Dolphins MUST Improve on Rushing ?

[Perfect72]

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...ami-dolphins-must-improve-upon-in-2015/page/2

RUSHING ATTEMPTS PER GAME

At first glance, nothing seems to be wrong with Miami's rushing attack.

The Dolphins finished the league 12th in rushing yards, running for 1,872 yards. When it came to yards per carry, the Dolphins were the second best team in the league with an average of 4.7 yards per carry.

Analytics support the Dolphins' case as a good rushing team, as well, as the team graded out at 9.4 when running the ball via Pro Football Focus, while Lamar Miller's final run grade was 11.0.

Now, let's try to make sense of something: How could a team that finished second in the league in yards per carry wind up only 12th overall in rushing yards?

They didn't run the ball enough, as they ranked 22nd in attempts with 399.

The best team in terms of average yards per carry was the Seattle Seahawks, with an average of 5.3 yards per carry. They also finished second in attempts at 525 and would wind up leading the league in overall rushing with 2,762 yards on the season.

Now, this isn't as simple as just running the ball more, as you can see why the Dolphins, despite the lofty average, didn't run the ball as much.

Reason No. 1 is their run blocking, which was atrocious analytically. As a team, the Dolphins graded out at minus-40 in run blocking, which could hinder any rushing attack.

The second reason is that they didn't have Marshawn Lynch.

Nothing can be done about the latter, as the best they could do would be to draft a more north-south running back to pair with Miller. Even that won't matter without improvements in the interior of their offensive line.

Once those improvements are made, the Dolphins should look at running the ball at least 420 times. If they retain their average from last season (a very difficult but possible goal), and get at least that many attempts, the Dolphins will have a top-10 rushing attack and greatly improve the offense.

 

[DolphinDevil28]

Not just saying this. Billy Turner is going to help our run game even that much more. He's going to get to the 2nd level and has way better feet than anything we had last year.

Now do we need another guard? Badly.

 

[russianbear]

i think they've made it clear that miller isn't going to be a back that gets 20+ carries a game, whether he can handle it or not. unless you want to see williams getting 10ish carries per game this article emphasizes the importance of an rb2 upgrade....

 

[normaldude]

I disagree with the notion that we need to run more.

Last year, our play selection was about 60% passing / 40% running.

I think that's a decent ratio, in a pass-first league, that has made tons of rules changes to favor the passing game.

With Stills, Landry, Jordan Cameron (and possibly more additions in free agency & draft), I think our passing game will only be better this year.

So I think our play selection should continue being 60% passing / 40% running.

 

[abNORMal]

Got to also consider that when you are playing from behind you don't run, you pass....

 

[NBP81]

i think they've made it clear that miller isn't going to be a back that gets 20+ carries a game, whether he can handle it or not. unless you want to see williams getting 10ish carries per game this article emphasizes the importance of an rb2 upgrade....

No it emphasize that Philbin has to commit to the running game more... Nevermind the OL for a second and think of how many times we were successful running the ball in the first half only to come out in the second and run the ball like 6 times in the entire half... Im not saying we have this great run blocking OL, but its happened way to many times where we were actually getting close to 10 yards a pop in a game and give it up entirely after ONE failed run where we lost yardage... Unacceptable...

 

[NBP81]

I disagree with the notion that we need to run more.

Last year, our play selection was about 60% passing / 40% running.

I think that's a decent ratio, in a pass-first league, that has made tons of rules changes to favor the passing game.

With Stills, Landry, Jordan Cameron (and possibly more additions in free agency & draft), I think our passing game will only be better this year.

So I think our play selection should continue being 60% passing / 40% running.

The only way it would be productive to run such a biased offense is if our passing game was dominant... GB dominant... Its not the case and going foward with this is straight up suicide against playoff caliber defenses...

 

[72 Undefeated]

Dolphins have to improve in being able to run out the clock the last 4-5 minutes of a game in which they are ahead.
The operative word being run.

 

[Bumpus]

Absolutely. We need more balance.

The last thing we should be thinking about is becoming predictable.

 

[normaldude]

The only way it would be productive to run such a biased offense is if our passing game was dominant... GB dominant... Its not the case and going foward with this is straight up suicide against playoff caliber defenses...

A team that is 60% pass is ranked #16 out of 32 NFL teams, in terms of pass play selection percentage.

With Stills, Landry, Jordan Cameron (and possibly more additions in free agency & draft), I believe that our passing game will only be better this year.

Therefore, I think 60% pass is a decent number for 2015 Miami Dolphins.

I mean, the article talks about the Seattle Seahawks, who have RB Marshawn Lynch, and then four undrafted WRs. Their situation was different.

 

[NBP81]

A team that is 60% pass is ranked #16 out of 32 NFL teams, in terms of pass play selection percentage.

With Stills, Landry, Jordan Cameron (and possibly more additions in free agency & draft), I believe that our passing game will only be better this year.

Therefore, I think 60% pass is a decent number for 2015 Miami Dolphins.

I mean, the article talks about the Seattle Seahawks, who have RB Marshawn Lynch, and then four undrafted WRs. Their situation was different.

Fins: 12th pass attempts ---- 22nd rushing attempts....2nd in y/c ---- 24th NY/A... this is so lopsided it cant be argued...

 

[So Be]

Here's something to think about.

Last year, Albert was our best run blocker at +6.3 but was gone the last 7 games. James, for the year, was -11.4 on the run but was -11.4 after moving to LT, average at RT. So, we go from +6.3 to -11.7 at LT.

Dallas was -5.3 at RT in place of James at 0.0.

Colledge was by far the worst at -17.8 on the run, and is gone.

Pouncey was -3.3, and comes back to center, where Samson was +3.7 on the run. No one will dispute that Pouncey will be better than Samson this year.

So, with the possible exception of Dallas on the run, with everyone healthy we should be much better at 4 of 5 positions on the OL

Here's where things get strange. In the last 7 games after Albert went down, and the OL was a mess, Miller ran 108 times for 578 yards. You can take away the 97 yarder but, he was still VG behind nothing. How did he do that?

Obviously, I am not a "Gurley Guy." :)

 

[miamiron]

No it emphasize that Philbin has to commit to the running game more... Nevermind the OL for a second and think of how many times we were successful running the ball in the first half only to come out in the second and run the ball like 6 times in the entire half... ...

Not sure that statement about running the ball like 6 times in the second half is correct

1st half rushes for Miller...101 rushes
2nd half rushes for Miller...115 rushes

1st half rushes for Williams...10 rushes
2nd half rushes for Williams...26 rushes

1st half rushes for Tanny...32 rushes
2nd half rushes for Tanny..24 rushes

1st half rushes for Thomas...21 rushes
2nd half rushes for Thomas..23 rushes

1st half rushes for Moreno...14 rushes
2nd half rushes for Moreno...17 rushes

It actually was pretty balanced between 1st half and second half
with a slight edge to second half having more rushing attempts

 

[Fins1971]

Not sure that statement about running the ball like 6 times in the second half is correct

1st half rushes for Miller...101 rushes
2nd half rushes for Miller...115 rushes

1st half rushes for Williams...10 rushes
2nd half rushes for Williams...26 rushes

1st half rushes for Tanny...32 rushes
2nd half rushes for Tanny..24 rushes

1st half rushes for Thomas...21 rushes
2nd half rushes for Thomas..23 rushes

1st half rushes for Moreno...14 rushes
2nd half rushes for Moreno...17 rushes

It actually was pretty balanced between 1st half and second half
with a slight edge to second half having more rushing attempts

I'm pretty sure he was talking about the fact that we abandoned the run in key games and just weren't successful in the second half against good teams. While your stats show balance over an entire season they don't show the fact that we ran 13 times in the first half against the Ravens in a key game but then only 3 times in the second half. The next week against Patriots more of the same. 20 rushes in the first half followed by 3 in the second half. Your stats only reflect the fact that we blew out some teams early in the season and ran up some 2nd half rushing attempts. When the season was on the the line we couldn't run the ball for **** in the second half of games.

 

[So Be]

I'm pretty sure he was talking about the fact that we abandoned the run in key games and just weren't successful in the second half against good teams. While your stats show balance over an entire season they don't show the fact that we ran 13 times in the first half against the Ravens in a key game but then only 3 times in the second half. The next week against Patriots more of the same. 20 rushes in the first half followed by 3 in the second half. Your stats only reflect the fact that we blew out some teams early in the season and ran up some 2nd half rushing attempts. When the season was on the the line we couldn't run the ball for **** in the second half of games.

Different ways to look at what you have posted. One would be that if a team has success running in the first half of games, you adjust at halftime and put another 1 or 2 guys in the box and push a team to throw more. The counter move is to throw more and take what is given.