The Miami Dolphins will wake up this morning with an 0-1 record after yesterday’s frustrating Week 1 loss to the New England Patriots. Despite the fact that the Dolphins lost by a 21-11 final score, there were plenty of silver linings to Sunday’s football game. Not among them, however, was the offensive production. Between Ryan Fitzpatrick’s three interceptions and receiver DeVante Parker missing the second half of the contest with a hamstring issue, Miami’s offense was, well, offensive. 11 points scored and 269 yards of offense simply isn’t going to get it done on very many weeks.
And perhaps the most pressing issue at hand for the Dolphins is finding some space to operate offensively — because there was no one open against New England. NFL’s Next Gen Stats has marked Ryan Fitzpatrick as the NFL’s most “aggressive” quarterback of Week 1 thus far. With 40% of his 30 pass attempts going into “tight” coverage, it is very clear that the team has little in the way of separation. Next Gen Stats identifies any throw that comes with a defender within 1 yard in coverage as a tight window throw — nearly half of Fitzpatrick’s targets in Week 1 qualified.
Just two other NFL quarterbacks were above 24% of their targets qualifying for such a designation, which is a resounding point of evidence that Miami simply didn’t separate and create room to work.
The Dolphins receivers have universally praised this Chan Gailey offense over the summer for the added flexibility it allows in the passing game. But with that added flexibility comes a need for greater chemistry and timing — things that can only come courtesy of added reps in the passing game. Fitzpatrick’s play was a sore spot for Miami, but he also didn’t have much to work with in terms of open receivers.
Now for the silver lining: you won’t find a better man-coverage defense in the NFL than the one in New England. From top to bottom, the cornerback room might be the best in the league. So it is understandable for them to stay sticky on Dolphins receivers, especially without Parker in the second half. But moving forward, Miami will need more from their secondary receivers and hopefully find a way to get either Lynn Bowden Jr. or Malcolm Perry ready to play so that the team can feature more of a reasonable separation threat in the middle of the field.