The stats have been disgusting since the three straight home games. Is Pouncey that much of a difference? Well, he isn't coming back, so is it time for a "modification" at RB? Again, love the J Train, but was he a product of the Unicorns? Do we need a back that hits the hole harder and has the speed to hit the outside? Drake may need to play more, change it up. Buffalo comes in with the 27th ranked defense against the run. Again, based on my "elephant in the room" post, if we can't run (which is unsustainable), we need to throw downfield all day. Right now running is not a threat, we are still put into 2nd and 3rd and longs.
Yeah, you got that right. They've been atrocious. During the Jets game, while on the 1yd line, we could not score. If I remember correctly, it happened on 2 occasions down by the goal line that they couldn't punch it in. That's a very serious concern. Defenses have been stuffing the box to keep Ajayi in check since his 200yd games, daring us to beat them in the air. We've been very lucky in that regard. And Moore was able to do that, this time. Ajayi ran for over 200yds in the first game against the Bills. I'm sure they're gonna game plan to make sure that doesn't happen twice. I'm not sure yet if he's the man for the job. He runs hard, but I don't think he has a lot of speed. I'd like to see more of Drake in the Buffalo game. (Moore may need to be ready to carry the load again). But I fear we're on borrowed time without a run game. The OL needs to seriously be addressed in the offseason. (LBs too, but that's another subject)
I'm like everyone else here, I love...LOVE my Dolphins. Always have and always will but some of these threads and some of these posts; really? REALLY? Everyone remember 2008? Bill Parcells was hired to save the Dolphins; Some unknown named Sparano was going to be the instrument of Parcells' plan. Remember when we first saw against the unstoppable Patriots something called "The Wildcat". The Dolphins offense was ROLLING all over teams and we were all thumping our chests...The Dolphins are back, YAY!!!!!! Uh oh...what happened? Well this is the NFL...PROFESSIONAL football where coaches and players are paid an astronomical amount of money to play a game and expected to win so when a team is suddenly rolling over opponents, opposing teams are supposed to study film, learn and find ways to stop what seems to be unstoppable. That's what happened to the Wildcat...and that's kind of what's happened with Ajayi. Teams took notice of him and his explosion into the league and he himself is now a vital part of teams' preparation against us. It's not that we can't run the ball. We're on a winning streak...9-5, having won 8 of our last 9. We're running the ball. We're implementing a complete strategy against teams and not placing the burden completely on one player, which is exactly why there was no panic in the Dolphins' organization when Tannehill went down. Everyone needs to stop looking at the individual fantasy stats and focus on the overall performance of this team...AS a team. We're doing well and we're going to be alright. Phins up baby!!!
If we cant run the ball, how is this offense to have sustainability. We beat a bad team Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Yeah, it's kind of weird isn't it? We really haven't had a running game in weeks, but we have found ways to win. Total team effort. Conversely, the Bills have a solid running game with McCoy and they have won just 1 of their last 3. I know I am going to take some heat for this because some think he is stupid ( I do not), but Crowder said on WQAM that what's important for us is that Ajayi can run the ball. Even if it is only for 2 yards. The big gains are what we want, but having him as a legitimate threat keeps the defense honest. That said, I wish our OL could open up some decent seams for Ajayi to run through. Right now, there is nothing. We have Albert with his wrist, Tunsil with an arm he cannot raise, Steen or Urbik, Bushrod, and James. We have tried running left, right, up the middle and we got nothing. Props to our OL because these guys are battling, but I am surprised we are as effective as we are.
Yes, but one thing Pouncey is great at is moving up from first level blocking to second level blocking. Factor in his central position as Center and the fact that defences have been stacking the box at times (especially vs. the Jets), and that extra block or two really makes the difference for the running back. Then you've got what others have mentioned, the run game hasn't yielded numbers but it has provided a threat. Gase hasn't moved away from the run and so defences haven't been able to ignore it, and that opens up the backfield to varying degrees. I'm really glad Gase hasn't gone away from the run. I hope that some of the problems seen are due to a heavy focus on run defence by the opposing teams. I know that we're going to have to look at upgrades on the OL at least on the right guard, maybe more if Pouncey just isn't viable health-wise.
The Bills are one of if not the the worst run defense we will have faced in the past 6 or so weeks, I think we'll finally go over 100 yards on them. The thing that worries me is that they have the best running offense in the league whille we are one of the worst defenses against the run.
Teams are having to play our run...which is why you are seeing single coverage on our WRs...them trying to stop our run produced the deep passes to Stills...
Ajayi has been a slow starter all season long. He gets better the more he touches the ball. A lot of his damage was done in the fourth quarter during his awesome stretch that he had. I think it's very very important that we somehow get him established early against Buffalo. We simply can't expect Matt Moore to have it that easy again in Buffalo. It's simple...run the ball successfully and we'll have a chance to win that game. Even if it means getting Drake a few touches going to the outside, we need that "chunk" yardage that people talk about.
No offense..but who cares? Your not playing defense against the Dolphins. Other defenses do..all that matters.
If the defenses don't have to do anything much to stop the run, then we have no identity. If the sustainability of this offense is Matt Moore going deep then OK I can live with that. But is it sustainable? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I believe the success in the running game during had more to do with the line than it did JA. He ran hard and made great plays, so I don't want to take too much away from him, but if you remember Williams and Drake were also ripping off huge runs during those games when they came in to spot Jay. Ajayi also doesn't look the same. One of those runs during the Jets game, he looked like he was setting up to fall as soon as he hit the line, kind of settling for the 3 yards and a cloud of dust.
Thats the point your missing. They are having to do stuff to stop our run. They are bringing extra men towards the LOS to stop the run.
Imo it's because the defenses have caught up with the zone blocking schematics and tendencies that we imployed and started to show. If you noticed when Ajayi was shredding it was usually when he stretched it outside and found the cutback lane and exploding upfield, now that defenses saw those tendencies, they are flowing better and filling the cutback lanes.
It is alot of game planning for Ajayi, but thats a double edged sword because now teams have to play the threat of the run we are seeing better matchups in the secondary. But to me the single biggest factor is Mike Pouncey. The running game and Ajayi came on in the Pittsburgh game when Pouncey finally got on the field and it dried up tremendously when he went down again. And right now that scares me to death because he cant stay on the field. He is hurt far to often and misses far too many games now. Just as bad, the dropoff to our backups ANYWHERE across the oline is precipitous. We need to draft another really good center that can play guard too. That way he can slide over next year when Pouncey goes down again. And he will go down again.
Part of it has been going up against top tier DL's and teams that can stop the run. The other part is they haven't done a good job. If you think about it, we've had a constant shuffle all year at OL which hurts the gel factor.
This is absolutely correct. I'm not sure if you guys noticed, but once Tannehill got hurt they didn't have Moore attempt a single pass until he absolutely had to. That told the Jets we were going to go run heavy and they had 8 in the box most of the night- that's why so many folks were open deep. That's all the film that had to go on though with Moore in Gase's offense. Also, Pouncey/Steen wasn't as much of a factor last week for that reason...Ajayi and company just weren't getting to the 2nd level. Part of that is on the Jets for committing to the run, while the other half was our line. Make no mistake though, this is not a RB issue. Ajayi was running hard as hell all game....especially in the 4th quarter. He just had nowhere to go. Pouncey is probably the best run-blocking center in the league though, so its always a big factor when he's not on the field.
What keeps opposing linebackers and safeties honest against the stretch run plays the Dolphins were effective with is the play-action to the seam-busting tight end. The Dolphins don't have one of those.
Mainly because teams are focusing on stopping our run now and putting 8 men in the box, which is why our passing game has opened up. Pouncey being absent and tunsil playing at about 70% right now with thr shoulder injury certainly has not helped. But I think mainly its teams gameplanning specifically to stop the j-train. Ajayi has been breaking tackles left and right the problem is he usually has at least two defenders in the backfield before he can even get going. Ajayi is not the problem drake had a few carries alsp and couldn't get any yards either. Sent from my F3111 using Tapatalk