After dominating during win streak, defense regresses
The Miami Dolphins’ five-game winning streak this fall was fueled by, as much as anything, opportune defense and special teams.
Nearly every week throughout the run, the Dolphins’ defense or special teams have scored a touchdown, or at least come close.
Even in a 20-13 loss to the Denver Broncos on Sunday, Miami’s defense managed to do directly and positively affect the final score. An interception by Xavien Howard in the first quarter set up the Dolphins’ first touchdown and a forced fumble by Andrew Van Ginkel at the 1-yard line in the fourth quarter took a Broncos touchdown off the board at the last possible moment.
Even with those plays, and only 20 points allowed, Sunday marked perhaps Miami’s worst defensive performance of the season.
“It wasn’t good enough. We’ve got to do a better job on the edges, we’ve got to do a better job tackling, we’ve got to do a better job fighting pressure with pressure,” coach Brian Flores. “We started the game decently, but they made some adjustments and we’ve got to make better adjustments and then players have to play better.”
There were failures in the passing game: The 270 yards allowed were the most the Dolphins (6-4) have allowed since the first game of the winning streak last month.
There were massive pass-rush failures: Miami failed to record a sack for the first time all season and the first time since a Week 11 loss to the Buffalo Bills last year.
Most glaring were the failures in the run game: The Dolphins gave up a season-high 189 rushing yards on 5.7 yards per carry — a full yard per carry more than their previous season-worst mark.
“We’ve just got to come back and get to work because we got to take pride in that: stopping the run, and getting off the field on third down and rushing the passer,” Van Ginkel said. “We’re definitely not doing a good enough job, and we’ve got to work on it to fix it.”
DOLPHINS PLAYOFF HOPES TAKE HIT
Miami did its playoff hopes no favors Sunday in Denver and the rest of the league didn’t give the Dolphins a pass.
The loss to the Broncos (4-6) was their first in six games. Through the 4 p.m. window of games, Miami, the AFC’s No. 9 seed, would lose the tiebreaker to the Baltimore Ravens due to an inferior strength of victory margin.
While seven teams from each conference will make the playoffs this year, the Dolphins have just a 30 percent chance to be one of those seven teams, according to FiveThirtyEight.
And while they’re just a game behind the Buffalo Bills with a head-to-head matchup remaining, Buffalo is a whopping 85 percent to win the AFC East.
Miami’s prospects dimmed considerably Sunday, thanks to wins by the Colts, Titans and Browns, all of whom improved to 7-3 on the season.
Miami does get some help from the schedule, however. The Dolphins’ next two opponents, the Jets and the Bengals, are a combined 2-17-1 and both could be playing their backup quarterbacks against Miami.
Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow announced he’s out for the season after suffering a major knee injury Sunday, and Joe Flacco started again in place of injured Jets starter Sam Darnold on Sunday.