Was it the tension after every good move?
Or maybe the stare after the physical blocks or the shoulders that Jeff Wilson, Jaylen Wright and Chris Brooks dropped to gain an extra yard or two on their intense runs.
Even better were the few suplex tackles that the defenders used as a substitute for a perfectly acceptable pull-down stop.
Friday night’s preseason opener against the Atlanta Falcons was a demonstration of the work the Miami Dolphins have done this training camp to change the team’s league-wide reputation as a walk-on.
This team, with its nerdy-looking, Ivy League-educated head coach, tries to play like the kind of bully who would stuff a Mike McDaniel into a hallway locker, and it showed that all week against the Falcons, imposing its will on them in joint practices and in Friday night’s 20-13 preseason win.
Miami dominated the line of scrimmage (121 rushing yards to 53 in the first three quarters) in a game that didn’t feature many regular players on either side.
The play of rookie offensive tackle Patrick Paul, Miami’s second-round pick, who started Friday night’s game at left tackle and played well into the fourth quarter, perfectly exemplified what the Dolphins want to become.
The 6-foot-4, 335-pound player, who wears a face mask that makes him look like the villain Bane from the Batman movies, forced the Falcons’ defenders on the defensive for most of the game, regularly distracting the fullbacks from running plays and preventing them from turning the corner on quick plays.
The Dolphins chased Paul for most of the game and the Falcons could do nothing to stop them.
He was in charge of his job and followed the instructions that Pro Bowl cornerback Jalen Ramsey asked his teammates to give at the end of a lackluster day of practice last week.
Paul’s performance should make Ramsey proud.
And that should also apply to Miami’s defensive performance against the Falcons.
New defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver comes from the Baltimore Ravens, where he played and coached, so his team has been cooking with some of John Harbaugh’s secret recipes throughout training camp.
With Ramsey as his sous-chef setting the tone for that side of the ball, I think we can assume Miami’s face-off ball mandate will come from the unit that makes its living beating people up.
Now it’s up to a coach, a team, or maybe a player to make sure the offense follows suit and that this identity shift takes root.
This shouldn’t be too difficult considering McDaniel comes from Mike Shanahan’s coaching staff and his mentors referee games in Denver and Washington every year, setting the tone for physicality in the NFL.
Last season, McDaniel began to live up to his reputation as a run game specialist, turning his pass-happy offense in 2022 into the NFL’s most productive running attack in 2023, considering Miami ranks first in the NFL in yards per attempt and second in rushing yards per game.
In running the ball, Miami trailed only the Ravens, whose running attack is bolstered by a quarterback who has rushed for 1,000 yards or more twice in his six-year career and averages 61.1 rushing yards per game.
Miami doesn’t have a cheat code like Lamar Jackson, so what the Dolphins need to pull off this identity change is a punch first mentality, an in your face mentality that shows the rest of the NFL that the 2024 Dolphins are ready and willing to go a few rounds with anyone who wants to show them the smoke.
