We're last in the league by a huge margin in... | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

We're last in the league by a huge margin in...

Fin Thirteen

Fin Thirteen

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....giving up explosive rushes.

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/quick-reads/2016/week-10-quick-reads

Is this a function of us keeping safeties high to help out our weak corners or a gap assignment issue or our weakness at LB, or a bit of all of the above?

We're doing a much better job of keeping most runs down to a couple of yards at most but when they break out they really break out.

Look, we're winning and not everything can be perfect. But we're so bad in this area compared to the league I thought it was an interesting observation.

If we can tighten it up, without sacrificing shorter runs or the pass game, then great.

We're 19th in giving up explosive pass plays, which feels about right.
 
Fin Thirteen said:
....giving up explosive rushes.

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/quick-reads/2016/week-10-quick-reads

Is this a function of us keeping safeties high to help out our weak corners or a gap assignment issue or our weakness at LB, or a bit of all of the above?

We're doing a much better job of keeping most runs down to a couple of yards at most but when they break out they really break out.

Look, we're winning and not everything can be perfect. But we're so bad in this area compared to the league I thought it was an interesting observation.

If we can tighten it up, without sacrificing shorter runs or the pass game, then great.

We're 19th in giving up explosive pass plays, which feels about right.
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Could be this guy we are missing on our defense,I think his last name is Jones...
 
We started the season so horribly that the run defensive numbers are going to look bad for a while. We held Melvin Gordon to 70 yards on 24 rushes and we're still ranked 30th in the league in rush defense giving up almost 130 ypg on the ground. Gordon had two or three big runs and the other 20 or so he basically got nothing. A couple of those were outside runs...is it the DE not setting the edge? Was it the linebacker not maintaining gap responsibility?

We've improved a lot during the 4 game win streak. I think we were giving up close to 150 ypg at one point...might have been after the Tennessee game when they ran for 235 yards on the ground...but we're still having two or three brain farts a game where the running back runs untouched for big yards.
 
datruth55 said:
We started the season so horribly that the run defensive numbers are going to look bad for a while. We held Melvin Gordon to 70 yards on 24 rushes and we're still ranked 30th in the league in rush defense giving up almost 130 ypg on the ground. Gordon had two or three big runs and the other 20 or so he basically got nothing. A couple of those were outside runs...is it the DE not setting the edge? Was it the linebacker not maintaining gap responsibility?

We've improved a lot during the 4 game win streak. I think we were giving up close to 150 ypg at one point...might have been after the Tennessee game when they ran for 235 yards on the ground...but we're still having two or three brain farts a game where the running back runs untouched for big yards.
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Zactly. During the 4 game win steak, Miami is allowing ~100ypg rushing, with only one of those games actually performing poorly (half of PITTS yards were on one end around). Everyone here know the 1-4 Dolphins are not the same team as the 4-0 Dolphins in a NUMBER of categories. That's why full season stats can be misleading and why I'm not too worried about the LA run game. It seems to me a number of those big runs were when someone failed to maintain his gap, but that's from an old man's memory. If so, the runs allowed are due to lack of discipline and not lack of talent.
 
In the early part of the season we gave up short and explosive runs. Now we're giving up just explosive runs. But make no mistake, we are still surrendering explosive rushes.

The stats above include week 10. Even if we improve our contain on these big plays, we'll probably still be last in the league for a while, that's how far back we are.

We're still winning but it's one to watch.
 
I think you are correct in your hypothesis that it's due in large part to our safeties having to hang back to help our CBs.
 
rather give up some 10 and 20 yard runs than 30 and 40 yard pass plays.
 
John Biello said:
rather give up some 10 and 20 yard runs than 30 and 40 yard pass plays.
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Well generally that's not an either/or situation. Plenty of teams are good or bad at defending both.

But in our case you might be right. Someone with All 22 and a good football brain should be able to say if there's anything systemic that has us leaking so many long runs.

Imo, it has to be systemic for us to be so far behind the league. And maybe that system flaw was a conscious sacrifice to cover another area, as you suggest.
 
if i'm not mistaken we have improved significantly since inserting branch and wake back in the starting lineup. goes without saying but butler hewitt and paysinger are getting snaps on the outside as well and it seems as though we have lost outside contain on a handful of big plays. your giving me to much credit 13, i was merely stating my preference, not going any deeper than that and assuming a function of our scheme. you mention the all22, maybe hoops or CB will chime in.
 
Its our lack of lb play. Overall we've done a very good job on run defense for about 95% of the game but then on 5% a lb takes the wrong hole and there goes the rb for 20 yards. This happens about 2-3 times a game and ruins miamis run d average.
 
MARINO1384 said:
Its our lack of lb play. Overall we've done a very good job on run defense for about 95% of the game but then on 5% a lb takes the wrong hole and there goes the rb for 20 yards. This happens about 2-3 times a game and ruins miamis run d average.
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Yeah, I think this plus our safeties (minus our best run stop safety through injury) are deeper to help out the pass coverage unless it's an absolutely obvious running down.
 
I think it's the style of D combined with LB's who are inconsistent with regard to making the DL right. No secret that we're a 1-gap, penetrating style of D. For that to work consistently, the LB's have to be reliable in their fills.
 
just have to be assignment sound...more than anything that's the difference...guys are playing their assignments better...most the break contain plays of late in the run game have been due to inconsistent strong side fill play and rambos run fits

the scheme is very solid

the dline is playing top shelf football
 
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