NAPA, California — As Malik Willis reviewed the tape from his debut as Miami Dolphins quarterback in Sunday’s loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, he noticed a few things he could’ve done better.
As the Dolphins stay on the West Coast this week for practice ahead of another road game, against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, Willis shared his lessons Wednesday evening. He pointed to situational awareness, cutting down on the sacks he takes, protecting the football and plain execution.
The five sacks of Willis were particularly detrimental in the opener in Vegas. Three of them occurred on third downs to kill a drive — two in the fourth quarter as Miami tried to mount a comeback.
Of the five sacks, three of them were probably a result of Willis holding on to the ball too long. Another one was simply Raiders edge rusher Maxx Crosby, a top player in the league at his position, making a great play to shove Dolphins left tackle Patrick Paul aside and take Willis down. The remaining sack came on a well-designed pressure from the Raiders, where they ran a stunt and one rusher set a pick for the other to get through, while Willis’ eligible receivers didn’t have time to get open.
“That’s a mixed bag,” Willis said. “It’s all easily fixable stuff. You say that after the fact, after you watch the film, after you understand what it was, it’s very fixable.”
Offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik, before Thursday’s practice, agreed.
“There’s usually a little bit of everything when you exit a game with multiple sacks or a handful of sacks,” Slowik said. “It’s typically a combination of maybe a poor play call on my front, poor protection up front or the ball should’ve been gone and it’s not, or someone messed up on a route so we can’t get it out where we need to get it out to.”
“There were multiple execution breakdowns that we know we need to clean up, and that’s the emphasis for us this week.”
Willis said Wednesday he doesn’t operate in the pocket with an internal clock, rather off feel of pressure.
“I feel like that’s made up. There’s no such thing as a clock,” Willis said. “Sometimes they win fast, sometimes they win slow. It’s just understanding the feel of when are they going to get there more than a clock telling you, ‘OK, I need to throw it now.’ ”
The Las Vegas front applied pressure on Willis, a passer very capable of making plays with his legs, throughout. Early in the game, he managed it fairly well, as the second sack didn’t come until the end of the third quarter. The sacks started to pile up, though, as Miami played from behind in the fourth, and the Raiders knew the Dolphins had to throw.
“I think early on there were some really good off-schedule plays where he stepped up, he kept his eyes down the field, and some were actually still in rhythm of the play and the receivers didn’t have to go off schedule,” Dolphins coach Jeff Hafley explained Monday. “And then there were some when he did go off schedule, they adjusted to our scramble rules and they did a really good job. And then there’s some that weren’t good enough.”
And then there were instances where a receiver wasn’t where Willis needed him to be once he rolls out of the pocket.
“There’s sometimes when we needed a guy to break a certain way and he didn’t,” Hafley said. “Those are things that they’ll work out together.”
It doesn’t get easier for Willis after facing Crosby and the Raiders. In Sunday’s 4:25 p.m. kickoff at Levi’s Stadium, he gets former St. Thomas Aquinas High standout Nick Bosa and a vaunted 49ers defense.
Through all the pressure, Willis only turned the ball over once. It was a costly one in the third quarter when he forced a pass downfield, and safety Treydan Stukes was waiting for it, as the Raiders had just responded to a Miami touchdown to go back up by two scores. Willis labeled that the one example where he locked into a receiver too much.
There’s plenty for Willis to work on between his first and second game leading the Dolphins offense, but also some strong points to build on.
For one, his connection with rookie wide receiver Caleb Douglas flashed from their very first game together. Douglas’ 94 receiving yards were most by a Dolphins player in his NFL debut.
“He’s confident in what he’s doing, and we’re just continuing to build and grow,” Willis said. “Obviously, he’s still a rookie and he has things to learn, as well as I do in this new offense, and we’re just going to continue on that same path upward.”
Added Hafley: “We saw it in camp, we saw it in the preseason games, and I just think he’s been a consistent player that he trusts and he’s going to continue to try to get him the ball.”
Sunday against the Raiders was not only Willis’ first game for Miami, with a lot of newcomers around him.
“I’m excited to see what he can do this week and take a step,” Hafley said.