Thank you! This is a much better position than others who simply want to claim "yards don't matter... derp"
I hear you, but there's a basis for saying yardage isn't the definitive stat of whether an offense is playing well or not.
Miami is 3rd in the NFL for 3rd down conversion. In other words, far fewer 3-and-outs than other teams. We're also top in the NFL for redzone efficiency.
What does that mean? Well, we're getting our business done with the minimum "wastage of yards" and giving them back the ball. This is reflected in us being in the bottom third of the league on time of possession in games. Consider that we're 3rd in the league for INTs, giving the ball back to our offense, and even still we don't hang onto the ball for long before we score. Credit our higher tempo offense with some of that.
So, big picture.
On the one hand, we're ruthlessly efficient. On the other hand, we're not putting up yardage numbers or eating up the clock. It's true this could bite us against other efficient teams. But compare to last season when we marched up and down the field but couldn't score TDs. I'll take this year's offense. I also believe that we'll move up the rankings as our run game beds in better (we reportedly spent very little time on Run O in preseason).
As for the D, it's only about preventing scores and finding ways to give the ball back to the offense. In those categories we're excelling. It's taking up quite a bit of clock time to do it, but when you have an efficient offense you don't need tons of time.
This is a sustainable system, in my opinion, yardage totals be damned. When we come up against other efficient offenses, it will be tested. The Falcons and Saints are up there on 3rd down completions also but are both have struggled on redzone efficiency. This could be where we win the game - giving them a ton of yards but keeping them out. All NOs TDs bar one have come from the hand of Brees, so we can gameplan for the Saints in the endzone quite well, I think.
