X’S AND OMAR:
Omar Kelly examines the Dolphins’ defensive line and how it rose to the occasion while short-handed.
MIAMI GARDENS — Their legs were heavy, and their bodies were running on fumes.
Unlike the previous two games, re-enforcements weren’t coming for the Miami Dolphins defensive linemen during the second half of Sunday’s 28-20 win over the Oakland Raiders.
In the first two games of the season that unit had been attacking teams in waves as four defensive ends and four defensive tackles consistently rotated in and out of the game like a hockey-line change. But knee injuries William Hayes and Andrew Branch suffered early in Sunday’s contest, and Akeem Spence’s ejection for pulling off a Raiders player’s helmet in the second quarter, forced what was left of Miami’s defensive line to dig deep to defend the Raiders’ physical rushing attack.
“It was a lot of strain,” Davon Godchaux said. “We had to go to a dark place,” said starting defensive end Robert Quinn, who was one of three defensive ends and three defensive tackles left to finish out the game, which featured 109 rushing yards by the Raiders behind Marshawn Lynch’s 64 yards and one rushing touchdown.
“As a D-lineman it’s your job to get off the ball, get to the quarterback, stop the running back in the backfield. When you’re tired it takes a lot of guys. We lost a few brothers today but knew we needed to step up for them,” said Quinn, who contributed three tackles and one quarterback hit. “Just got to dig deep. Let your mind and heart take over, and I think that happened.”
Godchaux (three tackles) and Jordan Phillips (two tackles and quarterback hurries) each played more snaps than usual, and both played through injuries they had either been nursing, or suffered during the game.
Vincent Taylor, the Dolphins’ 2017 sixth-round pick, got a larger portion of the leftover snaps and contributed a career-high seven tackles and his first NFL sack.
“We are all we’ve got, and we stuck together,” Taylor said.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, and Miami’s defensive line shortage got so bad the coaches put Jesse Davis — the team’s starting right guard — in the game as a defensive tackle during a goal-line stand in the second half. Davis played defensive tackle at the University of Idaho before he became an offensive lineman, and Miami also called on him in a goal-line situation once late last season.
“Dig down deep in our soul,” said Cameron Wake, who recorded three tackles, and his first sack of the season. Wake’s hit on Oakland quarterback Derek Carr on the play where cornerback Xavien Howard intercepted a pass in the end zone, help preserved Miami’s four-point lead late in the game. “Go to a dark place and pull out whatever you could and make sure you finish this game. It’s a tribute the coaching staff, the way we practice and the way we play.”
It is odd to see a group of 300-pound defensive linemen sprinting downfield to touch an offensive player, but that’s what the Dolphins have had their big boys do every practice, on every play, since organized team activities in the spring.
If a receiver catches a ball downfield, or a tailback sprints to the end zone, Miami’s defensive linemen have to chase him down and everyone must touch the ball before lining up for the next play.
The touch-the-ball initiative has become annoying habit for Miami’s offensive players, but it’s designed to improve the defensive linemen’s stamina.
Based on the adversity that group overcame on Sunday, the strategy appears to be working because Miami’s defense didn’t wilt when the playing rotation vanished.
Now the question is whether or not they will need to do it again next week against the New England Patriots if Hayes and Branch aren’t healthy enough to play. It is possible that Miami will have to add a defensive lineman — possibly re-sign Kendall Langford — to keep the rotations going.
“In this game that we love, injuries are a big part of it,” Wake said. “Injuries are going to happen. You’ve got to take your hat off to the guys, the way we train out there in the heat day in and day out, when its not so much fun. But those are the times that pay off.”
At least on Sunday they did.