Despite struggles, Dolphins defense feels turnaround is close. ‘We believe in this scheme’
After another outing that fell short of preseason expectations, the Dolphins’ defense is back to searching for answers.
It doesn’t get any easier on Sunday when the Dolphins host the Minnesota Vikings and an offense headlined by Pro Bowl players such as running back Dalvin Cook, a Miami native, and wide receiver Justin Jefferson.
Despite the early-season struggles, Dolphins coaches and players have maintained that they are close to executing at the level they intended when they brought back the core of the unit and coordinator Josh Boyer.
In the Dolphins’ Week 5 loss to the New York Jets, the defense allowed just 19 points through the first three quarters until letting up a flurry of 21 points in the final quarter — some were assisted by short fields — that cemented Miami’s second consecutive defeat. And it was another game in which the Dolphins didn’t force a turnover. The last time the defense recorded a takeaway was in Week 3.
After the game, Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said the coaching staff would “address it with a fine-tooth comb” in their week of preparation.
“I think [Sunday] was unfortunate because we didn’t do our job,” inside linebacker Jerome Baker said. “One guy would do this, go rogue or whatever. At the end of the day, if we just do our job, we can handle any high-power offense. So that’s the main thing. They have some weapons over there, but at the end of the day, if we don’t do our job, it doesn’t matter who is across from us, we’re going to get exposed. So that’s our main focus this week is just do our job, do the things that we’ve always done, run to the ball, get turnovers and we’ll be just fine.”
The Dolphins played against the Jets without cornerback Xavien Howard, who was sidelined by a lingering injury to his groin muscles. His absence meant the defense was without its top-two cornerbacks, as Bryon Jones remains on the reserve/physically-unable-to-perform list and is not expected to return for Sunday’s game.
Howard said he expects to play Sunday, and his presence will be needed to try to limit Jefferson, who leads the NFL with 547 receiving yards. Without Howard in the lineup against the Jets, the Dolphins took a more conservative approach in the secondary, playing more zone coverages than usual.
”The guy is a superstar in this league. He’s one of the best corners in this league,” Baker said of Howard. “So you can just imagine, our defense is going to change a little bit. You can put him on any receiver and he’s going to pretty much lock them down or get interceptions off of them. So, of course it’s a blow to our defense, but we have great guys that come in and they can do a pretty good job. So the expectations don’t change for our defense when he’s out. We still have to get it done.”
As for the Dolphins’ pass rush, the defense has struggled to harass opposing quarterbacks despite a blitz-heavy tendency. The Dolphins rank sixth in blitz rate (33.5 percent), according to TruMedia, but 18th in pressure rate (31.4 percent).
Asked specifically about defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah, who has led the team in sacks the last two seasons but has just one in five games, Boyer said it starts with “self-reflection” and figuring out how to put players in better positions on the field.
Boyer said that while the Dolphins have a “high volume of defense and a lot of different things that we’ve thrown at people,” this week the coaching staff has “tweaked a little bit different this week, just on the things that we emphasize or detail.”
“Mentally, though, if one guy does this wrong, it’s just a trickle-down effect,” Baker said. “If you expect the guy to do this and he didn’t do it, now that leads to a whole number of things. But I think we will do a great job this week of just getting back on track and just locking in. I think we’ll be just fine Sunday.
“We believe in our scheme. We believe in the guys we have on our team and we’ll be just fine. I think now is just a wake-up call. We just have to go back to the drawing board and do what we do. It’s not anything new that we haven’t been through, and we’ll be just fine.”
This story was originally published October 13, 2022 at 4:31 PM.
