McDaniel Knows Dolphins Are Only As Good As Their Resuts
Mike McDaniel understands the repercussions of his team’s lack of success against premier opponents. “You are your results,” the Dolphins coach said in the wake of their letdown on Sunday Night Football. “And until you prove otherwise, you’ve gotta be willing to hear the consequences of the results.”
Among the teams in playoff position right now, the Miami Dolphins have the lowest strength of victory in the NFL, at .242. No other current playoff team is below .250. The five teams defeated by Miami combine for eight wins, with a -319 point differential — including the four worst point differentials in the league. In their two games against top teams, the Buffalo Bills and the Philadelphia Eagles, they lost by a significant margin.
“I know the narrative is going to be there and it’s going to be there until we beat a team with a good record.” McDaniel said.
Easier said than done. For the Dolphins to shed their narrative they will likely have to untangle a difficult pattern. Many of the leagues top teams possess what seems to be Miami’s kryptonite, a combination of potent offense and strong defensive line.
It would be the understatement of the century to acknowledge the defense is the inferior unit on this team. But when playing lower level offenses they can often exist in a way that doesn’t push their offense into a shootout.
In both the Buffalo and Philadelphia games the opposing offenses excelled in a way that forced the Dolphins to “keep up.” When the Dolphins need to keep up, Mike McDaniel has an ugly habit of going away from the run.
And then the snowball starts to roll.
As McDaniels abandons the run things begin to fall apart. The opposing defensive lines can smell blood in the water and pin their ears back and come for Tua. Miami is extremely successful when they get out to their first read. When Tua has to progress through reads with pressure things get bad.
Additionally the Dolphins, mainly due to talent, play a defensive scheme that tends to allow long drives. The offense gets cold and the D gets tired, only worsening the problem.
The fix is no simple thing. It would be nice to believe that simply not abandoning the run would solve all of Miami’s issues. The truth is the team needs a more coherent systemic approach to the type of challenges they will face when they see elite teams in the year’s biggest moments. The Ravens, Bills, Eagles, Niners, Chiefs, and Browns(assuming the Watson situation gets right) all possess the type of makeup that could cause these problems to continue to haunt Miami. And until they figure it out, McDaniel knows he will continue to hear about it.
Up Next