October 24, 2024 • 42 mins
Lee and Simon review the Fins loss in Indy, but look forward to the potential return of Tua and a game against the Cardinals.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, this is not More and you're listening to the
Dolphin UK podcast. Jeeves Steves very well, Hello and welcome
(00:39):
to the Dolphin UK podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
We are back for another episode. I'm joined as always
by Simon. How are you doing? Yep?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Alright, Lee? Thank you? Yet back for another episode and
another game, another loss to review unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Yeah, So this week we will cover the loss against
the Indianapolis Cults, the upcoming game against the Arizona Cardinals,
and some fairly big news. I think that I'm sure
we will get to in just a little bit. But first,
should we start? Should we start with the news? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:15):
I think so. I think it's important enough to warrant
mentioned at the top of the show.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Absolutely so. I think by now you'd absolutely have seen
on social media, or on ProFootball Talk or any of
those talking head shows, or even on Sky Sports NFL
SKIS Warts news. I think it was also on that
Quarterback two Tongue Valowa had a media availability on Monday
(01:41):
and is looking on track to play per reports. I
think there's some interesting stuff to come out of it.
But first of all, Simon, what were your thoughts see
QB one back at the podium, Glad he's back.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
I think we've got kind of got a bit of
an inkling that there was going to be some news
in the up to the Cardinals game, but personally surprised
he was put in front of the media before even
having returned to action. He's due to return to action
on Wednesday, I believe, so by the time this podcast
comes out, he should have had at least one practice
(02:16):
under his belt. But yeah, good, good for him to
put himself in front of the media to face the
inevitable questions that he would have to address at some point.
So it's good that he's got those kind of things
out of the way now and can concentrate on playing
football and getting back to leading the team again.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Yeah, I mean that you say. It was a little
bit of a surprise to see him. I was hoping
for some news on Monday, because obviously that was the
first point at which there really could be any news
after he went on IR But to see him pop
up at the podium straight away was a little bit
of a surprise. I think. I suppose it was probably inevitable,
but it was a bit of surprise to me. Like
(02:56):
you say, there were some more good questions. I think
it was always going to be you know, if I
think we saw the media ask maybe the same question
worded differently about nine times, as you can see some
of that frustration, and I'm sure he knew he was
going to get that when he went out there, and
that's obviously now unfortunately give me part of the job
(03:16):
and part of the conversation with him going forwards. But
definitely glad to see him back there. We were a
smile on his face and looking good, which is great.
Hopefully we see successful notes from a practice and he
gets cleared to play this week, that would be be amazing.
But it was great to hear that he hadn't suffered
with any symptoms post the injury. Did you have any
(03:40):
thoughts on him wearing a Guardian cap. I know that
was mentioned during the press conference.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Personal choice of course, according to tour, and interesting to
see that Devon Chan elected to wear one for the
Colts game. I mean personally, I mean, we know they
don't look pretty, do they they look as so certainly
when you haven't got a cover over a team logo
covering the actual cap, it looks like you've got you've
got a massive brain stuck on your helmet doesn't it
(04:08):
And they don't look nice, let's face it. And of
course it is the individual preference. Each player is entitled
to decide themselves whether they wear one or not. Obviously,
von a Chan has got his reasons, as has to
got his reasons for not wearing them. But I just
wonder if it's a comfort thing as well, because I
don't know. I've never seen one, I've never held one,
I don't know how heavy they are, but be interesting
(04:30):
to know whether it affects one's balance, for example, or
whether I mean, too has got enough weight on his
shoulders already does he really need any more? Literally, So
it's interesting to hear his thoughts on It was a
personal choice. It is what it is now and we
just hopefully we went to see how he performs on
(04:51):
the field and that's the main thing.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Yeah, the Guardian caps an interesting one. I don't want
to drag it out too much, but I was looking
at a There was a tweet earlier by Marcel Luis Jacques.
I've apologize if I've butchered that, you know, saying that
based on the available data that essentially the Guardian cap
(05:14):
is providing, you know, marginal protection I think, you know,
we know very much that it's still in its infancy,
so it's interesting to see how that data kind of
like plays out. Obviously, any gain is again, isn't it
when it comes to protection, But like you say, it's
also a personal choice and you have to wagh that
(05:36):
up with the you know, the weight of it, like
you said, and does that does that slow down? And
you know, change the mobility? And also like you say,
you carry that extra weight on the head, does that
does that change the equation? So there's a lot of
interesting stuff. It's an interesting topic.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
And for a running back as well. It's particularly important
for the backs who are trying to squeeze through minute
holes as they're running through those holes are small enough already,
never mind trying to get a bigger size helmet through
that through those gaps. So interesting thing to think about, really,
isn't it, as to what makes a player decide whether
(06:14):
they do or they don't want to wear a guardian cap.
Maybe it's a security thing, maybe it's psychological, maybe mentally
gives them that extra a little bit of comfort. However,
small everything helps in the whole scheme of things.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Perhaps, Yeah, and I think we haven't seen enough. I
know there's a couple of Cults players that had been
wearing them earlier in the season. I can't confess to
having noticed as they were the other day. I was
more focused on the game itself. Obviously saw Devane wearing his.
But I wonder if there's also a sense that it
could lead to almost a false sense of security, like
(06:49):
I've got the extra protection, thus I can take extra risk.
And I'm not talking about too, I just mean in general,
do you know, I mean, it's that kind of you know,
I wonder if it kind of lose you to not
a full sense of security, but just kind of think,
you know, all as you think I can do more
than maybe you should be.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Yeah. Absolutely, I mean it goes for anything, any walk
of life.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Really.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
For example, if you're on a diet trying to lose
weight and you do plenty of exercise, you think, oh,
I'm doing the exercise, it will burn off any food,
any additional food I might want to eat, so but
it doesn't work like that in reality, does it. You
think you can eat more because you're going to burn
it off, but really you need to stick to your diet.
And it's the exercise then that would burn all the
calories and make you lose weight. So psychological.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Absolutely, And there was also some roster moves today. Do
you want to share those of us?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
I knew you were going to do that because we
were having a discussion before the recording about how to
pronounce his name, but it's the foremost I've just got him.
A former San Francisco forty nine Ers quarterback CJ.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
CJ.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Bethard's been signed to the practice squad, which is great
because just to give a bit of synopsis, he's got
that background with Mike McDaniel at the forty nine ers,
of course, so he's going to have a bit of
knowledge about running this particular offense. He played in thirty
two games with thirteen starts between twenty seventeen twenty twenty.
He's completed three hundred and forty of five hundred and
(08:18):
sixty three passing attempts, which is about sixty percent for
just shy of four thousand yards, with nineteen touchdowns and
fourteen picks in his career to date. So remains to
be seen whether he remains on the practice squad or
transitions up to the full roster, depending on the health
of the other quarterbacks on the team. But nevertheless, the
(08:40):
benefit is he's got that knowledge of running a fourteen
nine ers or a Mike McDaniel offense, so hopefully he
won't have the similar struggles to other new quarterbacks who
joined the team. Having said that, though, he has been
a free agent for a while for a reason, so
we don't know what shape is in. I don't I
(09:02):
don't even know. Oh yeah, he's with Jacksonville until twenty
twenty three, so looks as though he's been off a
roster for a season as well, so we'll see what
he can contribute to the team, whether in practices or
on game day.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Absolutely, and with the room being a little bit banged up,
I think it's, you know, kind of an obvious move
to bring in another guy. But hopefully we don't see
another back up quarterback play this season because we'd like
to see Tour out there for the rest of the
year for obvious reasons, but also for Tour and his
own his own benefit.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
If you think they're going to put him on the
pronunciation list on the media website, you know they show
they give media members guidance on how to pronate pronounced
players names. Do you think c J. Bethard they got
it right at that time he's going to appear on there.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Well, you've only got it right. If I've got it right,
I may have lead us down a bad roads. So
maybe we get told off.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
It could be CJ beat hard even.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
It could absolutely they could be.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
So with that being since, shall we move into a
review of Sunday's defeat on the road at the Colts. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
You've got to have a sense of vimy, haven't you
there at the moment? And that is what we have
in abundance. So yeah, Dolphins fell to two and four
with a sixteen to ten defeat in Indianapolis. Now, personally
I didn't watch the game live because I was traveling
back from Wembley, having got last minute, very last minute
tickets to watch the game courtesy of friend of the show,
(10:33):
Will Gavin, whose works of talks for forty nine ers
fan who's been on came on a year or two ago.
He managed to get some free tickets for a number
of his pals. So myself, Danny, my son, and my
brother went down to watch that. In a decent game,
it was too so we were sat in the car
on the way home, League have, We've got game pass
coming through the car speakers. Obviously I couldn't watch it,
(10:54):
but I did manage to listen to a proportion of
the TV broadcast, so I got the gist of the game,
even though I haven't been able to watch any of it.
Did lose track in the second half a little bit
due to a poor signal on my phone, But it
just seemed to be the same old story, didn't it
ly in terms of self destruction? Because they momentum was
(11:16):
a key thing, wasn't it. Where they were tendul up
heading towards halftime with a chance to double dip and
get the ball in the second half to increase the
opportunity to increase the lead. Obviously didn't happen, and the
Colts scored a field goal. They then put it back
to ten and the rest is history. So I'm going
to ask you, League, given all of that, and you
(11:36):
watch the game live, of course, where did it go
wrong this week.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Or last week? I think you hit the name on
the head. I think it was a continuation of what
we've seen over the last four weeks. Really, even a
little bit to an extent in the win against the Patriots.
It wasn't it as far from playing sailing, was it,
especially in the first half, And you know, we know
it's a flag fest for sure. Again, it seems like
(12:04):
the only thing holding the team back from having you know, one,
maybe three of these games is execution. The good news
is it's all fixable. Bad news is it seems to
be dragging on. So hopefully some of those can be
rectified if you can, if you can get the offense
moving a little bit again. But there's plenty of times
(12:25):
where you feel like you're moving the ball only to
suffer penalty after penalty and turn into not even just
third and long, but third and ridiculously long, where you know,
I even tweeted I think it was on second down
when it was second and twenty five, so I didn't tweet.
I sent it in a group you might even want
to consider consider punting now because you can see the
(12:48):
way this driver is going. It's you know, it was
looking pretty negative. It's like you might as want to
get out of the situation before it gets too much
worse and try again next time. But yeah, I've been
The good news is and are going to try and
look on the positive side. Of things. All these things
are correctable so far. I don't think they've lost any
game purely because we've not been talented enough.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
On that note. Actually, you know WhatsApp group, there was
a big You know, fans get quite emotional, don't they,
And they have a wide ranging scope of thoughts. Some
have let our level headed and understand the big picture.
Some perhaps don't. And like I said, there was a
wide range of thoughts on there in terms of where
(13:33):
it went wrong. But if you think back to last
week's preview, we did. We talked about how the Dolphins
need to run the ball to win against the Colts,
and you take away the two fumbles, one by Rahing
Moster and one by alec Ingold, which unfortunately can correct
me if I'm wrong. Did they both lead to scores
by the Colts.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
I don't know if they both led the scores, but
they both definitely took points off the board. They were
deep in Cults territory, weren't they.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Yeah, So you take that away and look at the
game plan as a whole. In terms of wanting to
run the football, they did just that. They ran rushed
for one hundred and eighty eight yards, which was nearly
the same as what they did against the Patriots and
a win the week before. So as as that part
of the game plan goes, it was largely successful. And
(14:20):
it's not unreasonable to suggest that had those two funnels
not happened, the Dolphins would have had potentially at least
six points on the board, and it's not unreasonable to
think that maybe more if they'd have managed to convert
into touchdowns. And if that had have happened, the emotions
would have been completely different. Would have perhaps been celebrating
a win. Yet the same kind of deficiencies in the
(14:43):
passing game, for instance, would still have been there. They
wouldn't they would have been masked by a victory. So
to have a wide range of emotions is understandable. But
you've got to look at the bigger picture in terms
of the game plan that they implemented, and half of
it worked I think on fence, and I think of
the half was not as successful, and just wondered what
(15:04):
your thoughts were on that.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Lea. Oh, I mean, you're absolutely right, because, like you say,
the game plan was to go in and run the
ball against a team that struggle against the run, and
you did that pretty successfully outside of the fumbles. And
I know it's all ifs and butts, but like you say,
Dix's points there changes everything, especially at the point it
(15:26):
was in the game and you had momentum. Like you say,
it doesn't cover up the deficiencies of We have struggled
to get the ball to two of the best playmakers
in the NFL over a four week stretch, and you know,
I don't think that is completely and I think that's
(15:49):
completely unexpected. I mean, I think we were hoping for
the best going into Sunday's game, but if we're being honest,
we've seen the continuation of the same thing and you know,
not trying to you know, run Tyler hunting down, but
you know he does not throw the ball to the
outside as well as there's two of us. Okay, that's
(16:11):
that's kind of obvious. The guy who wasn't on the
roster to start the season doesn't try it as good
as the face of the franchise. That's not a giant leap,
but it seems to have been very difficult to try
and get everything funneled into the middle of the field,
and that's led to not being able to feature Tyreek
and Joleen Bardel a lot. Okay, we most get some
(16:33):
them balls to them on the last drive. But you know,
we've seen an emergence of John new Smith. That's great
and some and some good tight end play there. But
you know, the offense doesn't necessarily lend itself. I don't
think to Tyler Hunty's skill set for him to be
able to play his best or to get the best
out of the offense. But long term, I don't think
(16:56):
you want to make the changes. It be easy to say,
oh yeah, let's just change everything because we need to
games now. Cool, but going forwards, we have the plan
and expect to be the team we expected to be
hidden into week one, and that's the offense that we've
run for the last two years and that's what we
have to hope we get back to this week.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
And teams know the strength and weaknesses of Tyler Huntley
don't know they know he can't throw outside particularly well,
so they're going to flood the middle of the field,
which equally makes it difficult to gain any sort of
momentum down the middle of the field either. So fortunately
John Osmith did have some success doing that this week.
But as we've said Tyreek and Waddell, even if they
(17:38):
were in the middle of the field, they weren't even
targeted that much. So it is difficult and we have
to understand that as well. So we talked about a
few deficiencies in offense, but lee turning attentions to the defense.
They did play well again. Zach Sealer recovered a funnel
early on which I did manage to see live because
I was sat in a service station grabbing a bike
(17:58):
tweet on the way home watching it on our phones
and we did manage to see that, no problem. Yes, indeed,
I like your graphic there. That was very clever. So
how well are the defense playingly? I mean it's continuing
to read good headlines, I think.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Oh yeah. I mean I think the defense have kept
us in every game this season. I mean I thought
they even played well in the Bills game. I know
the Bills game is a bit distorted, I think the
way you look at it because I think, again, we've
driven the ball not terribly on our offense, I just
found ways not to come up with points. I thought
the defense played well in large chunks. I think they've
played well in this stretch where the offense has struggled.
(18:39):
I'm glad that hopefully soon too, will be returning to
the field, hopefully this week, but at least in the
near future now, because I think we saw this last
year with the New York Jets specifically, where you've got
a defense which ranks very, very highly and just over
the course of the season they get ground down by
(19:00):
being on the field for too long and the offense
not putting enough points. But I think for the difference
here is there's a light at the end of the tunnel,
and that's you know, to a return and hopefully getting
the offense back somewhat on track. I don't expect it
to be all guns blazing straight away. Hope it is,
(19:22):
but do you know what I mean? We just expected
him to run it at a higher level than what
we've seen the last four weeks, and hopefully that helps
complement the defense. But I will get onto that a
little bit later, I think in our game previous.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Yes, just to reiterate, Tyler Huntley left the game with
an injury. Remains to be seen. The status of him
for this week and going forwards, but we wish him
well of course, not even sure whether skylear Thompson is
fit at the moment either given his injury in Seattle,
was he on was he on the inactive list against
the Colts or was he the number two?
Speaker 2 (19:55):
He was on the inactive list, I believe and Tim
because Tim Boyle was brought up in the practic squad,
but then obviously Tyler Hunty got hurt, and I would
say that signing another quarterback to the practice squad might
lead me to believe that you are. I wouldn't be
(20:16):
expecting Skylar or Tyler Hunting to play this week, and
then actually your backups might be Tim Boyle was an
emergency quarterback of Dojo Bestett. That's complete speculation on my part,
but just looking at the way the roster moves have happened, Yeah,
those injuries are you know, significant, significant enough to make
you make a move. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Absolutely have to think that had all three backup quarterbacks
been fit and ready to play, then they wouldn't necessarily
have needed to make that move. Any let's draw the
Cult's game to a close then, Lee, any final thoughts
before we move on.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Yeah, I say, just trying to take a positive out
of it. I thought it was a very winnable game.
I think there is things to build on the way
the team is playing right now. It's not for me.
It's not all doom and gloom. I know everyone seems
to take each loss worse than the one before, but
I think, to be honest, I think we've seen the
(21:10):
same team up and play the same way each week.
I think the big part of the penalties is simply
the timing, even down to the holding penalties, where you
think the bulls should you know the O line are
not necessarily wouldn't necessarily have to protect for that long.
It's the balls out on time. I think watching some
(21:31):
of the Colts going back, I haven't finished completely finished
watching it back, but there was a lot more open
receivers than then. It necessarily came across in the in
the box score, I think you really see the difference
between a guy like tur who is trusting and knowing that, hey,
(21:56):
this is the spot, this is where I'm going to
It doesn't matter if the receiver is out of there,
as opposed to some of the other quarterbacks who need
to see that guy open before they're going to let
the ball go. And that leads to just so many
implications across the offense. And again, you know I'm kind
of back to the offense there, but I think a
(22:17):
lot of these are fixable problems, so I'm excited to
see how this team progresses going forward. I don't think
you know. I think we are far from a lost cause.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
And that brings us to halftime in the show. So, Lee,
should we do some trivia? Last week we asked you
the Dolphins team captains this year are Armstead, Campbell, Hill
In Gold, Long Junior, Ramsey, Sealer, and Tour. How many
Pro Bowl selections do these team captains have between them? Lee,
(22:50):
remind the listeners what you guessed last week.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
I guess twenty five was my guess.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Which was a pretty damn good guess actually, because the
actual answer was twenty Pro Bowl selections between them made
up of Hill with eight, Ramsey seven, Campbell six, Armstead five,
Ing Gold to a one a piece And interestingly, David
Dong Junior and Zach Sealer don't have a Pro Will
appearance yet fought between them, so hopefully that will change
(23:18):
because they're both playing recently well this year. Absolutely, onto
the new question. I'll give you a new question, and
then Lee, will you do the Pickam League update for us?
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Yes? Oh, absolutely, does.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
So before we get to the Pickam League. The new
question this week is the Dolphins have rewritten the record
books in two full seasons under coach Mike. How many
team or individual season or game records have been broken
in that time. Now, this is one Lee where I
wouldn't have imagined anyone would get anywhere close to guessing
(23:53):
the number of records. But when you do know the
answer and you look at the records that are broken
and we have them in front of us, it makes
with pretty interesting reading, doesn't it.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Yeah, it really does looking at it. And now I'm
glad you didn't ask me to guess, but absolutely so.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
I'm more interested in what the answer is in terms
of the records rather than the number, because I think
they're quite fascinating. We'll give you a sample of those
next week. So that's that's this week's trivia question. Just
looking at the at the records, Now, there are some
names you would expect to see in there, obviously given
the explosiveness of the offense. That's a bit of a clue.
(24:30):
But we shall hint more next week. Lee, onto the
Pickham League. How we are doing.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Well, some of doing better than others, And I feel
like you might have known. But we'll start with the
bottom of the league, and Blue Coat is bottom of
the league with a decent amount of picks this week
with eleven correct scores, but with fifty six and I
am tired at fifty six points and we have ten
(24:58):
correct selections this week, so I felt like good week
so far, I must say. And then we've got Dan
Crow on fifty seven, and then we have all Sport
c Now why do I not remember the four.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
All Sport cards this particular person he's known as so
obviously a reference to a hobby or a business, I
think absolutely.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
With fifty eight, Rob Ashton, we've tired in twenty fourth
position as well with twenty eight, and Bismarck Prismark fifty
nine with fifty nine points in twenty second place. And
then onto the top five and we have Doky Dolphin
dol Fan dol Finn.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
A stokey dolphan eighty six.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
With seventy one points and tied with seventy one points,
the real David Myers, Yes, the real David. He was
most upset when I called him fluky on last week's
nine correct predictions. This week seventy two Eagles Perfection comes
in third place, seventy four Builto sitting second with seventy five,
(26:10):
and Raybots seventy nine is out ahead with seventy seven
and twelve correct predictions.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
Talking of Raybots, he was featured in a photo that
the Dolphins UK social media channel put out on x
and Instagram from the watch party a couple of weeks
ago of the moment the Dolphins scored a touched or no,
it was just before they scored a touchdown, because you
were in that photo. Lee and Kadem was in that
photo and it's the one where you all have a
(26:38):
really focused look of concentration. Is it just before Was
it in the run up to the TD Yeah?
Speaker 2 (26:44):
I think it was the anticipation.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
Yeah, but it was a really great photo that was captured.
So Ray featured in that photo as well. So if
you can go and check that out on the Dolphins
UK social media channel.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Absolutely. So that being said, it brings us onto the
state of the division. Do you want to go for
the state of Division? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (27:05):
Okay, if you like it, don't mind. Buffalo beat the
Tennessee Titans thirty four to ten to move to five
and two and face a tricky trip to Seattle, who
are four and three. In Week eight, the New York
Jets lost Sunday Night Football fifteen to thirty seven at
the Pittsburgh Steelers and dropped two and five, and the
New England Patriots lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars thirty two
(27:29):
to sixteen at Wembley Stadium, and those two teams face
off against each other next week in New England. So
another crucial game at the bottom of the AFC East
there between the Jets and the Patriots. Patriots actually having
saw that game last week, Lee first Drive. Don't know
whether you watched the game on TV before the Dolphins game,
(27:49):
but I thought the first drive was pretty good from them.
They Drake may seem to have a good command of
the offense, and they went downfield and took an early lead,
and I thought, Hello, what have we got here? But
then there wasn't really much of an output from them
for the rest of the game. I know they did
score another touchdown, but that was when the game was
pretty much out of reach already. But the Jags managed
(28:10):
to grab a home win at Wembley and had a
really decent running game. Didn't need to do too much
more to beat the Patriots, And obviously they got that
ninety seven yard punt return, which was great to see.
I think that was the first punt return I've ever
seen live for a touchdown from what I can recall. So, yeah,
Patriots suffered another loss there. But it's looking interesting in
(28:31):
the East now, isn't It looks like we're all fighting
for second part. Now that were the Bills two and
a half games ahead at the moment.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Yeah, it's interesting. There's a lot of a lot of
time to play out, isn't there. The Bills obviously made
a move to bring in Amari Cooper, the Jets obviously
brought in DeVante Adams. Teams are trying to trying to
get better. I don't know if anyone is going to
make as big an impact as possibly having let's starting
quarterback return like your Miami Dolphin. So fingers crossed going forwards.
(29:05):
That's going to bring us on to the second half
our show and our preview. So the Arizona Cardinals three
and four, coming off a seventeen to fifteen win against
the Los Angeles Chargers on Monday Night Football, and their
offense ranks fifteenth in the NFL. Their rushing attack it's
(29:25):
sixth in the NFL and their passing attack is twenty fifth,
And I think that probably makes sense with the seventeen
to fifteen score, like a little bit of a low
scoring affair, say low scorer and hopefully we get seventeen
points this week or fifteen. But their defensive ranks are
their defense ranks twenty seventh overall, with a rushing rank
(29:47):
of twenty sixth and the passing it's amazing that, isn't
it passing rank of twenty sixth and the rushing rank
of twenty sixth, and that ranks you twenty seventh overall.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Consistent?
Speaker 2 (30:00):
How much emphasis do we need to place on two
potentially returning to the starting lineup to get the season
kick started again.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
Obviously it'll be a massive boost as it's clear he's
been missed and they are not the same team without him.
If the Dolphins have any aspirations of making the playoffs,
they need to be playing quarterback and playing well for
the rest of the season. I think so on Sunday
if he does make it back, and as we've said
earlier at the time of recording, we await confirmation to
see if he comes out of the concussion protocol, at
(30:28):
some point we'll be looking for him to provide that spark,
that energy to get not only the team, but the
crowd going as well. However, Coach Mike has already alluded
to the fact that he can't be regarded as the savior,
and he's absolutely right. Of course, we need to recognize
that it takes eleven players on offense to be in sync.
If the offense is to play well and get points
(30:51):
on the board. All it takes is for one player
to miss a block, drop a catch, run the wrong route,
whatever it might be, and it could be the difference
between a winning and a lot to quite a well
known coach, each and every one of them just needs
to do their job, don't they lead. It's important that
they know their roles and responsibilities. And we've seen this
offense click and if they do their job, I'm sure
(31:13):
there's no reason why that offense can't click again. But
Tour is going to be the driver behind that clearly,
So whilst coach Mike is right, he can't be regarded
as the sole savior and it takes a team effort,
there is no doubt he is the driver of that
offense and will be the one effectively responsible for making
it work on the day.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Absolutely. Mcardnald's got a lot of talent on their team,
especially on the offensive side of the ball. Where do
you see the threats coming from them on Sunday?
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Yeah, you're right. They're stacked at the offensive skill positions,
and that starts with Kyler Murraott quarterback. Of course, James
Connor leads the rushing attack. The rookie Marvin Harrison's already
their leading wide receiver, and they have train at Ryde
at tight end who's having a breakout year and he's
currently the number five tight end in Fantasy. So they've
got the ability to hurt you from all over the field,
(32:01):
I think. But the strength of their offense, and you've
already alluded to it earlier with their with their sixth
rank rushing attack in the NFL, and it's on this
basis I would expect them to run the ball and
run often using the legs of both Murray and Connor.
They've got it offering that dual threat could give the
Dolphins some difficulties defending that, I think, but also particularly
(32:25):
if it helps Tour and coach stay off the field,
so I would certainly look for the run game to
be prominent for the Cardinals. Marvin Harrison's been a little
bit banged up lately, so I'm not sure what's the
status of him he is going into the game, And again,
very similar team to the Cults. I think in terms
(32:46):
of outside of Marvin Harrison, they haven't got any It's
what I would term star wide receivers. So a lot,
as I say, depends on on their ability to run
the ball.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Absolutely, it's interesting, isn't it, because they are kind of stuck.
But it's weird how low that passing ranking is. And
like you say, the interesting on the flip side of
Kyler Murray obviously isn't necessarily lighting up with his arm,
but is a huge threat on the ground, and I
think we saw that he's good touchdown Monday night in
that victory over the Chargers.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
I mean, it seems as though he is one of
their best or biggest threats. And we normally say that
about Josh Allen as well, because he's a very similar
type of quarterback and that he's got outstanding ability to
run the ball, but the Dolphins have had relative success
in containing him. I think certainly the game at home
earlier in the season, he didn't run that often at all.
That's perhaps partly because he didn't need to. But I
(33:43):
think they've had relative success in containing him, so they're
used to defending that kind of quarterback and hopefully they'll
approach the same have the same standard playing against Kyler
Murray this weekend.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Absolutely, So that brings us onto some Finns facts. So
do you really deliver these facts?
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Yeah, let's deliver some Finns facts. Normally we deliver these
after a Dolphins win, but alternatively, we do have some
Finns facts to deliver in advance of the game this week.
So a Dolphins win would improve Miami's lead to eleven
and three in the all time regular season series with
the Cardinals. A Dolphins win would be miami seventh victory
(34:27):
against NFC opponents and a head coach Mike McDaniel. It
would also be the dolphins third victory in the last
five meetings with an NFC opponent, and one point that
has been carried over from last week. Of course, a
Dolphins win would be the four hundred and ninety ninth
regular season win, putting them one away from becoming the
(34:48):
nineteenth franchise in history to reach five hundred regular season wins.
So there's some Finns facts for you.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Lee.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
We're going to continue looking forward to the Cardinals game now,
and how are the Dolphins going to win? Are you
happy to provide some sort of path of victory for
the team this week?
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Absolutely? And you mentioned earlier that the coach mc daniels said,
you know, Tour can't be seen as a savior, but
I think it would be unfarous to not acknowledge what
a giant leap forward it could be as well. I
think hopefully Tour can get us back on track on
(35:29):
offense in regards to getting more guys involved, getting the
to the offense to be slightly more balanced. Yes, we're
going to want to run the ball against a team
that ranks twenty six against the rush, but branking twenty
sixth against the past as well, we're going to want
to try and air the ball out. I'm sure there's
a lot of pens ofp energy in the locker room
(35:50):
between the players and the coach being able to kind
of hopefully open the playbook back up to where where
you want it to be. I'm sure there's going to
be some rastering to needs to get some game time
under his belt, but I think the ability to open
it up is going to be an exciting one and
I'm hoping that that balance on offense leads to the
balancing team performance where we can see the offense help
(36:14):
the defense out a little bit and not keep them
on the field for the time, so we can see
that play at such a high level throughout the entire
four quarters of the game because the defense have done
an incredible job and it would seem like a great
time for the offense to pay them back. Let you say,
at home, hopefully the crowd can lift lift the team
(36:36):
and help carry them to a victory on fan weekend.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
I think they're going to play an important part, aren't they,
With the fans and Tours hopefully potentials to his potential return.
I think having experienced watching soccer in this country, I
can see how important it is for fans to drive
the home team forward and how much it encourages them,
and I hope they do the same this week. And
(37:02):
I remember last two seasons ago when Tour returned from
a concussion against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday Night football.
We were there for that one and that you could
feel the energy in the stadium, particularly when Tour was
introduced to the crowd, as I'm sure he will be
again on Sunday to get the crowd going, and he
by far got the biggest cheer of the night, and
(37:24):
whilst it was an average performance, maybe we expect the same. Again,
it doesn't matter as long as the team win. Just
him being there and the energy that would bring should,
as we've said, give the whole place a bit of
a lift and hopefully milk it make it overwhelming for
the Cardinals.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
Absolutely and hopefully turn hard rock into a hard place
to come to again. But with that being said, so
Jordia gives your part of victory.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
Yeah, thanksfully. I think we said a good example last
week of how important it is to get your best
players involved in the game. I've said it before. You
have to get the ball in the hands of your
best players. For us, of course, it would be the
likes of a Chan and Moster, who between them ran
the ball really well over the last couple of weeks,
with the exception of one fumble last week, and it
(38:14):
will also include Hill and Woddell, who last week, as
we've said, had one catch on two targets each. And
if you don't get them involved, it would be very
hard to win, regardless of who you're playing, as those
are the players the team rely on. I'm pretty confident
that if Twur can get into a rhythm, the offense
will click and they'll put up enough points to win
the game. As you said, the defense are playing good
(38:37):
enough to match up well with the Cardinals offense, particularly
there returning home, as we said, with the supercharge crowd
to get behind them. So even though even though the
Cards can score, I don't think they'll score enough to
win providing the offense and it goes back to does
their job. As long as the offense does its job,
then we should be fine.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Absolutely. So with that being said, we mentioned a crowd
getting into it. I bring it up all the time
with hard Rock Stadium playing its part in it. And
the weather in South Florida, SI, can you give us
the weather forecast for Sundays game.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
The weather forecast is due for overcast, clouds leave, so
we say, we say how important the sun is and
the heat, Yeah, seventy nine degrees is still Fahrenheit's still
pretty warm, but at the moment the weather forecast is
for overcast clouds.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
And then I think probably the most important thing, if
you take nothing else away from this podcast this week,
remember this. The clock's changed this weekend and the games
are kicking off at five o'clock. So if you tune
in at six, you're going to have missed the first
half at least.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
Yeah, five o'clock kickoff. Yeah, absolutely, there are going to
be some people that miss it, clearly, aren't there in
this country?
Speaker 2 (39:53):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
Interestingly, you're always wondering why the US never put their
clocks back at the same time they're the following week,
caren't they? So I always always wondered why we don't
do it at the same time. But yeah, we always
get one early kickoff a year, don't we.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
Yeah, one five o'clock set of games. So, but that's
also helpful because I like being able to see some
of that late game a little bit earlier. It kind
of encourages me to stay up and watch the late
game if it's not the Dolphins, of course. Yeah, and
you'll be able to catch that on game Pass again.
This week's guy have announced the games the Dolphins are
not one of those games, so game Pass will be
the place to watch the game.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
Which games have sky announced then this weekly.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
Don't ask me saying like that know what it was,
I just remember that if it wasn't the Dolphins, hang on,
I will find the games the Philadelphia Eagles at the
Cincinnati Bengals and the Chicago Bears visiting the Washington Commanders.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
Okay, so of course, if you haven't got a game pass,
you can catch up with the Dolphins on Red Zone.
Of course, on the assumption that there will be action
in the red zone. We're all hoping there will be.
That brings us to the end of the show. Lee,
any final thoughts before we wrap up the show this week.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
No, just hoping to see a more Dolphins like performance
this week, but you know kind of what we were
more aligned before, we were expecting at the start of
the season, and hoping that this can really kick start
what is left of the Dolphins season.
Speaker 3 (41:22):
Okay, We'll look forward to bringing you a Cardinal's review
next week. In the meantime, don't forget to check out
all of the other podcasts on the Dolphins podcast Network.
That's Travis Wingfield's Drive Time and the Fish Tank plus
Dolphins HQ. Keep an eye out for new episodes there
have caught up on anything lately lead to give the
listeners an insight into what they can expect on Dolphins HQ.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
Not at the moment, I'm still having to catch up
on a couple of episodes after being the.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
Way Okay, watch this space so that in the meantime,
Thanks again for listening everyone. We shall speak to you
again real soon.
Hi, this is not More and you're listening to the
Dolphin UK podcast. Jeeves Steves very well, Hello and welcome
(00:39):
to the Dolphin UK podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
We are back for another episode. I'm joined as always
by Simon. How are you doing? Yep?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Alright, Lee? Thank you? Yet back for another episode and
another game, another loss to review unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Yeah, So this week we will cover the loss against
the Indianapolis Cults, the upcoming game against the Arizona Cardinals,
and some fairly big news. I think that I'm sure
we will get to in just a little bit. But first,
should we start? Should we start with the news? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:15):
I think so. I think it's important enough to warrant
mentioned at the top of the show.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Absolutely so. I think by now you'd absolutely have seen
on social media, or on ProFootball Talk or any of
those talking head shows, or even on Sky Sports NFL
SKIS Warts news. I think it was also on that
Quarterback two Tongue Valowa had a media availability on Monday
(01:41):
and is looking on track to play per reports. I
think there's some interesting stuff to come out of it.
But first of all, Simon, what were your thoughts see
QB one back at the podium, Glad he's back.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
I think we've got kind of got a bit of
an inkling that there was going to be some news
in the up to the Cardinals game, but personally surprised
he was put in front of the media before even
having returned to action. He's due to return to action
on Wednesday, I believe, so by the time this podcast
comes out, he should have had at least one practice
(02:16):
under his belt. But yeah, good, good for him to
put himself in front of the media to face the
inevitable questions that he would have to address at some point.
So it's good that he's got those kind of things
out of the way now and can concentrate on playing
football and getting back to leading the team again.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Yeah, I mean that you say. It was a little
bit of a surprise to see him. I was hoping
for some news on Monday, because obviously that was the
first point at which there really could be any news
after he went on IR But to see him pop
up at the podium straight away was a little bit
of a surprise. I think. I suppose it was probably inevitable,
but it was a bit of surprise to me. Like
(02:56):
you say, there were some more good questions. I think
it was always going to be you know, if I
think we saw the media ask maybe the same question
worded differently about nine times, as you can see some
of that frustration, and I'm sure he knew he was
going to get that when he went out there, and
that's obviously now unfortunately give me part of the job
(03:16):
and part of the conversation with him going forwards. But
definitely glad to see him back there. We were a
smile on his face and looking good, which is great.
Hopefully we see successful notes from a practice and he
gets cleared to play this week, that would be be amazing.
But it was great to hear that he hadn't suffered
with any symptoms post the injury. Did you have any
(03:40):
thoughts on him wearing a Guardian cap. I know that
was mentioned during the press conference.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Personal choice of course, according to tour, and interesting to
see that Devon Chan elected to wear one for the
Colts game. I mean personally, I mean, we know they
don't look pretty, do they they look as so certainly
when you haven't got a cover over a team logo
covering the actual cap, it looks like you've got you've
got a massive brain stuck on your helmet doesn't it
(04:08):
And they don't look nice, let's face it. And of
course it is the individual preference. Each player is entitled
to decide themselves whether they wear one or not. Obviously,
von a Chan has got his reasons, as has to
got his reasons for not wearing them. But I just
wonder if it's a comfort thing as well, because I
don't know. I've never seen one, I've never held one,
I don't know how heavy they are, but be interesting
(04:30):
to know whether it affects one's balance, for example, or
whether I mean, too has got enough weight on his
shoulders already does he really need any more? Literally, So
it's interesting to hear his thoughts on It was a
personal choice. It is what it is now and we
just hopefully we went to see how he performs on
(04:51):
the field and that's the main thing.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Yeah, the Guardian caps an interesting one. I don't want
to drag it out too much, but I was looking
at a There was a tweet earlier by Marcel Luis Jacques.
I've apologize if I've butchered that, you know, saying that
based on the available data that essentially the Guardian cap
(05:14):
is providing, you know, marginal protection I think, you know,
we know very much that it's still in its infancy,
so it's interesting to see how that data kind of
like plays out. Obviously, any gain is again, isn't it
when it comes to protection, But like you say, it's
also a personal choice and you have to wagh that
(05:36):
up with the you know, the weight of it, like
you said, and does that does that slow down? And
you know, change the mobility? And also like you say,
you carry that extra weight on the head, does that
does that change the equation? So there's a lot of
interesting stuff. It's an interesting topic.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
And for a running back as well. It's particularly important
for the backs who are trying to squeeze through minute
holes as they're running through those holes are small enough already,
never mind trying to get a bigger size helmet through
that through those gaps. So interesting thing to think about, really,
isn't it, as to what makes a player decide whether
(06:14):
they do or they don't want to wear a guardian cap.
Maybe it's a security thing, maybe it's psychological, maybe mentally
gives them that extra a little bit of comfort. However,
small everything helps in the whole scheme of things.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Perhaps, Yeah, and I think we haven't seen enough. I
know there's a couple of Cults players that had been
wearing them earlier in the season. I can't confess to
having noticed as they were the other day. I was
more focused on the game itself. Obviously saw Devane wearing his.
But I wonder if there's also a sense that it
could lead to almost a false sense of security, like
(06:49):
I've got the extra protection, thus I can take extra risk.
And I'm not talking about too, I just mean in general,
do you know, I mean, it's that kind of you know,
I wonder if it kind of lose you to not
a full sense of security, but just kind of think,
you know, all as you think I can do more
than maybe you should be.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Yeah. Absolutely, I mean it goes for anything, any walk
of life.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Really.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
For example, if you're on a diet trying to lose
weight and you do plenty of exercise, you think, oh,
I'm doing the exercise, it will burn off any food,
any additional food I might want to eat, so but
it doesn't work like that in reality, does it. You
think you can eat more because you're going to burn
it off, but really you need to stick to your diet.
And it's the exercise then that would burn all the
calories and make you lose weight. So psychological.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Absolutely, And there was also some roster moves today. Do
you want to share those of us?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
I knew you were going to do that because we
were having a discussion before the recording about how to
pronounce his name, but it's the foremost I've just got him.
A former San Francisco forty nine Ers quarterback CJ.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
CJ.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Bethard's been signed to the practice squad, which is great
because just to give a bit of synopsis, he's got
that background with Mike McDaniel at the forty nine ers,
of course, so he's going to have a bit of
knowledge about running this particular offense. He played in thirty
two games with thirteen starts between twenty seventeen twenty twenty.
He's completed three hundred and forty of five hundred and
(08:18):
sixty three passing attempts, which is about sixty percent for
just shy of four thousand yards, with nineteen touchdowns and
fourteen picks in his career to date. So remains to
be seen whether he remains on the practice squad or
transitions up to the full roster, depending on the health
of the other quarterbacks on the team. But nevertheless, the
(08:40):
benefit is he's got that knowledge of running a fourteen
nine ers or a Mike McDaniel offense, so hopefully he
won't have the similar struggles to other new quarterbacks who
joined the team. Having said that, though, he has been
a free agent for a while for a reason, so
we don't know what shape is in. I don't I
(09:02):
don't even know. Oh yeah, he's with Jacksonville until twenty
twenty three, so looks as though he's been off a
roster for a season as well, so we'll see what
he can contribute to the team, whether in practices or
on game day.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Absolutely, and with the room being a little bit banged up,
I think it's, you know, kind of an obvious move
to bring in another guy. But hopefully we don't see
another back up quarterback play this season because we'd like
to see Tour out there for the rest of the
year for obvious reasons, but also for Tour and his
own his own benefit.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
If you think they're going to put him on the
pronunciation list on the media website, you know they show
they give media members guidance on how to pronate pronounced
players names. Do you think c J. Bethard they got
it right at that time he's going to appear on there.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Well, you've only got it right. If I've got it right,
I may have lead us down a bad roads. So
maybe we get told off.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
It could be CJ beat hard even.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
It could absolutely they could be.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
So with that being since, shall we move into a
review of Sunday's defeat on the road at the Colts. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
You've got to have a sense of vimy, haven't you
there at the moment? And that is what we have
in abundance. So yeah, Dolphins fell to two and four
with a sixteen to ten defeat in Indianapolis. Now, personally
I didn't watch the game live because I was traveling
back from Wembley, having got last minute, very last minute
tickets to watch the game courtesy of friend of the show,
(10:33):
Will Gavin, whose works of talks for forty nine ers
fan who's been on came on a year or two ago.
He managed to get some free tickets for a number
of his pals. So myself, Danny, my son, and my
brother went down to watch that. In a decent game,
it was too so we were sat in the car
on the way home, League have, We've got game pass
coming through the car speakers. Obviously I couldn't watch it,
(10:54):
but I did manage to listen to a proportion of
the TV broadcast, so I got the gist of the game,
even though I haven't been able to watch any of it.
Did lose track in the second half a little bit
due to a poor signal on my phone, But it
just seemed to be the same old story, didn't it
ly in terms of self destruction? Because they momentum was
(11:16):
a key thing, wasn't it. Where they were tendul up
heading towards halftime with a chance to double dip and
get the ball in the second half to increase the
opportunity to increase the lead. Obviously didn't happen, and the
Colts scored a field goal. They then put it back
to ten and the rest is history. So I'm going
to ask you, League, given all of that, and you
(11:36):
watch the game live, of course, where did it go
wrong this week.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Or last week? I think you hit the name on
the head. I think it was a continuation of what
we've seen over the last four weeks. Really, even a
little bit to an extent in the win against the Patriots.
It wasn't it as far from playing sailing, was it,
especially in the first half, And you know, we know
it's a flag fest for sure. Again, it seems like
(12:04):
the only thing holding the team back from having you know, one,
maybe three of these games is execution. The good news
is it's all fixable. Bad news is it seems to
be dragging on. So hopefully some of those can be
rectified if you can, if you can get the offense
moving a little bit again. But there's plenty of times
(12:25):
where you feel like you're moving the ball only to
suffer penalty after penalty and turn into not even just
third and long, but third and ridiculously long, where you know,
I even tweeted I think it was on second down
when it was second and twenty five, so I didn't tweet.
I sent it in a group you might even want
to consider consider punting now because you can see the
(12:48):
way this driver is going. It's you know, it was
looking pretty negative. It's like you might as want to
get out of the situation before it gets too much
worse and try again next time. But yeah, I've been
The good news is and are going to try and
look on the positive side. Of things. All these things
are correctable so far. I don't think they've lost any
game purely because we've not been talented enough.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
On that note. Actually, you know WhatsApp group, there was
a big You know, fans get quite emotional, don't they,
And they have a wide ranging scope of thoughts. Some
have let our level headed and understand the big picture.
Some perhaps don't. And like I said, there was a
wide range of thoughts on there in terms of where
(13:33):
it went wrong. But if you think back to last
week's preview, we did. We talked about how the Dolphins
need to run the ball to win against the Colts,
and you take away the two fumbles, one by Rahing
Moster and one by alec Ingold, which unfortunately can correct
me if I'm wrong. Did they both lead to scores
by the Colts.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
I don't know if they both led the scores, but
they both definitely took points off the board. They were
deep in Cults territory, weren't they.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Yeah, So you take that away and look at the
game plan as a whole. In terms of wanting to
run the football, they did just that. They ran rushed
for one hundred and eighty eight yards, which was nearly
the same as what they did against the Patriots and
a win the week before. So as as that part
of the game plan goes, it was largely successful. And
(14:20):
it's not unreasonable to suggest that had those two funnels
not happened, the Dolphins would have had potentially at least
six points on the board, and it's not unreasonable to
think that maybe more if they'd have managed to convert
into touchdowns. And if that had have happened, the emotions
would have been completely different. Would have perhaps been celebrating
a win. Yet the same kind of deficiencies in the
(14:43):
passing game, for instance, would still have been there. They
wouldn't they would have been masked by a victory. So
to have a wide range of emotions is understandable. But
you've got to look at the bigger picture in terms
of the game plan that they implemented, and half of
it worked I think on fence, and I think of
the half was not as successful, and just wondered what
(15:04):
your thoughts were on that.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Lea. Oh, I mean, you're absolutely right, because, like you say,
the game plan was to go in and run the
ball against a team that struggle against the run, and
you did that pretty successfully outside of the fumbles. And
I know it's all ifs and butts, but like you say,
Dix's points there changes everything, especially at the point it
(15:26):
was in the game and you had momentum. Like you say,
it doesn't cover up the deficiencies of We have struggled
to get the ball to two of the best playmakers
in the NFL over a four week stretch, and you know,
I don't think that is completely and I think that's
(15:49):
completely unexpected. I mean, I think we were hoping for
the best going into Sunday's game, but if we're being honest,
we've seen the continuation of the same thing and you know,
not trying to you know, run Tyler hunting down, but
you know he does not throw the ball to the
outside as well as there's two of us. Okay, that's
(16:11):
that's kind of obvious. The guy who wasn't on the
roster to start the season doesn't try it as good
as the face of the franchise. That's not a giant leap,
but it seems to have been very difficult to try
and get everything funneled into the middle of the field,
and that's led to not being able to feature Tyreek
and Joleen Bardel a lot. Okay, we most get some
(16:33):
them balls to them on the last drive. But you know,
we've seen an emergence of John new Smith. That's great
and some and some good tight end play there. But
you know, the offense doesn't necessarily lend itself. I don't
think to Tyler Hunty's skill set for him to be
able to play his best or to get the best
out of the offense. But long term, I don't think
(16:56):
you want to make the changes. It be easy to say,
oh yeah, let's just change everything because we need to
games now. Cool, but going forwards, we have the plan
and expect to be the team we expected to be
hidden into week one, and that's the offense that we've
run for the last two years and that's what we
have to hope we get back to this week.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
And teams know the strength and weaknesses of Tyler Huntley
don't know they know he can't throw outside particularly well,
so they're going to flood the middle of the field,
which equally makes it difficult to gain any sort of
momentum down the middle of the field either. So fortunately
John Osmith did have some success doing that this week.
But as we've said Tyreek and Waddell, even if they
(17:38):
were in the middle of the field, they weren't even
targeted that much. So it is difficult and we have
to understand that as well. So we talked about a
few deficiencies in offense, but lee turning attentions to the defense.
They did play well again. Zach Sealer recovered a funnel
early on which I did manage to see live because
I was sat in a service station grabbing a bike
(17:58):
tweet on the way home watching it on our phones
and we did manage to see that, no problem. Yes, indeed,
I like your graphic there. That was very clever. So
how well are the defense playingly? I mean it's continuing
to read good headlines, I think.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Oh yeah. I mean I think the defense have kept
us in every game this season. I mean I thought
they even played well in the Bills game. I know
the Bills game is a bit distorted, I think the
way you look at it because I think, again, we've
driven the ball not terribly on our offense, I just
found ways not to come up with points. I thought
the defense played well in large chunks. I think they've
played well in this stretch where the offense has struggled.
(18:39):
I'm glad that hopefully soon too, will be returning to
the field, hopefully this week, but at least in the
near future now, because I think we saw this last
year with the New York Jets specifically, where you've got
a defense which ranks very, very highly and just over
the course of the season they get ground down by
(19:00):
being on the field for too long and the offense
not putting enough points. But I think for the difference
here is there's a light at the end of the tunnel,
and that's you know, to a return and hopefully getting
the offense back somewhat on track. I don't expect it
to be all guns blazing straight away. Hope it is,
(19:22):
but do you know what I mean? We just expected
him to run it at a higher level than what
we've seen the last four weeks, and hopefully that helps
complement the defense. But I will get onto that a
little bit later, I think in our game previous.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Yes, just to reiterate, Tyler Huntley left the game with
an injury. Remains to be seen. The status of him
for this week and going forwards, but we wish him
well of course, not even sure whether skylear Thompson is
fit at the moment either given his injury in Seattle,
was he on was he on the inactive list against
the Colts or was he the number two?
Speaker 2 (19:55):
He was on the inactive list, I believe and Tim
because Tim Boyle was brought up in the practic squad,
but then obviously Tyler Hunty got hurt, and I would
say that signing another quarterback to the practice squad might
lead me to believe that you are. I wouldn't be
(20:16):
expecting Skylar or Tyler Hunting to play this week, and
then actually your backups might be Tim Boyle was an
emergency quarterback of Dojo Bestett. That's complete speculation on my part,
but just looking at the way the roster moves have happened, Yeah,
those injuries are you know, significant, significant enough to make
you make a move. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Absolutely have to think that had all three backup quarterbacks
been fit and ready to play, then they wouldn't necessarily
have needed to make that move. Any let's draw the
Cult's game to a close then, Lee, any final thoughts
before we move on.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Yeah, I say, just trying to take a positive out
of it. I thought it was a very winnable game.
I think there is things to build on the way
the team is playing right now. It's not for me.
It's not all doom and gloom. I know everyone seems
to take each loss worse than the one before, but
I think, to be honest, I think we've seen the
(21:10):
same team up and play the same way each week.
I think the big part of the penalties is simply
the timing, even down to the holding penalties, where you
think the bulls should you know the O line are
not necessarily wouldn't necessarily have to protect for that long.
It's the balls out on time. I think watching some
(21:31):
of the Colts going back, I haven't finished completely finished
watching it back, but there was a lot more open
receivers than then. It necessarily came across in the in
the box score, I think you really see the difference
between a guy like tur who is trusting and knowing that, hey,
(21:56):
this is the spot, this is where I'm going to
It doesn't matter if the receiver is out of there,
as opposed to some of the other quarterbacks who need
to see that guy open before they're going to let
the ball go. And that leads to just so many
implications across the offense. And again, you know I'm kind
of back to the offense there, but I think a
(22:17):
lot of these are fixable problems, so I'm excited to
see how this team progresses going forward. I don't think
you know. I think we are far from a lost cause.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
And that brings us to halftime in the show. So, Lee,
should we do some trivia? Last week we asked you
the Dolphins team captains this year are Armstead, Campbell, Hill
In Gold, Long Junior, Ramsey, Sealer, and Tour. How many
Pro Bowl selections do these team captains have between them? Lee,
(22:50):
remind the listeners what you guessed last week.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
I guess twenty five was my guess.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Which was a pretty damn good guess actually, because the
actual answer was twenty Pro Bowl selections between them made
up of Hill with eight, Ramsey seven, Campbell six, Armstead five,
Ing Gold to a one a piece And interestingly, David
Dong Junior and Zach Sealer don't have a Pro Will
appearance yet fought between them, so hopefully that will change
(23:18):
because they're both playing recently well this year. Absolutely, onto
the new question. I'll give you a new question, and
then Lee, will you do the Pickam League update for us?
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Yes? Oh, absolutely, does.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
So before we get to the Pickam League. The new
question this week is the Dolphins have rewritten the record
books in two full seasons under coach Mike. How many
team or individual season or game records have been broken
in that time. Now, this is one Lee where I
wouldn't have imagined anyone would get anywhere close to guessing
(23:53):
the number of records. But when you do know the
answer and you look at the records that are broken
and we have them in front of us, it makes
with pretty interesting reading, doesn't it.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Yeah, it really does looking at it. And now I'm
glad you didn't ask me to guess, but absolutely so.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
I'm more interested in what the answer is in terms
of the records rather than the number, because I think
they're quite fascinating. We'll give you a sample of those
next week. So that's that's this week's trivia question. Just
looking at the at the records, Now, there are some
names you would expect to see in there, obviously given
the explosiveness of the offense. That's a bit of a clue.
(24:30):
But we shall hint more next week. Lee, onto the
Pickham League. How we are doing.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Well, some of doing better than others, And I feel
like you might have known. But we'll start with the
bottom of the league, and Blue Coat is bottom of
the league with a decent amount of picks this week
with eleven correct scores, but with fifty six and I
am tired at fifty six points and we have ten
(24:58):
correct selections this week, so I felt like good week
so far, I must say. And then we've got Dan
Crow on fifty seven, and then we have all Sport
c Now why do I not remember the four.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
All Sport cards this particular person he's known as so
obviously a reference to a hobby or a business, I
think absolutely.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
With fifty eight, Rob Ashton, we've tired in twenty fourth
position as well with twenty eight, and Bismarck Prismark fifty
nine with fifty nine points in twenty second place. And
then onto the top five and we have Doky Dolphin
dol Fan dol Finn.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
A stokey dolphan eighty six.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
With seventy one points and tied with seventy one points,
the real David Myers, Yes, the real David. He was
most upset when I called him fluky on last week's
nine correct predictions. This week seventy two Eagles Perfection comes
in third place, seventy four Builto sitting second with seventy five,
(26:10):
and Raybots seventy nine is out ahead with seventy seven
and twelve correct predictions.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
Talking of Raybots, he was featured in a photo that
the Dolphins UK social media channel put out on x
and Instagram from the watch party a couple of weeks
ago of the moment the Dolphins scored a touched or no,
it was just before they scored a touchdown, because you
were in that photo. Lee and Kadem was in that
photo and it's the one where you all have a
(26:38):
really focused look of concentration. Is it just before Was
it in the run up to the TD Yeah?
Speaker 2 (26:44):
I think it was the anticipation.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
Yeah, but it was a really great photo that was captured.
So Ray featured in that photo as well. So if
you can go and check that out on the Dolphins
UK social media channel.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Absolutely. So that being said, it brings us onto the
state of the division. Do you want to go for
the state of Division? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (27:05):
Okay, if you like it, don't mind. Buffalo beat the
Tennessee Titans thirty four to ten to move to five
and two and face a tricky trip to Seattle, who
are four and three. In Week eight, the New York
Jets lost Sunday Night Football fifteen to thirty seven at
the Pittsburgh Steelers and dropped two and five, and the
New England Patriots lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars thirty two
(27:29):
to sixteen at Wembley Stadium, and those two teams face
off against each other next week in New England. So
another crucial game at the bottom of the AFC East
there between the Jets and the Patriots. Patriots actually having
saw that game last week, Lee first Drive. Don't know
whether you watched the game on TV before the Dolphins game,
(27:49):
but I thought the first drive was pretty good from them.
They Drake may seem to have a good command of
the offense, and they went downfield and took an early lead,
and I thought, Hello, what have we got here? But
then there wasn't really much of an output from them
for the rest of the game. I know they did
score another touchdown, but that was when the game was
pretty much out of reach already. But the Jags managed
(28:10):
to grab a home win at Wembley and had a
really decent running game. Didn't need to do too much
more to beat the Patriots, And obviously they got that
ninety seven yard punt return, which was great to see.
I think that was the first punt return I've ever
seen live for a touchdown from what I can recall. So, yeah,
Patriots suffered another loss there. But it's looking interesting in
(28:31):
the East now, isn't It looks like we're all fighting
for second part. Now that were the Bills two and
a half games ahead at the moment.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Yeah, it's interesting. There's a lot of a lot of
time to play out, isn't there. The Bills obviously made
a move to bring in Amari Cooper, the Jets obviously
brought in DeVante Adams. Teams are trying to trying to
get better. I don't know if anyone is going to
make as big an impact as possibly having let's starting
quarterback return like your Miami Dolphin. So fingers crossed going forwards.
(29:05):
That's going to bring us on to the second half
our show and our preview. So the Arizona Cardinals three
and four, coming off a seventeen to fifteen win against
the Los Angeles Chargers on Monday Night Football, and their
offense ranks fifteenth in the NFL. Their rushing attack it's
(29:25):
sixth in the NFL and their passing attack is twenty fifth,
And I think that probably makes sense with the seventeen
to fifteen score, like a little bit of a low
scoring affair, say low scorer and hopefully we get seventeen
points this week or fifteen. But their defensive ranks are
their defense ranks twenty seventh overall, with a rushing rank
(29:47):
of twenty sixth and the passing it's amazing that, isn't
it passing rank of twenty sixth and the rushing rank
of twenty sixth, and that ranks you twenty seventh overall.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Consistent?
Speaker 2 (30:00):
How much emphasis do we need to place on two
potentially returning to the starting lineup to get the season
kick started again.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
Obviously it'll be a massive boost as it's clear he's
been missed and they are not the same team without him.
If the Dolphins have any aspirations of making the playoffs,
they need to be playing quarterback and playing well for
the rest of the season. I think so on Sunday
if he does make it back, and as we've said
earlier at the time of recording, we await confirmation to
see if he comes out of the concussion protocol, at
(30:28):
some point we'll be looking for him to provide that spark,
that energy to get not only the team, but the
crowd going as well. However, Coach Mike has already alluded
to the fact that he can't be regarded as the savior,
and he's absolutely right. Of course, we need to recognize
that it takes eleven players on offense to be in sync.
If the offense is to play well and get points
(30:51):
on the board. All it takes is for one player
to miss a block, drop a catch, run the wrong route,
whatever it might be, and it could be the difference
between a winning and a lot to quite a well
known coach, each and every one of them just needs
to do their job, don't they lead. It's important that
they know their roles and responsibilities. And we've seen this
offense click and if they do their job, I'm sure
(31:13):
there's no reason why that offense can't click again. But
Tour is going to be the driver behind that clearly,
So whilst coach Mike is right, he can't be regarded
as the sole savior and it takes a team effort,
there is no doubt he is the driver of that
offense and will be the one effectively responsible for making
it work on the day.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Absolutely. Mcardnald's got a lot of talent on their team,
especially on the offensive side of the ball. Where do
you see the threats coming from them on Sunday?
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Yeah, you're right. They're stacked at the offensive skill positions,
and that starts with Kyler Murraott quarterback. Of course, James
Connor leads the rushing attack. The rookie Marvin Harrison's already
their leading wide receiver, and they have train at Ryde
at tight end who's having a breakout year and he's
currently the number five tight end in Fantasy. So they've
got the ability to hurt you from all over the field,
(32:01):
I think. But the strength of their offense, and you've
already alluded to it earlier with their with their sixth
rank rushing attack in the NFL, and it's on this
basis I would expect them to run the ball and
run often using the legs of both Murray and Connor.
They've got it offering that dual threat could give the
Dolphins some difficulties defending that, I think, but also particularly
(32:25):
if it helps Tour and coach stay off the field,
so I would certainly look for the run game to
be prominent for the Cardinals. Marvin Harrison's been a little
bit banged up lately, so I'm not sure what's the
status of him he is going into the game, And again,
very similar team to the Cults. I think in terms
(32:46):
of outside of Marvin Harrison, they haven't got any It's
what I would term star wide receivers. So a lot,
as I say, depends on on their ability to run
the ball.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Absolutely, it's interesting, isn't it, because they are kind of stuck.
But it's weird how low that passing ranking is. And
like you say, the interesting on the flip side of
Kyler Murray obviously isn't necessarily lighting up with his arm,
but is a huge threat on the ground, and I
think we saw that he's good touchdown Monday night in
that victory over the Chargers.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
I mean, it seems as though he is one of
their best or biggest threats. And we normally say that
about Josh Allen as well, because he's a very similar
type of quarterback and that he's got outstanding ability to
run the ball, but the Dolphins have had relative success
in containing him. I think certainly the game at home
earlier in the season, he didn't run that often at all.
That's perhaps partly because he didn't need to. But I
(33:43):
think they've had relative success in containing him, so they're
used to defending that kind of quarterback and hopefully they'll
approach the same have the same standard playing against Kyler
Murray this weekend.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Absolutely, So that brings us onto some Finns facts. So
do you really deliver these facts?
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Yeah, let's deliver some Finns facts. Normally we deliver these
after a Dolphins win, but alternatively, we do have some
Finns facts to deliver in advance of the game this week.
So a Dolphins win would improve Miami's lead to eleven
and three in the all time regular season series with
the Cardinals. A Dolphins win would be miami seventh victory
(34:27):
against NFC opponents and a head coach Mike McDaniel. It
would also be the dolphins third victory in the last
five meetings with an NFC opponent, and one point that
has been carried over from last week. Of course, a
Dolphins win would be the four hundred and ninety ninth
regular season win, putting them one away from becoming the
(34:48):
nineteenth franchise in history to reach five hundred regular season wins.
So there's some Finns facts for you.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Lee.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
We're going to continue looking forward to the Cardinals game now,
and how are the Dolphins going to win? Are you
happy to provide some sort of path of victory for
the team this week?
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Absolutely? And you mentioned earlier that the coach mc daniels said,
you know, Tour can't be seen as a savior, but
I think it would be unfarous to not acknowledge what
a giant leap forward it could be as well. I
think hopefully Tour can get us back on track on
(35:29):
offense in regards to getting more guys involved, getting the
to the offense to be slightly more balanced. Yes, we're
going to want to run the ball against a team
that ranks twenty six against the rush, but branking twenty
sixth against the past as well, we're going to want
to try and air the ball out. I'm sure there's
a lot of pens ofp energy in the locker room
(35:50):
between the players and the coach being able to kind
of hopefully open the playbook back up to where where
you want it to be. I'm sure there's going to
be some rastering to needs to get some game time
under his belt, but I think the ability to open
it up is going to be an exciting one and
I'm hoping that that balance on offense leads to the
balancing team performance where we can see the offense help
(36:14):
the defense out a little bit and not keep them
on the field for the time, so we can see
that play at such a high level throughout the entire
four quarters of the game because the defense have done
an incredible job and it would seem like a great
time for the offense to pay them back. Let you say,
at home, hopefully the crowd can lift lift the team
(36:36):
and help carry them to a victory on fan weekend.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
I think they're going to play an important part, aren't they,
With the fans and Tours hopefully potentials to his potential return.
I think having experienced watching soccer in this country, I
can see how important it is for fans to drive
the home team forward and how much it encourages them,
and I hope they do the same this week. And
(37:02):
I remember last two seasons ago when Tour returned from
a concussion against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday Night football.
We were there for that one and that you could
feel the energy in the stadium, particularly when Tour was
introduced to the crowd, as I'm sure he will be
again on Sunday to get the crowd going, and he
by far got the biggest cheer of the night, and
(37:24):
whilst it was an average performance, maybe we expect the same. Again,
it doesn't matter as long as the team win. Just
him being there and the energy that would bring should,
as we've said, give the whole place a bit of
a lift and hopefully milk it make it overwhelming for
the Cardinals.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
Absolutely and hopefully turn hard rock into a hard place
to come to again. But with that being said, so
Jordia gives your part of victory.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
Yeah, thanksfully. I think we said a good example last
week of how important it is to get your best
players involved in the game. I've said it before. You
have to get the ball in the hands of your
best players. For us, of course, it would be the
likes of a Chan and Moster, who between them ran
the ball really well over the last couple of weeks,
with the exception of one fumble last week, and it
(38:14):
will also include Hill and Woddell, who last week, as
we've said, had one catch on two targets each. And
if you don't get them involved, it would be very
hard to win, regardless of who you're playing, as those
are the players the team rely on. I'm pretty confident
that if Twur can get into a rhythm, the offense
will click and they'll put up enough points to win
the game. As you said, the defense are playing good
(38:37):
enough to match up well with the Cardinals offense, particularly
there returning home, as we said, with the supercharge crowd
to get behind them. So even though even though the
Cards can score, I don't think they'll score enough to
win providing the offense and it goes back to does
their job. As long as the offense does its job,
then we should be fine.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Absolutely. So with that being said, we mentioned a crowd
getting into it. I bring it up all the time
with hard Rock Stadium playing its part in it. And
the weather in South Florida, SI, can you give us
the weather forecast for Sundays game.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
The weather forecast is due for overcast, clouds leave, so
we say, we say how important the sun is and
the heat, Yeah, seventy nine degrees is still Fahrenheit's still
pretty warm, but at the moment the weather forecast is
for overcast clouds.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
And then I think probably the most important thing, if
you take nothing else away from this podcast this week,
remember this. The clock's changed this weekend and the games
are kicking off at five o'clock. So if you tune
in at six, you're going to have missed the first
half at least.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
Yeah, five o'clock kickoff. Yeah, absolutely, there are going to
be some people that miss it, clearly, aren't there in
this country?
Speaker 2 (39:53):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
Interestingly, you're always wondering why the US never put their
clocks back at the same time they're the following week,
caren't they? So I always always wondered why we don't
do it at the same time. But yeah, we always
get one early kickoff a year, don't we.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
Yeah, one five o'clock set of games. So, but that's
also helpful because I like being able to see some
of that late game a little bit earlier. It kind
of encourages me to stay up and watch the late
game if it's not the Dolphins, of course. Yeah, and
you'll be able to catch that on game Pass again.
This week's guy have announced the games the Dolphins are
not one of those games, so game Pass will be
the place to watch the game.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
Which games have sky announced then this weekly.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
Don't ask me saying like that know what it was,
I just remember that if it wasn't the Dolphins, hang on,
I will find the games the Philadelphia Eagles at the
Cincinnati Bengals and the Chicago Bears visiting the Washington Commanders.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
Okay, so of course, if you haven't got a game pass,
you can catch up with the Dolphins on Red Zone.
Of course, on the assumption that there will be action
in the red zone. We're all hoping there will be.
That brings us to the end of the show. Lee,
any final thoughts before we wrap up the show this week.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
No, just hoping to see a more Dolphins like performance
this week, but you know kind of what we were
more aligned before, we were expecting at the start of
the season, and hoping that this can really kick start
what is left of the Dolphins season.
Speaker 3 (41:22):
Okay, We'll look forward to bringing you a Cardinal's review
next week. In the meantime, don't forget to check out
all of the other podcasts on the Dolphins podcast Network.
That's Travis Wingfield's Drive Time and the Fish Tank plus
Dolphins HQ. Keep an eye out for new episodes there
have caught up on anything lately lead to give the
listeners an insight into what they can expect on Dolphins HQ.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
Not at the moment, I'm still having to catch up
on a couple of episodes after being the.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
Way Okay, watch this space so that in the meantime,
Thanks again for listening everyone. We shall speak to you
again real soon.
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