Good stats contradict pass defense troubles for Dolphins

By Anthony Bialy  |   Friday, October 05, 2007  |  Comments( 2 )

Miami Dolphins
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The Falcons beat the Texans last week, which means the one team officially dreading the Matt Schaub trade the most right now is Miami. A quarterback playing up to his upside has to be salivating over the prospect of facing a defense that had trouble handling passers during the season's first quarter. The 0-4 Dolphins are going to have to step up efforts to thwart the air game against Houston, as they have been beaten in different ways by different passing styles over the course of this still-young campaign.

The baffling thing is that some statistics belie the mess that is the Miami pass defense. Specifically, opponents are only averaging 145 passing yards per game against them, good for second in the league. They're also holding offenses to a 54.8 percent completion rate, and those numbers combined would seemingly indicate that the secondary is doing its job. But that doesn't reconcile with Miami's record, so what gives?

Another number holds the key: Passers facing the Dolphins have combined to achieve a fairly high 91.2 rating, meaning other teams have been efficient when necessary. The quarterbacks they've encountered have often lagged in one area such as yardage total but succeeded overall by burning Miami at opportune moments.

The Washington Redskins' Jason Campbell piled up 222 yards in Week 1, while Dallas' Tony Romo threw for 186 the next week against a defense that's showing itself to be inefficient against efficient displays. New York Jet Chad Pennington used an afternoon of small gains to eventually top the team he was facing, as he is prone to do, while the Raiders' Daunte Culpepper's scant 75 yards clouded the fact that he threw two touchdowns to complement Oakland's runaway rushing assault.

The painfully brutal truth is that Miami has had trouble stopping QBs of all types.

That brings us to the adept Schaub, who is currently eighth in the NFL with a 101.2 rating. Even in the loss against his former team, he managed 317 yards and a touchdown. Not only is he completing 74 percent of his passes, he's also tossing roughly 251 yards a game. The last thing the Dolphins need to face this week is a quarterback who's both accurate and proficient.

With that in mind, is there any hope for slowing a 2-2 Texans team that made a genuine quarterback upgrade this past offseason? The best hope for Miami's pass defenders is to start generating turnovers against an offense that's been liable for a handful of them so far. Schaub has thrown three interceptions in 2007, a total that's not outrageous but still noticeable.

So, pick him off. It sounds easy; the problem is the fact that the Dolphins have only managed two measly interceptions this year, both of which came against Campbell in the opener. The defense only has five sacks, too, so in addition the Dolphins need to find a way to get pressure on a quarterback who's been brought down six times in four games.

Both the pass rush and coverage must be enhanced if the Dolphins have any desire to slow Schaub and a team finally poised to ditch that expansion team label. Otherwise, a rising young group of Texans is going to overwhelm an established franchise currently heading in the opposite direction.
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