including two of his three attempts from 50-plus, but Flores told Dolphins players Monday “he’s a good kicker. He can make those kicks. I still have a lot of confidence in him.”
▪ The Dolphins have a bunch of guys dealing with minor injuries, Flores suggested that most of all should be ready for Week 6 against the Redskins. Three Dolphins — offensive lineman Jesse Davis, defensive back Bobby McCain and wide receiver Albert Wilson — were questionable but ended up not playing against the Los Angeles. Flores said they “wanted to play. Talked their way into practice,” but in the end just weren’t ready. The extra week off should help them all. The same goes for Allen Hurns, who missed the Chargers game with a concussion.
▪ The Dolphins’ run defense, which was atrocious through three weeks, was quite good Sunday. The Chargers averaged just 2.4 yards per carry after the Cowboys gashed them for 6.9 per rush in Week 3. The Dolphins did that despite having just two tackles for loss on running plays yesterday. On the season, the Dolphins have seven total tackles for loss on 270 defensive plays.
▪ Taco Charlton has been a member of the team for less than two weeks, but is already the Dolphins’ best pass rusher. In just 78 snaps with Miami this year, he has two sacks and three quarterback hits. By way of comparison, former first-round pick Charles Harris — whose playing time has been reduced in recent weeks — has zero sacks in 218 snaps.
▪ Mark Walton should be Miami’s No. 2 running back. After another drop by Kalen Ballage on Sunday, which might have gone for a touchdown, Ballage has three catches for 29 yards on 10 targets (2.9 yards per target). Walton, meanwhile, is averaging roughly twice that per target. Walton has also been the far better runner. Walton has 39 yards on 10 carries this year. Ballage has 29 yards on 19 carries. The Dolphins are one of three teams without a rushing touchdown in 2019.
▪ It’s far from their biggest problem, but the Dolphins have trouble covering running backs. In the past three weeks, they have allowed 17 receptions for 181 yards and three touchdowns to backs.
This story was originally published September 30, 2019 at 3:30 PM.