You know, I understand that this season is about growth, development, and resetting the outlook. But is it too much to ask to get one game of complimentary football from this team? Yet another frustrating loss when one side of the ball shows up, but the other does not. Here’s what I saw.
I can really call them, can’t I? The Detroit Lions and Miami Dolphins had two of the league’s worst defenses coming into this game. I figured there would be a shootout, or at least a higher-scoring affair. Yet the game featured fewer than 500 total yards of offense and only 28 total points. The Lions averaged 29 PPG coming into this contest, scoring less than 20 points only once, and that was against the league’s best defense, the Vikings. They averaged 6 yards per play before this game. Yet, the Miami Dolphins defense limited the Lions to 19 points and 4.6 yards per play. The Lions gained over 100 fewer yards than their per-game average for the season. For the 1st time all season, the pass defense allowed less than a 70% completion percentage. Goff was limited to 6.8 YPA, and he did not throw a TD. He was sacked 3 times. Rookie Chris Johnson got an INT. Not only that, but the run defense showed up again. The Lions gained 102 yards, but 25% of it came on 2 misdirection plays. Jahmyr Gibbs has been the league’s most dominant weapon thus far this season, and he eventually found the end zone. But he was limited to 74 yards on 20 carries and no catches on 1 target. That’s a 3.7 YPC average, and that’s WITH 2 runs of 10+ yards. This was a terrible matchup for the Dolphins, but they stepped up in a big way.
The offense picked a bad time to be absent. The Lions had allowed 300+ yards in every game but one so far, and that was to the offensively challenged Vikings. They were fairly decent in run defense, although I suspected that was due to lack of volume. They score so much that teams abandon the run. The Dolphins had 21 rushing attempts, which is a little below their standard. Gordon ran fairly well when he got an opening. However, the story is that Willis had 2 scrambles for 7 yards. The stat itself isn’t as striking as watching them happen. Willis is a dynamic runner, and we have seen him make big plays with his legs this season. But in the past 2 games, he has been reluctant to run. He has been on the injury report the past few weeks with a groin injury, but was listed as a full participant. It was obvious that the injury, or maybe something else, is hampering him. He ran slowly and lumbering, not at all like what we have seen from him. That doesn’t excuse the INT, which was a bad decision. But it can explain why he can’t escape pressure like he normally does, and why he ran the way I would have out there. I know fans hate excuses, but anyone who has ever dealt with a groin injury understands. You may feel fine walking around. But the moment you have to run and put forth effort, it’s very painful, and you can’t do it. It can affect everything, including throwing mechanics. Even with that, Willis had good moments. I don’t want to make this about whether he is good enough, but as long as he is limited, the offense will be limited. I honestly wouldn’t mind if they sat him for a while until he is healthy. In the past 2 games, he played at a higher level, and I believe that if he were 100% on Sunday, the Dolphins could have won. Well… there were other issues too.
As I mentioned at the beginning, this game was frustrating because one side of the ball can’t play well enough to compliment the other. Perhaps the Dolphins can finally put it together against a reeling Colts team that has given up on the season and started trading off players.