3 sneaky underrated keys to victory for the Miami Dolphins vs. the Ravens

Jaelan Phillips isn’t good at dropping in coverage. So, don’t do that.

Jaelan Phillips had a forgettable game last week. He played 70% of the 57 snaps that the defense played. His stat line was one assisted tackle. That’s it.

It has to be mentioned that he did go up against one of the better tackles in football in Trent Brown. Brown didn’t budge and when he got his paws on Phillips that was it.

I’m not going to make a big deal out of that. That’ll happen.

What I really don’t like was when Jaelan Phillips was dropping back into coverage. That is where the adonis is way out of his element. If you remember, the lone touchdown that the Patriots scored was a throw to Ty Montgomery where Phillips got lost in the sauce that was a crosser and Montgomery was wide open for a catch where he caught it short of the endzone and still had the time to roll a few times in for the score.

This is how it was for the 2021 1st round pick in the first half of last year. Phillips often found himself having to cover tight ends, backs, and #3 receivers. It didn’t work out well. Then, the coaching staff got wise and was like “hey what do you think about just letting Jaelan Phillips who we know is pretty good at pass rushing just be a pass rusher”? It led to Phillips having the quietest 8.5 sacks by a rookie ever recorded.

If you want Andrew Van Ginkel dropping back into coverage? Fine by me. Let Jaelan Phillips do his thing and let him bury Lamar Jackson a few times. I like that plan.

Oh and keep giving Zach Sieler more and more snaps. That guy is a beast and he won’t be contained.

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