FanPost

Your Comprehensive Guide to the Dolphins 2008 Offense

Well I was interested in seeing how we performed out of the Shotgun formation for the 2008 season, to maybe think about suggesting we use it more.  Turns out, we actually didn't play that well out of the gun (only 6.3 YPA when we were ahead or even and not playing prevent defenses).  Once that was done, it was just a few clicks of the mouse away to put this together though, so I figured I'd share it with you guys since this stuff isn't readily available. Enjoy.

Dolphins Passing Offense
Attempts Comp % Yards YPA TDS INTS
Total 491 330 67.21% 3761 7.66 20 7
Shotgun 152 101 66.45% 1072 7.05 2 3
WC 3 2 66.67% 41 13.67 1 0
Base 336 227 67.56% 2648 7.88 17 4

s you can see, the shotgun offense was a bit less explosive than when Chad (or Chad) was playing under center.  My personal theory?  Our longer completions probably came on play action type throws that gave our WRs time to get open down field, whereas in the shotgun he was probably throwing against a defense more prepared for the pass- and thus tighter coverages, more pass pressure, less time to get the ball down field, etc.  and ended up throwing shorter passes.  Any other theories?

The WC passing doesn't include any of the reverses to Chad - only Ronnie dropping back and passing.  He did pretty well- but there were a few aborted pass plays I remember too.  Most of the time guys were wide open on WC plays, but Ronnie wasn't quick enough getting the ball out of his hands.  That is why the idea of Pat White intrigues me.

Dolphins Rushing offense
Carries Yards YPC TD
Season 448 1897 4.23 18
WC 85 504 5.93 6
Shotgun 39 140 3.59 0
Non-RBs 39 149 3.82 3
Under C-RBs only 285 1104 3.87 9

You've already seen these rushing numbers before- this time it just includes rushing plays from the shotgun (ie mostly mid-draw plays).  No need to go over the base production again- it stunk and would have put us near the bottom of the leage in yards per carry.  Our inability to rush out of the shotgun kind of surprised me, as usually you can pop some big runs on draw plays like that; NE ran quite successfully out of the gun this past year.

Dolphins Sacks
# Yards Y/S
Total 26 -129 -4.96
Shotgun 6 -25 -4.17
WC 1 -8 -8.00
Base 19 -96 -5.05

Man, if only we rushed as well as we got sacked!  I'd take 5 yards a carry any day.

Dolphins Total Offense
Plays Yards Yards w/Sacks Y/P Y/G TDs
965 5658 5529 5.73 346 38

Overall, despite a patched up O-line, 2 RBs coming off of injures, and a bunch of #2 and slot receivers- we actually had a pretty dynamic offense all things considered.  Our yards per game was only good enough for 12th in the league- so barely above average.  Our yards per play, however, was good enough for 7th in the league.  The reason for the discrepancy?  Our 965 plays run was pretty close to the bottom- ranking 23rd in the league- the top was NE with 1,095 plays run, the bottom was the Lions with 913.  That to me means we need to speed our offense up a bit, and get more snaps in per game.  Think about it- if we averaged 2 more plays per game- with an average of 5.73 yards per play- that is one extra first down per game on average.

Dolphins Plays By Percentage
Pass Run Sacks
% Plays % Yards % TDs % Plays % Yards % TDs % Plays
50.88% 66.47% 52.63% 46.42% 33.53% 47.37% 2.69%

Any one surprised to see passing plays out number rushing plays by such a significant number?  That to me is a sign of a lack of confidence in the offensive line to get yardage, considering we weren't playing from huge deficits in most games and shouldn't have been in pass first mode.  Count the sacks as passing plays, and it skews it even more.  Hopefully with a more solidified line we will see more running plays.  Adding some scoring threats to the offense will help us get bigger leads, and shoring up the D and special teams will help us keep them, which will also lead to more rushing opportunities.  When we are in that kind of situation (ie playing with a lead), and we can STILL rush the ball effectively while teams are expecting running plays- that is how we will know we have a solid O-line.  Too many times last year we were throwing the ball to eat up the clock when we had a lead.

My congratulations/condolances to anyone who read this entire post.  Everyone else can wake up now.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of The Phinsider's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of The Phinsider writers or editors.