3 things the Miami Dolphins must do to make the playoffs this season

The Miami Dolphins must continue to get great play from the defense.

This Miami defense has looked like a playoff caliber unit, and the numbers support that. According to Pro-Football-Reference, while the Dolphins have allowed the 14th most yards, they are second in total defense to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Most importantly, Miami is second in percentages of drives that end in an offensive scores with 27.6%. They are the epitome of a “bend, don’t break” unit. For Miami to continue like this, they are going to have to keep generating turnovers as often as possible, and that starts at the point of attack.

Miami has done an admirable job on defense getting pressure on opposing quarterbacks. On the year, the entire squad has 25 sacks, which is a misleading number, as they have 103 pressures overall. Miami has gotten great production out of Emmanuel Ogbah, who has been the steal of the free agency period this year, but the sack numbers drop off to Kyle Van Noy with 3 and Jerome Baker with 2.5.

Miami has been aggressive all year when it comes to blitzing opposing quarterbacks which has its ups (generating turnovers and sacks) and downs (giving up a ton of yards). This is not the point where I will tell the defense they should be more conservative, because that would be the exact wrong things to do.

Miami has built a quality secondary unit and can trust them to play well enough to keep the opponent out of the end zone, regardless of how many yards they give up. For Miami’s playoff run, they should continue to put pressure on opposing quarterbacks, forcing them to make quick, careless decisions that result in Xavien Howard interceptions (I guess other can intercept it, too…).