Perhaps Cleveland turns into that sport for the Miami Dolphins.
Perhaps the Browns are the sport the place all of it comes collectively — offense, protection, particular groups, teaching, self-discipline, all the things.
“We haven’t yet had that game that you’re shooting for where you feel like each phase has played to its capability the entire game,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel mentioned.
McDaniel mentioned he thinks his staff is near having such a whole sport.
In the absence of the whole sport, the Dolphins will do what they’ve carried out on their approach to a 6-3 document, they’ll play their very own model of complementary soccer.
At occasions, it’s a bumpy highway.
“But along the way,” McDaniel mentioned, “we’re learning these great lessons, and that’s why I’m getting excited about the team and how we’re getting better each week.”
The Dolphins, who will host Cleveland (3-5) whereas enjoying their second sport with new edge rusher Bradley Chubb and operating again Jeff Wilson Jr., a pair of headline-grabbing commerce deadline acquisitions, have an opportunity to take first place within the AFC East.
If the Dolphins win and Buffalo (6-2) loses to Minnesota (7-1), the Dolphins are in first place.
Whether or not that occurs, the Dolphins have proven they’ll win doing issues their method, so to talk.
McDaniel acknowledged the Dolphins’ model of complementary soccer hasn’t been conventional within the sense it doesn’t all the time work with, say, the protection getting a cease, forcing a punt, and the offense taking the ball down the sphere and scoring on the following possession time after time after time.
In truth, McDaniel thinks that’s unrealistic.
“There’s no complete domination in the NFL,” McDaniel mentioned.
The Dolphins’ variations of complementary soccer have been a bit uneven, however efficient.
Sometimes the offense has the magic, typically the protection has the magic, typically particular groups make performs, and typically the magic is barely there briefly but it surely surfaces on the proper time.
In victories over Pittsburgh and Detroit the protection pitched second-half shutouts. Within that, issues weren’t essentially excellent. The offense didn’t rating within the second half in opposition to the Steelers, but it surely posted 14 factors within the second half in opposition to the Lions.
In the opener in opposition to New England the offense solely scored one landing however the protection added a landing to assist within the 20-7 victory.
Against Baltimore, the protection allowed 38 factors however solely three factors within the fourth quarter whereas the offense scored 28 fourth-quarter factors to snag the 42-38 victory.
Again, it hasn’t been excellent but it surely works.
“There’s complementary football within it,” McDaniel.
The sample repeated itself final week within the Dolphins’ 35-32 victory at Chicago.
The Dolphins, who acquired a particular groups landing on a blocked punt, have been holding a 35-32 lead early within the fourth quarter and the protection managed to clamp down on Chicago’s last two possessions to take care of that margin regardless of a document 178 yards dashing by Bears quarterback Justin Fields.
“This is the NFL,” McDaniel mentioned. “It’s hard to have success in either phase the entire game. They get paid, too.”
Against the Browns, the Dolphins are tasked with controlling operating again Nick Chubb, who ranks second within the league with 814 yards dashing.
“You’d be hard-pressed not to call him the best back in the league, simply because of what I talked to players all the time about,” McDaniel mentioned, later including, “he forces defenders to tackle him every play. And if you let up at all, he’ll have one of those rugby scrum explosives, where he’ll all of a sudden bust out.”
The Dolphins’ run protection has been torched by a pair of quarterbacks — Fields and Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson (119 yards dashing) and examined by New York Jets operating again Breece Hall (97 yards dashing).
The Browns, nonetheless, are tasked with stopping the Dolphins’ passing sport that’s led by quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, whose 115.9 passer ranking leads the NFL, and broad receivers Tyreek Hill (lead-leading 1,104 yards receiving) and Jaylen Waddle (812 yards receiving).
The Dolphins have had their finest back-to-back scoring outputs of the season the previous two weeks with 31 factors at Detroit and 35 factors at Chicago, each spectacular highway showings regardless of coming in opposition to a pair of NFL lightweights.
And the best way McDaniel sees issues, though the Dolphins haven’t but had their excellent victory, they’re getting higher every week.
“That’s what I hope for this week with the Cleveland Browns,” he mentioned. “I need to see continued development in ways in which aren’t perhaps as apparent as simply the straight up field rating, however we’re studying the way to step up in large moments.
“The more you do that, the more you have a chance to have that game where everyone is high-fiving at the end and acknowledging that their best game was played.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com