Miami Dolphins defense shows up strong versus New York Jets: There are concerns anyway

The Miami Dolphins, reeling after consecutive bad games from their defense the previous two games, went to extraordinary measures to fix the problem on Sunday.

Against the New York Jets the Dolphins on defense:

Benched former Pro Bowl safety Reshad Jones. Oh, he started the game but by the second quarter he was on the bench and did not play again. Jones had struggled on at least one deep passing TD at Houston the week before.

Jones was benched even at the end of the game when the Dolphins put Walt Aikens in the game at safety as Jones stood on the sideline. Aikens, by the way, collected an interception.

[Update: The Dolphins say Jones pulled himself out of the game. Not good.]

The team did bench Bobby McCain, who when healthy had started as the boundary cornerback on the other side of Xavien Howard.

The Dolphins opened the game with Minkah Fitzpatrick playing on the boundary. But Fitzpatrick moved to safety in the base defense when Jones was benched.

And that caused a veritable in-game cornerback competition on the side opposite from Howard.

Torry McTyer played there.

McCain played there.

Cornell Armstrong played there..

And obviously Fitzpatrick played there.

So there was change by the defense this game.

Another big difference was Cameron Wake, who came into the game with only one sack, picked up two sacks this day.

So great job by Wake.

Defensive tackle Akeem Spence also had a day with two sacks.

The Dolphins also intercepted rookie Sam Darnold twice -- once by linebacker Jerome Baker and once by T.J. McDonald.

But amid all these defensive strategic moves and searching for answers after the past two weeks, perhaps the best news of the day is that the Dolphins were playing the New York Jets.

And the Jets looked pathetic on offense.

It can be argued the Jets looked terrible because the Dolphins stepped up. And that’s fair. I’ll give you some of that.

But, honestly folks, the Jets were awful on offense entering the game. And they did strange and inexplicable things during this game -- like go for it on fourth-and-15 with 2:30 to play when they were only a touchdown down when they had the two minute stoppage and a timeout.

New York came into this game ranked 19th in the NFL, averaging 24 points per game. But they are simply atrocious on offense, collecting seven first downs and converting only 3 of 16 third down tries.

Darnold has seemingly regressed since the first game he played against Miami the second week of the season. He held the football and seemed unsure of himself. At one point he threw to a wide receiver who was standing out of bounds.

Darnold finished with a quarterback rating of 31.8.

And it showed when Jerome Baker stepped in front of one of his passes and returned it 25 yards for a touchdown.

So this is good for the Dolphins, right?

Well, on this day, no doubt about that.

Except this overall caliber of play won’t stand up against a team that has an actual offense or a good quarterback -- like, say, the Green Bay Packers. The Dolphins play the Packers next week.

Because while the Miami defense more than answered the call for this game, the offense did not look good.

Sorry but it was simply unimpressive in managing only two field goals.

So while the Dolphins defense is back on course to what is good work on Sunday the Dolphins now have to address the offense -- the one that failed to score a TD in this game.

And it has to happen by next Sunday.

One way that can be improved? The Dolphins need to find a way to stay healthy.

Although receiver Kenny Still overcame a groin injury to be active for the game, the Dolphins lost both offensive tackles during different times in the game.

Right tackle Ja’Wuan James went down before the half and didn’t return until the fourth quarter. Backup Zach Sterup yielded at least two sacks during that time.

Then with less than nine minutes to play, the Dolphins lost left tackle Laremy Tunsil to a knee injury.

James returned to the game. Tunsil did not.

This story was originally published November 4, 2018 at 4:01 PM.