Dolphins ‘D’ in for big shakeup

HOUSTON — Matt Burke’s outbursts on the sideline made it seem as if his blood pressure reached an all-time high.

The Miami Dolphins defensive coordinator couldn’t hide his frustration watching Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson shred his defense during Thursday night’s 42-23 loss to Houston.

Texans receivers were running open downfield on numerous plays.

Tight end Jordan Thomas was uncovered in the end zone, and caught two touchdowns.

Tailback Lamar Miller ran up the middle of Miami’s defense for a 58-yard run on one play.

Watson, the Texans’ 2017 first-round pick who was starting his 15th game, produced a career-best 156.0 passer rating throwing for 239 yards and five touchdowns. His performance, and Miami’s struggles on defense for the second straight week, had coach Adam Gase acknowledging that his team needs to reassess everything they are doing on defense.

“We got to get better fast,” Gase said about his 4-4 team. “I’m going to re-evaluated everything this weekend. We got to figure out how to get better on defense and sustain drives and put it in the end zone on offense.”

Gase calls the Dolphins plays on offense, and takes a hands-off approach when it comes to Miami’s defense. He’s rarely even visible on the sideline when the defense is on the field, which means Burke, who is in his second season as the defense’s leader, has to take ownership of his unit allowing 884 yards the past two games.

According to Gase, Burke job is safe, for now. After all, earlier this season, when the Dolphins were 3-0 and 4-2, it was the defense that was carrying the team. So how did the tide turn so quickly? “We played really undisciplined as a defense,” inside linebacker Raekwon McMillan said. “We have to execute, rebound and onto the third quarter of the season.”

Four days after allowing a 248 rushing yards in 32-21 loss to the Detroit Lions, the Dolphins allowed the Texans to gain 188 rushing yards on the ground behind Miller’ 133 yards and one touchdown.

Gase acknowledged that the short week of practice leading up to Thursday’s game didn’t allow Miami to properly fix some of the problems that came up against Detroit.

But it seems as if the Texans exposed more areas of concern considering how many of their receivers were wide open on passing plays.

“There is no magic pill. There is no secret. It’s defense. Each player has a gap or a man or a zone, or whatever,” pass rusher Cameron Wake said. “At some point the ball is going to get there, to the person, the man, the gap, and someone’s accountable for that.”