This makes a lot of sense, given Coyle was known for his outstanding secondary at Cinci for years. He's making our guys better game by game and he's got a solid scheme. I'm sure the pressure packages are helping these secondary numbers too. Now, if we could just get the line backing core up to that level of play as well . . .
(On if Philip Wheeler and Dannell Ellerbe are playing better now than they were earlier in the season) - “I do. I think they’ve both given great effort since day one in everything that they’ve done. I think their
comfort level in the system in the roles that we’ve asked them to take up you can see it, particularly in
Philip in the last couple of weeks. He’s playing with a lot more confidence. He’s
a lot more sure of himself and what he is doing out there. He flies around. He had a heck of a game I thought yesterday, Dannell as well. Both of them made impact plays in the game. The interception Dannell made was exceptional there. That was a critical point in the game.
It’s a game where you felt geez we’re dominating the game yet one slip (we) could have been losing the game at halftime. Then (Ellerbe) made the pick. We got the field goal right before the end of the half and we moved on from there. I think both of those guys, and another guy I just can’t say enough about is Koa Misi. Sometimes he doesn’t get as many snaps in certain packages,
but when you watch the tape and you watch number 55 on tape, there is nobody that plays any harder than Koa Misi or as effective. He’s having a heck of a year, he really is.”
Read more here:
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/dolp...-goat-one-week-genius-next.html#storylink=cpy
And yet, his two interceptions are second-most on the team. Opposing teams have managed a passer rating of just 59.6 when throwing in his direction. Ellerbe has allowed only one touchdown pass all season.
“I like the way he is playing the game,” Dolphins coach Joe Philbin said. “He plays fast. He plays hard. I’m glad we’ve have him. I like what he is doing.”
Philbin will probably like Ellerbe even more when he
finally gets comfortable in Kevin Coyle’s 4-3 defense.
The fifth-year linebacker acknowledged this week that
he’s still not a natural in the system after playing the 3-4 with Baltimore. He was one of two inside linebackers in that scheme. Now, he’s alone in the middle, with added responsibilities.
“I’m really not able to go play fast and shoot like I was last year,” Ellerbe admitted.
He doesn’t know if he’ll get to that point this season, either.
Philbin made a point to mention Ellerbe has a better command of the defense and makes adjustments faster than he did earlier in the year.
Read more here:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/12/05/3800048/dannell-ellerbe-finally-settling.html#storylink=cpy
I know this is the microwave generation, and no logic is reasonable, because these guys are the robots we watch on TV each Sunday and everything should be perfect immediately, even though the reality of that is simply impossible.
But, when these two young fast linebackers, both of them coming from 3-4 Defenses, continue to get comfortable in this defense. Especially now since we are currently 9th in PPG, we are going to shoot to top 5 Defensively easily..
