Is that bad? That seems bad. (The answer is yes.)
Say what you will about Pro Football Focus (PFF), there’s no denying the value that their charting can provide from a data perspective. The scoring of plays and players is often met by some pushback — but the staff at PFF has a meticulous process and they chart every play of every game multiple times, which allows for some seriously in depth statistics.
One of those measures is “forced incompletions” — a measure designed to differentiate between different kinds of incomplete passes. For example: overthrows and dropped passes offer no resistance from the defense, while passes defensed, passes batted and pressures resulting in throwaways are all incomplete passes that the defense had a direct hand in forcing.
As it turns out, former defensive coordinator Matt Burke’s 2018 defense was terrible at forcing incomplete passes — the Dolphins’ 6.8% forced incompletion rate was dead last in the NFL last season. Being honest, Burke’s defense was terrible in a lot of ways. The game-planning was stale and the opposition exposed a failure to adjust by Burke and his staff. As for the team’s ranking in forced incompletions, how many times can Dolphins fans recall the Dolphins playing 6-8 yards off the line on 3rd and 4?
Expect a different mentality with Brian Flores at the helm. That isn’t to say the end result will be any better, but at least the Dolphins will stop being so darn passive.
