Dolphins coaches, embattled first two weeks, shine with short week of preparation | Opinion
Credit where it’s due: The Miami Dolphins coaching staff had a very good night Thursday against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
That’s got to be a feel-good sentence for coach Brian Flores to read. Because the first two weeks of the season that sentence was impossible to write.
After those two season-opening losses, you heard of Miami coaches not adjusting so as to change the course of the game, or being unable to communicate adjustments so players understood, or coaches selecting questionable play-time numbers for important players, or selecting unfavorable matchups in the secondary.
And as a result you heard coaches, including Flores, talking about how problems started with them. You heard coaches admitting they needed improvement.
No such talk after this 31-13 victory against the Jaguars.
In this game, played after a short week of preparation, Dolphins coaches successfully crammed six days of work into three days. And it was simply outstanding work.
Flores made sure he said so afterward.
“I think our staff did a good job offensively, defensively and the kicking game in a short week getting the guys ready to go,” Flores said. “So Chan, Josh, Danny a lot of credit goes to them for the work they did this week.
“It feels good to win. I definitely feels good to win. I’m proud of these guys. I’m happy for them. I’m happy for our staff. These guys work tirelessly and I’m excited for them.”
Kudos to offensive coordinator Chan Gailey and his offensive assistants.
The offense started to show a spark against Buffalo last week and immediately picked up where it left off in this game, starting fast, scoring three times its first three possessions.
“We were efficient today,” quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick said. “We had a good game plan, we followed it, and guys made plays.”
The Dolphins tried some different stuff on offense this game.
Miami showed a full house backfield look.
There was a pistol formation employed at one point.
And there was an end around to Jakeem Grant that was called at just the right time and took advantage of a defense seemingly expecting an inside run on first down. The play delivered a 29-yard gain.
“Yeah, it was obviously a very short week, so to have a few new wrinkles speaks to the creativity of our coaching staff and also just speaks to the guys we have in there being able to do things like that for us to be able to trust they’re going to be able to get in there and figure things out,” quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick said.
“It was nice to see everybody involved in the creativity and that kind of stuff on a short week with Chan.”
It wasn’t just about creativity. It was also about preparation because right tackle Jesse Davis said he encountered no surprises in this game.
“I think we had a pretty good plan,” Davis said. “We knew kind of what they where going to be lining up in.”
That’s the offense. But the defense, embattled the first two weeks of the season, also seemed to find its bearings for the first time this season.
So kudos to defensive coordinator Josh Boyer and his defensive assistants.
Unlike last week, Dolphins coaches apparently tried to protect rookie cornerback Noah Igbinoghene and slot corner Nik Needham Thursday. Both struggled a week ago as Miami matched up primarily in man press coverage against Buffalo’s receivers.
The Dolphins seemed to play more off coverage than in past games.
The Dolphins also mounted a better pass rush than the previous two games — with 10 quarterback hits and four sacks. Sometimes that better rush came organically. Sometimes it came because Boyer was aggressive in calling a blitz.
That’s what happened when Kamu Grugier-Hill came on a fourth-and-6 situation at the Miami 36-yard-line in the first half. Grugier-Hill collected the sack.
“We just practice that play a bunch and that’s a good play for us against our offense and stuff, so a fourth-down situation like that, yeah, great call,” the linebacker said. “And, man, I like to be on the good side of that one.”
It’s fair to say the Dolphins defense made multiple changes this week to get a different result than it got the two previous weeks. What exactly those changes were is impossible to share without the benefit of watching the game tape.
(Imagine that, a sportswriter giving the typical coach excuse of needing to watch the tape!)
But suffice to say there was different stuff going on.
“I can’t tell you all our secrets, but there was a lot of stuff we did this week that was different,” linebacker Kyle Van Noy said. “Guys were keyed in. Obviously we were 0-2 and a lot of guys were hungry to get our first win.
“I think the preparation of guys spending extra time together, guys meeting on our own, doing extra. Those little things helped pay off tremendously tonight and it showed up. I’m proud of our guys that put the effort each and every day to do extra and it’s going to go a long way down the road if we continue to build on that.”
This story was originally published September 25, 2020 at 3:20 AM.
