Dolphins HC Mike McDaniel can do this to conquer Bill Belichick

Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel never disappoints at the press conference podium. He's colorful, candid and breaks football down in pop culture terms. McDaniel is the antithesis of New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, who regularly answers reporters with dry, one-word responses. 

The Dolphins-Patriots Week 2 Sunday night AFC East bout is a perfect contrast of coaches.

When asked to opine on the Patriots defensive strategy leading up to the matchup in Foxborough, McDaniel gushed over Belichick almost like Ken admiring Barbie.

"It is amazing to me, and I hope one day I can even sniff this, it's amazing that the orchestration of the defense is so consistent, so fundamentally consistent and sound," McDaniel said, as per miamidolphins.com. "And the leader of the ship was at the same job when we were all like, 'what's an iPod?'"

McDaniel is always in an offensive state of mind even when he's not dropping jokes, which is why the Dolphins game against the Patriots this week is uber-intriguing. Belichick, arguably the best coach in the history of the National Football League, is a defensive savant. His Cover 1, which is man-to-man with a single high safety in the middle of the field, will be a huge test for the Dolphins. It is designed to take away zone passes between the hash marks.

On the counter side, McDaniel puts his players in a position to use their strengths, which means quarterback Tua Tagovailoa uses his quick release to throw accurate slant passes in the middle third of the field. This gives speedy receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle the ball in open space, which was deadly in Week 1 when the Dolphins offense amassed 536 yards of total offense.

Essentially, the nuances come down to this: the Patriots will need to disrupt Tagovailoa before he has a chance to get rid of the ball, but McDaniel may have an alternative game plan. 

"If you pressure, you better get there, because when those guys get the ball and there's not many people around them, you're looking at a lot of yardage," Belichick said, as per patriots.com. "A lot of their yards are run after the catch yards, it's not all go routes and post routes."

The Dolphins could get a gigantic boost with the insertion of Pro Bowl left tackle Terron Armstead back into the starting lineup. Armstead traveled with the team to Boston and should be good-to-go, which opens more possibilities for McDaniel to overcome Belichick's Cover 1.

McDaniel should rely heavily on the run-pass option with Tagovailoa, who might be the best QB in the NFL at it, to keep the Patriots defense in guess mode. If Tagovailoa, the Week 1 AFC Offensive Player of the Week, can read the Patriots tendencies with pre-snap motions, the Dolphins can set up for the deep routes that Belichick's defense might not expect. 

Early on, McDaniel should have Tagovailoa steadily feed running backs Raheem Mostert and Salvon Ahmed with pull run plays behind Armstead. If the Dolphins can commit to establishing a ground attack, it should allow Tagovailoa to play-action pass the Patriots to death.

"I'll draw up sweet, sick plays on this board right now. But they mean nothing," McDaniel said. "I've been drawing plays since I got started in 2005. It's the players that make it come to life and that's the cool thing to watch."

Belichick gave the most Belichick answer possible when he was asked earlier this week if he has had a chance to know McDaniel on a personal level.

"Yeah, no. I've never coached with him," Belichick said.

Whatever happens on the field, we can look forward to some insightful shtick from McDaniel at his post-game news conference. It should be way more entertaining than the Belichick presser.