Dolphins penalties a sign of lack of discipline

The Miami Dolphins can say they do not rank dead last in the NFL in one category. Penalties. That honor belongs to the Seahawks. Miami however is 31st.

On Sunday Miami was flagged 17 times. One shy of tying the team record. With as badly as that game was officiated the zebras couldn’t find two more penalties to call? I mean after all they flagged Julius Thomas for a pass interference in the endzone that negated a touchdown.

The refs decided that bouncing into the endzone off your own offensive linemans rear-end constitutes forward progress thus negating a safety. Phantom penalties have been the norm all season long and not just for Miami. It’s time that all penalties should be reviewable. I mean what’s another four hours of a game to get it right? Right?

On Sunday the Dolphins dipped to a new low but as I said the refs could have at least given them two more phantom flags to break the team record. Someone should have alerted them to it.

Miami is averaging 8.4 flags per game and 11.3 flags average over the last three games alone. According to TeamRankings.com Miami averages 10.6 flags at home and 7.2 on the road. This is purely a sign of discipline issues.

Honestly can anyone remember a kick or punt return that wasn’t flagged for holding or an illegal block in the back? I can’t. Not off the top of my head. What makes it worse is I can’t remember the last time Miami returned a kick for more than 15 yards. Back them up ten more!

This falls on the coaches. Letting players play with their emotions works most of the time but holding calls on the offensive line is becoming ridiculous. What’s worse is that Miami is repeat offenders quite often. Back to back penalties have occurred more times than a Miami Dolphins rushing touchdown.

Adam Gase is to blame. Matt Burke is to blame. Clyde Christianson is to blame. I think I misspelled Chirstianson, throw a flag. Miami fans are not used to this. Under Don Shula Miami was consistently the least penalized team in the NFL. Outsiders pointed to Shula being on the competition committee. Truth is Shula was a hard nose disciplinarian and the players took note.

Miami’s offensive failures due to penalties is no secret. A team who can’t consistently make third downs into first downs are constantly being flagged and put into 3rd and long situation. Down and distance matters.

Defensively it’s just as bad. Ndamukong Suh gets called for a hold, Kiko Alonso is now the NFL’s whipping boy for quarterbacks who won’t slide or slide too late.

While Gase is trying to fix what ails the offense he needs to get to work on mechanics. He needs to get on these players for the most rudimentary blocks. If you can see the back of their jersey, don’t hit them. It is that simple. If you can’t get your pads to cover the numbers on the front of the jersey, leave them alone.

Penalties are drive killers. A 2nd and 3 becomes a 2nd and 13. A third and 2 becomes an impossible when your offense can’t pick up ten yards. On Sunday Jermon Bushrod was flagged twice.

Holding and blocks in the back are not the only problem. Miami doesn’t know their own snap count. False starts are common on this team. It is the one penalty, especially at home that shouldn’t need to be called. The lineman are on the ball for crying out loud. On Sunday the center, Mike Pouncey, was called for a false start. I’m sorry how exactly does that happen?

As the losses mount I can understand the underperformance. I can get the lackluster life of Jay Cutler in the pocket. Hell I can even understand the dismal performances every week by Julius Thomas. What I can’t get over is that Miami can’t clean up that simple part of the game.

This season was supposed to be big leap forward for Miami and then Tannehill went down and so did a lot of others. Players that typically would be sitting on the bench are now playing and trying to make plays but making plays involves going forward not backwards.

Miami has to get this fixed sooner rather than later or later will be next season.