Dolphins’ Land ry still optimistic about victory
Dolphins’ star receiver still confident team can back up his boasts.
Wide receiver is not concerned about New England being a 17-point favorite on Sunday.
Before the season, Dolphins wide receiver Jarvis Landry predicted his team would sweep the New England Patriots this season, a prediction that looks even more difficult to fulfill now.
The Dolphins are a 17-point underdog in their trip to the Boston area. But Landry isn’t backing down.
“I don’t care about Vegas,” Landry said Thursday. “I don’t care about Vegas. I don’t care about numbers. Any given Sunday, anybody can beat anybody. And that’s the beauty of this league. That’s the beauty of the NFL. And you know that’s why I love this sport so much. You never know.
This may be a game that turns our season around, too. You never
know. You never know.
“So, for us, we’re just focused on ourselves and putting good days together so that when we get to the game, we’re confident, we’re playing fast and you know we pull one out.”
Landry said he was not surprised comments he made in London became a big deal. In addition to his prediction, Landry said of New England in the offseason: “They’re not our big brother anymore.”
The Dolphins were swept by New England last season, 31-24 and 35-14.
New England has won 15 of 20 meetings with Miami since 2007.
“Honestly, it’s a pride thing, man, and also for us, our mindset,” Landry said Thursday of his offseason comments. “I spoke about it. They’re a team I have a great respect for. I always will. The guys over there I know, Tom (Brady) and all those guys. It’s nothing against them. It’s just something that as a competitor you want to win.”
Landry said in order to have a chance, the team must limit penalties.
On the potentially difficult road challenge, Landry said: “I’m sure it’s going to be a hostile environment. But just as sure as it can be loud, it can be quiet. So — we’ll see.”
Landry said he’s just excited about the challenge. But what would it take for the Dolphins’ organization to one day match or surpass the incredible success of the Patriots franchise?
“It’s something that I can’t look into the future for,” Landry said. “But it, right now, for us, is putting together this great week, to allow us to be in position to start that. And you know, it’s an opportunity to start, on Sunday. And for us, that’s our focus. Just winning one game.”
Suh says D-line needs to improve: Many factors go into making a full assessment of the Dolphins’ defensive line, but one simple statement is hard to argue: For $41 million, the team should be getting more than 17 sacks. The price tag is second in the league, while the sack total is 26th.
Defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh believes opposing quarterbacks have minimized sack opportunities by getting the ball out quickly, though he does not think his unit has played to its capacity.
“No, I don’t,” he said Wednesday. “I think at any particular level, we’re capable of playing a lot better. I think at the end of the day, we have to continue to strive for perfection knowing that we’re not probably going to get there, but we can obviously strive for it and get there.”
Cameron Wake has a teamhigh six sacks, but hasn’t gotten one in the past four weeks. Suh is next with 3.5, and Andre Branch has three. Over the current fourgame losing streak, Miami has two sacks out of 126 dropbacks by Ryan Fitzpatrick, Cam Newton, Derek Carr, Joe Flacco and Ryan Mallett.
This week presents a similar problem in New England’s Tom Brady. Brady leads the league with a 110.9 passer rating and an average of 314.6 yards per game, is second in touchdown passes (22) and fourth in completion percentage (68.7). Among players with at least 150 passes thrown, he has an NFL-best two interceptions.
He’s been sacked 23 times out of 403 dropbacks, which equates to one every 17.5 pass attempts. That doesn’t set up well for the Dolphins to create many opportunities.
“He has found a way to get the ball out,” Suh said. “I think he has been a little bit slower this year — watching the film last couple days — but he likes to get rid of the ball very quickly. It’s our job up front to really get after him and make him feel uncomfortable. I know that’s one of my particular goals in this particular week: touch him as much as I can, hit him as much as I can, push his own lineman into him as much as I can and go from there.”
When it comes to the disappointing sack numbers overall, it hasn’t helped the defensive line that the Dolphins haven’t had much time where they’ve been leading this season. When the opposing team is ahead, the inclination is to take fewer chances passing, which leads to fewer shots at reaching the quarterback.
“I would say that if I were to point out one particular piece that is a huge stat, it’s the fact that we’ve played against some elite quarterbacks that have gotten the ball out tremendously fast,” Suh said. “I can think of only maybe one quarterback in Cam Newton — we had a terrible rush defense week that week — he didn’t really have to throw the ball as much. But I think every other quarterback that we’ve played in all other nine weeks has gotten out the ball very, very fast and has been up in the top of the league of getting the ball out fast.”