Up Close: Kilgore & Larsen v.s. The Jets Defense

Kilgore & Larsen were affected the most by Josh Sitton’s season-ending injury

Kilgore & Larsen had ups and downs games in Week 2… but shined in the 4th Qtr.

Josh Sitton’s season-ending injury had ripple effects across the entire Miami Dolphins team… staff included. But, ground zero of the impact was on #62 LG Ted Larsen and #67 C Daniel Kilgore.

The Jets game was the 1st time the two had worked together under the stress of an NFL game. While they played together in Preseason, the Regular Season a is totally different beast with teeth several sizes bigger.

As we inspect the play of Kilgore and Larsen in this film study, you’ll see Todd Bowles used this situation as a platform to attack the Dolphins offense. More importantly, though, Adam Gase game-planned for this attack. Over the course of the game, he made adjustments throughout the game to ‘call-up’ winning plays. In the end, Gase out-coaching Bowles for the ‘W’ and Larsen and Kilgore came up big.

Gase opened the game with a QB boot to slow down an aggressive Jets ‘D’

The Dolphins opened the game with a Tannehill boot run, two inside runs, and a swing pass to Drake.

While these scripted set of plays ended in a stalled drive, they forced the defense into conservative plays calls for most of the 1st Qtr.

If you add together the Jets exotic and aggressive defense with Larsen getting his first snaps of 2018, Gase protecting his offense through play calling was a wise move. Later though, the boots, against a Jets defense desperate to make a stop, provided big and timely plays.

Unfortunately, on the 2nd Dolphins drive, the Jets sacked Tannehill twice.

The 1st sack came about by a simple 5 man rush with an edge blitz (vanilla for the Jets). This blitz should have been picked up by Gesicki and been a completion. Gase’s call had a perfect protection for the Jets play. The Dolphins failure on this one came about because Gesicki took a bad angle. Gesicki’s block should have landed on the outside shoulder of McClendon instead of inside.

A game of inches… a block on the wrong shoulder kills a play

Bowles attack was fairly cautious with a simple 4 man rush on 3rd & 8. He did though add a wrinkle of the DT crossing the center to the right and attacking the A Gap, while the other 3 rushers attacked a man. This was a test run to see how the continuity of Larsen and Kilgore would respond. The inside move caused a sack. Bowles found a chink in the armor. This chink would be exposed under greater intensity as the game progressed.

Attacking a gap forces a matchup of agility and speed between players

Midway through the 2nd Quarter, Bowles put the peddle to the metal with twists and stunts. The first salvo was this double, inside TED (Tackle and End) Stunt.

Speed and movement was the theme for the Jets defense in Week 2.

Jesse Davis handled these stunts the best of the three interior O-linemen. While Kilgore had a few fails against twists, the combination of Larsen and Kilgore was the most susceptible. Given their lack of time under fire together, this susceptibility to movement is natural. Fortunately, this failure against stunts should lessen in the coming weeks as chemistry grows.

Here is a wild one.

Larsen and Kilgore had more wins in head-to-head blocking… Although, the more talented Jets D-linemen overwhelmed both on occasion. Gase nicely sprinkled in some counters to take advantage of Jets rush. By the 4th Qtr though, both Dolphins linemen showed true grit and came up big in run blocking.

It took me almost 10 runs through of the game to spot one of the most impactful plays of Week 2.

The BIG pass & catch between Gore and Tannehill was only made possible by a brilliant and unheralded play by Larsen.

In the end, Miami will be fine with Larsen, Kilgore, and Davis as the starters. While Sitton’s absence is a big loss for sure, his absence can be overcome.

All three players are gritty and mentally tough. Larsen and Kilgore bring valuable experience, and in tight games, this experience will pay big dividends as it did against the Jets. Also, we should see a greater chemistry between Kilgore, Larsen, and Davis in the Raiders game, so they might not be as victimized. They’ll need it. The Raiders 3-4 ‘D’ will have studied the Jets /Dolphins game. They will use stunts to attack the Dolphins Interior O-Line… until they prove effective at stopping it.

The biggest issue I see going forward is depth. Can Miami survive another injury at the O-Line’s interior? Is Travis Swanson good enough to fill in at either Center or Guard? That I don’t know. Most pay per head sites don’t like the odds. Let’s hope it doesn’t get to that. Go Phins!!

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