There aren’t a lot of acceptable excuses in football.
If a team is dealing with injuries, they’ll be told that they happen for everyone and to get the next guy up. If it’s poor officiating, that’s usually laughed out of the room.
For Dolphins’ linebacker Jerome Baker, there are no excuses for the way his defense has played through the first four weeks of the season that has resulted in them staring Week 5 in the face with a 1-3 record.
“We have to look in the mirror and stop blaming other people, other things and turn this around for us,” Baker said in his media availability on Thursday.
Straight talk today from Jerome Baker about defense that is underperforming (25th in points allowed): "We have to look in the mirror and stop blaming
other people, other things and turn this thing around for us."— Barry Jackson (@flasportsbuzz) October 7, 2021
He’s not wrong. Dolphins’ defenses have seen better starts to a season. Miami is 24th in yards allowed per game, averaging 388.2. The scoring allowed is even worse, as they’ve allowed 27.2 points per game, good for 25th.
Brian Flores’ defense played a strong offense in Buffalo in Week 2 that may have skewed the number, but they gave up 31 and 27 to the Raiders and the Colts respectively. A good defense can’t allow that to happen.
How will they fix this? We don’t know. However, there’s a little comfort in knowing the problem is recognized and not being taken lightly by one of the leaders of the unit.
