Miami’s Secondary Comes Apart Against Indianapolis
Nov. 04, 2012; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck (12) drops back to pass during first half action against the Miami Dolphins at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Thomas J. Russo-US PRESSWIRE
The Miami Dolphins are back at to being a .500 team and presently 2 games behind division leaders The New England Patriots. Today’s loss to the Indianapolis Colts was not all bad but was also sometimes very painful to watch as the defensive backfield gave up more yardage then they have all season. QB Ryan Tannehill had a great game with no turnovers and even under heavy pressure stayed in the pocket and continued to complete passes with defenders in his face. Running Back Reggie Bush (even though he had limited carries,AGAIN!), showed why he is so dangerous with the ball in his hands with his cut back 18 yard run for a TD. Receivers Brian Hartline and Devone Bess both had great games with 107 and 67 yard games. But the issue wasn’t on offense.
Even though the o-line did not play as well as they have in the past and Jake Long had a very out of character bad day allowing a sack and two hits on Tannehill, one even leading to a fumble which Long recovered. The real story of the game was the disastrous secondary that was picked apart by a rookie QB who set the record from passing yards from a rookie. Again the run support was amazing and the pass rush was in QB Andrew Luck‘s face most of the game, but the secondary could not hold its own against the pass. Obviously the Colts prepared well and made sure that Luck got the ball out of his hands as fast as he could to avoid the pass rush which was there all day. Unfortunately Miami’s veteran secondary wasn’t ready for the rookie QB.
A huge hole was just found in Miami’s game today and will probably be targeted for the rest of the season by other teams, especially teams like the Pats with QB Tom Brady. Its not like no one knew that Miami had a weak pass defense coming into this game but no one could have know how bad. The defense bleed out 433 passing yards and gave up 13 first downs on 19 third down conversions by the Colts with 12 threw the air and several over ten yards.
The main problem in this game was the horrible play from veteran corner Sean Smith. No one in the secondary had a good game but Smith’s play was by far the worst. Smith was hit in the hands with not one but two potential interceptions and like last year dropped them both. He was unable to locate the ball on a long touchdown pass that seemed to be in the air forever and was caught between two defenders by Smiths man, T.Y. Hilton. Smith played his coverage too soft allowing his man, which was usually Reggie Wayne, to get the short yardage or outside catches leading to first downs over and over again. This season Smith has really shown that he can be an elite Corner but today took several steps backwards and really hurt any chance at a big contract at the end of the season. Again the secondary as a whole was horrible today, but Smith seemed to be the target of the Colts offense and he allowed them to exploit him. Today’s game put another question in to the mix in Miami as to where the Phins are really hurting, Reciever or Corner?