Dolphins must sharpen, diversify offense, a process that starts against the New York Giants

MIAMI GARDENS — When the Dolphins needed a spark in their offense last week at Buffalo, the usual charges, wide receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, weren’t there.

Circumstances, with Buffalo’s top-rated defense acting as a catalyst, conspired to limit Hill to three receptions for 58 yards and Waddle to four receptions for 46 yards.

It’s up to coach Mike McDaniel and offensive coordinator Frank Smith to make sure nothing along those lines happens again, and that includes Sunday’s 1 p.m. game against the lowly New York Giants (1-3) at Hard Rock Stadium.

“I feel like nobody in this league can stop us except for ourselves,” Hill said. “If we come out and don’t execute pre-snap, and we get penalties pre-snap, then we’re going to put ourselves behind the eight ball.

“Teams can run two-shell, play man-to-man, do whatever they want to, but I feel like we have a good enough unit to make plays. It doesn’t matter who’s getting the ball or what coach is calling. We have the dynamic playmakers to do anything that we need to do.”

That might be true against defenses such as the Giants and Carolina Panthers (0-4), the Dolphins’ next two opponents. 

But to defeat top teams such as Buffalo, the Dolphins’ opponent last week, and Philadelphia (4-0), the Dolphins’ opponent in three weeks, and to win in the playoffs they need their passing game to be honed because the margin for error is razor thin, especially on the road.

This is a passing game that ranks No. 1 in the NFL at 334.3 yards per game, and it fuels an offense that ranks No. 1 in both yards (511.0) and points per game (37.5).

For all of that to work they need Hill and Waddle to have the ball in their hands. New England figured out a way to limit Hill, keeping him to five receptions for 40 yards and one touchdown in Miami’s 24-17 victory. 

And don’t forget the Dolphins still need a balance between run and pass for the passing game to operate at maximum effectiveness.

“It’s been really good for us,” quarterback Tua Tagovailoa said of a run game that gained 350 yards in that 70-20 victory over Denver, and ranks No. 1 in the league at 176.8 yards per game.

“That’s what I would say. It’s been helpful to offset some of the actions that we do in the pass game and then off of those run actions we can marry some of the ways we motion and do our action fakes to some of the pass plays that we have in, so I think it’s been really, really good.”

The Giants won’t do what Buffalo did in its 48-20 victory over the Dolphins last week.

Buffalo sent pressure on early downs, and when the Dolphins attempted to pass they found Buffalo sitting in a two-deep safety/shell formation, giving them the ability to double-team Hill or Waddle and reduce the YAC (Yards After Catch).

That’s not the Giants’ style. The Giants usually keep one safety deep, the so-called single-high look, and they like the all-out blitz. It’s a high-risk style that often allows Hill and Waddle to be at their best.

“People generally don’t change their DNA,” McDaniel said.

OK, so expect the Giants to do what the Giants do, with a little surprise here or there.

The Dolphins still have a chain of events that must go right to consistently get the ball to Hill and Waddle and fuel one of the NFL’s most dangerous passing games. 

“It starts with the coaching staff,” Smith said. “Play design, play implementation, how we went about certain things.”

And calling the right play. 

McDaniel took the fall for that in the Buffalo loss. He admitted he vacated the run game too early. 

After the right play is called, it’s up to players to pave the road for the play to work with pre-snap identifications and pre-snap motion. Both of those were spotty last week.

And then it’s about executing the play. Again, that was spotty last week, and for a number of reasons.

“I think it was self-inflicted wounds,” fullback Alec Ingold said. “This offense is really talented. There’s a lot of guys that can make a lot of plays. When little details kind of start slipping and you don’t have one guy pick it up, and then it kind of snowballs, that’s where you get a three-and-out like that.” 

If the Dolphins can iron out the wrinkles in their offense, and find a way to consistently get the ball to Hill and Waddle, their offense will be OK on Sunday and beyond.

If not, they might hit a lot of bumps, expected and unexpected, in the next 13 weeks.