Joe Philbin & Kevin Coyle praise defensive line for effort against Raiders

Written by Matthew Cannata | Twitter: @PhinManiacs
Although the Miami Dolphins defensive line only had two sacks on Sunday, they created plenty of pressure in the pocket with 5 quarterback hits and 7 passes deflected in the secondary. They’ve been the heart and soul of the defense for the past four weeks and Kevin Coyle praised their effort against the Oakland Raiders.

“I thought the guys up front did a nice job. I thought collectively the front seven did a nice job of attacking the run game. The fact that we were able to gain a lead and a substantial lead early made them get away from the run game. I thought overall we got off to a good start and I thought all of the guys up front and the linebackers did a good job.”

“I think we’re generating good pressure on the quarterback as we have done and I think we will continue to do. Our rush defense was better yesterday and hopefully, as we get some of our people back in the lineup, that will continue to improve as well. I think there are a lot of encouraging things. We’re going to analyze where we’re at after four weeks here as a staff during this week as well as getting onto the Green Bay game ahead of us. I think there is a lot of room to be optimistic that, if we can pull it all together, we’ve got a chance to be solid on defense.” 

One of the things that Joe Philbin was most impressed with was the fact that Coyle was able to mix it up so much despite being without several key players on the defensive side of the ball. Philbin gave credit to the defensive line for getting enough pressure on the quarterback so they could get creative and do different things throughout the game.

“I thought we had a pretty good mix. I thought Kevin (Coyle) and the defensive staff, I thought the game plan was good. I thought we did bring some pressure. We were playing a young quarterback as we entered the game, so I thought we had a good package in there. But also we were able to exert some pressure when we were just, as you mentioned, bringing four guys. We all know if you can do it with four guys and then change up the coverages in the back end a lot, there’s value in that. Then there’s also value in at least forcing the quarterback to make a real fast decision because maybe you’re bringing one more guy than they have and do they have the exact answer versus that specific pressure and that specific coverage. I thought the balance between those two, from our standpoint, was very good.”

With Randy Starks coming back in week 6 and Dion Jordan coming back in week 7, the defensive line should continue to dominate their opponent throughout the remainder of the season.

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