Short Yardage Still A Big Problem For Dolphins
Credit: Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Images
If you want to find a team that has found its identity in short-yardage situations, your thoughts immediately turn to the Philadelphia Eagles. Their name over the past few seasons is synonymous with “Tush Push.” Whenever Jalen Hurts lines up under center to pick up a must-get yard, he’s almost guaranteed to be pushed to a first down. Every team hasn’t been able to replicate the Tush Push to success, but there are other ways to pick up the first down when you need that crucial yard. Unless you’re the Miami Dolphins, who seem to have tried everything, and nothing seems to be working.
Their short-yardage demons haunted them yet again in Monday night’s 31-12 loss to the Tennessee Titans. While their failed fourth-down conversions might not have cost them the game — only because of all the other issues the teams had — but they stopped two drives that would have continued… if only the team had been capable of getting that tough yard.
Early in the second quarter, the Dolphins went for it on 4th-and-1 from the Titans’ 46-yard line. The Dolphins tried to use Tyreek Hill’s speed on an end around, but Titans cornerback Quandre Diggs sniffed it out and tackled him. The final score hides it, but the game was very much in the balance at this point. The Dolphins were only down 3-0 — even if the drive had stalled another 25 yards further out, this was likely to be a tie game. Instead, the Titans only had to march 19 yards down the field to make it a 6-0 game.
We saw this strike again in the fourth quarter, when again, the Dolphins were still in the game, down only 19-6. Desperate to get any momentum, they went for another 4th-and-1 from their 39-yard line. Hill failed to get the first down two quarters ago, so the Dolphins turned to another star in De’Von Achane. But his nightmare game (29 yards on 13 touches) continued, and he failed to pick up the conversion. Brutal. The Titans made a chip-shot field goal to put the game out of reach for good.
With the two failed conversions, the Dolphins are now 1-for-12 on fourth-down this season. This isn’t a new occurrence for the Dolphins, who also struggled in similar situations last year. In 2023, the Dolphins were a combined 5-of-11 tries on both 3rd and 4th-and-1.
Earlier in the season, the short-down problems seemed to be fixed, at least for one week. Against the Jacksonville Jaguars (who, at 0-4, isn’t looking like the quality win we thought at the time) in the 2024 opener, the Dolphins converted on all three of their 3rd-and-1 chances. De’Von Achane succeeded on one of them, and the other two were converted by fullback Alec Ingold.
Ingold made clear that the third-down mentality had changed, and he wanted to be the focal point. “It doesn’t have to be the 3rd-and-1 in the middle of the third quarter to say, ‘OK, now let’s go get it.’ That’s a mindset that builds throughout the game,” Ingold said. “I think that’s something we’re all working toward, especially myself. Yeah, let’s inspire the play-callers. Let’s inspire the guys so that when we’re running the ball, we don’t have to look anywhere else. We don’t have to do anything fancy.”
Fast forward a few weeks, and maybe it’s just a play-calling issue. On the 4th-and-1, instead of just lining up with Achane behind Ingold and trying to grind out one yard, Mike McDaniel had the backs lined up one on each side of Tyler Huntley. Ingold couldn’t open up a hole, and the Dolphins couldn’t get the yard.
After the loss against the Titans, McDaniel said any changes were possible, so long as it could possibly lead to better results than they’ve seen. Not that that is a particularly high bar. “Yeah, everything is on the table. You can’t argue the offense is good or – to me in a situation like this, I hadn’t really been in one where we haven’t had production consecutively like this so you really have to open your mind to really all things.”
If McDaniel and the rest of the offensive coaching staff are smart, one of those changes will be with the short-yardage situations. It’s fun to get cutesy, especially with playmakers like Jaylen Waddle and Hill, but they need to get back to the basics and run some smash-mouth football. Ingold is the perfect fullback for the Dolphins’ offense, but he’s worthless if the Dolphins don’t use him. Much like the Eagles have Hurts for the Tush Push, the Dolphins need to lean on Ingold for their short-yardage situations.
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