Defense on hold
That’s what it has been like this season for Dolphins’ defense
Close games stifle Dolphins’ pass rush.
DAVIE — Miami’s defense can’t find its groove. And it might be the offense’s fault.
“Situationally, we haven’t had a chance to truly cut it loose in games,” defensive coordinator Matt Burke said of his unit, whose performance has been rapidly deteriorating in the last few weeks.
Translation: the Dolphins’ defense hasn’t had say, a 14-point lead, at any point this season and been able to unleash its furious pass rush.
In fact, Miami’s largest lead this year has only been seven points.
And aside from leading wire-to-wire in a 10-6 victory against Tennessee, Miami has only held a lead for about 18 minutes in its other eight games this season.
“That’s what we built them for,” coach Adam Gase said of getting a lead and then attacking the quarterback with the defensive front four. “We haven’t really come through on offense in two years.
“That’s the part that’s really been more disappointing for myself. We haven’t been able to put those guys in the position we wanted to.”
This isn’t to say the defense’s recent issues are limited to the pass rush.
In the past four weeks, the Dolphins have allowed an average of 35 points per game. Twice during that span they’ve allowed more than 170 yards rushing, with last week’s 294 rushing yards by Carolina ap-
proaching a franchise record.
However, if the defense could get to its sweet spot it might help them play to their strength.
Instead, the defense is often swimming upstream.
The last four games are a prime example.
The Dolphins never led in last week’s 45-21 loss at Carolina;
The Dolphins led Oakland for about seven minutes (6-3 in the second quarter) of their 27-24 loss;
In their 40-0 loss at Baltimore, the Dolphins never led;
The Dolphins, in their 31-28 victory over the New York Jets, only led for the final 22 seconds.
But go back to the start of the season to see how the trend hasn’t changed.
Miami only led for nine minutes in its season-opening 19-17 victory at the Los Angeles Chargers and trailed for most of the game.
Miami never led in its 20-6 loss to the New York Jets, or its 20-0 loss against New Orleans.
Miami led wire-to-wire against Tennessee but never had more than a sevenpoint lead, and Miami only led for the final two minutes of its 20-17 victory at Atlanta.
“I think we have to do a better job of giving those guys chances to truly go rush,” Burke said.
The Dolphins only have one sack in their past three games.
The defense often gets in a jam before it can even get into a rhythm. The Dolphins have been outscored in the first halves this season by a combined score of 114-43.
“Our strength is getting after the quarterback,” defensive end Andre Branch said. “But normally when a team is up they’re just trying to run the clock down so we’re just out here stopping the run and then they might surprise you with a pass but by that time you’re right down the middle because you’re so ready to stop the run...we still have to get after the quarterback and we can definitely improve on that and we can improve on overall defense.”
Gase said the offense needs to make it a priority to get off to faster starts “so our defense doesn’t feel like they’re in four-minute mode for the entire second half.
“That’s really what we want to do. The hard part is going out there and executing early. Instead of feeling the game out, be right early and not wait until the third quarter to actually do something.”
The Dolphins will hope to jump out to an early lead against Tampa Bay and unleash their pass rush.
That would be a nice change of pace for Burke.
“Games haven’t dictated us to truly, just like literally like cut it free and go rush,” he said. “We’re always either in 50-50 downs or stuff. That’s a whole team, whole defense thing for us to address that.
“I just don’t feel like we’ve had true rush opportunities where we could just cut it loose and let those guys go do work for extended periods of time.”
“That’s what we built them for. We haven’t really come through on offense in two years.” Adam Gase, Dolphins head coach on giving the defense a lead to work with