Miami defense vs Demaryius Thomas | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Miami defense vs Demaryius Thomas

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KillerB

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I'm curious to see how Miami defends Demaryius. Miami likes to play off the line of scrimmage with their cornerbacks. But this plays right into the strength of Demaryius, who lives off of bubble screens and smoke routes. Miami will need to crowd Demaryius at the line of scrimmage and not give him any space.

Now this creates another problem, since Demaryius is so big and fast, he is almost impossible to jam at the line of scrimmage, and he can fly right by the DBs if they don't give him a cushion. This will force a safety to play over the top of Demaryius most of the game. So if Demaryius is drawing 2 defenders on almost every play, that means the rest of Miami's defense is playing at a 9 vs 10 disadvantage against the rest of the Broncos offense.

This guy Demaryius is such a matchup nightmare. Kevin Coyle will have his hands full trying to figure this out. The easy solution is to have our defensive line be consistently disruptive all game long, without needing to blitz. If we need to start blitzing, manning will just carve up the defense. I cant wait to see how the Miami defense approaches this problem.
 
Starts with pressure from our line, if we don't rough Manning up it will be a long day. Hurrys, pressures and a sack or two will make him hurry his throws. That and our O must score early and often, Fgs aint gonna cut it.
 
Hayden Fox said:
Grimes.
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I wish it was that easy, but I think leaving Grimes on an island with Demaryius is asking for trouble. And that is not a knock on Grimes, who is an absolute baller and I have nothing but appreciation for him.
 
Thomas, Megatron, don't really matter, our defense will find a way. Grimes will get the call to start the game. If it works we'll stay with it. If not, we'll do what we do and make 2nd half adjustments to correct it. We did good against Megatron, I expect nothing less against Thomas. It's Manning we need to deal with.
 
The upside is Denver doesn't run well and we are good against the run.

I expect safety help on Thomas quite often.

The key to this game is pressure on Manning and running the ball effectively.

It also would be great to win the T/O battle.
 
KillerB said:
I'm curious to see how Miami defends Demaryius. Miami likes to play off the line of scrimmage with their cornerbacks. But this plays right into the strength of Demaryius, who lives off of bubble screens and smoke routes. Miami will need to crowd Demaryius at the line of scrimmage and not give him any space.

Now this creates another problem, since Demaryius is so big and fast, he is almost impossible to jam at the line of scrimmage, and he can fly right by the DBs if they don't give him a cushion. This will force a safety to play over the top of Demaryius most of the game. So if Demaryius is drawing 2 defenders on almost every play, that means the rest of Miami's defense is playing at a 9 vs 10 disadvantage against the rest of the Broncos offense.

This guy Demaryius is such a matchup nightmare. Kevin Coyle will have his hands full trying to figure this out. The easy solution is to have our defensive line be consistently disruptive all game long, without needing to blitz. If we need to start blitzing, manning will just carve up the defense. I cant wait to see how the Miami defense approaches this problem.
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The Dolphins do not usually play their corners at the line of scrimmage. We mostly play off man, with some cover three mixed in.
 
Just like Megatron, Thomas is going to get his catches...just have to limit what he does after the catch...make it difficult for him to get open and make Manning throw perfect passes by giving him really tight windows. I thought we did a pretty effective job against Megatron. Thomas is better after the catch IMO...he's tough to bring down.
 
TheWalrus said:
The Dolphins do not usually play their corners at the line of scrimmage. We mostly play off man, with some cover three mixed in.
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Yeah, I know. That's what worries me. If you play off of Demaryius, he is going to get a boatload of bubble screens. Miami may have to line up right in Demaryius's face to take away those bubble screens. But then that opens up a new set of problems. I'm curious to see how Miami tries to solve this puzzle. Also, a good, strong, consistent pass rush is of the highest priority if we have a shot of leaving Denver with a win. Those are the 2 things i will be looking for when Miami's defense is on the field - 1) an effective pass rush, and 2) how they handle Demaryius.
 
Were not going to change what we have been doing. It has been working.
They will play off and try not to give up big play. Force them to drive the long field with no mistakes
Then shut them down and force FG's. It is what we do.

Playing close give them a chance at a big play.
 
KillerB said:
Yeah, I know. That's what worries me. If you play off of Demaryius, he is going to get a boatload of bubble screens. Miami may have to line up right in Demaryius's face to take away those bubble screens. But then that opens up a new set of problems. I'm curious to see how Miami tries to solve this puzzle. Also, a good, strong, consistent pass rush is of the highest priority if we have a shot of leaving Denver with a win. Those are the 2 things i will be looking for when Miami's defense is on the field - 1) an effective pass rush, and 2) how they handle Demaryius.
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No they're not. And they won't. Off man is a better defense for the bubble screen than bump and run anyway. The trick is not to get fooled by a fake bubble screen that converts to a deep throw (usually on a fake by the blocker). Also, we'll have to tackle. Grimes is not a particularly good tackler but he'll have to be on point. For all his faults Jamar Taylor is actually an excellent tackler but it's not a good tradeoff in this case. The Dolphins are not normally a team that does spot matchups on the backend but they started going to it a lot against Detroit and especially Buffalo.
 
I really don't see us changing anything defensively, at least in our pass coverage principles, considering how well we played similar WR's in Marshall, Jeffery, and C. Johnson.
 
artdnj said:
Starts with pressure from our line, if we don't rough Manning up it will be a long day. Hurrys, pressures and a sack or two will make him hurry his throws. That and our O must score early and often, Fgs aint gonna cut it.
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I agree but...the Rams beat them kicking 5fgs and one td yesterday..
 
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