The Day After: What We Learned About the Miami Dolphins in Week 8
The Miami Dolphins' convincing victory against the Los Angeles Rams at Hard Rock Stadium featured a defense fast becoming one of the best in the NFL and an offense that took a step back, as we closely examine the game.
It's no great revelation to talk about how the defense dominated, though it truly was remarkable to what extent the Dolphins seemed to confuse Jared Goff.
Yes, you could say it was reminiscent of what happened in Super Bowl LIII when Brian Flores masterminded a defense that saw the Patriots shut down the Rams in a 13-3 victory.
This game Sunday was as much about scheme as it was about execution, providing one more example of the brilliant minds the Dolphins have operating on that side of the ball, starting with Flores.
Yes, the Dolphins got great individual efforts from a lot of different defensive players against the Rams, but the common threat was the confusion the defense created by their different looks and variety of blitzes.
The defensive recognition was so good at times that Eric Rowe missed out on a pick-six because he overran the ball when he jumped a route because he read it too quickly — if that's possible.
The game also showed us just how valuable Byron Jones is to whole equation.
He left the game briefly in the second half, and the Rams quickly went to work against his replacement, Noah Igbinoghene. Let's face it, Jones is an elite corner and he helps make the whole scheme go in tandem with Xavien Howard with the great coverage they provide on the outside — and you could throw in Eric Rowe's work against tight ends into that mix.
Igbinoghene does have a lot of physical ability and potential, but it's pretty clear he's a project — and that was the book on him coming into the draft.
Elsewhere on defense, we could keep talking and talking about Emmanuel Ogbah and his brilliant performance all season, but his sack Sunday was the result of some poor execution by the Rams offense. Not only did the Rams allow Ogbah a free path to Goff, but the quarterback never looked to his right and therefore never saw Ogbah.
The sack-strip by Shaq Lawson actually was more impressive because he beat his man to the outside with speed, though again the Rams could be questioned for putting a tight end (Gerald Everett) on him.
In short, the Dolphins defensive coaches won the battle against the Rams offensive coaches and it wasn't even close.
On the other side, though, it was another story.
We learned that Preston Williams' issue with drop hasn't gone away and, though it didn't matter against the Rams, it's going to becoming a problem at some point.
And that problem is going to be even more significant if DeVante Parker continues to have injury issues. Parker came into the Rams game with a groin injury that had limited him in practice during the week and played only 29 of the 49 offensive snaps — compared to 44 for Williams.
So clearly Parker wasn't right, and that's a situation that will bear monitoring.
We learned the offensive line, while quite improved over last year, still has work to do because this wasn't a very good performance against the Rams.
It wasn't a good sign that there was not a single run longer than 6 yards and there was fairly consistent pressure on the quarterback.
And ... speaking of the quarterback, we'll end this with Tua Tagovailoa and what we learned about him. Well, we learned not to expect him to put up Alabama-like numbers right off the bat.
Tagovailoa had a couple of nice, accurate throws that offered promise for his next start and beyond, and maybe the game circumstances dictated that the offense wasn't going to take risks, so there was no great harm in his rather pedestrian numbers.
The most important lesson of all from this game, though, was that the Dolphins have arrived at a point where they can win a game without getting much help from the offense. And that's a comforting thought for a team clearly in a playoff race.
