TDS Rant: Calling Out Kevin Coyle

With the way Miami’s run defense has played under Kevin Coyle I am surprised he is not under fire and in fact I am surprised he still has a job. He has quickly become a coach under my suspicion as the most important part of our defense has gotten worse (The Defensive Front) Miami Defense against the run was 3^rd in the NFL in Sparano’s last year in Miami. They ran a 3-4 scheme and had a very good DC in Mike Nolan now the defensive coördinator of the Atlanta Falcons.

Miami’s run defense has actually regressed since Kevin Coyle and his 4-3 system has taken over. They went from 3^rd in Sparano’s last season to 12^th in 2012 and further down to 24^th in 2013. That is a significant decline and in my eyes the reason Miami failed to make the playoffs as I was projecting our Defense to be a top 10 defense last year.

So Kevin Coyle is officially on the TDS HOT SEAT and I am calling Kevin Coyle OUT! As our offense is improving what was a solid run defense has declined. To his credit the secondary has improved but is it more about the talent acquired by our former GM Jeff Ireland who brought us Brent Grimes than our DC? The first thing all Defenses try to do is stop the run because any team that can run on you control the time of possession and if you can control the time of possession you control the game. How many times last year did Coyle’s defense give up not only a lot of yards on the ground but in far too many cases they gave up third and long pass plays that kept our opponents drives alive? And to be 24^th against the rush means we are 8 spots away from being the worst in the NFL against the number one thing defenses are supposed to do STOP THE RUN!. What good is a high-powered offense if they can’t get on the field?

Something is wrong, while everybody is obsessing on the offense and Ryan Tannehill our Defense has regressed. Not enough criticism has been targeted at our DC but I am here to wage a complaint! Joe Philbin needs to get with Kevin Coyle and look at what is going on with his Run Defense and make him accountable. Our run defense or lack of one has prevented the offense from getting more plays and opportunities to put more points on the board. Their inability to get off the field last year kept games close and tired the defense out and was targeted by opposing offense as they knew we could not stop the run. Buffalo and the Jets our last two opponents are teams built to play sound defense and run the ball effectively and that is why Miami lost to both at season’s end.

I have heard the argument about fewer points allowed and how Miami’s defense was 8^th in points allowed last year and that is a positive spin on what was an ugly defensive performance last year. Mikey is a positive guy and this is not knock on his positive spin more than it is my take on a defense that appears to have declined. Could the allowing of the 8^th fewest points be tied to the fact that teams ran the ball effectively thus the scoring overall was down as teams ran at will eating up the clock and keeping the game close and the scoring down?

Our RUN DEFENSE has steadily declined under Kevin Coyle and to me that is the first priority of any sound Defense “STOP THE RUN!” To many games these past two seasons under Coyle we have witnessed this run defense not play to the level that we expected. I feel some accountability needs to be in place and some serious consideration should have been made in replacing Coyle this past offseason. It is too late now but I suspect if our defense still plays poorly that Philbin with fewer people to throw under the Bus would consider a midseason change but if that is happening rest assured that Joe Philbin’s job just might be in jeopardy by then as the season will be slipping away.

So Miami’s failure to make the playoffs though widely blamed on our inability to score more than 7 point in both games against Buffalo and the Jets last year and validly so but what is not being talked about is in Buffalo the Bills ran for over 200 yards against our Defense and the Bill’s Time Of Possession was 36:31 to Miami 23:29 that is 13 minutes more than the Dolphins had in TOP. And the last game vs. the Jets in where we were eliminated from the playoffs losing to the dreaded Jets at home our Defense gave up 153 yards rushing and the Jets also won the Time of Possession 32:24 to Miami’s 27:36, 5 more minutes than Miami in TOP.

Now I get it that our focus is on having an explosive offense and with the acquisition of the Highly paid Mike Wallace and other weapons added to the offense we can be a bit distracted and take our eyes off of what truly is a problem, like our declining run defense. A top defense is what will win us not only more games but championships as well. If you doubt that take a look at last year’s SB winner who basically took what appeared to be an unstoppable offensive performance from Payton Manning and basically took them to the woodshed and through sound defensive play blew the Bronco’s out of the game with a less polished young stud Russell Wilson at QB but one hell of a defensive performance.

No wonder the Seahawks paid out big bucks this offseason in rewarding one of their best players with a 57 million dollar contract extension 40 million guaranteed!

So don’t fall for the old banana in the tailpipe and forget what really hurt the Dolphins last year and that is our poor run defense and inability to get off the field on third downs. Because I will not and I am keeping one eye on our Defense and the other eye on Ryan Tannehill , Joe Philbin and Bill Lazor.

Feels good to get this off my chest!

So tell us what do you think about our Defensive Coordinator? Is Miami’s defense the problem or is it the offense that is putting our defense in bad positions?

Chime in and let us know.