The Miami Dolphins’ controversial final offensive play from Week 4 offers a valuable lesson—but it may not be the one you think
The most criticized play from the Miami Dolphins’ Week 4 loss to Minnesota got a breakdown by offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik.
The Miami Dolphins‘ offense has about as quiet of a finish to a game as you possibly could last week against the Vikings. Minnesota held the ball for 14 minutes time of possession and the Dolphins offense got three plays in a one score game. That was it!
And, as such, the team’s final play — a deep pass attempt on 3rd down from QB Malik Willis to WR Chris Bell, has drawn a lot of attention. And a lot of Monday Morning Quarterbacking, as they say. When Dolphins offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik was asked about the play on Thursday, he outlined some of what went wrong. And it shows just how much of a learning lesson a play can be for everyone — including us.
Miami Dolphins offensive coordinator breaks down the team’s final offensive play versus Minnesota
“We’re expecting cover zero. We got cover zero, we put a play in specifically for cover zero. We got exactly what we want, we got an all-out blitz. Two posts on the left, we have a stick on the right…I think ultimately the play came down (t0) in football, it’s so funny. It’s a trickle down to everything, right?
We put in a special protection to pick up an all-out blitz against the defense is probably the best in the NFL doing all-out blitzes. We pick it all up. But we’re a hair off on when the on the balls being snapped like a hair early. Now Will’s a little out of position. He picks off AJ. Will gets edged. AJ gets edged. Now the pocket’s not clean. Now it’s not – so it’s like all these things add together on it, which is why the detail of everything we do right now with our team is so important all the way across the board.”
— Miami Dolphins offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik
The big controversy around the play in question is that as Willis was forced to backpedal and throw deep to Bell, fellow rookie wide receiver Kevin Coleman Jr. had uncovered on the opposite side of the field. It looked, from the 30,000 foot view, to be an easy completion for a first down.
Having a plan versus pressure
But to Slowik’s point, the coaching install got them everything they wanted. They got the look. The offense had the call intended. But small details in the margin compounded on top of one another. An early snap point creates a steeper angle for a rookie tight end trying to block a star pass rusher. That steeper angle creates a collision with the right tackle, who then loses his leverage on his block. With both edges compromised, Willis, in real time has to react. Now the snowball is coming downhill — and even then Slowik conceded that Chris Bell could have made the play.
In terms of the Vikings defense and pressure in general, I always defer to JT O’Sullivan, who offers YouTube and Patreon videos on quarterback & offensive play. O’Sullivan was an All-American at UC-Davis, won the co-MVP of NFL Europa in 2007, and played nearly a decade in the league for a slew of teams. He always talks about the importance of having a pressure plan. Where are you going to go with the football? Where are your outlets? When teams are bringing more rushers than you can block, you need to get the ball out of your hands.
Ultimately, Slowik’s outline underlines the Dolphins knew how they wanted to attack this coverage. And that everyone, on the ball, felt they had a protection set up to get things set up for Willis to have time to run double posts. An early snap point compounds the whole thing and now here we are.
But they had the look they wanted. And the throw they wanted. The talk about Miami’s final third down needs to be more on getting the motion/snap right — then and only then should the conversation shift to whether or not the right guy got the ball. Not the other way around.
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