Dolphins lose DT Hayes for year
DAVIE — The Dolphins lost defensive end William Hayes for the season with a torn ACL, coach Adam Gase said Monday.
Hayes injured his knee on a sack of Raiders quarterback Derek Carr during Sunday’s 28-20 win. Gase said Hayes injured himself while trying to avoid putting his body weight on Carr.
That rule is a point-of-emphasis for NFL officials this season.
“I’m just telling you what happened,” Gase said. “I’m just telling you what he did.”
Dolphins defensive tackle Akeem Spence said Monday that the body-weight regulation is “tough rule to gauge.”
Spence said Hayes was trying to protect the quarterback, so, “What do you want a guy to do?”
Fellow defensive tackle Jordan Phillips said that in looking at a sack he had in the Jets victory, he probably should have been called for a penalty by the letter of the rule.
“I made it look like I tried to roll off,” Phillips said. “That’s all you really can do. It’s the discretion of the refs. So we’ll do what we’ve been taught to do. We do a lot of drills with rolling away from the quarterback. He tried to do it and it ended up hurting him.”
Hayes, 33, had four tackles and two sacks this season. But his value was felt most in run defense.
“It hurts,” Gase said. “He’s one of our leaders. One of our best guys in the locker room. Probably our best run defender. That’s going to be a tough one for us to swallow.”
Hayes has had a significant impact when on the field. But he also missed the last six games of last season due to injury.
Miami is also still evaluating the severity of a knee injury to defensive end Andre Branch.
The injuries likely mean increased responsibility for defensive end Charles Harris and defensive tackle Vincent Taylor.
Spence disputes ejection: Spence said Monday that he regrets the situation his ejection caused for his teammates, but that’s about it.
Miami lost Spence early in the second quarter Sunday when a post-play celebration got out of hand. As Spence joined the fun after Cameron Wake sacked Carr for a big third-down stop, he got into it with Oakland left guard Kelechi Osemele and the two went to the ground.
Spence was flagged for unnecessary roughness, giving Oakland a first down, and the Dolphins were down to three healthy defensive tackles. On one goal-line play, they used right guard Jesse Davis from the offensive line to play defensive tackle.
“I’m trying to go celebrate but the guy has his hands on me, pushing me, pushing me, pushing me,” Spence said of Osemele. “At some point as a man, I’ve got to protect myself, get his hands off me and do what I’ve got to do. It just went beyond football at that point, which it shouldn’t have.
“I felt really bad about it because I thought I took Cam’s sack away and then the defense is in a bad position. I felt really bad for that.”
Osemele appeared to initiate the exchange with Spence. He knocked him backward, and Spence ripped off Osemele’s helmet by the facemask as they fell. Spence claimed that was typical of the Raiders, saying, “We know Oakland’s O-line, we know what they do, we know how they play, their extra after the whistle.”
Taking Osemele’s helmet alone probably wouldn’t have warranted the officials throwing Spence out of the game, but they determined that he then used it as a weapon.
Spence disputed that part, and video of the altercation is inconclusive. He did get up with the helmet in his left hand instead of leaving it on the ground, but he didn’t appear to take a swing with it.
“Y’all saw the helmet in my hand, but me being the person that I am, I’m never going to hit nobody with a helmet,” Spence said. “Never going to put nobody’s career in jeopardy, nothing like that. It’s really unfortunate because I thought I was still in the game. I went to go back out on defense on the possession after that, but they told me I was ejected.”
As Spence rose, he hit teammate Kiko Alonso on the side with it and put it into the facemask of Raiders right guard Gabe Jackson. Jackson was running into the incident at the time, and it’s unclear whether Spence even saw him coming.
The game was tied at that point, and Spence’s penalty extended the drive for Oakland. The Raiders ended up with a field goal to go up 10-7 right before halftime.
With Spence out most of the game after logging 15 snaps, the Dolphins played Davon Godchaux 52 snaps, Phillips played 43 and Taylor was at 42. Miami would have ideally kept all of its defensive tackles below 40.