Where Dolphins stand in AFC picture now; plus offensive line, run defense struggles | Opinion
One of the hallmarks of a good team is winning the games you’re supposed to win. The Miami Dolphins had done that during their five-game winning streak, with victories against the Los Angeles Chargers, Jacksonville Jaguars and New York Jets — all lesser teams.
But they failed on the assignment Sunday in losing 20-13 to the Denver Broncos — a team that entered the game 3-6 with two consecutive losses and leading the NFL in turnovers. The Dolphins were road favorites prior to the game.
The Dolphins had a chance to pull into a first-place tie in the AFC East with the Buffalo Bills. But not this week.
Miami actually lost ground on the Bills and are a full game behind in the AFC East race. They are also tied with Baltimore and Las Vegas at 6-4 in the conference picture, but the Raiders currently hold the tiebreaker over the other two for the final playoff seed.
Other things to consider:
▪ The Dolphins were without defensive lineman Christian Wilkins for the second consecutive week, and they probably missed him because the Broncos ran for 189 yards — the second-most rushing yards Miami has allowed this year — while averaging 5.7 yards per run.
“Anytime the backs, they run like that and they get yards and we can’t defend it; that’s a lot of stress on our defense,” linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel said. “I’d say that just overall and giving up rushing touchdowns. It’s something we’ve got to improve.”
A lot of those yards came on counter-type plays to the right side with the left guard pulling as the lead blocker. The Broncos installed those runs last week.
“We had a couple new runs because of the types of fronts [Miami] plays,” Denver coach Vic Fangio said. “It was good game planning by the coaches. We had success with those, couple of them popped nicely. We had a 20-yarder by Phillip [Lindsay], a 25-yarder by [running back Melvin Gordon], just some big plays.”
▪ The offensive line had its worst game of the season.
How else to say it when they gave up six sacks and Miami averaged only 3.3 yards per rush?
Austin Jackson and Ereck Flowers miscommunicated on one play and gave up a sack on a stunt in the first half. Solomon Kindley gave up a sack early before leaving the game with a foot injury. Kindley was limited in practice with a foot injury last week.
Jesse Davis wasn’t particularly effective at either right tackle or right guard.
The six sacks happened during Tua Tagovailoa’s 44 offensive snaps. When Ryan Fitzpatrick took over for his 21 snaps, there were no sacks. And this despite the fact the Broncos knew Miami needed to pass the football.
▪ The Dolphins benching Tagovailoa in the second half was something of a surprise but not necessarily to the Broncos. They actually studied Fitzpatrick, Miami’s backup quarterback, during the week of preparation in case he got in.
“I kind of thought that way all week,” Fangio said. “If we played well, they would put him in. Tua had only played three games so Fitzpatrick was on a lot of the cut-ups we watched and the film we watched. I watched them myself on the side. I just kind of had a feeling we would see him if we played good.”
▪ The Dolphins have benefited from excellent special teams play in past weeks, but while kicker Jason Sanders connected on field goals of 53 and 41 yards, Miami didn’t get a dynamic play on special teams.
The Dolphins apparently missed an opportunity to block a punt when a defender leaked through untouched but didn’t get to the ball.
“It looked like we came clean on a punt block, and we didn’t make that one either,” Flores said. “We’ve got to take advantage of our opportunities. That’s the way it is in this league.”
In recent weeks the Dolphins had a punt block and a punt return touchdown by Jakeem Grant.
▪ The Dolphins defense had hoped to get after quarterback Drew Lock as well as they had against Justin Herbert and others this year but it simply didn’t manifest.
Lock missed his first six passes.
He threw an interception to cornerback Xavien Howard. He looked rattled.
But afterward he completed 18 of 24 passes for 270 yards. And the Miami defense didn’t sack Lock at all. It was the first game this season the Dolphins did not record a sack.
The amoeba look and the Cover 0 blitzes the Dolphins have used in previous games simply didn’t work to the degree they previously had — including on the last play of the game when Lock completed a 61-yard pass to run out the clock while the Dolphins blitzed safety Bobby McCain.
“This was a game that was pretty much chalked up before we even played it,” Lock said afterward. “In a lot of people’s eyes there was no way we were going to be able pull this one off. That’s just typical NFL football. You’ve got to take it week by week — that’s what I’ve figured out.
“That was a really hot Dolphins team coming in. They’ve been scoring points on defense, having turnovers and taking the ball away from the offense. I was extremely determined.”
The Broncos, by the way, have a 4-6 record. They’re 3-0 against the AFC East and play the Buffalo Bills on Dec. 20.
This story was originally published November 23, 2020 at 9:19 AM.
