The Miami Dolphins are largely out of the playoff hunt because they have completely surrendered the point of attack. Their Week 15 loss to the Houston Texans was an absolute butt-kicking in the trenches, and the topline stats reinforce what our eyes told us.
The Dolphins averaged just 2.7 yards per carry and allowed a staggering 21 pressures on 43 dropbacks Sunday. And there’s no secret who’s to blame. Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel has twice this week called out the offensive line and other blockers as the culprits.
“When your line of scrimmage is violated to the point that you have some turnover football, that you have some hits on the quarterback and you’re not able to stay on the field as long as you want, you have to figure out a way to reestablish the line of scrimmage,” McDaniel told reporters on Wednesday. “That problem’s not going anywhere until we solve it.”
Miami Dolphins’ Offensive Line Woes
Sunday’s shellacking was no one-off.
The Dolphins on the year are ranked 31st in yards per carry (3.9) and 27th in yards before contact per carry (1.2) after ranking first (5.1) and 10th (1.6) in those categories a year ago.
What explains the decline, particularly considering the Dolphins largely have the same players on the field as they did in 2023?
McDaniel had a long answer to that straightforward question Wednesday: He said there’s been a drop-off in technique and fundamentals, particularly with leverage and remaining attached to blocks long enough for them to be effective.
He mentioned schematics. He rightly noted that Dolphins accepted holding penalties by offensive players are up (1.4 per game from 1.2 in 2023).
And then he said the most interesting thing of all: The Dolphins have not executed nearly as well as they have needed to since right tackle Austin Jackson suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 9.
The Austin Jackson Effect
The facts support McDaniel’s argument.
The Dolphins ran the ball for 1,072 yards on 243 carries (4.4 average) with six touchdowns this year when Jackson has been on the field. Their yards-before-contact average in those carries was 1.52.
With either Kendall Lamm or Jackson Carman at right tackle, the Dolphins’ rushing stats have been far worse: 348 yards on 125 attempts (2.8 per) with three rushing touchdowns and a yards-before-contact average of just 0.5.
While their rushing third-down conversion rate (50%) wasn’t great with Jackson, it’s been downright embarrassing (25%) without him.
This suggests that the Dolphins overestimated how effectively Lamm (and then Carman) would perform if Jackson went down. And it absolutely supports those who have argued that they need to improve their depth on the offensive line this offseason.
“He’s a very good player at the point of attack,” McDaniel said of Jackson. “But we have other good players too, and how do we get that consistent?
“Like anything in football, it’s a group effort and it starts with focusing on the right things — not just the result, but more of what does it look like and where [are] the failures at the point of attack?”