Can the Miami Dolphins get back to their winning ways in Week 12? The bad taste of a defeat in Week 11 to the Denver Broncos will likely have this team hungry to get after it again on Sunday but the Dolphins do need to tread carefully against a New York Jets team that will be playing with nothing to lose. The Jets, who are winless on the season, have already fallen to the Dolphins once this season and will certainly be out for revenge after Miami pounced on them early to create a 21-0 first half deficit that they never relinquished.
How can the Dolphins best get back on track and scoring points this weekend against a Jets team that has already seen their best shot in Week 6? Here are a few key points to focus on this Sunday:
Run away from Quinnen Williams
The last time these two teams played, we called for the Dolphins to run behind Solomon Kindley and Robert Hunt. But the bigger variable in the game wasn’t where Miami chose to run, but rather where it was in relation to Quinnen Williams. Williams had a terrific day for the Jets against the Dolphins the first time around — so Miami would be wise to avoid that mess this time around and simply run away from the Jets’ best defensive player.
Have more middle of the field screens ready against the blitz
The Broncos made a mess of Miami’s offense by simply stacking an extra defender over the receivers to either side of the field. Trips formation? The Broncos put four defenders overtop of that side of the field. Two by two sets? Denver put three defenders on each half. The end result was that there was a lot of room in intermediate area of the field — but Miami didn’t find too many plays hitting there and when they did, pressure was throwing off the placement of the throws.
Assume New York looks to copy that to some degree. Then Miami should have middle screens ready to go and be ready to hit the Jets with them a few times to get New York more hesitant to blitz, which is a staple of Gregg Williams’ defensive approach.
Trust your size receivers to win the catch point
Tua Tagovailoa spoke about this after the loss to Denver, as did the Dolphins’ coaching staff. Tagovailoa is still learning what “open” looks like at the NFL level while trying to adhere to Miami’s mantra of playing smart, disciplined football. The Dolphins are hoping that this ongoing learning process takes a big step forward in Week 12 — and when throwing to DeVante Parker and Mike Gesicki, there’s good reason to trust those two against a Jets secondary that is plenty short on talent to compete one on one with the ball in the air.
The Dolphins’ best quality in the pass game right now is their ability to win contested throws, so they ought to use that to their advantage in Week 12.
