Smash Mouth Football

With only 5 games left in Miami’s season, they need to play their best football if they want to make the playoffs. They also need to commit more to running the football and stopping the run. As bad as the Jets are, they still have a solid run defense, which is ranked 4^th best, allowing only 86.2 yards per game, and a solid rushing attack ranked 5^th best in the league averaging 136.5 yards per game.

Lamar Miller is still a little bit banged up, but he has proven this entire season that when his number is called he can produce yards on the ground. However, Lazor is only letting him carry the ball on an average of 12 times a game. Many football gambling fans would say that, the better running backs in the league get better when they get more touches as the game progresses. It is very hard for even the best running back to get into a rhythm when they are only allowed to run the ball 12 times. Lazor needs to start committing more to the run, and especially giving Miller at least 20 touches a game. Miller is third to only DeMarco Murray, who leads the league in rushing, and Justin Forsett, who is 3^rd in rushing, in 20 plus yard runs this season. He has had 7 running plays that he has gained over 20 yards, out of 137 total rushing attempts, this means on average he breaks a run for over 20 yards on 1 out of 19.5 times that he runs the ball. If he ran the ball 20 times a game, then he would have a 20 plus yard run in each game he played.

The Dolphins defensive line just got literally run over by Denver’s third string running back, so to say that they need to tighten up their rush defense is the understatement of the year. The defense needs to take last weeks’ whipping on the ground as a form of inspiration, and show some pride this week and the rest of the season and focus on stopping the opponents’ rushing attack, and making them a one-dimensional team on offense. Ivory and Johnson are a nice pair of running backs, whose different skills compliment each other perfectly. Ivory is the smash mouth power back and Johnson is the elusive and quick scat back. The Dolphins have had their troubles with both types of running backs this season, which means this could be a very challenging game for the Dolphins run defense. The Defensive linemen need to step up and show why they are the heart and soul of the Dolphins Defense and shutdown the opposing teams running games.

The Dolphins will play all of its 5 remaining games in December, and back in the day, the team that could run the ball and stop the run, more times then not was able to make a solid “run” at the playoffs. Can the Dolphins get back to some old school style smash mouth football and run their way into the playoffs?