The 2005 Miami Dolphins defense under Nick Saban has seen quite a turnaround from its 2004 performance. In 2004, the Dolphins ranked 31st in run defense (143.9 yards per game allowed), 31st in run attempts (33.7 per game) and 20th in rushing yards per attempt (4.3). The Saban-led Dolphins defense has been able to reduce those numbers dramatically. Miami ranks third in rushing yards allowed per game (76.3 yards), first in rushing yards per attempt (2.9 yards) and 14th in rushing attempts per game (26.7).
These improved run numbers have come at a cost to the Dolphins' pass defense. The Dolphins do rank second in the league with a 53.1 completion percentage against, but they rank 19th in yards per game and 30th in pass attempts per game.
These pass numbers beg two questions. First, has Sam Madison, one of the best man coverage cornerbacks in football, been able to adjust to Saban's primarily zone coverage schemes? Second, how much did the loss of Patrick Surtain affect Miami? The answers to those questions show that the Dolphins did have a problem that Saban has been able to solve.
The two most relevant cornerback statistics are completion percentage and yards per attempt. In 2004, Madison allowed a 50.7 percent completion rate and 6.4 yards per attempt, both of which ranked him in top 15 in the league in these categories, according to Scientific Football 2005. How is Madison doing in 2005? Here are his numbers through three games:
Game Atts. Comps. Comp. percentage Yds. Yds. att. TDs INTs Penalty yds.
Week 1 vs. Broncos 5 1 20 10 2.0 0 0 0
Week 2 at Jets 6 3 50 37 6.2 0 0 0
Week 3 vs. Panthers 3 3 100 74 24.7 1 0 0
Totals 14 7 50 121 8.6 1 0 0
Madison's yards per attempt number is somewhat skewed due to Steve Smith's 53-yard TD on a 14-yard slant route on which Travares Tillman, a Dolphins safety, took a terrible angle when closing in for the tackle on Smith. Tillman not only missed the tackle but he also knocked Madison away from further pursuing Smith. This allowed Smith to get 39 yards after the catch for the TD. If you take out the 39 run-after-catch yards from this play and recalculate Madison's numbers, you find he is allowing only 5.9 yards per attempt. That number indicates that Madison is making the adjustment to this defense quite well through three games.
