The Dolphins were on pace to give up 72 sacks for the season heading into this Sunday’s game against the Ravens, a rate that led guard Richie Incognito to opine that everyone on the offensive line should be fired if that happens.
Incognito and company might want to polish up those resumes because things got even worse this week. The Ravens sacked Ryan Tannehill six times, including a big sack by Elvis Dumervil as Miami tried to tie the score with no timeouts at the end of the fourth quarter. Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs had three sacks by that point, making the most of a matchup with left tackle Jonathan Martin, and the Dolphins offense couldn’t score points in the second half.
It was no surprise, then, that coach Joe Philbin said after the game that the line’s inability to block the Ravens made it almost impossible for the offense to function.
“It’s hard to function. It’s hard to function offensively when you’re going backwards,” Philbin said. “It makes your job…it makes it tougher. It makes it tougher, no doubt about it.”
A couple of tackles -- Levi Brown and Eugene Monroe -- were traded last week and the shuffling could continue. The Dolphins are on a bye this week and may spend some time looking over any remaining trade options on the offensive line if they want to avoid seeing how many hits Tannehill can take before breaking.