How Miami can get physical

i've seen where many of you (i'm looking at you FF) have bemoaned the lack of physicality in Miami's offense (and rightfully so). even the Chiefs' defenders openly admitted their strategy was to "punch them in the mouth" cause they knew Miami's finesse offense wasn't capable of fighting back. and how times does a team have to throw on 3rd or 4th and short before its all too painfully obvious they just don't have the grit to grind it out.

but all is not lost. i came across this article where Sean McVay (from the same coaching tree as McD) came to the same conclusion and did something about it. he transitioned away from an outside zone to a gap scheme running game. its an interesting (perhaps long) read:

https://theathletic.com/4931860/2023/10/05/rams-offense-sean-mcvay-motion/

those first few paragraphs sound like they could be talking about the Dolphins. so it is possible. and it will require some different players (but now is the time with holes to be filled on the interior of the oline), but it can be done.

will McDaniel do it?

I definitely expect McD to place a heavier emphasis on running the ball, and also to improve the TE position. Both can, in theory, increase the offense's "toughness". And the timing is perfect since we need to replace as many as 4 starting OL.

Very nice article, Merc.

I like the concept.

Especially this from the article....

The Rams have also transitioned into a predominantly gap scheme running game, a far departure from McVay’s outside zone roots. They currently lead the league in gap scheme run usage and rank at the bottom of the league in zone run percentage. This is, in part, a reaction to the light box and odd front schemes that have taken over the NFL — which, ironically, has been partially due to McVay’s offensive success.

They are using predominantly gap scheme, that DUO thing which I would call a type of inside zone, but... they also are keeping their options open and being able to employ the outside zone runs as well.

I think some of the Phins offensive problems could be addressed by McD changing and mixing and matching his run schemes more. But to do that, you need to have the right guys upfront and they all need to be able to make the right calls and decisions "together" for the concepts to work.

One of my friends has said all season long that if the Phins would utilize Brooks and go to a more inside trap blocking scheme, they would have success against some of the better defenses. Especially the Bills like to pick a gap and beat the Olineman to it.

I argued that with Cotton and Jones at OG and Eichenberg at OC, I doubted any run scheme was going to be very successful, but...

The Phins definitely need to upgrade the Oline and McD needs to do whatever is needed to make the Phins more competitive against really good teams. Even if that means his scheme needs to change, so be it.

Again, the scheme was more important because the lack of players. The outside game plays a big part in the speed of Mostert and Achane.

I thought at times teams overplayed the outside and it just wasnt there. I thought not using Jeff Wilson between the tackles was a really mind boggling thing. The most intriguing was bringing back Chris Brooks from short term IR but not even using the guy.

What we need is a Bill Parcells mindset when it comes to lineman.

I'd say that the scheme wasn't the issue this season - the Phins' run game was one of the league's best in yards per carry, yards and TDs.

But - we were 15th in attempts.

IMO, the scheme is fine - maybe it can use some tweaks here and there, and we'll have to see who is playing OL. But to make this offense better and make the run game more effective, McD needs to develop a better feel for when and how much to run.

Does it make me a horrible person for not resisting this temptation? Yes, yes it does

DolFan 316 wrote:Does it make me a horrible person for not resisting this temptation? Yes, yes it does

Yeah, I'm a metalhead, but absolutely everyone liked Olivia regardless of musical tastes. R.I.P.

JMP wrote:I'd say that the scheme wasn't the issue this season - the Phins' run game was one of the league's best in yards per carry, yards and TDs.

But - we were 15th in attempts.

IMO, the scheme is fine - maybe it can use some tweaks here and there, and we'll have to see who is playing OL.  But to make this offense better and make the run game more effective, McD needs to develop a better feel for when and how much to run.  

Scheme is an issue if we cant win when we need to and this season was an example of that. Physicality wasn't an issue because everyone in the Trenches are the same size. The strength is relatively the same. The quickness in short spaces relatively the same. The difference is the space between players ears. Mental toughness..Guts.....intestinal fortitude all that shit.

We need 6 Richie incognito's thats what we need

Umix10 wrote:Scheme is an issue if we cant win when we need to and this season was an example of that.  Physicality wasn't an issue because everyone in the Trenches are the same size.  The strength is relatively the same.  The quickness in short spaces relatively the same.  The difference is the space between players ears.  Mental toughness..Guts.....intestinal fortitude all that shit.

And just when I think FF has won the forum for the week, along comes Umix making a strong late run This has actually been true for decades. You line up all the players from most positions in every team side by side and they'll all look the part. Some guys will be 2-3 inches shorter, some will be 15-20 pounds lighter, but look at Aaron Donald. Everybody's got a top notch, world class strength and conditioning program and facilities. Umix sees what the real difference is, and unfortunately I don't think this team's...wimpiness will change unless the coach does, and even then there's no guarantee. And if the next coach is a Flores-type defensive minded whip cracker then the offense goes down the tubes (again) and the players eventually start to revolt. It's truly a vicious cycle.

We need 6 Richie incognito's thats what we need

Only without the sociopathic bullying tendencies, thank you very much.

There's a play against KC where Eichenberg gets completely blown up. Pushed ten yards back into Tua. He's so off balance. He wasn't going to win a battle of physicality against Jones or even my grandma. He's that bad. Miami's offense is built on deception. It works great against equal or lesser teams but gets overwhelmed by physical opponents. Tua is part of the problem. On third downs we didn't run one QB sneak all season. Teams know we don't pose a physical threat up front.

I don't really care about QB sneaks, but in short yardage we need to run the damn ball. When a pass play works, it's great - but we had too many poorly-designed pass plays in those situations. We averaged over 5 yards a carry on the season but McD was always hesitant to run in short yardage.