The Miami Dolphins have seen the rest of Week 3 catch up to them after Miami batted leadoff for this week’s slate of games with a win on Thursday Night Football. For Miami, the free day on Sunday to scout their Week 4 opponent, the Seattle Seahawks, was a valuable one — largely because the book on Seattle as a team is becoming increasingly clear.
Russell Wilson is a magician.
How do you stop a quarterback who is playing as lights out as Wilson has been to start the season? He’s up to 14 touchdown passes in his first three games, which is an NFL record to open a season. To be honest, you don’t ever really stop an elite quarterback — you just play the possessions game, try to play keep away and hope your team has the ball last in the end.
If the Dolphins choose to adopt such a model to square off against Wilson during the matchup between the two teams in Week 4, Miami will have one advantage — this Seahawks defense can be had. It’s been one of the worst defenses in football to open the season from both a yardage and scoring perspective and that was before star safety Jamal Adams left Seattle’s Week 3 win over Dallas with a groin injury in the second half.
How bad has it been for Seattle?
They’ve given up 86 points through three games. That number is the third highest of all-time for a team to start the season 3-0. Only 10 NFL teams have yielded more points this season through the first three weeks — which is a clear indication that any team looking to score may find success against Seattle. But there’s an even more eye-opening statistic about the Seahawks the Dolphins should have earmarked. Seattle has yielded nearly 1,500 yards of offense to opponents through the first three weeks of the season — the second worst figure in NFL history to open a season. The worst?
This Seattle defense is so porous that it has given up six less yards through three games than last year’s Miami Dolphins unit. The Dolphins, to their credit, are a much more improved team than that. But we’ll need to see next weekend if they’re improved enough to get after Seattle at home and take advantage of the weaknesses glaring on the Seattle Seahawks resume.