The Dolphins’ in-game adjustments failed in playoff loss to Kansas City
Sun-Tzu said every battle is won before it’s fought, but he never coached in the NFL playoffs where in-game adjustments can dictate success and failure. In Saturday’s complete domination of the Dolphins by Kansas City, a 26-7 NFL Wild Card Round plastering of the Dolphins, some unsuccessful changes made a tough situation worse.
The Dolphins abandoned north-south for east-west. They went nowhere in any direction.
The weather and the playoffs demanded a level of offensive thump that the Dolphins took too long to attain, lost too quickly and never regained.
After holding the Chiefs once again to a field goal in the red zone, the Dolphins were down only 13-7 and starting on their 35. Four Raheem Mostert between-the-tackles runs got them to third-and-1 at the Kansas City 44. It looked as if they Dolphins d found their running game, and were sucking a little life and noise out of the Arrowhead Stadium sound tunnel as strong, physical play will.
Instead of continuing to pound it, the Dolphins went with a wide screen that Tua Tagovailoa threw badly and Mostert dropped. Fourth-and-1, did they just strap up and slam for that yard? They did not. They went with an empty backfield, and a Tagovailoa pass for Tyreek Hill on a short cross got knocked down.
From there until garbage time, the Dolphins ran bootlegs, rollouts and repeated quick wide screens in futile attempts to get playmakers the ball in space without working the inside running game. The Dolphins’ only inside runs during that time were with De’Von Achane, a much less physical runner than Mostert.
Tyreek Hill didn’t see the ball
While the Dolphins could be accused of being too crazy about super speedy wide receiver Tyreek Hill at times during the season, they could be accused of being too shy about getting him the ball Saturday night.
After from Hill’s adept adjustment on a deep throw taken by the wind that he turned into a 53-yard touchdown, the Dolphins fired deep for him once. No reverses or end-arounds. They did try the same kind of quick screens that weren’t working with anybody Saturday night and Kansas City ate up during the regular season game in Germany (the difference in that game: a fumble return touchdown off that kind of screen to Hill).
The Dolphins began blitzing Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes. It didn’t work.
Give Mahomes time consistently and you give him the game. Most of the night, with edge pass rushers Bradley Chubb and Jaelan Phillips on the out-until-next-year list instead of on the field, the Dolphins couldn’t bother Mahomes with just four pass rushers. They needed to blitz numbers.
But, when the Dolphins brought the company, Mahomes and K.C.’s receivers kept bankrupting the company. Most painfully, on third-and-11 from the Kansas City 43 late in the first half with the Dolphins’ down 13-7 and hoping to get the ball back before halftime, Mahomes beat the blitz by hitting Rashee Rice for 39 yards to the Dolphins’ 18.
The defense held the Chiefs to a field goal, but 16-7 at halftime felt very different than being one big play from leading.
You can’t beat the Chiefs with zero sacks and the Dolphins didn’t. Linebacker David Long Jr. got the closest thing to a sack when his blitz forced an intentional grounding penalty.
