Addressing Sanders' Struggles and the Fourth-Down Decision

Jason Sanders was the best kicker in the NFL since 2020, point blank, but it's been a rough ride since then for the six-year Miami Dolphins veteran and it's not gotten any smoother so far in the 2023 season.

And, now, after two missed kicks in the first two weeks of the season, two misses that very well could have the Dolphins at 0-2 instead of 2-0 if not for the defense stepping up to seal the deal, this certainly could be classified as a borderline emergency situation.

But that's not the way special teams coach Danny Crossman sees it.

As he's done many times over the past two seasons, Crossman stood firmly behind his kicker Thursday morning, four days after Sanders' missed 55-yard field goal attempt gave the New England Patriots a chance to tie the score in the final minutes — which they failed to do in Miami's 24-17 victory.

"I'm not even close to that," Crossman said. "What I don't know what that spot is (when it becomes a concern). I'm trying not to think about that. Because, I don't envision that. So that's not even part of what I'm thinking. I'm where I'm at.

"We have great confidence in Jason. That's a situation at the end of the game, a 55-yarder, the percentages of that versus the percentage of a fourth-and-3 conversion, you look at the numbers and you say, do we go for the win with one of these? Or do you punt and pin and try and play D? So there's a lot of things that go into it. We played that percentage and we felt good about. It didn't work out. Fortunately, the defense made the stand and all we care about is winning the game."

DOLPHINS PLAYED THE WRONG PERCENTAGE

Since Crossman brought it up, we went ahead and checked the success rate of teams going for a first down on fourth-and-3 to compare it to Sanders' success rate from 50 yards and beyond in recent years.

The Dolphins went with the lower-percentage play and it's not even close.

After going 8-for-9 from 50 yards and beyond in 2020 when he was named first-team All-Pro, Sanders went 2-for-6 in both 2021 and 2022 for a 33.3 percentage.

By comparison, we checked the success rate on fourth-and-3 for the 2022 season and NFL teams went 32-for-68 for a 47.1 percent success rate.

Head coach Mike McDaniel said he eventually decided to go for the long field goal attempt in part because of the third-and-1 play that was botched after a bad center-QB exchange forced Tua Tagovailoa to just fall on the ball, resulting in a 2-yard loss.

This is not something McDaniel and any coach ever would admit, but maybe one reason for attempting the long field goal was trying to inject a dose of confidence in Sanders in the hopes he can get back to that 2020 form when he basically couldn't miss.

If you think that's a crazy idea, which we first brought up on the All Dolphins Podcast, don't forget what McDaniel did with Tua Tagovailoa right upon being hired as head coach and how that's paid off.