Dolphins-Ravens - Offensive Breakdown

Coming into the game, the Dolphins knew that they were up against one of the best defenses in the league. However, the Ravens were struggling with some injuries in the secondary, so the hope was that the Dolphins could find some room in the passing game, build a lead, and be able to keep the Ravens' linebackers from being a force by keeping them off balance. In the early going, they were very successful, but unfortunately had to cap off a long drive with a 21 yard field goal.

The new look today was a sort of Wildcat with Pennington receiving the snaps. Unfortunately for the Dolphins, it didn't matter what type of Wildcat they ran. With the Ravens' linebackers having no pass responsibility, they "out-athleted" (as an old football coach of mine was known to say) the Dolphins up front and stopped the Wildcat cold.

The ineffectiveness of the Wildcat could have been overcome if the Dolphins could have run out of more conventional offensive sets, but unfortunately they never really found out if they could have. This was the offensive game-planning and play calling oversight, and a big reason why the Dolphins offense struggled. They, for the most part, only tried to pass out of their base offense and only tried to run out of the Wildcat look. So, instead of keeping the Baltimore linebackers in a bind, when they saw "base" they could tee off on their pass rush and pass zones, even as early as the first half. And when the Dolphins lined up in Wildcat, they filled the running lanes and the Dolphins never even tried to throw the ball.

All day, the Dolphins were afflicted by this "curse of the Wildcat." They have been so successful with that set all year that when they saw they couldn't run out of it, they gave up on running all together. Never mind the fact that when they finally ran a draw in the second half it went for a big gain; the Dolphins had already dug themselves a whole and needed to pass at that point.

As for the Wildcat, the Ravens' safeties were up the field making the plays on a few of the attempts at running. With this being the case, if the Dolphins wanted to continue running the Wildcat, they had to take a shot at passing out of the formation to use Baltimore's aggressiveness against them. However, this never happened, and so the Dolphins were predictably running into the ground on every Wildcat play.

The ramifications extended, and with the Ravens knowing that almost every time they saw 'base' it would be a passing play, their pass rush controlled the game. They got to Pennington in all kinds of ways, making him move around much more than he would like, and the end result was that he was horribly inaccurate. As Dol-fans know, not even Tom Brady is good when the pass rush gets to him, and the most accurate passer of all time was forced into a huge mistake when he threw an interception returned for a touchdown to Terrell Suggs. This play gave the Ravens the lead, gave them momentum, and led, ultimately, to their victory.

Pennington did recover a bit, and his leadership was admirable in leading the Dolphins back down the field. He pulled the ball down a few times and moved the chains with his legs when that was what the defense was offering. However, the lack of a running game will make you a poor red zone team, and even with two long drives, the Dolphins could only manage six points in the first half.

Again, to start the second half the Dolphins had a nice drive offensively. I loved the Wildcat call on 2nd and two from the four, as it has been a great goal line play for us all year. However, when the Ravens blew that play up, it was the moment that it was clear that the Dolphins would not be able to run out of Wildcat all day. We had to try to run out of base so that Baltimore would have to be honest, but we never did. We luckily scored a touchdown here, but were flirting with disaster with a dangerous Ravens pass rush all day.

With no running game, we were only able to outscore them 13-7 when we had the ball. Add that we allowed them to hold the ball for much of the second half, and it was a disappointing day. We got out-coached and out-played; the result was a loss.