NFL News NFL News, Reports and Updates
Henry McKenna
AFC East Reporter
Vic Fangio and Mike Macdonald might be the most important men in the biggest game of Week 17. That’s because Fangio, the Miami Dolphins defensive coordinator, and Macdonald, the Baltimore Ravens DC, have the hardest jobs in the NFL. At least this week.
For Fangio, it’ll be about stopping Lamar Jackson.
For Macdonald, it’ll be about stopping the combination of Tua Tagovailoa, Tyreek Hill and Raheem Mostert.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s extremely fun to talk about these two incredible offenses — and to give credit to their engineers, Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel and Ravens OC Todd Monken.
Because of Jackson and Monken, the Ravens have the fourth-best offensive DVOA in the NFL (18.3%) — an advanced stat that measures overall efficiency. Baltimore is fourth in points per game (27.8) and fifth in yards per game (372.1).
Because of McDaniel, Hill and Tua, the Dolphins have the third-best offensive DVOA (24.8%). They’re also first in points per game (30.9) and yards per game (411.5).
These two offenses are radically different schematically — because their quarterbacks are opposites — but both offenses are among the NFL’s elite. Meanwhile, their two defenses don’t compare in the same way statistically. Baltimore is right at the top of the league in basically every category. Miami is middle of the road in just about every category.
But the way I see it: These two defenses are likely to decide this game. And they both have an interesting storyline after big wins in Week 16.
For the Dolphins, it’s about building something better than what they did against the Cowboys
I don’t mean to take away from Miami’s work against Dallas. It was quite a strong performance from the Dolphins defense. There were simply times when quarterback Dak Prescott outplayed the entire Miami unit. His final drive was a masterpiece of desperate quarterback play.
There was the completion he threw to Michael Gallup with…
Source link : https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/lamar-vs-tua-the-ravens-dolphins-matchup-actually-comes-down-to-defense
Author :
Publish date : 2023-12-27 22:19:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
