I’m not going to talk about the refs, I’m not going to talk about the refs, I’m not going to talk about the refs. Ok, now that is out of my system let’s get to what we learned from that game. The 1st, if there was any doubt, is that yes, the Miami Dolphins can compete against good football teams. Like the Bills game, the Eagles game was closer than the score showed, however, you only get so many times to say “at least it was close.” The next test will be the chiefs, which will be crucial to win to have any hope of going into the playoffs as the 1-seed. This week, however, is Patriots week part 2 and they’re coming off beating one of the two teams the Dolphins have lost to in the Bills. Not to mention in the previous matchup were in a one score game with Miami. Making this game not as easy as it may seem, a divisional game against Belichick never is.
Eagles Learnings
Well, a pattern is emerging, that pattern is that great defensive lines pose an issue for this offense. And, while yes, it’s very known thing that good lines can wreck games. The gap between this offense playing against good defensive lines and great ones is massive given the two examples we’ve seen thus far. I think it has a lot to do with the running game. Most defenses want to be playing back taking away the deep and deep middle areas of the field to stop the passing game. This makes it much harder to stop the run as we’ve seen, however, when great defensive lines consistently are able to blow up the run this major advantage that is gained is lost. Instead of putting the defense in a catch-22 we’re playing with an arm tied behind our back against these teams.
While, it’s easy to sit and say a few bad plays derailed everything in both games. Weird scenarios that are unlikely to repeat, it would be incorrect to not see and attack the flaw that’s made itself clear in these scenarios. As of now, I currently believe this comes down to finding more ways to put the edge defender in conflict or hold on outside runs. Hassan Reddick was able to read outside run and hit the spot before the player assigned to block him was. We’ve used a lot of crack blocks from WRs this season as a means to account for this, but defenses are smart and will eventually pick up on these patterns.
Reviewing the Last Matchup
Something that stood out reviewing the last matchup was the defense Bill Belichick used to take away the deep middle area of the field. They started nearly every play with 3 safeties, taking their nickel corner and aligning him deep. From here they would run a cover-3 double buzz style of defense, letting the hooks over the middle get depth and see what was coming at them allowing them to play the over route in the middle more effectively. This did a good job to take away what the Dolphins wanted to do and forced them to play in a different style. That’s not to say they ran cover 3 exclusively as often times their preferred shell was cover-2.
Looking forward there’s some things to consider when trying to attack this defense:
- This defense, is designed to force Miami to run a different version of the offense than they are used to but “conceding” a lot of space.
- While there appears to be more space to attack with a defense like this, the defense obviously knows those weaknesses. This allows them to still focus on the offensive concepts that look to attack this defense the most aggressively.
- This is why, even though New England ran a lot of 3 high safety defenses the Dolphins only ran for 145 yards and while not nothing, this is nowhere near that total has been for other games this season.
- So finally getting to the point, the way you attack this defense is by threating the natural points to attack it to then force them to give up on what it’s designed to take away.
- Trying to take what the defense gives, is exactly what a defense like this is trying to force the offense to do and thus should not be the approach to beating it.
Looking at the Data
Unsurprisingly, or maybe not since these are not the Patriots of old, this New England team is strong defensively. What is unique, is that there are no clear weaknesses in areas of defense. Unlike each of the other teams viewed so far, where there have been clear weaknesses against certain styles of play or areas of the field, this Patriots team is fairly consistent across the board. Things are not so consistent on the offensive side of the ball. As it is very clear where they want to attack and that is the middle of the field. With their highest YPC and YPA being over the middle of the field, make no mistake this isn’t a proficiency over the middle raised by outlier big plays as this team averages about 6 yards per attempt on short passes and only about 7 on deep attempts. In short, they’re gaining yards over the short middle underneath zones getting easy completions. The run game tells a similar story as the Patriots don’t have a single rush on the season over 30 yards.
This makes the gameplan simple, we must attack the short middle early, pressure the area of the field they’re the most comfortable attacking and slowly back off to take away what opens up in the wake. This Dolphins team functions very well in a lead, and this Patriots team does not do well playing from behind. If this can generate a lead early Miami can easily pull away with the game, like we’ve seen in the Bronco and Panther games.
In Summary
- Miami needs more answers for great defensive lines in the run game, as defenders will start predicting frequent crack and motion blocks
- Find ways to attack the strengths of the 3 high shell of New England rather than what it’s giving up
- The Patriots want to attack the middle of the field, take that away
