Miami Dolphins: 4 Reasons behind 2-0 start to season

Timely Turnovers

If you’ve watched the first two games of the season. The most glaring strength of the defense has been the ability to force turnovers and timely ones at that. In Week 1, we saw Reshad Jones doing Reshad Jones things and picking off the quarterback twice, and Kiko Alonso has looked like the playmaker he was in 2016 already with a pick, two forced fumbles and 19 tackles.

In Week 2, he forced a huge fumble that Raekwon McMillan managed to pull in. Xavien Howard took the ball back with a beautiful pick and the end zone and T.J. McDonald chipped in with one of his own. Perhaps the biggest play of all was Jones knocking the ball loose with seconds remaining before halftime in Week 2, allowing the ball carrier to be taken down and the clock to run out inches from the end zone.

How impressive has their ability to take the ball away been? Their pass defense ranks 24th in yards against, but their five interceptions has held opponents passer rating to 56.6 and are on pace to triple their takeaways from 2017. Granted, they will have to keep this pace up when the opposing quarterbacks aren’t Marcus Mariota, Blaine Gabbert or Sam Darnold.

Still, you have to be impressed with what you’ve seen so far from this defense and big turnovers to stop scoring drives or start them have been huge for this team. They face Derek Carr this week, who isn’t exactly a world beater and has three interceptions on the season already.