Week 1 takeaway: defense needs work
Despite big play late, Dolphins struggled to pressure rookie Jones
Since we dubbed one rabbitout-of-the-hat style victory over the New England Patriots the “Miami Miracle,” maybe we should consider calling Sunday’s 17-16 win “Escape from Foxborough” because that’s exactly what the Dolphins did.
Elite cornerback Xavien Howard bailed this team out by forcing a fumble and recovering it in the red zone while the Patriots were threatening to overtake Miami’s 17-16 lead in the final four minutes, much like he did for all of 2020, being the main reason Miami had a top-six defense that season.
Without that turnover created when Howard stripped the football from tailback Damien Harris’ arms, the Patriots would have likely ran the clock down before kicking a game-winning field goal or scoring a touchdown.
We’ve seen that movie play out too often, and that type of loss would have been on the defense’s back.
That’s why despite the clutch play from Howard, and the season-opening victory, I leave Sunday’s performance feeling adamant that the Dolphins will need a better performance from their defense than what was delivered Sunday if this 2021 team is going to be playoff bound.
Bend but don’t break won’t cut it this season.
Especially when Miami couldn’t get enough pressure on a rookie quarterback like Mac Jones, who had a stellar NFL debut (102.6 passer rating) against the Dolphins, completing 29-of-39 passes for 281 yards and one touchdown.
Especially when the defense struggled contain a team with one quality wide receiver in Nelson Agholor, who finished the game with five receptions for 72 yards and a touchdown.
Either Jones is the second
coming of Tom Brady, or the Dolphins defense has plenty of work to do because they allowed the Patriots rookie to resemble an elite NFL quarterback in his first start.
Jones was looking defenders off consistently.
The Dolphins defense didn’t faze him at all during the game, which featured him carving up Miami’s zone looks.
Jones was throwing the ball on time, standing in the face of blitzes. He was accurate, quick with his reads, and tough in the pocket.
“He was poised,” said Howard, who led the NFL in turnovers created last year. “[Jones] didn’t make many mistakes . ... He put his team in position to win.”
That’s right, a rookie quarterback lacking playmakers nearly won his first NFL start, and that can’t be a good feeling for Dolphins coach Brian Flores and defensive coordinator Josh Boyer, no matter how good opening the season with a win feels.
“Good play, bad play, just move on to the next play,” Flores said after the Sunday’s victory, which puts his record against New England at 3-2 all-time. “They were able to kind of make some plays, keep drives going, pick up third downs. We would have them in some second-and-long situations . ... It felt like every time we got a chance to get off the field they made a play or we made a mistake.”
The Dolphins defense, which allowed the Patriots to covert 11-of16 third-down opportunities and produce 393 total yards on Sunday, needs to take a look at the middle of that unit and have some hard conversations about the team’s run defense (125 rushing yards allowed Sunday) and its pass rush.
The Patriots do possess a phenomenal offensive line, but they played most of the game without right tackle Trent Brown, who suffered a calf injury in the first half.
Even without him, rookie Jaelan Phillips, Emmanuel Ogbah, Sam Eguavoen, Jerome Baker, Brennan Scarlett, Andrew Van Ginkel and Elandon Roberts were all a step too slow on their blitzes and pressures.
They all failed to close on plays that could have made it a tough day for Jones, and those are the types of plays that determine the outcome of games. Add them all up and it could have been a suffocating feeling for Jones.
If Miami’s defense can’t give Jones a tough day on the job in his first start how will they perform against the Bills’ Josh Allen next Sunday, or against Brady and the Buccaneers on Oct. 10, Lamar Jackson and the Ravens on Nov. 11, or Ryan Tannehill and the Titans on Jan. 2.
Just about every quarterback Miami faces this season should be better than Jones. They all have more to work with, and are far more experienced.
This Dolphins team must be carried by their defense, just like last year. And based on what we saw in Week 1 the journey won’t go very far unless this defense begins to tighten up and return to the respectable unit that gave offenses fits last season.