The Dolphins had an intra-squad scrimmage on Saturday night. The defensive half of the squad significantly outperformed the offensive side. And coach Adam Gase wasn’t happy about that.
The first-year coach’s biggest complaint about the offense came from its lack of fire.
“The first thing you notice is the intensity level,” Gase told reporters.” I think the last time we were in it, we had probably the best practice that I had seen in a while as far as intensity, just the way the guys were flying around [and] the hitting. This [practice], the defense went to another level. They took it even more than what they did last time. And then offensively, there was just no juice whatsoever. It was almost just like a walk-through.”
Asked to explain the performance of the offense, Gase said he’ll need to review the film but reiterated his overriding concern: “There just was no juice.”
“It irritates me,” Gase said. “You get to practice one time a day and you get a limited amount of practices and how many times you get to be in pads. I think it’s like 22 [padded practices] for the whole year. To not take advantage of that, that’s bothersome.”
It should be. As noted by the team’s official website, the offense managed one first down in eight possessions.
“Any given night,” defensive end Mario Williams said. “That’s why you play the game. You don’t go out here and say, ‘It’s going to be a stalemate, this is going to happen. You’re going to get blown out, you’re going to dominate.’ That’s why you compete, that’s why we play. Fortunately for us, on our side of the ball we came out and we executed what we needed to.”
It was good enough to prompt celebrations from the defensive players. The offense won’t be celebrating anything, and Gase is left trying to figure out how to fix it.
“I think when you get smacked in the mouth, you got to have guys step up,” Gase said. “Not all the time is it going to be vocally, but somebody’s got to either make a play or we’ve got to stop the defensive line from penetrating, we’ve got to pop a run, we’ve got to complete a ball -- something.”
Ultimately, that something they need is juice. And if the current starters can’t provide it, Gase and the front office will surely look for guys who can.
