Biggest two factors on defense are this:

1) The offense can't stay on the field and constantly puts them in bad position. Notice how strong the defense started but they wore down because the offense is inept.

2) Less training camp and less tackling in practice make it hard to adjust in game time situations.

 

No good passrushers.

 

Aside from Wake, there is absolutely zero pass rush. And if Wake get's shut down you get what you see tonight.

 

Aye, this exactly.

 

We don't have players with ball skills. We haven't had anyone that could make an explosive play on defense since JT in 2005. I would kill to have a player like Tyran Mathieu on this team.

 

I thought Vontae and Smith were the top CB tandem in the league??

 

The defense read to many press clippings and didn't work out doing the lookout, and have not recovered from that, they are slow and out of shape.

 

Come on it's hard to cover when your front seven can't touch the opposing QB even if they lined up at halfback behind him, and when your pass rushing LB is covering speed receivers.

 

Bull****. These guys know how to ****ing tackle.

 

Not about knowing. It doesn't matter if you know how to tackle if you have an entire offseason off and can't do it in practice to correct flaws. Even the Jets had early season defensive struggles

 

I said that loooooooooooooong ago.

 

Maybe...

He wants a shot at the HC job?

 

fify

 

The fact is that the players Nolan has on defense just aren't very good. The secondary, except for Davis, are below average NFL players. The LB's are just not as talented as some on here want to believe they are.
None of the LB's are having a good season. Misi has not improved at all since last year. Burnett is playing far below the level he played at with the Chargers. Dansby and Wake are both having subpar seasons and it appears that both of them are seeing a decline in their skills. Taylor should have retired after last season.

The defensive line, which was suppose to be the strength of the defense has been average at best. No one on the defensive line has a sack after the first five games of the regular season.

So Nolan has been put in a situation where he has been given very little talent to work with. He also has to work with a offensive unit that can't score or covert on third down. Therefore his defensive players are forced to be on the field for the majority of the game. While the defense is capable of short periods of quality play. The lack of overall talent on the defense, along with the lack of production by the offense means that it will only be a matter of time in every game before the defense will eventually collapse. Nolan will get the heat for the play of the defense, but the real problem on the Dolphins is the overall lack of talent throughout the team. The person to blame for this is Jeff Ireland.

 

Brandon Fields thinks otherwise.

 

Lack of talent is Nolan's excuse. He's one of the most highly thought of defensive coordinators in football for a reason. He didn't forget how to coach.

 

Problem is that it is the same talent as last season when the defense was fine.

 

MIami is where talent comes to die....our achilles heel last year? couldnt cover a TE. What do we do?GO sign Burnett who by all accounts was great at coverage last year...whats he do in miami? sh*t the bed, with dansby. Marshall to just to throw it in.

 

Cam Wake has turned into a pumpkin this year. Also, Burnett hasn't transitioned well and Dansby hasn't played well and has been hurt.

 

All true, but regardless of these things it is no excuse to go from what #6 to #32? I think the offense is mostly to blame for the defenses struggles.

I could see if maybe we fell back to middle of the pack due to those reasons but I can't really justify it with those reasons.

 

Whats the major diference this year from last in he O? I dont see much.

 

The #6 ranking is a bit misleading. I'd rather have a defense that forces sacks and turnovers. Where did the defense rank in terms of opp QB efficiency?

 

Look at that brain dead GM we have. Bad move after bad move. Vonate Davis, Shaun Smith. Fasano. Colombo. Justin Smiley. Gibril Wilson. Dansby. Burnett. Merling. Pat White. Jake Grove. Patrick Turner. Earnest Wilford. This Gates bum who returns balls 8 yards deep.

This guy has more bad moves and given away more money in 3 years than executives have in decades.

 

Not sure honestly.

However I will say that early on a lot of the points the defense has given up have been off of turnovers. Overall the defense wasnt THAT bad today as far as talent goes. Fourteen of their points happened this way:

7 = Interception return
7 = Wake covering Santonio Holmes

So other than the offense and a horrible coaching decision the defense gave up all of ten points. Sure they got driven on but it all comes down to points in my opinion. Regardless of the reason something needs to be fixed.

 

Y Bell was bringing the lumber tonight. That was a bit of a surprise.
The old man made a great play across the field.

 

bingo!

 

I don't get how we fold so much in the 2nd half of every game this season has to be coaching man we have yet to play 1 good 2nd half this year

 

Why blame Gates.
That's ridiculous......
Knee jerk reaction.

 

I thought Bell and Burnett played pretty well tonight. The front 4 is just completely invisible from a pass rushing standpoint. Watching Cam Wake get dominated by Wayne friggin' Hunter was really depressing.

 

It's simple. A crappy offense that keeps the defense on the field the entire game will eventually wear down that defense. Doesn't help that the defense doesn't have a playmaker that can make a huge play and be a catalyst for a turnover when you need it most.

The Fins have had defenses that fade late since we became slaves to the "play not to lose" mentality during the JJ era.

 

I didn't have a chance to watch a single play due to work, but could it by chance be the guys just don't understand the scheme? I know that not being comfortable in the scheme just makes everyone look a step or two slow......thoughts?

 

This.

I would say that we have below average-average players on both sides of the ball and little to no PLAYMAKERS, the true difference makers. We have average-below average players at important positions(Davis/Smith at CB for example) and average-slightly above average at role player positions(Fields, Carpenter, Bush, Bess, Langford, Starks, Odrick, Misi). We have players we assign to as leader that played well on their former teams but can't seem to produce here(Marshall, Dansby, Burnett). We have players we passed on in the draft/FA that were needs and could've fit better here than the players we took instead, or in the case of TE, were ignored completely. We clearly have a problem in our personnel dept. The entire front office needs to be cleaned out. Im tired of watching year after year as we pass on good players only to see them light it up on other teams as we continue to implode.

 

The Jets had the same issues last season. They're lack of fundamental tackling has been a constant issue because they have guys who don't know how to take proper angles.

I'm not sure he is that highly thought of, honestly.

He's right though. Gates shouldn't be returning that, especially considering he gets poorer field position than he would by simply kneeling down. I think the Dolphins may have the lowest player IQ's of any team in the NFL.

 

Mike Nolan is a guy who always has a high ranked defense his first year with a team and historically his defenses regress in the second year.

What's his excuse though you ask? I think I can offer a few.

Let's start up front. There is zero pass rush outside of Cameron Wake, who honestly isn't playing as well this year as he did last year and is getting neutralized a lot. This team's answer to pass rush was to go out and get Jason Taylor. Albeit not the worst possible move, it's not a solution, it's just a band-aid if anything and it hasn't even turned out to be that.

Dansby has been playing hurt and Clemons has been out which is a big blow to this team. Chris Clemons did well in Mike Nolan's defense last year.

When there is no pass rush up front your secondary gets exposed. With Vontae Davis out we've had guys who shouldn't even be playing the dime back starting opposite Sean Smith. Will Allen is old and broken, Nolan Carrol is not an NFL level talent, and I can't remember the guys name who we got from the Vikings who got cut after the Pats game.

For as much talent as this defense supposedly has, and we've heard that a lot, and a lot of us bought into it myself included we're beginning to see the effects of not addressing the safety positions, not having NFL quality depth at CB, and not having a pass rush.

 

I don't understand this statement.

If the opponent's offense has 1st and 10 on their 30 yard line or 1st and 10 on our 30 yard line, shouldn't the goal of the defense be to make that offense go 3 and out regardless where the ball is?

Unless you're trying to make a point that I just don't see, this makes no sense to me. Offense has their job, defense has theirs. One has nothing to do with the other.

 

If I'm understanding the "new rules" as a result of the lockout correctly, bad tackling is only going to continue since tackling drills are supposed to be no more during practices...at least that's my understanding.

Shame too...I think every practice should start off with an hour of tackling drills. Alot of teams started to get away from it on their own, afraid of players getting hurt in practice and now what do you see on game day? Three, 4, 5 missed tackles before someone is FINALLY tackled.

:pity:

 

Last year all the problems with the Dolphins offense were blamed on the offensive coordinator, Henning. So the Dolphins basically fired Henning and went out and hired Daboll. An offensive coordinator who was the coach of an offense which was worse last year than the Dolphins offense. It certainly appears that it is Henning who is getting the last laugh, because this Dolphins offense is even more inept than the 2010 Dolphins offense. Three TD's in the last four games certainly shows that the problems with the offense last season had very little to do with Henning and a great deal more to do with the lack of talent on the offensive side of the ball.