Miami Dolphins need to improve in these three areas

This is sort of a twofer here in these areas of improvement blog. Lucky you I would say. Anyway, the Dolphins need to run the ball more, plain and simple. Who among us wasn’t wondering around the third quarter why Miami wasn’t getting Gaskin more involved in the ground game? I know I was. Then I realized that it seemed like the Dolphins never had the ball. The Dolphins have the type of offense that if you step away from the TV and go shake hands with the president that you might miss their entire drive.

The Dolphins only ran the ball 19 times with their running backs which led to a time of possession difference in 13 minutes. This means the Patriots had the ball nearly a quarter more than the Dolphins. That’s a recipe that will not work against more skilled offensive teams that can open it up by passing such as the Bills. I understand the game script and the flow of the game may not have called for more running of the ball, but Gaskin was running well. In fact, Gaskin was rated the second-highest running back of the week by PFF, for what that is worth.

Here’s something else that’s a fact; Gaskin had 28 yards on five carries on the Dolphin’s first drive. He only had four carries the rest of the game that went for 21 yards. That can’t happen again.

Also, the concept of running the ball to create more time of possession isn’t difficult to understand or to pull off. It’s not like I’m trying to combine the emotional drama of a custody child hearing with arm wrestling. That would be crazy difficult to pull off. I’m saying that if the Dolphins run the ball more, something that looked like they could actually do on Sunday, that it would benefit the offense in many ways. It would also give their defense a chance to catch their breath and rest a little. I think they would be into it.