South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Perfect time for trip to Detroit
Here comes the NFL’s worst defense to put Miami’s offense on track
They need to score more? Detroit ranks last in points allowed.
They want to, specifically, spice up the ailing second-half offense?
Detroit ranks last there by a historically wide margin.
The Miami Dolphins want to get quarterback Tua Tagovailoa on track, keep him healthy and not have to over-worry about turnovers all while giving the larger offense confidence?
Detroit’s defense is their good answer for this Sunday, too. It ranks 30th in opposing quarterback ratings, 31st in sacks, 30th in takeaways and dead last in yards allowed.
Isn’t this a day in Detroit just what the Dolphins offense needs — just what the neurologist ordered?
Sure, it’s on the road, but the road leads the Miami Dolphins to water Sunday. They just need to drink. Detroit owns the No. 1 pick in the draft right now as the NFL’s worst team. Its fans are conditioned to losing as they’ve witnessed one playoff win in 65 years. Even the domed stadium favors Sunday’s visitors.
“It’s a fast track’’ Detroit quarterback Jared Goff said last
season after his opening games at the indoor Ford Field.
Is there a faster track team than the Dolphins?
It’s time for the Miami Dolphins, beloved for their dynamic offense, to show that dynamic offense again. It’s time for coach Mike McDaniel and quarterback Tagovailoa, who have formed a strong partnership, to remind us what their partnership can produce again.
Nobody would have believed after the magic in Baltimore last month — and a lot of people still don’t believe — but this electric Dolphins offense hasn’t been electric outside one half this year. It’s been unplugged.
It scored 35 points in that second half against Baltimore.
It’s scored 29 points in the second half of their six other games.
It’s 19th in scoring. It hasn’t dished more than 20 points in six of its seven games. Do you want the parade for this offense or do you want the statistics that show another picture? Now it goes against a Detroit defense that makes opponents punt the fewest times in the league.
Look, there are reasons why the Dolphins offense has struggled, some very valid reasons, from learning a new system to the quarterback roulette they’ve played. But there’s no hall pass against a defense where half the opposing offenses have their highest point output this year — and the other half came within one point of it.
Detroit’s owner even set up this game by delivering a dreaded vote of confidence to this Detroit regime.
“We’ve got 11 more games to go, so I just don’t want everyone to push the panic button and give up the ship,” Sheila Ford Hamp said to reporters Wednesday. “I think we’ve got the right people in place to pull this off, and I truly believe that. I wouldn’t say that if I didn’t.”
Now, Detroit coach Dan Campbell is everyone’s favorite Dolphins interim coach. That’s saying something considering the list over the last 20 years.
Remember the first practice where he made rookies fight through a circle of veterans? Remember he was called “Dan-tallica,” for his love of the heavy-metal band Metallica? Remember the physical change he delivered in that 2015 team that over-rode its limited talent for a game? Maybe two?
Campbell got a six-year contract rather than the normal five years because this roster was such a mess. It’s still a mess. These are the Lions, the team whose playoff drought puts the Dolphins to shame. One win, sixty-five years?
Detroit fans root for their team. They just can’t take it seriously.
Dolphins fans? They root for their team blindly sometimes. They had magical wins over Baltimore, where they needed 28 fourth-quarter points, and Buffalo, where they dominated on the statistics sheets.
Great seasons are built on such wins. Or outlier games are. We’re still finding out who these Dolphins are.
They need to score more? Detroit offers them that. It’s the worst defense by most any measure in the league on the team that’s the worst so far. The Dolphins have been led to this water. It’s time to drink.