A peek inside Dolphins’ winning formula against Ravens and how young safeties are helping
When Brian Flores took over as Dolphins coach, he made clear that he wanted to use players in the roles they perform best.
As an example, tight end Mike Gesicki was utilized far less as a blocker after Flores replaced Adam Gase, because the Dolphins know that’s not his strength.
And now Flores and defensive coordinator Josh Boyer are seemingly deploying young safeties Jevon Holland and Brandon Jones in ways that maximize their skills.
On Thursday against Baltimore, Jones and Holland — both excellent blitzers — rushed the quarterback a combined 38 times.
According to Next Gen Stats, that’s the most combined blitzes by two defensive backs in the same game since the analytics company started charting that in 2016.
Holland blitzed 21 times and produced six quarterback pressures and a sack, per Pro Football Focus.
Jones blitzed 17 times and produced two pressures.
Jones played 72 percent of his snaps in the box, where he’s most effective.
Holland, skilled both as a rusher and in pass coverage, played 40 percent of his snaps in the box.
In coverage, Holland allowed just one of four passes thrown in his coverage area to be caught, for 4 yards. Jones allowed two of three passes thrown against him to be caught for 22 yards.
Both Holland and Jones played all 73 defensive snaps as Miami held Baltimore to a season-low 304 yards in a 22-10 Dolphins win.
“I mean, that’s the most fun I’ve ever had,” Holland said.
PFF rated Holland (second) and Jones (sixth) among the Dolphins’ best defenders Thursday. Cornerback Xavien Howard was rated first, cornerback Justin Coleman third, defensive tackle Christian Wilkins fourth and safety Eric Rowe fifth.
The Dolphins have consistently ranked among the league leaders in blitz percentage since Flores became coach in 2019.
But they ratcheted up the blitzes to another level against Baltimore.
NFL Network’s Brian Baldinger noted the Dolphins had “seven or eight at the line of scrimmage” throughout the game but “they never brought all of them. It was amazing all night that the Ravens couldn’t figure out how to stop it.”
The Dolphins relied heavily on Cover Zero, a defensive scheme in which a team drops no deep defenders, covers receivers man-to-man and rushes the quarterback with five, six or even more defenders.
“It was really a Cover Zero clinic put on by the Dolphins,” NFL Network analyst and former NFL scout Bucky Brooks said on Twitter. “From the read pressure applied up front to the disciplined coverage and strong open tackling skills of the [defensive backs]. This should be the teaching tape that coaches show their players on how to play Cover Zero.”
Brooks said “if a coach is willing to live with the risk of playing Cover Zero” — and Flores and defensive coordinator Josh Boyer are more than willing — then “there are plenty of benefits to dialing up an all-out pressure. You’re guaranteed to get a free runner to the QB because you’re sending more than the offense can block. You also shrink their playbook due to pressure.”
But Brooks said one reason it worked so effectively against the Ravens is the Dolphins had “some pass rushers dropping into coverage if they were picked up by the protection. This added more bodies to the coverage while still creating free runners to the QB. It’s really a great strategy...
“Miami has more defenders at the [line of scrimmage] than blockers so they’re guaranteed to get a free hitter. But they’re making the coverage safe by dropping out at least two defenders as underneath cover guys.”
But this was about more than just scheme.
“Never underestimate the importance of effort and hustle when it comes to playing great defense,” Brooks said. “Getting guys to play hard is a challenge but 100 percent effort is essential to playing great defense. It’s mandatory to become a championship-caliber defense.”
The Dolphins swarmed to the ball and constantly harassed Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, who finished with a 73.6 passer rating, produced his second-lowest point total as a starter, was sacked four times and completed just 3 of 12 attempts with an interception on throws of 10-plus yards.
What’s more, the Dolphins pressured Jackson on 24 of his drop backs, with Emmanuel Ogbah and Andrew Van Ginkel each producing five pressures.
The Dolphins blitzed three defensive backs on the same play five times Thursday — the most the Dolphins have done that in 15 years, per ESPN.
And the versatility of the Dolphins’ Holland/Jones safety tandem has made it easier to play this style of attacking defense.
“We have such a good relationship off the field; I think that definitely correlates with how we play on the field,” Jones said.
Jones has emerged as one of the better blitzing safeties in the league; PFF rates him 25th among all safeties as a pass rusher; Holland is 22nd.
“I was actually thinking about this a couple of days ago because I really didn’t blitz too much at Texas,” Jones said. “It definitely benefits me.”
PFF rates Holland the ninth-best safety in the league this season, with Jones rated 51st out of 91 qualifiers.
“Jevon is a really good rookie,” Baldinger said.
Here’s my Friday piece with news from Brian Flores on the starting quarterback against the Jets, Will Fuller and more — plus Tagovailoa’s reaction.
Here my Friday piece with 20 Dolphins nuggets.
This story was originally published November 12, 2021 at 4:02 PM.
