Breaking Down the Onside Kick Failure (And Why the Issue Wasn't Lack of Practice)

The Miami Dolphins narrowly avoided a major disaster last weekend against the New Orleans Saints.

The Dolphins led 16-0 at halftime, but a run by the Saints in the second half made the score 21-17 with about 1:23 left in the game. All the Dolphins had to do was recover an onside kick to seal the win.

However, things got messy when the Saints ended up recovering the kick after Nick Westbrook-Ikhine let the ball go by him, and the officials determined — after a lengthy review — that the ball touched Cameron Goode’s leg before the ball went 10 yards and ultimately was recovered by New Orleans' Devaughn Vele.

The review seemed pretty inconclusive, and even the FOX rules analyst Dean Blandino wasn’t sure the ball hit Goode, but that’s the explanation the Dolphins have received.

What Dolphins Did Wrong on Onside Kick vs. Saints

Dolphins special teams coordinator Craig Aukerman was asked about the play Thursday, and he clearly wasn’t happy with the team’s execution.

“Well, first off, we've got to be more aggressive of going after the ball,” Aukerman said. “That's why we're putting skilled players there to go and attack it. But that's why we called a timeout. We knew the kick that he was going to end up going over there. We just got to be more aggressive.”

If the Dolphins are taught to be aggressive, then why did Westbrook-Ikhine let it go?

“He felt like it was too hot, was going to let that go,” Aukerman said. “And then we've got another guy that's behind him, where he felt like Nick was going to go after it. And the big coaching point, let's not assume that any one person is going to go after it. We all got to want the ball. That's going to be the biggest thing. We're going to coach it up better.”

What is Miami’s Practice for Onside Kicks Like?

Given the Dolphins almost lost an incredibly winnable game by screwing up one of the easier plays in the sport, it’s fair to ask what the team is doing during the week to prepare for such situations.

Well, the team made an adjustment at the beginning of the season to mirror how the Pittsburgh Steelers prepare for onside kicks.

“That's a big point of emphasis,” Aukerman said. “Minkah Fitzpatrick, this was awesome. He brought this over from Pittsburgh. We do so many onside kicks on Fridays and on Saturdays for the guys. So we'll continue to do that.

“We've got all of our specialists, including our long snapper kicker, and punter that are kicking all different types of onside kicks for those guys. So we'll continue to do that and get better at it.”

Copying the Steelers’ process is pretty smart since Pittsburgh’s special teams coordinator, Danny Smith, is widely considered one of the best in the league.

While it’s a good idea from Minkah, and it’s clear that Aukerman is coaching the players up on it, Westbrook-Ikhine’s gaffe is hard to stomach for a player who has contributed so little this season.

Miami could replace him on the unit, but all of the players you’d expect to fill in for him were on the field against New Orleans.

The unit consisted of NWI, Fitzpatrick, Goode, Cedrick Wilson, Jaylen Waddle, Greg Dulcich, Julian Hill, De’Von Achane, Malik Washington, Dee Eskridge, and Ashtyn Davis.

NWI's position is typically reserved for a player with some size because they’re really supposed to block, while someone like Waddle or Achane makes the recovery.

We’ll have to see what the Dolphins’ onside kick unit looks like the next time it’s on the field, but it does seem like they’re working hard to correct the mistake they made last weekend.

More Miami Dolphins Coverage