Nice write up, Rich, and thanks for squeezing it in after a holiday weekend. You da man!
Rich wrote:
Overall, the defense allowed 210 total yards, 14 first downs, 2 of 13 on third down, forced three turnovers and sacked the QB 5 times.
The Bad
In the second half, the Dolphins were outscored 15-0 by a hapless Texans team. The offensive line fell apart after Terron Armstead went down. Austin Jackson went out with an injury late after having a solid game. So the bad news here is the offensive line that was starting to look like a strength, is now a MASH unit. That could have a huge impact on the rest of the season.
Most of those yards given up by the defense was in the second half. I am surprised that losing Terron Armstrong even affected the defense (??). I'd like to see more consistency with this defense. It's like they really don't have an identity this year, and I know a lot of it is because the Dolphins lost some starters in the secondary and Ogbah. I think Josh Boyer has done a good job with this group this year as he has had to adjust he defense to the offenses he was facing. He usually makes good halftime adjustments, but it seemed he went more conservative in the second half while McDaniel kept dialing up the pass despite a lack of protection and a backup QB. It got to a point that the Texans were thinking pass rather than run and started to pin their ears back. I believe on one possession with Skylar Thompson, the Dolphins went out on 3 downs and only used 39 seconds of the clock.
Speaking of sacks, Tua got bent over backwards after one sack, and I just don't get why he seems to get the worst of a sack. Robert Jones and Brandon Shell nearly got him killed on the left side.