Mike Wallace Must Perform If Miami Dolphins Are to Upset New England Patriots

Much of the focus for the Miami Dolphins as they approach their Week 1 matchup against the New England Patriots is on their new additions to the offensive side of the ball.

New offensive coordinator Bill Lazor is trying to mirror the success and philosophy of Chip Kelly's offense. Lazor was the quarterbacks coach for the Philadelphia Eagles last year. Lazor will be working with five completely new starters on the offensive line, a new veteran running back and an enticing rookie wide receiver.

While the new pieces in Miami will be very important, it's a new piece on the Patriots defense, Darrelle Revis, who will put an old face in the spotlight.

Mike Wallace can only be considered old in relation to the brand new pieces on the Dolphins offense. He was signed to a huge contract in free agency just last year and is still in his prime at 28 years of age. Despite his underwhelming debut season on South Beach, Wallace remains atop the Dolphins depth chart at receiver this year.

Even though the Patriots signed Darrelle Revis, a player who has built his reputation on his ability to erase the opposition's best receiver without safety help, they won't necessarily always make him follow the opposition's best receiver.

Bill Belichick is a very astute defensive mind who understands that he can be very creative with a player like Revis on the field.

If Belichick puts Revis on Wallace in man coverage and asks him to erase him from the game, Wallace will still pose some level of a threat because of his speed. Wallace's straight-line speed makes him the kind of receiver who doesn't need to be a great route-runner to get behind a defensive back.

Revis would only need to slip for a moment in that kind of space for Wallace to run down the sideline completely unopposed.

On the other hand, if Belichick asks Revis to erase Brian Hartline, he can then crowd Wallace's side of the field and keep him from lifting the top off the defense. The Dolphins want Wallace to be the home-run threat, while they will rely on Hartline more as a possession receiver.

By asking Revis to cover Hartline, you are inverting the roles of the respective receivers.

In either situation, Wallace must be effective in order to keep the defense honest. If he allows himself to be erased by Revis' single coverage, the Patriots will be able to cheat on the run game, and play tight againsy Brandon Gibson, Charles Clay and Jarvis Landry. If he can't make plays in crowded areas, Tannehill will have nowhere to go with the ball because Hartline isn't beating Revis.

vs. Revis

Revis Island is still a destination for the damned.

This was the conclusion I was left with when I tracked all of Revis' snaps from the 2013 season. Despite playing in a scheme that didn't play to his strengths, Revis still excelled in both zone and man coverage for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last year.

Did he ease his way into the 2013 season coming off a torn ACL? Yes, but the ACL didn't appear to have any prolonged impact on his abilities.

When revisiting that analysis for the matchup with Wallace, an analysis that relies on a method that examines every single route defended not just the routes where the ball is thrown in the cornerback's direction, one thing in particular stood out.

This chart tracks Revis' success versus specific routes:

Rank	Route	Success
1.	Sideline	98%
2.	Seam	93%
3.	Post	92%
4.	Out	90%
5.	Slant	79%
6.	Curl	78%
7.	Crossing	68%
8.	Comeback	67%
9.	Double Move	67%
10.	In	56%

In theory, Wallace's speed should give Revis' problems. However, speed can be negated by consistent technique. Revis is a phenomenal athlete, but he has built his success on complementing his exceptional physical skills with very consistent and precise technique.

As the chart shows, three of the five routes you would expect Wallace to attack Revis with are the three routes Revis is most effective against.

It's impossible to be a great cornerback if you consistently give up big plays down the field. Revis, like Richard Sherman, essentially wipes out sideline routes and it's a very rare occasion when he is beaten down the seam or on a post route.

The areas where he can be exposed by someone with Wallace's skill set are on double-moves and comeback routes.

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When Wallace and Revis matched up against each other in 2013, Revis covered him successfully eight times. For one of Wallace's receptions, he beat Revis with a double-move when Revis was playing a Cover-3. While this is zone coverage, the route that Wallace ran created a situation where Revis was solely responsible for his presence.

Wallace's double-move isn't exceptionally sharp or deceptive, but he only needs to make Revis hesitate for a moment to create separation with his speed.

He would have had a big play if Ryan Tannehill had thrown a better pass, but Miami QB appeared to be hit as he threw. Tannehill will expect better blindside protection this year as Branden Albert takes the role as the team's new left tackle.

Getting the better of Revis isn't about consistently getting open for Wallace. It's about doing enough to keep the defense's coverage from squashing the field. If he can get behind the defense on a play or two early, the Patriots will have to adjust or risk allowing big plays.

Revis isn't so dominant that he completely shuts down receivers in single coverage. Therefore, even when stranded on Revis Island, Wallace should still feel like he can create opportunities with impressive speed.

vs. Coverage

If football were an ocean, Ryan Tannehill and Mike Wallace would have been on different ships last season.

The Dolphins supposed franchise quarterback-and-receiver tandem never really developed an understanding on the field last year. Whether it was Tannehill placing passes slightly out of Wallace's reach or the wideout not precisely running his routes, the cohesiveness necessary for an effective partnership at this level was clearly missing.

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With another 12 months together before the start of this season, Tannehill and Wallace should have better developed that critical understanding and timing.

In a situation where the Patriots put Revis on Hartline and try to choke off Wallace, Clay and Gibson with the rest of their defense, the timing between Wallace and Tannehill becomes even more important. In such situations, the coverage windows will tighten so any slightly off-target passes, be they the fault of the quarterback or the receiver, are more likely to turn into turnovers.

Against man coverage, Wallace typically needs to focus only on his release at the line of scrimmage and when to time the breaks on his routes. He runs simplified routes that typically don't require him to drastically adjust to what the defense is doing.

When Revis is put on Hartline, this will change. Revis on Hartline frees up the Patriots coverage to be much more creative in dealing with Wallace.

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Hartline shouldn't threaten Revis deep down the sideline. For that reason, the Patriots can become very aggressive in covering Wallace on the other side of the field. They will do that by cheating free safety Devin McCourty to cover just one side of the field.

McCourty struggled with his technique at times as a cornerback, but his range and ball skills allow him to flourish as a free safety.

He can cover from sideline to sideline, so when you eliminate half of the field, he could become one of the most dangerous defensive backs in the NFL. With McCourty behind him, cornerback Alfonzo Dennard can be more aggressive against Wallace at the line of scrimmage.

Dennard doesn't need to be concerned about giving up a big play, because McCourty is there behind him.

The Dolphins have accounted for all of the Dolphins' primary threats and they still have one defender, linebacker Jerod Mayon on this occasion, to use in different ways. Mayo can blitz, spy the quarterback or simply drop into a zone over the middle of the field to create as much congestion as possible.

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This extra defender is the luxury that Revis on an inferior talent affords Belichick.

Route-running becomes vitally important in these situations. Wallace is essentially double-covered, so he can't simply use his speed on a simple route to find space. Unless he has significantly improved on all of the evidence to this point in his career, Wallace isn't a precise enough route-runner to consistently come free against this kind of coverage.

This kind of coverage will likely make Tannehill turn away from Wallace quickly to find Clay or Gibson. In order to tempt him to throw to Wallace, the Patriots will likely need to use different zone coverages.

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Revis is a very good zone cornerback. He has the awareness and fluidity to anticipate routes before locating the football. However, his impact is always lessened when he is asked to simply cover an area on the field.

When Revis singling up on a receiver, the rest of the defense can work off of his smothering man coverage. Just because Revis is in man coverage, the rest of the defense doesn't have to be as well.

NFL teams do mix man and zone coverage. With Jamie Collins and Revis on one side of the field against Clay and Hartline, the Patriots can afford to do this also. Against this kind of play, Wallace would need to understand how to adjust his route to the zone coverage around him to find space. 

No matter how the Patriots approach this game, the Dolphins are going to need their number one receiver to play well.

The Dolphins will likely want to be a run-heavy team this year, but their expected lack of talent on the offensive line should limit their effectiveness in attaining that goal. Against the Patriots in Week 1, that lack of talent may force the offense to rely on Tannehill too much.

If Tannehill is forced to try and win this game without a running game, his receivers will have to respond. When Jeff Ireland paid Wallace in free agency, he thought he was paying one of the best receivers in the NFL. Wallace may not be that, but when he played for the Pittsburgh Steelers he did show up well in a number of pressure situations. But Wallace hasn't yet demonstrated that ability since joining Miami.

For a franchise that remains uncertain about its future, this Week 1 game against their biggest rival is definitely a pressure situation.