The Miami Dolphins seem to get better at tormenting opposing quarterbacks by the day. If 2019 was about establishing Brian Flores’ culture and scheme within the organization, then the 2020 season is about using those things to make their opponents feel shame. Deep, dark shame.
In Week 10, Miami’s defense befuddled quarterback Justin Herbert, a rookie that hadn’t really looked his age (22) until playing the Dolphins. Herbert had issues throughout the day, but there was one formation that seemed to make him more erratic than any other: the Dolphins’ amoeba.
It was a beautiful mess of white and teal jerseys. It was The Blob. The formation — if you can call it that — packs its defenders around the line of scrimmage but it doesn’t put them in a position. It’s intentionally non-formational. Instead the defenders wander pre-snap before lurching into their assignment as soon as the ball moves.
In the third-down play below, Herbert faced the amoeba, which turned out to be an all-out blitz. The quarterback rushed a throw to a wide open Keenan Allen. A completion would’ve meant a first down. The result of the play, however, led to a punt.
Playing against the Dolphins defense just doesn't seem fun. pic.twitter.com/lZIplj04LX
— Robert Mays (@robertmays) November 17, 2020
It’s enough to give a quarterback vertigo. And it’s likely that you’ve got no idea what you’re looking at. You’re not alone. Just look at the center struggling to sort out the protection. It puts tremendous strain on the quarterback and the offensive line. The Chargers couldn’t figure out this defense either. Receiver Keenan Allen said the Dolphins’ pre-snap disguises were so intense that L.A. had to reduce their playbook down to running plays to avoid catastrophic plays.
That’s absolutely crippling for an offense.
Allen added that because the offense was so confused with the Dolphins' disguises, the best thing to do was run the ball to avoid any catastrophic plays. #Chargers https://t.co/V3YG5dx9TF
— Daniel Popper (@danielrpopper) November 16, 2020
The all-out rush seemed to get in Herbert’s head. The Dolphins ran the Amoeba defense on four of the Chargers’ third downs, as noted by NFL Network. And in those situations, L.A. got zero first downs. Herbert even threw his only interception of the game. (The Chargers were 4 of 13 on third downs in Week 10.)
The trickiest thing, Allen explained, was that Herbert was expecting aggressive blitzes in the amoeba. When the rushers did not come (like they did in the video above), Herbert and the receivers were left to diagnose what kind of defense the Dolphins were dropping into coverage in a short period of time. And that’s when The Blob consumed everything — including the Chargers’ once-exciting offense.
The Dolphins didn’t just dial up this defense for the Chargers rookie quarterback. They’ve been doing it since Flores joined the Dolphins last year. And Flores has been calling the defense since he was the de-facto defensive coordinator in New England when they beat the Rams in Super Bowl LIII.
But this formation isn’t just challenging for the offense. Otherwise everyone would be doing it on every down. It’s also challenging for the defense.
It requires a versatile group of defenders, who are a threat to do more than one thing (rush the passer, drop into coverage, defend the run) on any given down. If you trotted three defensive tackles onto the field, the quarterback would have a pretty strong sense that they were going to rush. You lose the element of disguise. So if Flores can’t put any (or many) defensive tackles on the field, then he might find himself at a disadvantage with eight defensive backs trying to defend a power running formation with two tight ends. The amoeba is situational.
Issues can also come when players move too far from their actual assignment. If a player is showing a blitz but needs to drop into coverage, a smart quarterback might know that he’s got a tight end or receiver that might beat the defender to the spot. And it would be an easy first down.
“At the end of the day, we want to disguise, we want to give them different looks, but you’re never disguised to the point where you can’t execute,” Flores told the Palm Beach Post in 2019 when talking about the formation.
The amoeba front is not the only special or deceptive thing the Dolphins do. It’s not their base defense or even a scheme they employ regularly. But it is another exciting example of Flores’ explosive and dominant defense, which has them Dolphins surging at 6-3.
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