Dolphins All-22 Breakdown: Fins Defense vs Cam Newton

NFL game pass made me wait two extra days to get my hands on the All-22, but they couldn’t hold it forever. The Dolphins suffered a loss against the Patriots last week by a score of 21-11, which isn’t too bad. There was a ton of panic on Dolphins Twitter after the game and while I understand, because the final score probably should’ve been 28-3 if not for a great hustle play by Jerome Baker, it’s only week one. 

However, I came away from the game feeling like the Dolphins got picked apart by the Patriots’ offense. After watching the All-22, I can confirm that is exactly what happened. The Dolphins defense didn’t play horrible. The Patriots came in with a masterful game plan and executed it to perfection. 

What stuck out to me most was their use of the read-option and pre-snap motion to get favorable numbers to one side of the field. Let’s take a look at both and see how the Dolphins faired in each area. 

 

The Read-Option

 

 

Alright, let’s start with the basics of the read-option concept. The idea is to force the EDGE defender to make a decision between tackling the RB or the QB. The QB reads the EDGE and once he commits to one player or the other the QB will either hand the ball off or keep it himself.

In the play above, you will see a receiver come across the backfield in presnap motion. The receiver is trailed by a Dolphins defender all the way across the formation telegraphing to Newton it is man coverage. The read-option works best against man coverage because the secondary won’t have their eyes in the backfield.

The next thing to watch is the blocking upfront by the left side of the Patriots line (based on the video). The tackle leaves Kyle Van Noy unblocked and crashes down with the guard on Shaq Lawson. They do an excellent job on this double and end up pancaking Lawson into the dirt. 

Once Van Noy decides he’s going to stick with the RB, Newton pulls the ball and has open room because the double team cleared out Lawson. They isolated Van Noy on the EDGE, forced him to make a choice, and then cleaned out his help inside. Perfectly run and perfectly executed. 

 

 

On that last play, Newton kept the ball and picked up about seven yards on the play. It’s good yardage but not that big of a deal. However, what makes the read-option hard to defend, if you aren’t prepared for it, is how it messes with your eyes. 

The play above is essentially the same set up as the last one. Except for this time, the tackle is coming down to double Davon Godchaux, and Shaq Lawson is left as the isolated EDGE defender. Newton beat Miami with his legs last time so Lawson decides to collapse down the line and attack Newton who just calmy hands the ball to Rex Burkhead with nothing but open grass in front of him. 

Another reason this play works is because of what Jerome Baker does. He is lurking pretty close to the line of scrimmage pre-snap which leads to him getting caught up in the trash. If he was freer and didn’t get sucked in so much by the fake he could’ve stopped Burkhead much sooner. 

 

 

Okay, so how do you stop the read option? The first way is shown in the play above. First, the EDGE defender, this time Emmanuel Ogbah, does a good job staying disciplined. He doesn’t over commit to the RB or to Newton. This forces Newton to keep the ball even though Ogbah is still in a good position to tackle him for a minimal gain. 

The other key part of this play is not letting the tackle who is blocking down the line pancake the 3T. In the first example, Shaq Lawson got pancaked giving Newton an easy hole to run through. In this play, the 3T is rookie Raekwon Davis who does a significantly better job stacking the blocks. 

He fires off the snap low and gets his hands into the chest of the Patriots guard and then shows great balance to withstand the hit from the OT collapsing down the line. In fact, he uses the push from the OT to gain a half-man relationship with the OG and ends up getting himself free. 

Great rep from the rookie here. 

 

 

The other way to stop the read-option is to stack the EDGE. In the play above, Miami puts both LB Kyle Van Noy and SAF Bobby McCain on the EDGE. Each player is responsible for a single player in the backfield. Baker’s assignment is Newton while McCain was assigned the RB. 

The Patriots actually run the read-option to the other side of the line. They try to isolate Shaq Lawson again who committed to the RB prompting Newton to keep the football. However, Van Noy is assigned to Newton on the backside, so he flies in and cleans the play up. 

Sadly for Miami, they didn’t do this enough during the game to stop the Patriots from picking up easy yards with the read-option. This was the only play I could find where they employed this strategy. It really seems like the coaching staff and the players were caught off guard by the Patriots gameplan. 

 

Pre-Snap Motion: 

 

 

The other thing which stuck out to me was the Patriots’ use of pre-snap motion to get favorable numbers to one side of the field and then proceeding to run Newton to that side. It isn’t anything revolutionary, but it was widely effective for a couple of reasons. 

In the play above the Patriots come out with three receivers to the right with Newton in the shotgun and an RB to his left. Newton motions the RB out to the left, and he brings Jerome Baker with him signaling man coverage. This also clears out the middle of the field for the Dolphins leaving them exposed to a QB run. 

The design of the run is nothing short of perfect too. The RT and RG collapse down the line pinning the Dolphins DL to the left and then they pull the LG to kick out the strong side EDGE clearing a huge gap for Newton to run through. 

The Dolphins corners are busy in man coverage and Jerome Baker, the team’s fastest LB, essentially got pulled out of the play by pre-snap motion. Perfect design and execution by the Patriots. 

 

 

On this play, the Patriots basically use the same concept to net themselves an easy touchdown. Again, Newton is in the shotgun with three receivers lining up to the left this time. The RB motions out to the left this time bringing SAF Bobby McCain with him which signals man coverage. 

Last time, Newton ran to the side where the receivers were but this time the presnap motion leaves the Dolphins with just two defenders on the right EDGE against the Patriots two blockers. The TE pinches down on Emmanuel Ogbah taking him out of the play. That leaves SAF Eric Rowe in a 1v1 situation with the Patriots RT which goes about how you could expect. 

Again, New England took advantage of the Dolphins’ overwhelming use of man coverage and then manipulated the players to each side of the formation giving them advantageous numbers in the run game. 

Simply put, they ran where the Dolphins weren’t. 

 

 

Okay, this is the last one. This play is a little more unique but it uses the same basic concept of presnap motion to create advantageous numbers for the Patriots. This time, Newton came out under center and the RB is flexed outside. Newton motions him in, and he brings Jerome Baker with him who is, again, in man coverage. 

The motion again creates a situation where the Dolphins only have two defenders to one side of the field. The pulling OG is responsible for the EDGE and the WR is responsible for the CB. The Patriots call a play-action bootleg to that side of the field which further makes things hard on the Dolphins because Newton can build momentum. 

Now, I gotta give Jerome Baker a ton of credit here because this hustle play to even make this close is very impressive. I don’t think a lot of other LBs have the speed to even come close to hitting Newton before he makes it to the corner. 

This was a controversial touchdown call, but I’ll be honest there was a next to zero chance the Dolphins stopped the Patriots on the one anyway. 

 

Conclusion: 

 

While a lot of this looks bad, I don’t think Dolphins fans should panic about the defense. Firstly, they were rolling out a ton of new players who never played together before. Secondly, the Patriots hit them with a completely unique gameplan in week one of a season where they were limited on prep time. 

When these two teams play again I would reckon the Dolphins will be much more prepared for this stuff. I am not a coach, but I think one of the reasons Miami struggles so much against running QBs is because they play so much man coverage. Sprinkling in some zone could help them. 

They got outcoached and beat up in the trenches which happens sometimes. On the bright side, Christian Wilkins, Byron Jones, Raekwon Davis, and Brandon Jones all played fairly well. Jerome Baker made mistakes but also looked as fast as ever. 

It is only one game Dolphins fans. The time to panic isn’t here yet. 

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