An In-Game Adjustment That Helped the Dolphins Steal a Win

We always hear about teams making “halftime adjustments.” More often than not, this is overblown. The truth is that NFL teams aren’t just waiting until halftime when their players are taking bathroom breaks, eating orange slices, and gulping down juice boxes to make adjustments. They’re constantly doing so throughout the game.

In Week 2 of the 2022 season, the Dolphins were able to come back from a 3-touchdown deficit against the Ravens and score 28 points in the fourth quarter to escape with an improbable victory. In-game adjustments played a significant role on at least one of those four touchdowns.

This first play I’m going to show you was a 3rd-and-8 in the third quarter. The Dolphins would shift to a 3x1 formation with Jaylen Waddle as the single receiver to the boundary:

Pre-snap, the Ravens were showing 2-deep safeties, a blitz look, and Marcus Peters locking up in press-man on Waddle:

Baltimore would ultimately bring 5 pass rushers, including an overload pressure to the 3-receiver side. The two deep safeties didn’t quite rotate completely to a true cover-3. But the back-side safety cheated or pushed to the 3-receiver side: