Phins leaned into the run game for the 3rd time this season & picked up their 3rd win
Who’d of thunk: The Miami Dolphins smacked down the Buffalo Bills 30 -13 and pick up their 2nd win in three games. Within one-week Phins fans received two awesome boosts to their moral in the firing of Chris Grier and sticking it to division foes the Bills.
Now, I’m not saying this means the future is bright, but this was a damn good week for us. If there’s one thing I’ve learned as a Dolphins fan for over forty years, you need to embrace wins when you get them because you never know how long before they’ll come again.
Beating the Bills and watching Achane have a special day was a pleasure, no matter what comes next.
Phins Runners Made it Happen!
Below is the Dolphins run game break down and it’s beautiful.
The stat line has just about everything you’d want: high yards, attempts, average yards per carry, but the one area of concern is the lack of offensive line production. The Dolphins runners generated 5.77 yards after contact and misusing it from the 6.1 average, that means the blockers were generating less than a half a yard before contact. That’s not good.
The blocking struggles didn’t matter in this game because Achane and Wright did a tremendous job. But you can bet with the best pay per head that this is something to keep your eye on in gauging the Phins future success.
Phins three wins were driven by the run game
This type of football, a pass-balanced, physical offense is where the Phins should have been heading all along. Below you can see Miami has won the rushing attempt stat three times and has racked up three wins in that game.
I’m not saying 30 touches is sure to win the game, but clearly 20 or less touches is a death sentence for this squad. Why has McDaniel been so resistant against pounding the football? Who knows… but I sure am glad he figured it out this game and the Bills completely forgot it.
Can McDaniel FINALLY learn the lesson?
The combination of Miami pounding the football and Buffalo going back to their old ‘fun ball’ ways set the table for this win. The same exact scenario played out with Atlanta with a win included.
Will McDaniel finally figure out this basic football reality out?
If he does, this team has a few assets to drive the run game: new tight ends Rucci an Dulcich, tackle Patrick Paul, and the trio of backs Achane, Gordon, and even Wright, who’s started to show growth. But having the pieces and knowing the right course isn’t enough if you refuse to run the ball enough.
There are seven games left, let’s see what McDaniel does and how this team plays. You have to give all the credit in the world to the Phins on this one because it would have been very easy roll over on their belly against the Bills. At the very least this was a little fun in a season that felt completely dead and brings some interest to this upcoming game in Spain.
Go Phins!!!