Key Numbers Tell Story of Defensive Struggles

It's no great revelation to say the Miami Dolphins has struggled in the early portion of the 2025 regular season, and all that's needed to understand that is to see the 33 points the team allowed against both the Indianapolis Colts and the New England Patriots.

The 66 points allowed through two games represents the second-highest total in the NFL behind only the 79 points given up by the Chicago Bears.

This marked the first time since 2019 the Dolphins allowed 30 or more points in their first two games, though all Miami know there were extenuating circumstances that year when the franchise was churning over the roster throughout the season.

Regardless of time of the season, this was the first time the Dolphins had back-to-back games giving up 30 or more since Weeks 2 and 3 when they suffered 35-0 and 31-28 losses against the Buffalo Bills and Las Vegas Raiders, respectively.

But those are obvious figures and, more importantly, the results of the issues the Dolphins are having on defense, not the causes.

For those, we have to dig a lot deeper at some other numbers.

THIRD-DOWN TROUBLES

This is as good a place as any to start because the Dolphins just can't get off the field on third down.

In their first two games, they're allowing opponents to convert 51.9 percent of their third-down situations, a figure that's tied for worst in the entire NFL with the Dallas Cowboys.

The Dolphins allowed seven third-down conversions against both the Colts and Patriots, though five of them in Week 1 were third-and-3 or shorter with three third-and-1 situations. New England, meanwhile, converted four third downs where it needed at least 4 yards, topped by a third-and-13 conversion.

“Particularly when we’ve had them in some of the second-and-longers, I think some of our under coverages have gotten too much depth and then trying to make up that ground and tackle the checkdowns for minimal gain, they are getting too much," defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver said. "Then you try to counteract that and play some tighter coverage and then we got illegal contact and holding penalties, so it’s one of those situations where we’ve just got to be more disciplined in our technique and fundamentals and then make sure we can trigger and again, keep these third downs longer than the ones we were getting in the Indy game. I thought we had our opps this game, particularly the third down before the fourth down on the first drive. Gained way too many yards because if that’s a fourth-and-6 to 7 they are probably not going for it.”

The last play Weaver reference was a Dolphins third-down stop in the stat book, but realistically a failure because the Patriots gained 10 yards on a dump-off on third-and-13, converted the fourth down and went on to score a touchdown.

Braeking it down further, the Dolphins have been particularly bad in third-down defense at the start of the game.

Indianapolis converted six of its first eight third downs before Miami stopped six of the final seven.

New England converted five of its first six before Miami stopped four of the final six.

Something to watch at the start of the Buffalo game.

WHERE ARE THE TAKEAWAYS?

While Weaver, just like every single defensive coordinator, says his players can't be focusing on forcing turnovers above doing their assignments, but this is a continuation of an issue from last year.

The Dolphins are one of six teams in the NFL without a takeaway in the first two weeks, the others being the Kansas City Chiefs, Washington Commanders, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New York Jets and Cleveland Browns.

Maybe not coincidentally, four of the six teams without a takeaway are 0-2.

The lack of takeaways was problematic last year when the Dolphins were 27th in the NFL with a total of 16, but at least they were fourth in the league in fewest yards allowed.

This year, without stopping opponents with the same success (they're 26th after two games), it's become a bigger problem.

PRESSURE PROBLEM

One easy to get turnovers is with a strip-sack, just like the Dolphins gave up when Tua Tagovailoa was sacked by Kenny Moore in the opener at Indianapolis. But Miami simply isn't generating a ton of pressure, even with three sacks against New England.

More often than not, opposing quarterbacks have time to throw, and that's part of the reason the Dolphins are allowing an unsightly 126.1 opponent passer rating.

Weaver said one way to get the pass rush cranking is creating third-and-long situations, but through two games the Dolphins have forced a total of 12 snaps with third-and-6 or longer and they've recorded only one sack on those — and it came from linebacker Jordyn Brooks on a blitz.

The bottom line here is the Dolphins need more from what we thought would be the strength of the defense, if not the team, the pass-rushing foursome of Jaelan Phillips, Bradley Chubb, Chop Robinson and Matthew Judon.

And it's not just about sacks, it's about affecting the quarterback. That simply isn't happening often enough.

But that's just one of the issues.

The numbers don't lie.

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