Miami Dolphins key player of the week: Kiko Alonso
By Nick Belotto
When the Miami Dolphins return home this weekend to face the Oakland Raiders, one player, Kiko Alonso could be the key to a victory.
Our weekly look into one key player for the Miami Dolphins continues with a look at linebacker Kiko Alonso.
Miami is headed home this weekend and will be taking on an Oakland Raiders team that has struggled in their first two games, going 0-2. Despite Oakland’s struggles, they have a quality team that will look to score a lot of points and turn around their early season.
Miami’s defense will need to play well this week to contain all of the weapons that Oakland has to offer. Last week, the Dolphins defense played particularly well against the New York Jets and Alonso was one of the leaders of that unit.
Alonso has had an interesting three years in Miami. Some weeks, Alonso looked completely lost and unable to play in pass coverage. Other weeks, Alonso was lights out, all over the field and making plays that would produce turnovers. Luckily for Miami, it seems that the “good Kiko” has shown up so far this season.
Against the Titans in week 1, Alonso had 6 tackles and a huge interception where he read a screen pass perfectly and took down a tipped pass. On Sunday, Alonso put together a good game. He racked up 13 tackles and forced two fumbles, one of which Miami was able to recover. Over the two game span, Alonso is 7th in the league in tackles and has forced two turnovers.
Even though Alonso has been great so far this season, he still needs to work on his coverage skills. Watching parts of Sunday’s game allowed me to see that Alonso had some good coverage plays and some very poor ones, specifically against opposing tight ends, which has been a weakness for the whole defense the last few seasons.
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There was one play that jumped out against the Jets that Alonso will have to fix for Sunday and highlights his coverage issues. Jets rookie tight end Chris Herndon was running wide open through the middle of the field. Alonso seemed to be out of position and lost track of Herndon allowing him to run without a defender. Sam Darnold saw this and threw it to Herndon who, luckily, dropped the pass. Had the pass been completed, it would have been a huge gain for the Jets. Alonso will need to fix these issues when playing against more established veterans that Oakland will run his way.
When the Raiders played the Dolphins last season, Jared Cook caught 8 passes for 128 yards, carving up the middle of the defense. So far this year, Cook has 13 receptions for 229 yards. Alonso will need to be at this best to make sure that Cook doesn’t run free in the secondary.
Alonso has played great this season so far and I expect him to effectively shut down the Raider’s running game and positively impact the passing game.
Let me know your player of the week in the comments below.