Miami, FL
Chris Perkins: Miami Dolphins’ defense hasn’t arrived yet, but it’s en route
MIAMI GARDENS — All day Sunday, the Miami Dolphins defense put in its work in the team’s 31-16 victory against the hapless New York Giants. The results were encouraging. They defense recorded a season-best in sacks (seven), a season-best in quarterback hits (14), didn’t allow an offensive touchdown, and held the Giants to 85 yards rushing, the second-best total of the season.
The Dolphins defense, which was blamed for a lot of the problems of last year’s 9-8 season and therefore made some major changes in the offseason, turned in a solid game Sunday.
“It felt like how it’s supposed to feel,” linebacker David Long Jr. said.
It was quite a bounce-back performance after getting smoked at Buffalo, 48-20, last week and allowing 34 points in the season-opening 36-34 win at the Los Angeles Chargers.
There was only one thing the Dolphins defense didn’t do against the Giants.
“We didn’t get the ball,” veteran safety DeShon Elliott said. “That’s not championship football. And we had a lot of (coverage) busts. There’s a lot of (stuff) we can work on.
“Overall, we got the win as a team but I think we definitely could play better as a defense.”
Elliott is right.
The Dolphins defense could be better, and it should be better. They’re not yet where they want to be, or where they should be.
For example, the Dolphins lost the turnover battle Sunday 3-0 something that didn’t escape notice by coach Mike McDaniel.
“It was a tremendous job by our defense to handle a three-turnover output by our offense,” he said.
Still there were good things happening. Linebackers Zach Sieler (2.0 sacks) and Emmanuel Ogbah and Jerome Baker (1.5 sacks each) were strong, and so was linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel (1.0 sack).
Cornerback Eli Apple, who re-gained his boundary job in the nickel formation, had a team-best nine tackles.
The defense did well playing its third game without edge rusher Jalean Phillips (oblique). Once again, Van Ginkel and Ogbah did well in his place.
And the nickel package once again features Apple and Xavien Howard as the boundary cornerbacks with Kader Kohou moving to the slot.
But overall the defense remains a work in progress, and I think it’ll take them until Thanksgiving to get their groove.
The Dolphins defense has been trying to find its footing throughout this early part of the season. Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio and cornerback Jalen Ramsey were brought in to ensure this unit fares better than its No. 15 ranking in 2022, and much better than their 23.5 points per game allowed last year, which was ninth worst in the league.
That plan was dealt an immediate body blow when Ramsey, likely the best player on the defense when healthy, sustained a knee injury on the second day of training camp and is out until late in the season.
That’s one reason the Dolphins defense hasn’t been ideal through five games.
They’ve only produced five takeaways (two interceptions, three fumble recoveries), which puts them in the middle of the pack in the NFL.
Aside from that, the Dolphins defense entered the Giants game in the lower half of the league in most defensive categories.
They were tied for 26th in overall defense (374.5 yards allowed per game), 25th in pass defense (251.0 ypg), 22nd in rushing defense (123.5 ypg), 28th in scoring defense (29.8 points allowed per game), and tied for 25th in third-down defense (46.2% conversions allowed).
The Dolphins defense won’t get big-time credit for limiting the hapless Giants, nor will it get credit if it repeats the performance, or even does slightly better next week against the winless Carolina Panthers (0-5).
But that’s OK.
This is all practice for the bigger games on the schedule such as at Philadelphia, last season’s Super Bowl runner-up, in two weeks, or the game in Germany against the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs two weeks after that.
And there’s no big rush to get things done.
“We’re just putting this thing together, slowly but surely,” defensive tackle Raekwon Davis said.
The Dolphins know they’ll be judged by how they play in their biggest games this season.
Sunday’s victory was OK, but last week’s loss at Buffalo is more significant.
The Dolphins already knew their defense could hold up at home against a team such as the Giants. They need to know their defense can hold up on the road against a team such as Buffalo.
“We didn’t have the best week last week,” Sieler said.
And they need to know it can hold up on the road against teams like Philadelphia and Kansas City.
The Dolphins are in first place in the AFC East again thanks to Buffalo’s 25-20 loss to Jacksonville in London. The Dolphins improve to 4-1 Sunday, and the Bills are 3-2.
This game against the Giants was good, it’s the type of opponent this Dolphins defense showed it could handle last year.
The defense needs to show it can step up and fight with the heavyweights.
“This was the fifth game?” Elliott asked. “We’ve got 12 chances to get better, 12 chances to be great.”
Inter Miami CF head coach Javier Mascherano said his players showed soul and fight to come back from a 2-0 halftime deficit to draw 3-3 against the Philadelphia Union on Saturday night at Subaru Park.
Lionel Messi helped inspire the rally with a spectacular free kick and an assist on the tying goal for a team that has been trying to get out of a recent funk that included losses in five of the past seven games.
“I think we showed character, personality. It was another difficult start of the game for us because in the beginning we conceded the goal and the situation that we are in when you concede it’s difficult, you know, because you start to think that you have to come back again,” Mascherano said. “But the guys showed a lot of character. They showed that they want to fight to get out of this situation.
“I think we showed that we have soul and we have to fight.”
Despite entering the match trying to turn things around, Miami struggled to contain the Union early in the game and the hosts took a 2-0 lead into the break. Mascherano tried to rally his team at halftime, urging players to forget about the consequences of a negative result and focus on tactics.
“I told them at halftime that we are in a situation that is s—. And the only way to see the sun is to give everything, and forget the result,” Mascherano said. “The result is my fault, it is my responsibility. They have to play because football is a game and we have to play.
“I said, ‘Play, don’t think about the result.’ The result is the coach’s fault, the responsibility of the coach. But we want to have the ball, to move the ball to one side, to the other side, try to play on the opposite side. This is for me the way to start a game, winning games and be in a good dynamic. So I try to translate it because it’s the only way. We cannot be worried about the result. We cannot be worried. It’s about playing the game.”
Tadeo Allende led the comeback, scoring in the 60th minute, but the Union restored their two-goal advantage minutes later with Tai Baribo’s second strike of the night. Miami captain Messi kept his team in the game with a stellar free kick from the top of the area for the team’s second goal.
Telasco Segovia then scored the final goal of the night — with Messi assisting — in second-half stoppage time to secure the Herons’ point.
Mascherano, however, emphasized the team were unlucky in that the Union’s third goal should have been called offside.
“We were not lucky because the third goal of theirs was very clearly offside,” Miami’s coach said. “It was very, very obvious that the third goal was offside. I don’t know why. Where is the VAR? What were they doing? Because it’s very clear.
“We cannot watch it on our tablet because we have a tactical camera, but the lateral camera is very clear.”
The Herons return to action Wednesday night with a home game against CF Montreal at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The Miami Dolphins now know who and when they will play in the upcoming preseason. The Dolphins first two games will be on the road against the Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions then finally finishing at home against the Jacksonville Jaguars. It’s expected that the Dolphins will have joint practices with their opponents leading up to their games.
You can check out that story here, and the rest of the day’s round-up below.
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The Miami Heat experienced one of their toughest seasons in recent memory.
Going 37-45, Miami suffered its first losing record since 2018-19.
The Jimmy Butler drama ultimately led to trading the star forward just two years removed from him leading the Heat to the 2023 NBA Finals.
The Heat emerged from the play-in to make the playoffs as an eighth seed only to have the Cleveland Cavaliers sweep them in the first round. Miami lost Game 4 by 55 points, suffering the worst margin of defeat in a game to close a series.
Through it all, Chris Quinn remained steady.
League sources say the Heat’s associate head coach helped keep Miami together and made sure the team didn’t go “sideways.”
Now, Quinn is a head coach candidate for the Phoenix Suns, who also experienced a disappointing and drama-filled season that ended with just 36 wins and the firing of Mike Budenholzer after one season.
Cleveland Cavaliers assistants Jordan Ott and Johnnie Bryant, Oklahoma City Thunder assistant Dave Bliss, Minnesota Timberwolves assistant Micah Nori, Brooklyn Nets assistant Steve Hetzel, Dallas Mavericks assistant Sean Sweeney, New Orleans Pelicans assistant James Borrego, Suns assistant David Fizdale and Quinn are candidates for the job, league sources confirmed to The Arizona Republic this week.
Quinn has been an assistant under Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra since 2015. He previously worked as an assistant for the Heat’s G League team, Sioux Falls Skyforce, in the 2014-15 season.
He also played three seasons for the Heat, with the first two under Pat Riley (2006-08) and the third one for Spoelstra (2008-09).
Quinn is Spoelstra’s “right hand man” when it comes to in-game adjustments, sources say. He has been in contention for NBA head coaching vacancies in recent years.
Quinn’s ability to connect with players is deemed impressive. He’s big on player development as evidenced by him leading the charge to have coaches available 24/7 for players to work on their game.
A Notre Dame graduate, Quinn played a role in the development of shooting guard Tyler Herro, who became a first-time All-Star for the Heat this season.
Herro averaged a career-high 23.9 points in his sixth NBA season out of Kentucky.
Quinn was a director of player development on the collegiate level at Northwestern before joining the Heat.
Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.
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