The Dolphins’ strategy on Thursday night involved blitzing their safeties at a rate we haven’t seen in years.
According to Next Gen Stats, Dolphins safeties Jevon Holland and Brandon Jones blitzed a combined 38 times during Miami’s 22-10 win over the Ravens. Those blitzes sometimes came on the same play and Miami wound up sending defensive backs on 24 of the 48 plays when Jackson dropped back to pass.
It’s the most defensive back blitzes for any team this season and the most defensive back blitzes by any team since Next Gen Stats came into existence at the start of the 2016 season. After the game, the Ravens said they expected that approach from Miami’s defense but, as tight end Mark Andrews noted, they didn’t handle it well.
“Zero is one of those things where you have to make them pay,” Andrews said, via the Ravens website. “I don’t think early on we did that enough. That’s one of the things, you make them pay early on, they kind of get out of that.”
Until the Ravens show they can handle safety blitzes, it’s likely that they’ll continue to see them on a regular basis in the weeks to come.