Football will always be won in the trenches, no matter how much the NFL pushes the skill positions.
Them ‘fat guys’ in the trenches are the foundation to every “W”
The Miami Dolphins front office invested a lot of money and time this offseason in an attempt to improve the offensive and defensive lines.
During the first 5 games of the season, it was real hard to notice any improvements in either of these areas — real hard. The Offensive line was still allowing a ton of pressure on Ryan Tannehill, and the running backs had a difficult time getting space to run. On the Defensive line, other teams were running up and down the field against us, and the opposing QB was not getting significantly pressured.
Adam Gase kept saying it was protection issues and a missed assignment, here and there, that was causing the house of cards to tumble into the toilet.
Most thought it went well beyond just ‘poor protection’.
It seems, he know more than the best football gamblers.
Over the last two games, which coincidentally were both victories, the Dolphins have dominated the trenches.
We know the story by now, but let rehash it for some good vibrations and to set the memory up with numbers: The Dolphins racked up 222 rushing yards on the Steelers, and then the followed it up by upping the ante on the Bills to the tune of 256 yards. This was astounding, because despite being a bit banged up, both of these teams pride themselves on being tough and physical.
Now, after just two weeks, Miami now has the 8th best rushing offense in the entire league, averaging 120 yards per game!
Who would have thunk just a short time ago.
On the Defensive side, the Dolphins allowed 128 yards on the ground against the Steelers; and then against the Bills, who were the number one rushing team in the league, averaging 152.3 yards a game, Miami held them to a paltry 67 yards, which is downright incredible. The stat that knocks your socks off is that the Bills runners averaged only 1.4 INCHES before contact — YES inches. That means that our D-Line was absolutely bulldozing their way into the Bills backfield, and suffocating any chance the Bills had of generating a running attack. This stat greatly offsets the notion that is was simply the lack of McCoy that was the cause of Miami run D’s success.
Sure this is only two games, but these two games might just have created a culture shock to this team. And if this team can just play with this same emotion and tenacity, then more wins could be on the horizon.
The Jets game coming up will be an excellent Litmus test.
Miami has embraced a timeless truth that was forgotten by the Philbin regime: If you win the battle of the trenches, especially on the offensive side of the ball, they there’s a very good chance you win the ball game. Let’s hope Gase doesn’t forget all that he has learned! Go Fins!!!