The Miami Dolphins blew a 13-3 halftime lead against the New England Patriots, ultimately falling 24-19.
Looking back at the game through the All-22 lens tells a story of how Miami lost control, so let's break down some of the key developments from this Week 8 matchup.
Malik Willis' performance was far from the main reason Miami lost this game, but he fell back down to earth following a stellar performance against the Jets, and one particular trait of his worries me.
Willis' pocket awareness does not match the kind of player his physical traits would suggest. He has excellent speed and agility, but his sack avoidance and mitigation are poor, largely due to subpar decision-making.
This game was another prime example of Willis' inability to feel what's happening around him. His understanding of where he is in relation to other defenders led to him walking into pressure, climbing the pocket with poor, exaggerated footwork, and taking far too many negative plays, and in an offense that has failed to create explosives, the margin for error is too small for this caliber of performance.
Miami's ground attack hit a wall Sunday, tying their season low in rushing yards with only 74. New England's defense, which ranks middle of the pack against the run, stuffed the Dolphins ball carriers on over a quarter of their total rushes. Their 26.1% stuffed run rate is third in the NFL in Week 8, and up from their 19th-ranked 15.5% on the year.
Among those stops were some ugly individual losses. Jonah Savaiinaea and Aaron Brewer were bullied by defensive tackle Corey Durden early on. Durden won in every way, penetrating gaps and walking Miami's interior into the backfield in one-on-one situations.
When Miami's offense took over in the red zone after Jacob Rodriguez's forced fumble, they looked to establish the ground game with back-to-back zone runs. On the first, Durden attacks the backside shoulder of Aaron Brewer and is met with little resistance. Jarrett Kingston is pushed back by Milton Williams, while Patrick Paul is unable to create any knockback against Elijah Ponder. Ollie Gordon II has nowhere to go on the front side and is stopped for no gain.
On second down, Durden wins again, this time charging through the chest of Jonah Savaiinaea and driving him 3 yards backwards, stalling Gordon and allowing other Patriots defenders to come in and finish the play.
Lacking the raw power of Kadyn Proctor, along with the chemistry he has with his running mates, Miami's line looked the worst they have all year. They didn't go back to the gap scheme runs they had success with last week, and in the rain, they failed to find any sort of consistent push.
Over the last two weeks, Jeff Hafley has been more trusting and aggressive with his secondary. They've played a considerable amount of man coverage, sent blitzes that leave fewer bodies on the backend, and run disguised coverages that require bodies to move at the snap. This has worked at times, but has created a level of variance that has led to multiple big plays.
Drake Maye hit two long passing touchdowns in this game where Jeff Hafley put his defensive backs in tough situations. On the first, a late rotation down means Michael Taaffe has a one-on-one with Kyle Williams, who has a majority of the field to work with. Williams attacks the open grass, Taaffe can't get there in time, and he scores.
On the second, JuJu Brents is in man coverage against DeMario Douglas, who, on a bootleg concept, has enough time to run a long-developing comeback route that completely dusts the corner. Douglas makes the catch, splits the Dolphins' defenders, and finds his way into the end zone.
Hafley's defense is in an interesting predicament. Changing the picture and aggressively attacking quarterbacks has the potential to create big defensive stops, but if the front can't win quickly, the backend has neither the resources or top-end talent to make up for it. This balancing act has plagued Miami all year, and it did again in Week 8.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/nfl/dolphins/onsi as What the Week 8 Film Told Us About the Miami Dolphins .
