Miami Dolphins defense setting the tone for the rest of the team

Written by Matthew Cannata at 9:05 AM EST | Twitter: @PhinManiacs

The Miami Dolphins defense is one of the best in the league and they’ve been setting the tone for the Dolphins throughout the entire season. On Sunday against the San Diego Chargers, it was no different as they stopped the Chargers on 4th-and-1 in the red zone on the first drive of the game. 

After that, it was all domination as the Chargers couldn’t get anything going. Brent Grimes said it was a complete effort on that side of the ball and praised the various positions.

“First of all, I want to thank our D-line, who played incredible; linebackers too, for getting to the quarterback, and just pressuring him, not letting him step up and make easy throws. We just play with technique in the backend and made plays when we had the chance to.”

Reshad Jones echoed Grimes and said that everyone was playing well and making plays. Jones noted that they work on that all throughout the week so it’s nice to get out there and make it translate to the game.

Whenever a defense is playing well, it sparks the other units on the team – offense and special teams – and Ryan Tannehill said it was great to see the defense so dominant but more importantly, to see everyone feeding off of each other throughout the entire game.

“I think all phases of the game today fed off of each other. You see the defense with big turnovers, creating interceptions and a sack-fumble, and the offense turning those into points. Big returns in the special teams and that created field position. And I think that’s when teams are at their best, whenever phases of the game are complementing each other and that’s what we were able to do today.”

Looking at the big picture, we can see that the primary reason that the defense and team has been so successful is the fact that they have been forcing multiple turnovers each game and haven’t been turning the ball over themselves.

“I think he said [Jason Jenkins] we’re, if I’m not mistaken, plus ten, maybe, in the last three weeks from a turnover margin and that’s…you know, if you’re plus three every game, that’s pretty good. You’re giving yourself a pretty good chance, right there, to win football games. Guys are making plays. They’re making plays, they’re playing hard, and our staff’s doing a good job of getting them ready to play. Takeaways are great. Fantastic. They’re great.”

The Chargers and Chicago Bears both have an explosive offense and the Dolphins had no problem shutting them both down. We’ll see if they can continue that trend against the Detroit Lions on Sunday. 

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