It’s solely the preseason, however this isn’t the run recreation the Miami Dolphins envisioned coach Mike McDaniel bringing to South Florida after his San Francisco 49ers ranked prime seven in dashing yards two of the previous three seasons.
Through two preseason video games, the Dolphins are averaging 2.6 yards per carry. In final Saturday’s exhibition loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, Miami had 4 dashing yards at halftime.
Working out the kinks within the run recreation will likely be a focus within the Dolphins’ remaining preseason week with joint practices towards the Philadelphia Eagles on Wednesday and Thursday forward of the groups squaring off for a preseason finale at Hard Rock Stadium on Saturday night time.
McDaniel shouldn’t be overly involved this week, noting it’s commonplace for a run recreation to wrestle within the preseason and grow to be explosive come common season or vice-versa. He is figuring out what’s mistaken on particular person performs, whether or not it’s a number of missed assignments or one block destroying the play.
“I want stuff to be better from that Raiders game and I want, I want us to run the ball well,” he mentioned Tuesday. “At the same time, I think our players are pretty confident — and the coaching staff I know is — that we’re going to be fine moving forward.”
Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa indicated after the Raiders recreation it’s a sequence of vanilla run calls the Dolphins are operating in preseason and never their full allotment of performs on the bottom, a message coaches have echoed.
“I would think that what’s going to come in the future, from the in-season, will be more detailed to our opponents,” mentioned offensive coordinator Frank Smith on Sunday. “Right now, we’re trying to execute the core concepts we’ve been running in training camp, so there will be, I think, differences for each opponent that we need to fix.”
Running backs coach Eric Studesville additionally famous that a lot of the regular-season run calls will likely be recreation plan-oriented, primarily based on what can work towards an opposing protection.
“That depends on the opponent and what we’re doing,” he mentioned. “A lot of it depends on what they show and what we think is going to be best against them. So, it’s not like we have a set — we just have this and this is what we’re running.”
Whether there’s extra so as to add or not, the offensive line nonetheless must create the holes on this new wide-zone scheme the unit is studying.
“I guess it’s pretty vanilla, but that’s still our bread-and-butter stuff, so we want to get it running and we want to get it running efficiently,” mentioned middle Michael Deiter. “I don’t really know how much more we’ll put in, but it doesn’t really matter. We need to be able to run whatever they call, no matter if it’s the most vanilla stuff we have. We need to be able to be consistent.”
Prized free-agent acquisition in left sort out Terron Armstead figures to offer a boon on the bottom as soon as he’s totally built-in. Armstead didn’t play in both preseason recreation however has elevated his apply workload in spurts by way of coaching camp, making progress together with his surgically repaired knee. He was again on the apply discipline in 11-on-11 drills on Tuesday after not collaborating in group parts of apply final Wednesday or Thursday.
The Dolphins have additionally progressively labored fullback Alec Ingold, who sat each preseason video games, into the combo. McDaniel’s run recreation will function the place and hasn’t had he nor John Lovett, who was positioned on injured reserve on Tuesday, obtainable to fill that function.
McDaniel mentioned Tuesday that Ingold, who tore the anterior cruciate ligament his knee in a Nov. 14 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs whereas with the Raiders final yr, is the one participant he can affirm will play in Saturday’s preseason finale.
“It’s been a long time coming. I love playing football,” Ingold mentioned. “I’ve spent way too long in film rooms and on practice fields. It’s time to go strap up with these guys, so I’m really excited.”
Ingold has been watching the Dolphins’ run recreation get off to a gradual begin from the sideline and feels it’s on the verge of a turnaround.
“It’s all about the details, and I think we got a lot of guys that are detail-oriented, a lot of talent, a lot of character,” he mentioned. “It’s staying on all these installs and not taking anything lightly. So, every detail every play we have on the practice field, you have to have all of the intent in the world to make it better, make it go, and then it’s time to get it to translate onto the game field.”
The Dolphins really feel they simply want a little bit extra time to piece the run recreation collectively, and so they additionally know that point they want will quickly bleed into the common season if it’s not mounted imminently.
“We’re a work in progress,” mentioned Studesville. “That’s why we’re practising. That’s why we’ve camp — to get these things in. It’s a brand new system. It takes time for all of us to gel. I feel each room has been concerned in actually staying centered and devoted to desirous to make this work.
“Obviously, the clock is ticking. We’re aware of that, but we’re pushing forward and we’re trying to make all the corrections and get everybody on the same page so it does look better than it has.”
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