Miami Dolphins defense struggles in win against the Jets
The Miami Dolphins continued their winning ways with a third straight win on Sunday on the road when they faced the New York Jets. It was also another year for the annual Metlife Takeover where Dolfans NYC gather together each year when the Dolphins travel to New York.
The Dolphins move to 4-7 on the season after the 24-17 win on Sunday. Even though it was a good overall win, there were still some negatives to take away. The defense was once again questionable despite their strong showings the last few weeks.
One of the biggest surprises so far about this season is how the defense has played. After easily being top 10 in the league last year, there were high expectations entering the season.
But those expectations were not met at all in the first 6-8 games of the year. They eventually got going a little bit recently against the Texans and Ravens but then could not continue that dominance against the Jets.
It was even more disappointing seeing how much this defense dominated Lamar Jackson and the Ravens just the week before.
The Jets let Joe Flacco get the start this week since rookie Zach Wilson is still hurt. Flacco was not nearly as impacted by the blitz as Jackson was last week. He threw for a comfortable 291 yards along with 2 touchdowns.
Flacco was on target all day long with Elijah Moore. He had 8 catches for 141 yards and 1 touchdown. It is a concern that Byron Jones and the Dolphins secondary could not find an answer for him.
The one positive involving Flacco was that Brandon Jones and Jaelan Phillips were both able to bring him down for their sacks.
The biggest concern had to come with trying to stop the run. They did a pretty god job with it last week but were unable to carry that production over to this week.
Rookie Michael Carter had the best day of his young career so far with 63 yards on just 9 carries. If it wasn’t for him getting hurt in the second half, the Jets may very well have been able to keep up with the Dolphins.
The defense really didn’t start to do good until late in the game after Carter got hurt and the Jets had to start to rely on Joe Flacco throwing the ball.
The Dolphins next face the Carolina Panthers at home on Sunday. The defense that showed up against the Texans and Ravens needs to be the defense that shows up to give the Dolphins a good chance to win.
With three straight wins, the Dolphins will look to keep the hot streak going. It will be very interesting to see how the Dolphins game plan for Cam Newton.