With Gore out, Ballage gets bulk of carries
As Dolphins running back Frank Gore hobbled out of the visiting locker room Sunday, his injured left foot immobilized by a walking boot, he passed Kenyan Drake, who was meeting with reporters after Miami’s 41-17 loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
In a world that makes sense, a first-quarter injury to Gore would mean more carries for Drake.
But this is not such a world, and Drake’s workload somehow decreased with Gore out.
Drake had just one carry for 6 yards Sunday. He also caught three passes for 28 yards.
That raises two obvious questions: Why? And was Drake OK with his usage Sunday?
“That’s not my job,” Drake responded, not exactly giving a full-throated endorsement to coach Adam Gase’s approach.
Instead of Gore’s carries going to Drake Sunday, Gase gave them to rookie Kalen Ballage.
And on the surface, that plan is hard to criticize. Ballage rushed for a careerhigh 123 yards on 12 carries. That included a 75yard touchdown romp on the first play of the second half.
“It was good to be out there,” said Ballage, who had just 11 career rushing yards before Sunday. “I have been waiting for an opportunity for a long time.”
But it’s curious, to say the least, that the perhaps the Dolphins’ most dynamic healthy player on offense gets just four touches in a must-win game.
“We just had different personnel packages and were trying to put ourselves in positions where we using multiple guys,” Gase said. “We knew it was going to be one of those games where we have to use all of those guys.”
But in truth, Gase didn’t use all of those guys. He used Gore (five carries for 14 yards) until he got injured. And then he used Ballage.
And Gore’s health might be an issue going forward. While Gore’s X-rays were negative, Pro Football Talk reported, he did sustain a sprained foot and will undergo an MRI on Monday.
Given Gore’s age (35) and how late it is in the season, one has to at least consider the possibility that he has played his final NFL down. Gore was noncommittal in recent days about returning in 2019, but pointed to his good health as factor that could convince him to return.
At the very least, two Gore streaks are in jeopardy. On Sunday, he appeared in his 126th consecutive game, and he has started 122 in a row — both the most by any NFL skillposition player.
One more note on Drake: While he might be unhappy about his role, he didn’t exactly make a strong case for an increased role Sunday.
“Personally, I played the worst game of the season,” Drake said. “I let the team down. Missed a couple of key blocks on third down. You’ve got to be straight-up with yourself, look yourself in the mirror and move on and get better.”
SAD SACKS
The Dolphins’ offensive line had an all-time bad game Sunday.
Miami allowed an absurd nine sacks (tying a franchise record), 11 quarterback hits and 12 tackles for loss in the team’s blowout loss to the Vikings.
Ryan Tannehill, dealing with shoulder and ankle injuries, is lucky to be in one piece after the beating he took Sunday.
Seven different Vikings sacked him, including Anthony Barr and Danielle Hunter, who had two each.
It was a systemic failure for a line that had done a decent, but not great, job of protecting Miami’s quarterbacks this season. A review of the game film is needed to determine who was most at fault, but live it appeared that right tackle Ja’Wuan James was beaten several times.
“We had a lot of sacks today,” said James, who will be an unrestricted free agent this offseason. “It was unacceptable, how many negative plays we had. …[Tannehill is] a guy we need to protect. We don’t want him getting hit like that.”
Dolphins linemen praised Minnesota’s blitz package, and left tackle Laremy Tunsil went so far as to suggest that the Miami was not ready for what Minnesota did schematically.
“They had a good thirddown plan, and they attacked us,” he said. “Blitzes, twists. I don’t know what to say. They had a good third-down plan. They sent a lot of blitzes that we probably didn’t really prepare as hard for. We knew it was coming, but every third down was a blitz or a twist. Can’t do nothing about it now.”
Gase, meanwhile, seemed to place all of the blame on his players.
When asked why the team gave up those nine sacks, he responded: “Not blocking. He had a couple of chances where guys were open but couldn’t get off. We just didn’t block well enough. We knew what we were in for as far as the pass rush. They just beat us.”