Gase wants to fix 3rd-down, red-zone woes
DAVIE — After finishing 28th last season in points scored per game, it’s not a bold statement to say the Miami Dolphins need to score more this year. Converting third downs and scoring in the red zone usually go hand-in-hand with prolific offenses, and through two preseason games, those two elements haven’t been a bright spot for Miami.
After only converting 17 percent of third downs and going 2-for-5 in the red zone during its opening 26-24 loss to Tampa Bay, those struggles carried into Friday night. In a 27-20 loss at Carolina, Miami went 2-for-12 on thirddown opportunities and scored just one touchdown in four redzone trips.
Dolphins coach Adam Gase said self-inflicted errors have been at the heart of the team’s thirddown struggles.
“We’re just putting ourself in a bad spot,” Gase said. “It’s just unmanageable and it comes from second down — penalty, negative play. Those are where we really need to eliminate our issues.
“We need to get on it as far as not making the mistakes we can control. We’re hurting ourselves and our guys understand — this week, that has to be our focus.”
For Miami, improving on third down is vital after finishing last in the NFL last season in that category (only converting 31.7 percent). On Friday night, the Dolphins consistently put themselves in unenviable third-down positions. Four of their 12 third downs were of 12 yards or more and five were eight yards and more.
“I think the key to having success on third down is having success on first and second down,” Dolphins backup quarterback Brock Osweiler said.
“We’re hurting ourselves and our guys understand — this week, that has to be our focus.” Dolphins coach Adam Gase on third-down woes
“Anytime you’re having positive plays on first down, positive plays on second down — you find yourself in third-and-2 to [third-and]-5, which is going to give you a much better chance at converting. I think thus far we’ve had too many thirdand-longs.”
Another issue haunting the Dolphins has been their inability to punch the ball into the end zone. One telling sequence came in the second quarter of Friday night’s game after cornerback Xavien Howard picked off Panthers quarterback Cam Newton and returned the ball to the Carolina 9-yard line.
Miami was unable to capitalize on prime field position as it committed a pair of penalties (holding and delay of game) and was forced to settle for a field goal.
As opposed to its thirddown struggles last season, Miami was notably better in the red zone during the regular season, finishing 18th in the league.
While Gase noted their early woes, he said they’ve been holding back certain elements since it’s the preseason.
“It hasn’t been good,” Gase said of the red-zone offense.
“We have some things we’re not doing right now that we’ve been working on in training camp. Sometimes when we try to throw things in there for a game, specific to what the defense does and we haven’t [practiced] it enough, it’s going to look like crap and it has. I’m all right taking the hit on that one considering that I know what we’re trying to do big picture.”
“Sometimes you have to remind yourself: It’s the preseason. ‘We didn’t execute this correctly,’ and you have to remember we’re all almost pressing a little bit because we know we only have this many drives and this many plays where in a regular-season game, you can have a rough first half and come out in the second and can score 28 or shut a team out.
“A regular-season game is so long of a game — things can change so quickly with one play and you don’t really have that aspect in the preseason because it’s race against time. You’re trying to get as much done as possible in a short amount of time.”