They flustered Cam Newton to the point that he was benched after completing just five passes and throwing two interceptions, then sacked Newton's replacement, P.J.
The Dolphins then beat up on the Carolina Panthers in Sunday's 33-10 victory. Miami thoroughly stifled Baltimore in a 22-10 win, telling the rest of the league that relentless all-out blitzing is an effective way to rattle Ravens star quarterback Lamar Jackson. The rest is simply a team buckling down and doing what it has to do survive. Some of that is obviously schedule-driven, as the Dolphins benefitted from seeing the Texans ( Week 9) and Jets ( Week 11). That same defense has given up just 46 points over the last four games. But that defense was exposed early, such as in a 35-0 loss to Buffalo in Week 2 and a 45-17 thrashing by Tampa Bay in Week 5, and everyone began wondering when Flores would lose his job. This unit was always supposed to be the strength of this team. The Dolphins have ripped off four straight victories since that time, largely because their defense has dominated on a weekly basis. It felt like this team bottomed out weeks ago, after a seven-game losing streak left it mired at 1-7.
The problem is that a deep playoff run isn't happening for this team until they find a way to resuscitate that stagnant ground game.Ģ) Dolphins dig deep: Give Miami head coach Brian Flores credit. At 7-4, the Cowboys still have enough breathing room in the NFC East to feel good about winning that division. Dallas also attempted only 36 rushes in consecutive losses to Kansas City and Las Vegas. The same team that averaged 152 rushing yards through its first seven games has only generated 84.5 per contest over the last four weeks. What's worse is the Cowboys seem to have forgotten that running the football is what helped them enjoy so much success in the first place. Elliott (who did practice Monday) has rushed for only 149 total yards in the past four games. Part of the issue is that it's become more apparent that a lingering knee injury is hindering Elliott, with head coach Mike McCarthy recently acknowledging he was watching the running back's health heading into this Thursday's game against New Orleans (McCarthy won't be coaching in that contest, now that he's tested positive for COVID-19). They've lost three of their last four as that two-headed monster has steadily vanished from the offense. The Cowboys raced out to a 6-1 start on the strength of having Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard sharing the workload in their backfield. None of that stuff feels as ominous as what's been happening to this once-vaunted rushing attack. Do not duplicate in any form without permission of the Dallas Cowboys.1) Cowboys running on empty: There are a lot of issues plaguing the Dallas Cowboys these days, from multiple injuries to star players to a rash of COVID-19 cases currently affecting the franchise.
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