The Miami Dolphins travel to New Jersey to face off with their division rival New York (New Jersey?) Jets. The Dolphins had their BYE Week last week to use to heal, and hopefully get some issues fixed. On the health side, the Dolphins may be getting a couple of players back. WR Caleb Douglas and S/LB Kyle Louis have both been at practice, though limited. Impossible to say whether either, or both will play, but there seems to be optimism that both will available. WR Caleb Douglas hasn’t played since Week 2, and S/LB Kyle Louis hasn’t played since Week1. On the personnel side, we said goodbye to K Riley Patterson and replaced him with a guy he beat out for the job, K Zane Gonzalez. Patterson was 7-9 on field goal attempts, and 5 of 6 on extra points. The latter was a point of discussion going into the BYE week after the loss to the Bengals, as well as his inability to kick the ball into the endzone on kickoffs after the Bengals just absolutely shredded Dolphins special teams, including the opening kicoff being returned to the Dolphins 10 yard line. Hafley mentioned that Patterson was instructed to kick the ball into the endzone and he didn’t get it done, and that was probably the last straw for K Riley Patterson. RG Jonah Savaiinaea should be back at RG after leaving the Bengals game with an ankle injury. Those of us at the game noticed that his replacement, OG Jarrett Kingston, did a very nice job in his first action for the Dolphins.

Week 5 was a bad week for starting QB Malik Willis. His worst game as a Miami Dolphin, Malik Willis threw 2 INT’s, and lost a fumble, accounting for 3 turnovers. His overall stat line was ugly, even uglier if you focus only on his passing stats. Malik Washington was 15-27, 137 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT’s and 1fumble lost. He was sacked 3 times for 23 yards. It’s a very different experience watching the game in person, especially when you have seats where you can actually see what’s happening, and don’t have to rely on TV coverage. Malik just didn’t play well, period. One easy observation is that Malik Willis only rolls out to his right. That’s something that needs to change, because you can’t be predictable in the NFL. If teams know you go right, they will flow that way each and every time. You have to keep them guessing. Another observation was Malik Willis has to throw the ball away sometimes, he escaped pressure initially, rolled to the right, and while looking for receivers, and I can tell you sometimes they were open and he just didn’t see them, he was outside the pocket and took a sack which is unacceptable! He has to have better field awareness in more ways than one, but that’s a rookie mistake. If you’re 5 yards away from going out of bounds, and the play started on the left hash, you better make sure you throw the ball instead of taking a 7 yard loss on the play. The other critique on Malik Willis was his 39 yard scramble in which he decided to slide while defenders were giving chase, not in front of him, but behind him. If he felt them coming, cradle the ball and keep those legs going! We’re 0-5, did he think that if he got hurt that we might go 0-12 without him? It was bizarre to see that.

While the NY Jets offense has been better than our Miami Dolphins offense, they are averaging only 18.7 PPG which is good for 27th in the NFL, 4 spots ahead of our Dolphins who are 31st, averaging a paltry 14.0 PPG. On defense, the Dolphins are 24th, allowing 26.0 PPG, the NY Jets are quite a bit better, 5th in the NFL, allowing 20.3 PPG. I’m hoping that OC Bobby Slowik has worked with the offense the last couple of weeks and made some changes. QB Malik Willis needs to be better and taking and what’s available, either passing the ball, or running. It’s odd to me that he’s always looking for the big play, yet continuously misses when guys are actually open. Not sure why that is happening, but I assure you when at the game, we saw it first hand. Don’t get me wrong, I completely understand that despite Malik Willis’ veteran status, having played for 4 years before this season, he only has 11 total starts in the NFL, and 5 of them, all losses are with the young Miami Dolphins. He will be given plenty of rope and latitude, but he will need to show improvement during the next few games, or we might just end up seeing backup QB Kyle McCord later in the season. No one expected QB Malik Willis to be a top 10 QB this season, but I believe it’s fair to have expected better play than what we have seen. Last week was setback, but that happens in the NFL. It’s important to see him bounce back with a better effort this week against a good defense.

Now that I’m on defense, while Jets QB Geno Smith hasn’t been great, and the Jets are 2-4, he has been very careful with the football. Geno Smith has only 7 passing TD’s, but he also has thrown 1 INT. Our defense has only 2 INT’s, those occurred Week 1, against QB Kirk Cousins. We have only 1 INT since then. The bulk of that lies in the lack of pressure from the pass rush. This toothless pass rush is the only defense with sacks that can be counted on one hand, F-O-U-R. DE/DT Zach Sieler has 2, DE/LB Chop Robinson has 1, and DE/LB Josh Uche has the other. I heard this morning that the Dolphins defense is among the lowest blitz rates in the NFL, less than 20%. Maybe it’s time to turn up the heat with some blitzing, but that of course leaves DB’s in some one on one coverage, which DC Sean Duggan has avoided. Perhaps if S/LB Kyle Louis plays, he may be one of those guys used to blitz, we’ll see Sunday.

For the Jets, RB Breece Hall returned to practice on Thursday and will likely be QUESTIONABLE for the game. I just read that WR Caleb Douglas (ankle) will play Sunday, as well as backup RB Jaylen Wright (foot). Starting RB Ollie Gordon is playing very well and should continue as the starter going forward. The question is, can 2nd string RB Jaylen Wright hold off 3rd string RB Kaytron Allen, who was signed off waivers after the Washington Commanders released him 2 weeks ago. I’m curious to see if Allen will be active for the Jets game, and if he gets any game action on offense. Just a quick reminder for all of you who were talking about TE Greg Dulcich getting 100 receptions and 800 yards, he has an awful lot of work to do! Dulcich after 5 games has 13 receptions for 127 and has yet to catch a TD pass. He certainly has time on his side though as this is only Game 6 for the Dolphins.

I will not be attending the “Met Life Takeover” this weekend. Although I do believe there might be more Dolphins at Met Life than there were in Week 5 at Hard Rock against the Bengals, I believe I’ve already far exceeded my expenditures on this team this season! The parking, and mostly the traffic in and out of that stadium are dreadful, torturous even. As Rock can attest, getting out of Hard Rock two weeks ago was a breath of fresh air, they let us right out on to the FLA Turnpike. In NJ, it’s close to an hour just to get OUT, and then another hour to get home. I’m not prepared to make that sacrifice my friends, so sorry. I do hope that Dolfans NYC and the rest of the Dolphins fan base in attendance ends up chanting “Jersey Turnpike” again at some point in the game as dejected and sad Jets fans pour out of the stadium when we’re up 21 points in the 4th QTR, but I wouldn’t bet any money on that! Those of us who attended the NE Fest years ago remember that well.

GO DOLPHINS!!!