Dolphins-Ravens - Defensive Breakdown

The Dolphins didn't stop the run today and didn't pressure a rookie quarterback, leading to a really poor effort against an under-talented offense. They were out-gameplanned by Cam Cameron, and the loss of Jason Ferguson led to a bevy of problems up front.

Early on, however, the Dolphins actually did a pretty nice job. They stunted and blitzed and were very active in confusing the Baltimore offense. However, as has been the case in other games this year, the attacking style eroded by the second half.

To be fair, a major cause of the Dolphins not being able to do a lo of the things that they would like might have been the injury to Jason Ferguson. When he left the game, not only did the Dolphins miss his presence in the middle, but they also didn't have any true nose tackles to replace him. Paul Solai was suspended by the team for the game, so Randy Starks had to move over into the middle, and without him at end the Dolphins problems doubled. Now, not only were they dealing without their stout nose tackle in the middle to plug things up, but they were also without their best run stopping end because he was forced to play another position. The pressure was on for the Dolphins' two young defensive ends, and the results were sub par to say the least.

All day, the Dolphins could not stop the run and generated no pass rush on Joe Flacco.

To make matters even worse, Cam Cameron figured out a way to dictate what the Dolphins were doing on defense, and he took advantage. As a couple of other teams have done this year, Cameron started trading the tight end so that he would be lined up over Joey Porter. What this means, is that he lines up on one side of the formation, then quickly switches to the other side and resets before the Dolphins can adjust. The Dolphins responded by just bumping their line all day, and the Ravens were very happy with the match up they created.

The ironic thing is that Cameron kept Porter at strong side linebacker all year last year, so at the time he must have thought it was a good idea. However, he knows better than anybody else how bad we were last year, so as an opponent, it was a match up that he wanted to create and repeatedly did create. Essentially, what it does is neutralize our only pass rushing threat and allow the offense to run away from our stronger run stopping backer, Matt Roth. The Dolphins desperately need to find a way to counter this strategy before next week, and the best answer might be as simple as keeping Roth on the defensive left and Porter on the right, to play against general offensive tendencies.

As the game wore on, we couldn't generate any pressure on the quarterback outside of Joey Porter, and Flacco was very efficient. The Ravens went up 17-6 at the half, and from that point on they were exploiting their match ups, putting a hat on a hat, and running at will. It was an embarrassing drive to start the second half, and though the Dolphins were lucky to escape having given up only a field goal, the pounding was just beginning.

Langford struggled to feel out screens, and with Randy Starks plugging the middle there was no replacing him. Joey Porter was also coming straight up the field all day, but with him being the only person getting to the passer (to the tune of another two sacks), it made no sense for him to be anywhere else. I thought the Dolphins were going to change the game when Yeremiah Bell forced a fumble, giving them the break they needed, but they just didn't have it today.

Merling also made his huge mistake when he commit an unacceptable personal foul penalty to set up a 1st and goal from the 5 and a Ravens touchdown. He and Langford are going to be great players, but they are officially going through growing pains.

A bad offense beat us today because we had no pass rush, got out-physicalled, and got out-coached.