Momentum Killers & Easy TD's

by Natalya on Nov 12, 2009 12:58 PM EST

Everybody knows how well we've controlled the clock, racked up the yards, and kept many an opposing offense off the field for large chunks of time. That's the good side of this movie.

Unfortunately, and you guys had to know that there's more to the story - our D too often allows those same offenses to dash onfield and put up a quick score. Just rewind to the Indy & Saints games and you'll get the idea.

You know that kills momentum and puts even more pressure on our offense, because those 5+ minute, 15 play scoring drives require a ton of things to go right: avoiding penalties, key 3rd down conversions, etc.

Go back to the last pats game where we put together a very impressive 15+ play drive capped with a TD. Very nice.

The problem? Just a handful of plays later, Randy Moss was putting himself in the highlight reels of Sports Center with a long TD run and catch. Or how about when Gibril Wilson single handedly tried to guarantee Dallas Clark's pro bowl spot with his missed tackle on the first play of that game? Can you say momentum killer?

Here are some numbers:

We are tied for 5th (worst) in the league at allowing TD drives of 6 plays or less: 13 times we've done this

Against the Colts & the away Jets game, we gave up 3 such scoring drives in each of those games.

Indy & Denver have each allowed just one < 6 play TD drive - any surprise those two teams are a combined 14-2?

There are only 4 teams who have given up more such 'quick scoring drives: Detroit, Tennessee, Tampa Bay, and Carolina.

Bad News: Those 4 teams will be watching the playoffs from their couches.

Good News: This week we play the worst team in the whole league at giving up quick TD scoring drives, that being the bucs. Plus we also have Tennessee on the schedule later, the second worst team at this stat and Carolina, #3.

Diagnosis: Long, time-consuming TD drives by our offense are our MO. Now we need our D to stop opponent's offense from getting these against us.

This fanpost was written by one of The Phinsider's registered users.

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another great post

you’re jes setting em up and knockin em down this week.

very interesting stats. rec for you

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by chrislucas on Nov 12, 2009 2:30 PM EST reply actions

nice work

we gotta take advantage of this easy schedule we got coming up

-"No excuses, No explanations"
-Matty's assistant
- LN21 and MHTD - Going Commando

by MiamihastheDolphins.... on Nov 12, 2009 2:35 PM EST reply actions

Get em coach

Head Weatherman/ Injury Specialist of the Phinsider.

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by Farorefox on Nov 12, 2009 2:36 PM EST reply actions

Couldn't agree more

HUGE Momentum Killers! I hate to say it, but it is almost predictable is has happened so often. What can we do? Yes, the secondary will get better as the rook’s gain valuable playing experience. Some would argue we need a better pass rush…and we do, that is why I support more playing time for C.Wake. To be fair, we have had to face the best QB’s in the league early in the season and hung in their with all of them. … Manning, Brady, Rivers and Brees. We have only beaten unproven QB’s like Sanchez and Edwards. I wonder had we played those great QB’s in the second half of the season would we had better results because our rookies would have had more playing time under their belt. Hard to say, but I do wonder.

Great analysis Natalya, thanks

Superbowl Starved

by garpow62 on Nov 12, 2009 2:54 PM EST reply actions

We had a choice to overpay for aging DBs (Renaldo Hill and Andre Goodman)...

but we chose to go young in the draft (Clemons, Smith, and Davis).
I think it is unreasonable to expect a young secondary NOT to get taken advantage by Ryan, Rivers, Manning, Brees, and Brady.
What you look for is growth and improvement (and wise personnel decisions by the coaching staff – imagine if last year they had stubbornly clung to Chris Crocker over Renaldo Hill). Let’s see more Culver and Clemons and less Bell and Wilson. More Wake and Walden and less Porter (and fewer snaps for Taylor). Use Starks, McDaniel, Merling, and Langford more creatively in the nickel packages (stunts).
The philosophy is sound. TOP consuming drives that wear down the other teams’ defense. A dropped pass here, a tipped pass there, and the other team must punt the ball away. Even though the other team’s passing offense gets on the highlight reels, you have the ball and the wherewithall to run out the clock and score the winning points of the game. The receivers just need to CATCH THE BALL and the Fins are 6-2/5-3. If they don’t fumble the ball out of the endzone against San Diego after that length of the field drive, they are contending for that game as well.

Abandoned the Draft Sean Smith at #25 Bandwagon to Join the Draft Sean Smith at #61 Bandwagon and get Vontae Davis and Chris Clemons. Trio > me.

by DolphDallas on Nov 12, 2009 3:21 PM EST reply actions

I 100% agree with you.

But that is the difference. A lot of games come down to a catch here or there. What matters is that the championship teams make those catches, average teams don’t.

We are very close. As you say, we should be 6-2 right now, but we aren’t. I bet we are next year!

Dolphins and Gators baby!

by gatorfin on Nov 12, 2009 4:27 PM EST up reply actions

All:

Just want to say I am in no way singling out Sean Smith & Vontae for these quick TD drives we’ve given up. I think overall, both guys are doing very well. There are few positions in the NFL that are tougher on rookies than being a CB in what is a pass first league. Let’s not forget too, that Vontae made one heck of a pick in the game against Moss.

The thing is with these quick scores – usually many things go wrong: little or no pass rush, thus giving the QB time to have tea, read a book, and still find the open man. then once the ball is delivered we have awful tackling in the secondary as well as horrendous coverage from the LB on basically every TE we’ve played against.

So to avoid these momentum killers, we need to put the pieces together on D….get more pass rush and pressure on the QB, get better coverage from the LB, better tackling from the safeties (Wilson!!).

by Natalya on Nov 12, 2009 6:52 PM EST up reply actions

Good post again, those games against Carolina and Tennessee are looking

pretty losable right now. When you don’t have a pass rush, start 3 rookies on the secondary and a rookie quarterback plus bad receivers, not a whole lot of positive things will happen. I’d rather lock a top notch spot on the draft next year.

by MauMontaV5 on Nov 12, 2009 3:27 PM EST reply actions

Great post!

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by texascowpunk on Nov 17, 2009 2:59 PM EST reply actions