Dolphins struggle to score TD's and the importance

[Fins1971]

In 4 of the 6 Dolphin's losses this year the Fins have only scored 1 TD in each game. They also scored 5 TD's in Denver loss and 3 against Green Bay. You just can't expect to win many football games when you only score 1 TD. Posters having been blaming the defense for our recent losses but it has been a total team failure.

So far this year in the NFL there have been 1082 TD's scored in 208 games. That is an average of 5.2 TD's scored per game.
In most games 5 TD's are going to be scored. If you only score 1 then it is likely that the other team will score 4. This happened this past Sunday against the Ravens. It was similar in the KC loss with a 1-5 ratio. it was actually a sign of good defense at Buffalo and Detroit when we only allowed 2 TD's while the offense only scored 1 and kept the game total to 3.

When we score 1 TD we are 1-4
When we score 2 TD's we are 1-0
When we score 3 or more TD's we are 5-2

So if the average per game is 5.2 that means you really need to score 3 TD's to have a high percentage of winning games.
If you only score 2 then your odds go down and with 1 it is pretty low.

Of course there are games that don't match the 5.2 average, denver game 10 were scored and Jets game only 2, but in the end it averages out to 5 a game. In the 1st 8 games we were scoring almost 3 game. (23 in 8 games) but now only 2 per game in this 5 game skid (10 in 5 games)

 

[Bob512]

Good analysis......and I would agree.....the failures have come on both sides of the ball.

I would be curious (and will look up when time permits) our performance in the running game over these past 5 games compared to earlier in the year. I saw someone mention in another thread about the drop off in performance since Albert went down and our abandoning of the run in the first half vs. the Jets and the 2nd half vs. the Ravens is a mystery to me....

 

[Fins1971]

I don't have the rushing yards but I do know we were putting up 365 per game with Albert and in the top 10. Since his loss only 282 per game. So I expect the rushing to be down also

 

[DolfanISS]

I admit I considered Albert the #1 top player we couldn't lose and remain competitive. Some would say Tannehill but albert is #1 in my book.

 

[Miamifinz]

What's frustrating for me is the dip in our red zone production. Last year I believe we were a top ten red zone offense and this year we've been very inconsistent inside the 20. That's the one thing I miss about Sherman. He managed to get us points in spite of a lack of a red zone threat.

 

[maralieus]

What's frustrating for me is the dip in our red zone production. Last year I believe we were a top ten red zone offense and this year we've been very inconsistent inside the 20. That's the one thing I miss about Sherman. He managed to get us points in spite of a lack of a red zone threat.

Haha yeah with Sherman we got one good drive that resulted in a td and not much else, with lazor we move the ball all game long but never get tds. Its all about big plays. We don't make em. I don't know why but we don't. I think getting a big target to go deep would really help. I think maybe tannehill would be able to hit the receiver deep if he could kind of rifle it in there over the defender rather than trying to drop it in to a short mike wallace. Just a thought.

 

[Bob512]

What's frustrating for me is the dip in our red zone production. Last year I believe we were a top ten red zone offense and this year we've been very inconsistent inside the 20. That's the one thing I miss about Sherman. He managed to get us points in spite of a lack of a red zone threat.

I have issue with our play calling in the red zone. From the 10 yard line in, we seem to really struggle. We seem to call run plays that run east and west instead of North and South and we don't spread out the defense. Very few roll outs, pass/throw options...etc. Very pedestrian in close and it doesn't work for us.

 

[Fins1971]

I don't have the rushing yards but I do know we were putting up 365 per game with Albert and in the top 10. Since his loss only 282 per game. So I expect the rushing to be down also

With Albert in first 8 games we were rushing for 137 a game. Without only 80 per game. Most of the 80 lost yards are rushing yards. Which in turn keep TOP in your favor and protects your defense. Not happening recently

 

[Yessir]

When is this Ryan Tannehill led offense going to win a shootout type game? I'm waiting for that.

 

[Dolph N.Fan]

When is this Ryan Tannehill led offense going to win a shootout type game? I'm waiting for that.

Dolphins 34 Steelers 28

 

[Jay131866]

To me the defense is still the issue late in games. We have had leads in plenty of those games in the 4th qtr and some leads of more than 7. I'm not sure why but the defense seem to wear down late in games physically and then get abused all over the field. I understand the offense doesn't always produce all the TDs you would want to see but our points scored per game on avg has been more than in the past yrs and enough to win most games. We need to figure out why the def goes to crap late in every game.

 

[Bob512]

To me the defense is still the issue late in games. We have had leads in plenty of those games in the 4th qtr and some leads of more than 7. I'm not sure why but the defense seem to wear down late in games physically and then get abused all over the field. I understand the offense doesn't always produce all the TDs you would want to see but our points scored per game on avg has been more than in the past yrs and enough to win most games. We need to figure out why the def goes to crap late in every game.

Funny you mentioned this. Not sure if any of you watched the Chiefs / Cardinals game......but at the end of that game, the Chiefs had the ball on their own 20 and had to get into field goal range with about a minute left on the clock. When our defense is in that position, we go into some type of rush 3 prevent defense........but the Cardinals, they attacked and blitzed every single down. Alex Smith had almost no time to react and the few passes he was able to complete were quick/hit checkdowns for 5 yards or so. There is a mentality difference that I think is a big factor. The Cardinals defense attacks when they have the lead and our defense dodges and weaves and trades yardage for time off the clock. Throw in all the injuries we have had and that "dodge and weave" defense doesn't work very well.

 

[Fins1971]

We need to figure out why the def goes to crap late in every game.

Wow, did you read the OP?
If you don't score TD's late in game the other team will. it is that simple. That is how football works.

---------- Post added at 10:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:28 PM ----------

Funny you mentioned this. Not sure if any of you watched the Chiefs / Cardinals game......but at the end of that game, the Chiefs had the ball on their own 20 and had to get into field goal range with about a minute left on the clock. When our defense is in that position, we go into some type of rush 3 prevent defense........but the Cardinals, they attacked and blitzed every single down. Alex Smith had almost no time to react and the few passes he was able to complete were quick/hit checkdowns for 5 yards or so. There is a mentality difference that I think is a big factor. The Cardinals defense attacks when they have the lead and our defense dodges and weaves and trades yardage for time off the clock. Throw in all the injuries we have had and that "dodge and weave" defense doesn't work very well.

Yep noticed the same thing. They blitzed every play and made the tackle to run the clock.
Aggressive and it worked

 

[roy_miami]

I think what we do depends on the QB. Didn't we blitz the hell out of Geno on his last drive? I think we try mix up what we do more vs the elite QBs.

 

[Fins1971]

Yeah the qb and the time left and score can change what you do.

Cards were aggressive with kc only needing a fg