Joe Philbin Not Happy With Offense’s Production

Over the last two seasons Miami Dolphins head coach has been quiet about his anemic offense. He made no public statements about the units tempo, play calling, or scoring output. Of course his mentor and close friend Mike Sherman ran that offense. As the 2013 season closed speculation began that Mike Sherman would be fired. Ultimately he was but not by the man who called the shots. Not exactly anyways.

The short of the story is that Philbin was told he needed to get rid of his offensive coordinator and after a few days of internal threats and a discussion with Sherman, Philbin gave in to the demand and Sherman was released. A day later so was the G.M. that asked Philbin to remove the coordinator.

Joe Philbin was forced to hire a new O.C. and he turned his attention to Bill Lazor, a quarterbacks coach from the Philadelphia Eagles. Lazor promised a faster tempo offense and more production. During the third pre-season game, the dress rehearsal for the season game, his first team unit had two turnovers and three points. Joe Philbin isn’t happy.

While no one knows exactly what was said on the sideline the H.C. and O.C. had a conversation about the output and on Monday Philbin expressed his disappointment by saying simply “Our offensive first group has to score more points,” Philbin said, via the Miami Herald.

The Dolphins first team unit played against one of the worst ranked 2013 defenses in the NFL and managed to only produce three points on five drives. In addition to the two turnovers the Dolphins were forced to punt twice. Miami has one week before they squared off against division rival New England to open the season and a quick start will go a long way for a team that is not playing as quickly as the new O.C. or the H.C. would like.

At this stage of the season the concerns of Joe Philbin are real but nothing to be overly concerned about yet, his relationship with Lazor doesn’t appear to be fractured nor should it but if the season goes South and the offense can’t put points on the board, tension between the two could surface. Joe Philbin is already on the fan and media hot seat if not the owners and he has already been forced to make a change he didn’t want to make. Connect the dots and it could start to paint an ugly picture down the road. Of course if Miami’s offense can indeed start producing, everyone will be happy.