Final NFL Week 11 Observations ... With Miami Dolphins Angles
It was a good weekend for the two teams who play in Los Angeles, and what the Chargers and Rams did served as testimony to the kind of defense they played during their losing streak.
The Rams closed out Week 11 with an impressive road victory at Tampa Bay when Jared Goff passed for 376 yards and three touchdowns. Though he did throw two interceptions, he was not sacked.
Now consider what the Dolphins defense did to Goff in Week 8. Yes, Goff passed for 355 yards that day, but there was only one touchdown pass, two interceptions and two sacked that resulted in fumbles — one returned for a score by Andrew Van Ginkel and the other returned to the 1-yard line by Kyle Van Noy.
The Chargers, meanwhile, defeated the New York Jets thanks in large part to Keenan Allen's franchise-record 16 catches, good for 145 yards and a touchdown. This was the same Keenan Allen who the Dolphins held to three catches for 39 yards a week earlier, the same Keenan Allen who said the day after that game that the Chargers went away from their passing game because of the confusion the Miami defense was creating.
RELATED: Dolphins Defense: Confuse And Conquer
It's also worth remembering that the Dolphins defense held Herbert to 187 passing yards, 77 fewer than his next-lowest total on the season.
Simply put, the Dolphins have been the one team to figure out a way to shut down the overwhelming front-runner for the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award.
-- Herbert's biggest competition for the award was Joe Burrow, whose season ended with his nasty knee injury against Washington. The injury is a bummer on many levels, starting with the fact we now won't get to see a Burrow-Tua battle Dec. 6. Yes, it makes the Dolphins' task easier on that day, but football fans lose out. Worse, the injury was bad enough that there might be reason for concern as to whether Burrow will be ready for the start of the 2021 season.
-- Going back to the Chargers victory, the Jets deserve credit for fighting back after being down 24-6 at halftime and giving themselves a chance. The Jets remain winless at 0-10, but they've lost their past two games by three and six points. The Jets' remaining schedule is pretty brutal: at home against the Dolphins, against Las Vegas, at Seattle, at L.A. Rams, against Cleveland, at New England. Those teams have a combined record of 37-23.
-- Back to the Rams victory, what stood out from the Bucs standpoint was the mediocre performance by Tom Brady, who completed a season-low 54.2 percent of his passes and had his third multi-interception game of the season. But let's not forget that Brady is 43 and he's still having a better statistical year than in 2019. It's just that maybe expecting him to lead the Bucs to the Super Bowl was unrealistic.
-- Couple of thoughts on New England's loss at Houston that pertain to the Dolphins: 1) Obviously the outcome hurt the Dolphins because now the Texans pick stands as the ninth overall in 2021 after they improved to 3-7; 2) It sure does appear the AFC playoffs will be conducted without New England for the first time since 2008 when the Dolphins won the AFC East title and the Patriots were left out despite an 11-5 record — and that's a good thing for anyone suffering from Patriots fatigue; 3) former Dolphins WR Isaiah Ford was inactive for the second time in two games with New England. This is for those who thought the Dolphins made a mistake in trading him and that the team really could use him right now.
-- We'll close with the Steelers, who keep rolling at 10-0 and are starting to get big plays on a regular basis from former Dolphins first-round pick Minkah Fitzpatrick. After a fairly slow start to the 2020 season, Fitzpatrick has three interceptions and a fumble recovery over the past three games. The Steelers still have a lot of difficult tests on their way to a 16-0 finish: vs. Baltimore on Thanksgiving (though the Ravens are reeling), at Buffalo in Week 14; vs. Indianapolis in Week 16; and at Cleveland in Week 17.
