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Upon Further Review: More Takeaways from Dolphins Week 14 win vs. Jets

Miami took it to the Jets in the running game.
Dante Collinelli|
Miami Dolphins running back Jaylen Wright (5) scores a touchdown against the New York Jets during the first half at MetLife Stadium.
Miami Dolphins running back Jaylen Wright (5) scores a touchdown against the New York Jets during the first half at MetLife Stadium. | Ed Mulholland-Imagn Images

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Miami Dolphins

The Miami Dolphins picked up their fourth straight win when they beat the New York Jets 34-10 at MetLife Stadium Sunday. 

Miami won using the same formula it’s been slowly leaning into all season: running the hell out of the ball and playing opportunistic defense. Miami put up 239 yards on the ground and three interceptions and forced fumbles (didn’t recover any). 

This week’s film review will cover the team’s elite running game and xxx. Let’s get into it. 

Miami Doubles Down on Running Identity 

If you’re a weekly reader of this column, then you probably know that Miami leaning into the running game is basically a weekly theme at this point. The Dolphins have been doing it for a bit, but they really committed to the bit in Week 14. 

Miami’s 41 rushing attempts were tied for the second most in the McDaniel era with the team’s Week 5 win from 2024 against New England. It was also only the second time Miami had more than 200 yards rushing in a game, the first, of course, was the 70-point outburst vs. Denver in 2023. 

The 41 carries from Sunday featured an excellent blend of creativity along with the Dolphins’ staples to keep the Jets off balance. 

This run to Jaylen Waddle is probably the most creative play of the day. There’s a ton going on here, but let’s start with the formation. This reminds me a lot of the “Maryland I-formation,” which usually puts three backfield players in a straight line behind the QB. 

Obviously, this isn’t exactly that, but it’s the same spirit. For the concept, we’ve got counter with a built-in reverse. The ball fake and Cole Strange pulling to the left sends the linebackers that way, while Aaron Brewer, Alec Ingold, and Julian Hill peel back to the right. 

Watch Brewer take out the Jets’ linebacker (No. 51), who doesn’t get completely fooled by this action. That, along with the lead blocks from Hill and Ingold, springs Waddle for the explosive gain. 

Miami has run counter-reverse before under McDaniel, but I don’t think it’s been from this formation. 

Miami came back to this formation later in the game, too. On this rep, they’ve got Daniel Brunskill (sixth offensive lineman) with Ollie Gordon and Jaylen Wright. Instead of running a reverse, it’s a power concept with Brewer pulling and Brunskill leading the way from the backfield. 

Patrick Paul cleans up two defenders at the end of the line, and the lead blocks do their job, leading to a nice run for Wright. 

That’s some of the fancy stuff, but what about the staples? Well, don’t worry, Miami still loves its outside zone, and it was working quite well against New York. 

This is the run when Achane got hurt at the end (McDaniel said he’s likely fine), and it’s just classic Dolphins football. Watch Austin Jackson and Brewer wipe out the second-level defenders — they get washed into the sideline, opening up a huge lane. 

This play also featured nice blocks from Brunskill, Ingold, and Strange. This is about as ideal as it gets. 

This was another wonderfully blocked outside run later in the game. Instead of running this to the strong side, they run backside, using Ingold’s motion to even out the numbers. 

The big block here is Strange and Brewer. Watch Strange chip the defender before climbing, allowing Brewer to make an excellent seal of the rushing lane. Jackson kicks out the end, and Ingold takes out his man, too. 

Again, it’s hard to ask for better execution than this. 

There’s a whole menu of play-action passes the Dolphins are building off these concepts, too. Miami is changing personnel, formation, and motions, but it just wants to get to mostly simple, staple concepts. 

However, because the Dolphins have actually shown teams they’re willing to run counter, duo, and other non-outside zone concepts out of heavier personnel, the threat to defenses is real — in the past, it wasn’t. 

Rasul Douglas’ Career Day 

We don’t usually cover individual performances in this column (except for the QB), but trying to draw too many conclusions on defense from this game is hard. 

That’s not to take away anything from how Miami played — the defense was great. But beating up on Brady Cook and a Jets’ receiver group that had 5 billion drops doesn’t tell us much about the Dolphins. 

They ran their highest Cover-2 rate of the season (42.1%), if that interests you. However, the most impressive part of the defense performance might’ve been Rasul Douglas racking up five PBUs, including his second straight week with an INT. 

This performance tops his previous career high of four in Week 12 of the 2021 season when he was with the Green Bay Packers. 

His interception wasn’t a crazy rep or anything, but you can see what being experienced means by how he didn’t fall for the stutter-step fake. Cook is crazy for throwing this pass, but it’s a credit to Douglas for being in the right place. 

Three of Douglas’ PBUs featured him driving downhill on the ball from a shallow zone. This is how he baited Tyler Shough into an INT last week, and he used the same technique to perfection against the Jets. 

Pre-snap, it looks like Douglas has the inside receiver, but the Dolphins end up blitzing from the outside CB spot. That allows Douglas to take the outside receiver, and because that’s where the blitz is coming from, he can anticipate that Tyrod Taylor will try to replace the blitz with the ball. 

Douglas drives downhill with conviction and makes the play. 

The last one worth highlighting is his PBU against Mason Taylor. Watch Douglas drop into his zone and then peel off the vertical route to contest the throw to Taylor near the sideline. 

The Jets’ receivers dropped a lot of passes Sunday, and one reason was that Miami’s defensive backs fought through the catch point. Douglas did that here and had another against Adonai Mitchell in the middle of the field. 

Douglas has been a reliable outside cornerback for Miami this season. In fact, he might be playing well enough to entertain bringing him back on a short-term, smaller contract.

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Dante Collinelli
DANTE COLLINELLI

Dante currently serves as the deputy editor of Dolphins on SI, where he’s been contributing since 2022. He began his career covering the NFL Draft for Blue Chip Scouting and spent four years covering the Temple University Football team. For the past three years, Dante served as the Deputy Editor for The 33rd Team, working with former players, coaches, and general managers, while building a team of NFL writers.

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