The Miami Dolphins are blessed to have two of the fastest, most dynamic wide receivers in the league in Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. Miami’s high-speed passing game has run past defenses better than Detroit’s all season long. It was a difficult task for the Lions to try and slow them down in Week 8’s matchup in Ford Field.
Defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn didn’t hide the disruptive intentions during his weekly press briefing on Thursday.
“Get your hands on them. Don’t let them utilize what they have. You always want to put yourself in an advantageous situation, and our guys are bigger, lengthier guys, so that’s something that we’re going to get a chance to do on those guys, be able to get our hands on them, just disrupt them,” Glenn said of the plan to slow down the Dolphins. “The one thing that you can’t do, just allow receivers into the teeth of your defense, and when you do that, usually bad things happen.”
Glenn was right about the bad things happening. Hill caught 12 passes for 188 yards, while Waddle hauled in nine receptions for 106 yards and two touchdowns. Far too many of those catches featured clean releases by the speedy Miami weapons, missed jams or flat-out missed assignments by the defensive backs.
“We didn’t hit them,” Campbell said after the game. “We didn’t hit them at the line. That was part of the game plan. We didn’t disrupt. We did not disrupt, and when you let them do that and get into your defense—we didn’t want to turn it into a track meet and it was a track meet.”
Waddle’s second touchdown reception was a perfect example. The defense was schemed for slot CB AJ Parker to strike Waddle at the line before he could sprint out from the bunched formation. But Parker never touched Waddle and got torched over the top for a too-easy TD that your local high school JV quarterback could complete. There were multiple instances where Parker and outside CB Amani Oruwariye were aligned in press man but never struck their receiver at the line.
In a related development, Campbell was asked why cornerback Jerry Jacobs wasn’t given chances to play. Jacobs is the most athletic CB on the roster, a player who thrives in being physical but also turning and running in man coverage. Jacobs returned last week from the PUP list after undergoing knee surgery last December and played sparingly.
“Oh yeah, we’re going to be looking at Jerry. We’ll be looking at everybody,” Campbell stated. “We’ll be looking at everybody. We want to make sure Jerry is ready to go and then let him compete and see where he is. We still feel like last week was a step in getting him – continuing to get his confidence back, getting his legs under him, and that started with (special) teams and he got a little bit more in this department. And once we feel like, OK, he’s right, he can take the load, and he competitively is better than one of the other guys, then he’s going to get his chance.”
Jacobs did not appear to play on defense against Miami. Young DB Ifeatu Melifonwu and veteran CB Mike Hughes missed this game with injuries, as did physical CB Bobby Price. If they’re healthy for the Week 9 visit from the Green Bay Packers, expect to see some changes to guys who can at least attempt to execute Glenn’s well-intentioned game plan. Whether they can make it work is a different story, but not executing the designed scheme is not something this group can tolerate.
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