Reasons the Dolphins D has earned an F the past three games | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Reasons the Dolphins D has earned an F the past three games

DKphin

DKphin

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Earlier this NFL season the Miami Dolphins defense was getting credit for having addressed its issues of a year ago, and new defensive coordinator Matt Burke was being profiled as an upgrade form Vance Joseph. It was a great time because some folks were expecting the early success to continue and this defense to carry the team into the NFL playoffs.
Except any season ebbs and flows and sometimes units improve and sometimes they get exposed.
And lately the Miami defense is looking more like the latter.
Click to expand...
http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/nfl/miami-dolphins/article183611661.html
 
I got absolutely roasted on here earlier in the season by the "experts" for saying our D was a problem..... It didn't seem so hard for me to understand, the O has too much talent to continue to suck (the line still sucks).... The D on the other hand was and continues to be a huge problem. We haven't been able to cover a TE for 10 years....... NE may score 60 on us.
 
Same old BS... TE's and anything over the middle when we're in zone gets open against us almost immediately. Run defense hasn't been so good lately either. I see a lot of plays where LB's get washed out and unable to make the tackle, and it looks to me like gap assignments aren't being followed. Basically we just aren't playing good team defense, we've got a bunch of guys who play very hard but are just running around with their hair on fire. Then we don't have any safeties on the team who are good in coverage. Oddly enough however the position on defense we severely struggled at early in the season is playing extremely well as of late and that's CB. Tank has been better than we all expected as a rookie, and X struggled early but the last 3 games he's been very good.
 
I agree the Kiko vs Cook was exploited brilliantly last week.

But wouldn't it be nice to be defending a lead in a game with more than 90 seconds left?
 
its definitely trending down of late...top 10 is long gone

run d though still looks pretty solid to me by and large
 
Prior to the Oak game we were covering the over the middle stuff well w the LBers. Defense is not the problem right now.
 
Run D is solid...much better than last year but the pass D...well it was only a matter of time before it got exposed. We're playing two very young CBs...the safety opposite Reshad hasn't been good...in years or maybe ever except for maybe a few games that IAQ played with Jones. Kiko is a mismatch against any athletic TE (good thing we signed him long term) and the pass rush was nonexistent. Raiders went max protect...chipped Wake, doubled Suh and bam...pass rush gone. Branch has been MIA for while and Harris...well he's a rookie built more like a linebacker at 250 lbs.
 
We still can't cover tight ends. I don't know how many consecutive seasons where this has been a major issue. You'd think what Joe ****ing Flacco and Dennis Pitta did to us last season would linger on the minds of management during the offseason, but again, it wasn't addressed.

Kiko Alonso should never be matched up in pass coverage against an eligible receiver. Not even if it's John Denney.
 
The pass defense looks pretty weak, but the run defense has been a big improvement. I think another aspect is that the defense is just on the field too much. The offense has to pick up.
 
royalshank said:
Prior to the Oak game we were covering the over the middle stuff well w the LBers. Defense is not the problem right now.
Click to expand...

Oh come ON, you cannot be serious? Defense that gives up 60+ points the last two games is not the problem? No, the entire team is the problem, and that includes defense.
 
Looking at the defense in a vacuum and saying they are a problem is lazy. How about we look at the entire team as a whole because what happens on the other side of the ball affects the other side. When your offense can't sustain drives, can't get first downs and goes 3 and out more often than they don't.... Your defense is going to take a hit. This defense is the sole reason we've won 4 games so far, now we're labeling them a problem? That's pretty what have you done for me lately-ish. Even in the Oakland game... Suh makes a GREAT diving strip sack to give the offense a chance to take the lead(I think) and the offense goes backwards and gets 0 points. That's demoralizing to a defense. It sucks to know that even if you force a turnover, the likelyhood of your offense turning that into points is somewhere between slim and none.
 
Defense gave us two possessions at midfield to win the Oak game, we go 3 and out both trips, backwards even.
 
Our defense still needs a lot of work, it's definitely a work in progress.
 
finmann said:
Our defense still needs a lot of work, it's definitely a work in progress.
Click to expand...

D has improved A LOT over last year and, as you say, still improving. I'm not certain what to think about last Sunday. The bad field hurt both team's pass rush which hurt the secondary. I was more worried after the Raiders game where the D looked exposed. That said, I think the article overstates the negatives. Seems like too many people see nothing but black clouds.
 
The middle of the field has been wide open for years now. I'd like for them to try TJM as the nickle LB on passing downs. Maybe he can cover the TE and he's strong playing the run too. What do we have to lose? The biggest problem is our pass rush has been inconsistent for years now but to be honest, receivers seem to get open 1 second into the play so is a combination of bad things

Ozzy rules!!
 
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