As some Miami Dolphins players fail, these assistant coaches are blaming themselves
With the Miami Dolphins languishing with a 1-3 record, the weekly meetings between reporters and assistants have begun sounding like sessions at a confessional, with the coaches admitting their flaws and faults.
Coach Brian Flores has clearly set marching orders for his underlings to take responsibility for their mistakes that obviously affect the outcome of games.
And so for three of the last four weeks there’s been a lot of mea culpas from the coaching ranks.
First-year defensive coordinator Josh Boyer has been chief among the assistants raising his hand and accepting that when stuff on defense goes wrong it’s at least partly his fault.
On Tuesday, in discussing how the defense must remain multiple and somewhat complex to succeed, Boyer admitted he has to be better at making sure everyone understands what to do.
“Again, I think you try to be multiple in all things that you do, so whether it’s from a front standpoint, whether from a pressure standpoint or a coverage standpoint, we’re going to ask guys to be multiple in what they’re doing,” Boyer said. “And then obviously we’ve got to have all 11 guys working on the same page.
“I would say that starts with me. I need to continue to improve. I need to get our guys – all 11 guys – to be on the same page and know and understand the calls. That’s what we’re working towards.”
Earlier this week cornerback Eric Rowe said there were communications errors in the secondary against the Seahawks. That led to receivers running uncovered at various times in the game.
Partly Boyer’s fault?
“Again, a lot of that starts with us in practice and I wouldn’t say all of the errors that we’ve had have been communication,” Boyer said. “Some of them are just basic stuff that it’s a focus thing from play-in, play-out from multiple players.
“Obviously for us to be good consistently on a down-in and down-out basis, we have to be able to handle motion, we have to be able to know and understand our calls, and then once we can get to that point, we’ve shown spurts or flashes of playing good defense from time to time.
“But on a down-in, down-out basis, we’re all striving to improve. And like I said, that starts with me and that’s what we’re working to do.”
Offensive coordinator Chan Gailey’s offense was making strides against Buffalo and then Jacksonville. But the game against Seattle was a disappointment for the entire unit. And while quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick put much of the blame on himself after the game, Gailey snatched a portion of that blame away from his quarterback on Tuesday.
“I’ve been around Fitz for a long time and I’ve seen him play very, very well,” Gailey said. “I’m a ‘glass is half full’ kind of guy. I see great things coming in the future and that’s how I see it. It’s easy to point fingers. That’s the easiest thing in the world is to point fingers.
“If you want to point fingers, you ought to point them at me, because I could have helped us be a lot better in the red zone and done a better job of red zone coaching this past week and we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. I think he is capable of being very good for us.”
Quarterback coach Robby Brown, who’s job it is to help Fitzpatrick correct his mistakes, spent time recently wondering what he needs to do to get the team better.
“As you watch the game, you’re looking at, ‘What could I have done better in certain situations? How could I have helped more?’ “ Brown said. “But I think Ryan addressed his play after the game, and as the quarterback you get all the credit and all the blame.
“I think my focus is more on how I can do better. I think he made some good plays, made some throws that there were times that we all could have done better. But I think that’s what stood out to me is I was looking at maybe how I could have helped more in certain situations, maybe in the red zone or something like that.”
The Dolphins started this season with Jordan Howard as their starting running back. Myles Gaskin has taken that role and now Howard, a notable free agent signing in the offseason, is relegated to short-yardage duty, as his 14 yards on 18 carries have yielded a 0.8 yard per carry average.
So Howard is having problems. And so is running back coach Eric Studesville.
“I think it starts with me,” Studesville said. “I’ve got to find ways to help him and get him in positions where he can be more productive for us. He’s doing everything we’re asking.
“He’s working, he’s practicing hard, he’s preparing. He knows what to do. Things haven’t gone well to this point, so we’re just going to go back and keep working. I’ve got to find ways to help him more and more and put him in a position where we can find some productivity.”
