Chris Perkins: Miami Dolphins’ defense hasn’t arrived yet, but it’s en route

MIAMI GARDENS — All day Sunday, the Miami Dolphins defense put in its work in the team’s 31-16 victory against the hapless New York Giants. The results were encouraging. They defense recorded a season-best in sacks (seven), a season-best in quarterback hits (14), didn’t allow an offensive touchdown, and held the Giants to 85 yards rushing, the second-best total of the season.

The Dolphins defense, which was blamed for a lot of the problems of last year’s 9-8 season and therefore made some major changes in the offseason, turned in a solid game Sunday.

“It felt like how it’s supposed to feel,” linebacker David Long Jr. said.

It was quite a bounce-back performance after getting smoked at Buffalo, 48-20, last week and allowing 34 points in the season-opening 36-34 win at the Los Angeles Chargers.

There was only one thing the Dolphins defense didn’t do against the Giants.

“We didn’t get the ball,” veteran safety DeShon Elliott said. “That’s not championship football. And we had a lot of (coverage) busts. There’s a lot of (stuff) we can work on.

“Overall, we got the win as a team but I think we definitely could play better as a defense.”

Elliott is right.

The Dolphins defense could be better, and it should be better. They’re not yet where they want to be, or where they should be.

For example, the Dolphins lost the turnover battle Sunday 3-0 something that didn’t escape notice by coach Mike McDaniel.

“It was a tremendous job by our defense to handle a three-turnover output by our offense,” he said.

Still there were good things happening. Linebackers Zach Sieler (2.0 sacks) and Emmanuel Ogbah and Jerome Baker (1.5 sacks each) were strong, and so was linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel (1.0 sack).

Cornerback Eli Apple, who re-gained his boundary job in the nickel formation, had a team-best nine tackles.

The defense did well playing its third game without edge rusher Jalean Phillips (oblique). Once again, Van Ginkel and Ogbah did well in his place.

And the nickel package once again features Apple and Xavien Howard as the boundary cornerbacks with Kader Kohou moving to the slot.

But overall the defense remains a work in progress, and I think it’ll take them until Thanksgiving to get their groove.

The Dolphins defense has been trying to find its footing throughout this early part of the season. Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio and cornerback Jalen Ramsey were brought in to ensure this unit fares better than its No. 15 ranking in 2022, and much better than their 23.5 points per game allowed last year, which was ninth worst in the league. 

That plan was dealt an immediate body blow when Ramsey, likely the best player on the defense when healthy, sustained a knee injury on the second day of training camp and is out until late in the season.

That’s one reason the Dolphins defense hasn’t been ideal through five games.

They’ve only produced five takeaways (two interceptions, three fumble recoveries), which puts them in the middle of the pack in the NFL.

Aside from that, the Dolphins defense entered the Giants game in the lower half of the league in most defensive categories.

They were tied for 26th in overall defense (374.5 yards allowed per game), 25th in pass defense (251.0 ypg), 22nd in rushing defense (123.5 ypg), 28th in scoring defense (29.8 points allowed per game), and tied for 25th in third-down defense (46.2% conversions allowed).

The Dolphins defense won’t get big-time credit for limiting the hapless Giants, nor will it get credit if it repeats the performance, or even does slightly better next week against the winless Carolina Panthers (0-5).

But that’s OK.

This is all practice for the bigger games on the schedule such as at Philadelphia, last season’s Super Bowl runner-up, in two weeks, or the game in Germany against the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs two weeks after that.

And there’s no big rush to get things done.

“We’re just putting this thing together, slowly but surely,” defensive tackle Raekwon Davis said.

The Dolphins know they’ll be judged by how they play in their biggest games this season.

Sunday’s victory was OK, but last week’s loss at Buffalo is more significant.

The Dolphins already knew their defense could hold up at home against a team such as the Giants. They need to know their defense can hold up on the road against a team such as Buffalo.

“We didn’t have the best week last week,” Sieler said.

And they need to know it can hold up on the road against teams like Philadelphia and Kansas City.

The Dolphins are in first place in the AFC East again thanks to Buffalo’s 25-20 loss to Jacksonville in London. The Dolphins improve to 4-1 Sunday, and the Bills are 3-2.

This game against the Giants was good, it’s the type of opponent this Dolphins defense showed it could handle last year.

The defense needs to show it can step up and fight with the heavyweights.

“This was the fifth game?” Elliott asked. “We’ve got 12 chances to get better, 12 chances to be great.”