Breaking down the Dolphins’ (horrible) pass protection and (horrible) run defense
Watching the tape, amid much cringing, it becomes clear the Miami Dolphins on Sunday played poorly against the Minnesota Vikings but the mistakes were often as much due to mental alertness and lack of instincts as being unable to compete physically.
Yes, there were plays the Vikings were clearly better than the Dolphins. I’m not saying there weren’t.
But when guys are losing on plays because they aren’t figuring things out — in December? It’s mental. Or instinctive.
And that’s weird.
The Miami Dolphins have allowed 45 sacks this season, which is sixth most in the NFL.
They allowed a franchise game-high nine sacks against the Vikings.
And a lot of it was guys not figuring things out or figuring things out late. Yes, there were times the Vikings won physically.
But there were mental errors as well. And, for the record, when a player is a tick late reacting to a stunt, that is a mental mistake to me.
The Dolphins, I would estimate, have given up most of their sacks on stunts by the defense this year.
This is one example:
It would be easy to blame the offensive line for all of Miami’s protection problems Sunday. It wasn’t all the offensive line. Everybody contributed in the beating up of Ryan Tannehill.
As you see here:
I looked at all nine sacks the Dolphins allowed and the breakdown is as follows:
Ju’Wuan James allowed two sacks.
Kenyan Drake gave up two sacks in failing to pick up blitzers.
Ted Larsen gave up one sack.
Kalen Ballage gave up one sack in failing to pick up a blitz.
Nick O’Leary gave up a sack.
Mike Gesicki gave up a sack.
Durham Smythe gave up a sack.
Not a good day for the running backs in protection. Not a good day for the tight ends in protection. And obviously, not a good day for the offensive line.
So how is it supposed to look?
Well, the Dolphins blitzed the Vikings, too. But the Dolphins didn’t manage nine sacks. They had two sacks.
That’s because the Vikings apparently are able to pick up blitzes and not blow assignments and man-block better than Miami.
Like this:
That’s a win for the Vikings. Goodie for them. But it’s very disappointing for the Miami defense because the organization has spent significant contract money and draft resources and hopes on getting to the opposing quarterback.
It was also not a good day for the Miami defense all around — Minkah Fitzpatrick’s interception return touchdown notwithstanding.
The Vikings entered this game the No. 30 rush team in the NFL. And they plowed the Dolphins for 220 yards.
Crazy.
So how does that happen?
Well, everyone not named Cameron Wake allowing the Vikings to get outside — so failure to set the edge. I saw failure to set the edge this game by Robert Quinn, Andre Branch, Jerome Baker, Kiko Alonso, pretty much everyone except Wake.
And there was uncertainty sometimes by Miami’s young linebackers. And there were miss fits in filling gaps.
In fact, on this touchdown run, there is both uncertainty and a miss fit.
I remind you that it’s December. These mistakes suggest problems coaching, learning as well as, you know, not being good enough physically.
Coaching because the players obviously haven’t gotten it.
Learning because the players haven’t learned what they’re responsible for learning.
And it’s a physical problem because the other guys are too often better than Miami’s guys.
Quite a trio.
This story was originally published December 18, 2018 at 2:40 PM.
