Doesn’t it feel like the Miami Dolphins have to overcome a 61-7 1st quarter deficit in way too many games? Is it just déjà vu from the jaded past? Is it the typical epidemic of human memory production that highlights the few negatives amidst a vast sea of positives?
No, trust me. We sucked.
The only thing saving us is that, possibly, the Miami Dolphins won an overwhelming amount of coin tosses over the last 2 years and deferred - this would skew the statistics that I found. I simply cannot find any research that breaks down which team called the coin toss, and what the team ultimately decided (it might just be the only website about the NFL that doesn’t exist yet). I can’t give us the benefit of the doubt until raw data comes to light.
It’s likelier that we just sucked, anyway.
The Miami Dolphins have had the worst 1st quarter time of possession in each of the last 2 NFL seasons.
In 2016, the Miami Dolphins had the 2nd worst 1st quarter scoring offense in the NFL (2.6); in 2015, the 4th worst.
I hate Ryan Ta-....oh wait, there’s more?
In 2016, the Miami Dolphins defense was dead last in 1st quarter scoring (7.3), almost a full point higher than the 31st ranked defense (Cleveland). In 2015, we were tied for 4th worst in 1st quarter scoring defense.
It’s not in my nature to bring a problem to the surface without a possible solution, but I honestly don’t know what to do about this. It’s a tough phenomenon to resolve considering the 1st 15 plays-ish are scripted and we have an offensive genius calling plays for us; it’s a tough phenomenon to disentangle because it is as interdependent as offense and defense itself.
We can’t expect to crawl out of a deficit each and every game, not to mention, in my opinion, our defense is built to play with a lead.
May I have your help? How do we get better in the 1st quarter? It seems like a pretty big deal to me.