For the Miami Dolphins, the next-day Week 3 numbers are as ugly as the game film.
The Seattle Seahawks dominated the Dolphins defensively and made enough timely plays on offense to hand the Dolphins their fifth loss in six games, dating back to the 2023 season.
Here’s a statistical breakdown of the Week 3 disaster in the Pacific Northwest, courtesy of TruMedia.
A Look Back at Miami Dolphins vs. Seattle Seahawks
What went wrong? Where to begin?
Let’s start with the offensive line.
The Dolphins simply couldn’t pass block. They allowed pressures on 43.6% of their dropbacks, an astounding number that would have doomed any quarterback, let alone the likes of Skylar Thompson and Tim Boyle.
The offensive line’s sack rate (15.8%) explains why Thompson didn’t make it through the game. He suffered a painful rib injury that ended his day, but not before he averaged just 5.7 yards per attempt (right at his career average) on 19 pass attempts.
OH HELLO TDOT pic.twitter.com/kP92JUupqw
— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) September 22, 2024
How bad was it on offense? They had a nearly impossible -25.23 total EPA on 61 snaps.
The Dolphins’ passing game on Sunday was completely right-handed. Miami quarterbacks were 7 of 15 outside the left hash for 87 yards and 13 of 17 for 99 everywhere else.
The average air yards per target for the Dolphins’ receivers? A meager 6.52 yards.
The running game was hardly better. The Dolphins converted just one of four third-down tries rushing and averaged 1.61 yards after contact. (In defense of Miami’s offensive line, their backs averaged 2.0 yards before contact per rush, which certainly isn’t bad.)
The tight end position is a total mess. Julian Hill (25 of 61) out-snapped Jonnu Smith (23 of 61) and Durham Smythe (18 of 61) and rewarded his coaches’ faith in him by committing four penalties for 40 yards.
Where’s the Jonnu package? He had two catches for 18 yards on three targets.
“On offense, it’s tough to move the ball,” Boyle said postgame. “Felt like we had some momentum going into it, a couple drives, and all of a sudden it was a penalty or a key incompletion or it was something that kind of held us back. And it’s tough to sustain drives and put points on the board when you do that. We’ve got to be critical with ourselves on the tape and come back and get better.”
Dolphins Defensive Stats
The picture was certainly rosier on defense, particularly considering the Dolphins were basically out of cornerbacks after Kendall Fuller and Storm Duck got hurt.
The Dolphins, for the first time this season, really embraced a three-safety approach, with Jordan Poyer, Jevon Holland, and Marcus Maye all on the field for 19 of Miami’s 64 defensive snaps.
Credit the pass rush for stepping up. Miami’s pressure rate (43.6%) was actually higher than Seattle’s. When rushing four, the Dolphins had four sacks and held the Seahawks to 6.4 yards per attempt and an 84.2 passer rating.
But when the Dolphins blitzed, the Seahawks went 7 of 9 for 75 yards (101.4 rating).
Geno Smith overall feasted on first downs, completing 14 of 16 attempts for 186 yards, one touchdown, and zero interceptions for a 12.1 yards-per-attempt average and a 137.8 passer rating.
“It’s just a matter of us putting it together,” Holland said. “I think it’s just a matter of us being locked in when the time is needed and taking advantage of us being in that motion and in that mode. Playing together and that’s all we really need to do, just trust each other.”