Dolphins film study: What went wrong in Miami’s collapse vs. Titans?
Moments after a stunning fourth-quarter collapse at home on Monday night, Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel gave an apropos autopsy of his team’s defeat.
“This was as much of a team loss as you could have in my opinion before watching the tape,” he said after Miami blew a 14-point lead late in a 28-27 defeat to the Tennessee Titans.
Four minutes 34 seconds, which was the amount of time left on the game clock after running back Raheem Mostert’s second touchdown run gave the Dolphins a 14-point lead, may go down as a painful timestamp if Miami isn’t able to regain the No. 1 seed in the final month of the regular season. But the seeds of a frustrating loss were sowed early in the game, making for an amalgamation of miscues that cost the team.
Here’s a look at what went wrong for the Dolphins as the Titans upset them.
Red zone, goal-to-go issues
The Dolphins’ offense sprinted to a record-setting pace in the first half of the season, garnering comparisons to some of the greatest units in NFL history. And their efficiency in key situations was especially impressive.
Through six weeks, the Dolphins had a red zone touchdown rate of 80.8 percent, according to TruMedia, which led the NFL and would be the highest by a team since at least 2000. Miami was slightly less successful in goal-to-go situations, converting 77.3 percent of such opportunities into touchdowns.
The Dolphins have struggled in recent weeks in both categories, though. Since Week 7, Miami has converted 57.9 percent of red zone opportunities into touchdowns, which ranks 16th in the NFL. The Dolphins have also reached the end zone on 58.3 percent of goal-to-go tries, which is tied with the Titans for the fifth-worst mark in the league.
Miami was 2 of 5 in the red zone against Tennessee and 1 of 4 in goal-to-go situations, and this includes the Dolphins’ opening possession, when the offense got to the Titans’ 2-yard line but lost a fumble after quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was stripped.
McDaniel’s play-calling was once again under scrutiny after he opted for a pair of fade passes deep in the red zone on separate possessions, both of which were incomplete, instead of running the ball. On the team’s late touchdown drives in the fourth quarter, McDaniel called back-to-back runs and Mostert scored on both possessions.
“[I] kind of approached it like I usually do and we passed the ball because we thought it was going to work and it didn’t,” McDaniel said of his thought process. “That will always — that’s not a big deal to me, that it’s like part of inherently in the job, if you’re going to get high-fives for success, so that was definitely the wrong call because it didn’t work. You have to try to forecast as much as you can and do right by the time as best you can, and I think anytime we’re that close to the end zone and we don’t come up with a touchdown, I think that it will 100 percent of the time be second-guessed, as it should be.”
Coverage issues late
While the Dolphins’ offense couldn’t muster a game-winning drive with 1:45 left and struggled in the red zone, Miami’s defense had two opportunities to get a stop late and couldn’t.
Both of Tennessee’s late fourth-quarter drives came quickly, especially the second, which took just seconds. McDaniel and multiple players said afterward that communication issues in the secondary may have played a role in rookie quarterback Will Levis being able to find pass-catchers for big completions. On the final two drives, Miami was without starting safeties Jevon Holland and DeShon Elliott, who handle much of the defensive communication.
One mistake was particularly jarring on the Titans’ game-winning, though.
On the first play of the game-winning drive, Levis found wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins for a 36-yard gain that placed Tennessee right outside the Dolphins’ red zone. Miami was in a Cover 3 defense, a zone concept with three defenders covering one-third of the deep field and several other defenders dropping into coverage.
Slot cornerback Kader Kohou followed a Titans receiver upfield but kept traveling with him as he crossed the field. On the other side of the field, Hopkins ran a crossing route right into the area vacated by Kohou. Three plays later, running back Derrick Henry found the end zone for the game-winning score.
The error wasn’t the reason the Dolphins lost the game, but an example of one of many miscues that had a role in the defeat. In both hurry-up situations, Tennessee was able to find holes in defensive coordinator Vic Fangio’s scheme. Fangio didn’t blitz on any of Levis’ 11 dropbacks on the final two scoring drives.
“The biggest thing is in those situations, we need to be a little more locked in and a little more focused, when we get into those situations where you gotta have it,” defensive lineman Christian Wilkins said. “I feel like other than maybe a drive or a few plays throughout the game, we were pretty solid. It’s just when those moments are a little bigger in the game, you need to be a little more locked in. That’s definitely important. You need to be ready to play your best ball in those situations.”
