What's Going On with the Dolphins Defense?
There's been a lot of, um, discussion about the Miami Dolphins offensive line so far in the 2021 season, the whole offense in general actually.
But the concern after the team's 1-2 start isn't limited to the offense because the Dolphins has taken a significant step backward.
A year after finishing sixth in the NFL in points allowed, the Dolphins find themselves 23rd after three weeks of the 2021 — even after holding the New England Patriots to 16 points in the season opener at Gillette Stadium.
Granted, the last two opponents have been teams featuring two of the most prolific offenses in the NFL — Buffalo and Las Vegas — but it doesn't change the fact the Dolphins simply haven't lived up to expectations on defense.
So what's gone wrong?
Well, head coach Brian Flores and defensive coordinator Josh Boyer will tell you it's all about the coaches needing to put the players in better position to make plays and all about execution, but we'll go beyond that coachspeak because it's just not that simple.
Of course, the first place to point is third down, where the Dolphins are dead last in the NFL after being first in 2020.
Again, though, why is this happening.
The first place to look would seem to be the pass rush, which just hasn't been as efficient as it was last season.
Through three games, the Dolphins have only five sacks, which would put them on pace to finish with 28 on the season. At this time last year, the Dolphins had seven sacks on their way to finishing the season with 41 (in 16 games).
Beyond the sacks, we just haven't seen the consistent pressure on quarterbacks, the kind that force bad throws, some of which end up with interceptions.
At least that's what our eyes tell us.
Do Stats Lie?
Official stats, though, suggest the Dolphins are hitting the quarterback more often than just about any other team in the NFL. They've been credited with 26 QB hits, in the first three games, which ranks second behind only the Carolina Panthers (30).
By that measure, the Dolphins ARE getting some pressure on the quarterback and if we're going to go by that, then it means receivers are getting open too quickly.
The solution from this vantage point might be to stop rotating the defensive backs from week to week and stick to the ones who have done the best job in coverage. Again from this vantage point, that means more snaps for Eric Rowe and Nik Needham, and fewer for Justin Coleman, Jason McCourty and Brandon Jones, even though Jones did have two sacks while blitzing against the Raiders.
The two players who have blitzed the most this season, pre pro-football-reference.com, are Jerome Baker and Andrew Van Ginkel, but Baker has yet to record a sack after getting seven last season and Van Ginkel shared a sack with Emmanuel Ogbah against Buffalo after recording 5.5 sacks in 2020.
Ogbah is among the league leaders in quarterback pressures, but he just hasn't been able to finish the job — he has just the one half-sack.
One might look at the takeaways, but the Dolphins do have five in three games, including Elandon Roberts' pick-six at Las Vegas on Sunday. That would put the Dolphins on track to finish with 28, just off last year's league-leading total of 29, albeit in one more game.
Maybe it's easy to look at the run defense, especially after Peyton Barber went for more than 100 yards Sunday, but the reality is the Dolphins is giving up fewer yards per rushing attempt so far this season (4.3) than they did in 2020 (4.5).
To summarize, the big difference between the 2020 defense and the 2021 defense clearly is third down, and the problem is a combination of not bringing the quarterback down and coverage that's just not as good as it was last season.
They are not unfixable issues and the Dolphins won't be facing the Bills and the Raiders every week, so there is reason for hope this will get turned around.
If we're being honest, and since we began by taking about the offensive line, let's just say the outlook is a lot better for this issue.
