There was a moment – actually a series of plays – in Thursday night’s loss to the Green Bay Packers that sheds light on the Dolphins’s main problem.
In that demolishing 30-17 setback to Packers who seem headed for the playoffs (9-3), the Miami team had a small margin to get into the game that it couldn’t take advantage of.
The Dolphins (5-7) lost by 16 points with just over 10 minutes to go until the end of the last quarter when the attack reached 1 yard and had three chances to score a touchdown that would have closed the score.
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The problem is that this team and everyone in the Mike McDaniel era is that they hit like a featherweight.
“If we had got that score and went for another it was a game for anyone else,” said the left tackle Terron Armstead, referring to the series where De-Von Achane won 8 yards in a run on the left side that put the club on yard 1.
Miami tried to score with a run from Achane’s right side that didn’t gain yards. On the third attempt, a pass to tight end Jonnu Smith was interrupted by Packers cornerback Keisean Nixon, who read the move at all times.
And then, in the fourth down, fullback Alec Ingold slipped on a pass play in what was the primary goal, and Packers linebacker Quay Walker managed to knock down quarterback Tua Tagovailoa while trying to find another player, which ended the series.
That play, that series, was probably the toughest. We had opportunities. “More than one,” Armstead said.
We just have to plug in. Find a way to get to the scoring area. Run, pass, it doesn’t matter.
It was that strategy of play shown by the Dolphins in yard 1 that brings us to the heart of the problems of this franchise where the team highlights the fact that the team yields to the pressure as has been seen in many of the tough defeats against high-caliber rivals.
When your team can’t advance a yard to score a touchdown, that may have changed the fate of the game, which ended in a beating like Thursday’s. There’s evidence your club is soft.
And when this remains a recurring theme for three seasons it is already a fundamental issue that affects everything from strength and conditioning, the construction of the payroll, to the mentality of the coach.
The narratives are going to be the way they are. We pride ourselves on being physical in the lead. I’ve been a physical player for 12 years, but the narratives are always going to be there. “We fell short against the Packers,” Armstead said.
It’s up to us to deal with this and we have to answer all the questions. The right answer is a complete reconstruction, a review of the braids (where most of the blocking and physical activity takes place) because what we have seen this season, and the previous one, and the previous one is not good enough.
Races across the outside zone, which made Miami the second-highest attack in the NFL last campaign, have disappeared.
The ground game has stalled in the last four weeks considering the Dolphins display a dismal average of 2.94 yards per hamstring in that period, which coincides or not with the knee injury that Austin Jackson, the team’s starting right tackle, suffered in Miami’s 30-27 defeat to Buffalo.
“Trying to run from the beginning of the game and it’s often something we’re proud of, but when you only have limited runs it’s hard to set up that kind of game,” said tailback Raheem Mostert. Against Green Bay, we were just playing to retrieve ground.
If we add to that that, Liam Eichenberg, Robert Jones, and Isaiah Wynn are imminent free agents, Armstead’s $14.3 million salary in 2025 puts him in the danger zone of being cut, even though this has been one of the 33-year-old’s best player seasons.
But it’s not just the offensive line that needs to be addressed. The defensive front also has to be examined considering Miami is getting very little pressure from the hat-tick for most of the season.
Nor does it help that Emmanuel Ogbah, Calais Campbell, Benito Jones, and Dashawn Hand are free agents and that Jaelan Phillips and Bradley Chubb suffer serious knee injuries. The bottom line has to be rebuilt from Miami’s entire scrimmage line.
Despite the NFL’s growing obsession with Fantasy and bets, football games are won and lost in the groove, especially in December games and in the postseason.
And that turned out to be the moment the Dolphins staggered like a porpoise out of the water.
Miami’s defense attacked very little the Packers’s quarterback, Jordan Love – four pressures and no downs – and that has been a constant theme this season. Miami has recorded 21 sacks in 12 games this campaign. Only three teams have fewer and they all play their 12th game on Sunday.
The Dolphins struggled to contain Green Bay’s attack that gained 102 yards per ground in the first half.
The Packers became the seventh team to run for more than 100 yards against Miami, which allows 107.5 yards of run per game and 4.36 for the harter, which ranks 16th in the NFL.
“Something like that can’t happen,” Mostert explained about the failures to score from his team. You have to get into the scoring area anyway. No matter what you get, you have to get there.
And that’s why this off-season has to consist of finding a way to go from being bullied to being the ones who intimidate. Otherwise, we’ll have more of the same on the part of Miami when it’s time to get physical.
