Fins Hit the Jackpot Against Vegas and a Peek at the Patriots

Lee was in Miami to see the Fins cash in against the Raiders and grab a win. We discuss the game and the change in offensive philosophy Plus, we launch our new playoff picture projections feature, before looking ahead to another home encounter with the Patriots.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Tyreek.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
Hi, this is not more and you're now listening to
Dolphin UK podcast on.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Jeep Steves.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Time.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Sorry, take him a lad us the hole, ohs around
circuit smipe the tight ended motion, talking about low looking

(00:43):
to the far side, he throws off his back like
men on the field, Joho spin line open. He's trying
to sprint his way toward the goal and he's in touchdown.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
Dolphins. Hello, Welcome to the five hundredth regular season win
edition of the Dolphin UK podcast. Coming up on the
show this week, we'll look back on the Dolphins win
over the Raiders, discuss some player foards, and look forward
to renewing our rivalry with the Patriots. Here to discuss
all of that and more, is Lee coming to you
from Orlando this week. How you doing so?

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yes podcast on the road this week. I've made it
from the game Sunday up to Orlando. But Yes, been
looking forward to this another victory podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:24):
Yeah. Before we get into the game in detail, I
just want to talk to you about your experiences with
your dad at the game on Sunday. League As you,
I said, went with your dad to the game. You
sat in our season ticket seats for the first time
and enjoying the fan atmosphere. How was it for you
and your dad?

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Oh yeah, we had a great time. We got to
the game early. I went on the gondolas for the
first time to see that kind of aerial view of
hard Rock, and out of the training facility over the
Miami Open you see obviously all the Grand Prix stuff,
so that was awesome. And then we went around some
of the the the kind of fan attractions there, and

(02:01):
then obviously made the obligatory stuff in the pro shop
as you do have to. We were there nice and early,
so yeah, and I've got to say, like hard Rock
Stadium is one of the most amazing stadiums on the planet,
not just because of the variety of events that it
can host and does, but also, you know, a really

(02:24):
small thing. So my dad had double knee replacement is
not always great after long walks. As soon as we
walked out of the car park, a man stopped with
a golf cart and picked us up. He walked out
of the car park, he picked up a golf cart
and dropped herself right in front of the pro shop
because he said, where do you want to go? And
we were like well, we're going to the pro shop
and the gonders and they kind of near each other.

(02:45):
It was like, no problem, and off he took us
around the outskirts of the car parks through the tailgate
and dropped us off right there, no charge, just happy
to do it. Obviously saw that that doesn't walk with
a proper gate, I would say, But yeah, amazing. We
had a chat with the guy who was driving us

(03:07):
and couldn't have been he could have been happier to
do it, and we were just having a great time.
So but yeah, it's just like the extra things that
I think happened at hard Rock Stadium that don't always
get recognized. So definitely a great experience for us.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
Yeah. What about getting into the stadium then, and obviously
your dad seeing it for the first time, and you
having a wander around inside the bowl and not going
into the press box. What were your impressions of with
doing all of that experience with your dad.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah, again, we had a great time. So we hung
around till just after the gates opened, and then maybe
left it till ten minutes after the gates had opened
to go in, and then when we had headed around,
no queue, We just walked straight through, we did our
security checks, we were straight into the stadium. We went
up to the one hundred section because we were gonna

(04:00):
plan was to go in and get some food and
kind of take a bit of a look around, so
we did stopped in. There's so many options of food
there now. So the first time me and my dad
went to see the Dolphins play was the first game
I ever went to, which is two thousand and five,
and you know the difference is it's basically a completely

(04:20):
different stadium. It's in the same place and it is
the same stadium, but it's almost a completely new stadium
from then, so many more options with regards to dining.
We didn't have to queue anywhere. Payment was easy. It's
all cashless, but payment was super easy. There was loads
of staff around as well, so that we never seemed
to be hit with any cues at any point, not

(04:42):
even at halftime. I mean we got we were able
to get out and get food pretty quickly. I mean
there was a there was a cue, but they got
through it really quickly because they just had the volume
of people needed to do that. So, Yeah, a slahly
great experience and then obviously topped off with the Dolphins
performing to a high level and giving us a.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
W Yeah, it's all part of the experience, isn't it.
It's going to make one fans to come back again
and again, isn't it if they can go and have
the sort of experience that you did in terms of
easy access to the stadium, no cues, plenty of dining options.
It's just part of that fan experience. Isn't it that
the little things that on top of that's not even

(05:23):
getting to the football yet, either, is it.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
No, No, say, that's completely just to do with the
organization and the stadium. It's just absolutely top draw. Our
probably basis for comparison recently was we headed out to
the AMEX to see Brighton playing an FA Cup game
a couple of months ago, and it was chaos. We

(05:46):
were jammed into a train to do maybe a fifteen
minute trek to Brighton Station before getting out and getting
into maybe the worst organized q I've ever seen at
Brighton Station to get another train out to Foma to
near where the ground is, and then you have to
take quite a long walk. And then even once we
got into the ground, you couldn't see because everyone stood

(06:08):
up for the entire game. We were in the away end.
My brother is a Crawley Town fan, so we've gone
to see Crawley play Brighton and obviously there are only
twenty minutes apart, so it was full of away fans.
But the difference is going to hard Rock Stadium at
the weekend. We drove to the ground no problem at all. Say,

(06:29):
the experience getting into the stadium was superb. We were
home within an hour of the finish of the game.
We were back at our hotel. We got in a car,
dro straight out of car parks or no traffic, straight
on to the freeway and headed out. It was an
amazing experience. You know, obviously I would recommend anyone does it,
but I think, you know, you have to experience it
once and I think hard Rock is the best way

(06:51):
to experience football.

Speaker 3 (06:52):
And that's the thing with hard Rock. They give you
plenty of travel options, now, don't they, as well as
the option to pay for your own parking. You've got
park and right that seemed been newly introduced. You've got
the shuttle bus that runs to and from Aventura station.
You've got Uber, you've got ride multi share as well.
I think with Uber's plenty of travel options now which

(07:13):
they perhaps didn't have in the past. I know, I,
for one, have been lucky enough over recent years to
get a lift with U Lei, but founding that the
only other experience I've had from traveling was away from
hard Rock Stadium a couple of years ago with the family,
if you remember, for the night game, and it was
an awful experience getting back, and I wouldn't want to
repeat that. So it's good to know that they've now

(07:33):
got various different alternatives for travel.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
I think they're always improving the products, basically seeing how
it evolves, and evolving with the technology as well. Basically,
you know, like you say with the ride share, you know,
making sure it's easy to get people to an area
where cars can get in and out and it doesn't
become a traffic mess.

Speaker 3 (07:54):
Just got to ask before we get onto the actual
game itself, did your dad dad have a photo taken
with the my first game sign that they've got because
it wasn't his.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
First game, so he didn't. He didn't do that, but
absolutely should have. I don't even think we took a
photo together. We were having a great time, but just
somehow didn't seek to take a picture of ourselves. I
don't know, why did.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
Your dad really enjoy the kind of NFL experience having
not been for a while and seeing and pretty much
for him it's a new team, if you like. What
did he make of the whole experience himself as a
kind of almost first timer, certainly in recent years.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
Oh yeah, he had a great time. He was he
was really involved in the game. And as someone who
doesn't watch the NFL, he obviously knows he follows the
Dolphins results because you know, as I'm a fan, so
it gives us something to talk about. But he he
was able to stay engaged in the games all the
with all the information that was you know, presented to

(08:56):
you at the stadium as well as the game on
the field. Think, you know, it was easy to track
what was going on, and then I was able to
obviously answer any questions in between to kind of fill
in some of the gaps. But you know, really it
was It's pretty easy to follow, and I think something
that the NFL obviously does well. And maybe I'm not

(09:16):
a football fan really over here, but I think judging
bo some of the Sky Sports news segments on a
Monday morning, that maybe they could do with implementing over
here is the referee just that comes on a microphone
and explains the penalty to you, so he knows when
the flag comes in there is a penalty, and then
he knows he's going to get an explanation as to
what happened, even if he doesn't really didn't really see

(09:37):
what happened, which I think really helps because otherwise it's
just like, hang on, they've stopped. What's what's going on here?
But that wasn't the case, So yeah, I think he
found it easy to follow. Was it really engaged in
the game, and yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:55):
Cool talking to dads a year ago yesterday, the doll
played the Raiders last season on November the nineteenth, which
just happened to coincide with what would have been my
dad's eightieth birthday. And he was a Raiders fan, and
he was the reason I got into the NFL and
is the reason why I'm a Dolphins fan, so indirectly,
he's the reason we're sat here right now. And I

(10:18):
just thought it was ironic that a year later they
played the Raiders again on the same birthday weekend, if
you like, with him being a Raiders fan, so he
would have found that funny if he was still with us.
But the NFL schedule makers must know something about my
dad and the Dolphins and the Raiders, I think.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
But amazing how it works out, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (10:37):
Yeah, onto the game. Then the Dolphins obviously win again
thirty four to nineteen. Lee. IM going to ask you
about the game as you were there, of course, how
did you feel bet during the game? Bearing in mind
there was so many successful drives on offense but the
score remained close. What were your thoughts there?

Speaker 1 (10:57):
Yeah? It was a strange rum, wasn't it? Because I
even messaged you half a through the game because it's
hard kind of keeping track of all the information or
at least, you know, very different to watching at home.
And I was like, hang on, we've scored on every
drive except a kneel down, Yet this game somehow feels
kind of close. It doesn't really make sense. But I

(11:23):
always felt like they ruined control. And I know you
text me a little bit nervous in the second half,
and that's what kind of alerted me to the fact of, well,
it must feel really different sitting at home to sit
in here, because I kind of felt like the Dolphins
not had it kind of in hand, but certainly we're

(11:45):
kind of in control of proceedings. They seem to be
able to do what they want on offense, which meant,
as long as you've got one stop in the game,
you'd always stay ahead, almost ahead, do you know what
I mean? It'd take, you know, those three field goals
to pass you. So, providing you kept score boring, the
likelihood was you were going to be okay. So but yeah,
there was definitely a point in the second half where

(12:05):
you kind of look at the scoreboard, don't know, this
game doesn't feel like it should be as close as
close as it is.

Speaker 3 (12:13):
Yeah, I said to you it was very reminiscent of
the Tennessee game from a year back, wasn't it? With
holding a two score lead going into the latter half
of the fourth quarter and it seemingly was comfortable And
in the end it wasn't. And I just got you know,
this is what being a Dolphins fan is all about.
I suppose, isn't it. You can't get yourself into that

(12:33):
false census of security, can you.

Speaker 1 (12:36):
No? I don't think you can. I think we've learned that,
and I think that goes across the NFL. As you've
mentioned me, you know that phrase any given Sunday really
does apply for a reason because teams always come back.
I mean, you only got to look at when the
Dolphins have come back from from big deficits, and it's
amazing when you're that team, but it's not when you're

(12:57):
the team in front. So, but good teams somehow find
a way to continue to pull out results. And I
think we've seen a little bit of an evolution in
this team this year.

Speaker 3 (13:08):
Yeah, and you mentioned about continue to pull out results,
and of course they scored on every drive except the
kneel down. And central to all of that was the
performance of Tour, of course, and we're seeing his game
evolve now since he's returned back from injury. But how
has it evolvedly? I mean, clearly he seems to have

(13:29):
gone up another level.

Speaker 1 (13:30):
To me, Yeah, it's funny, isn't it, because going up
another level is kind of raining it back in slightly
because it seems more controlled as opposed to always looking
for the big play. And I think what kind of
brought it to my attention on Sunday, especially seeing it
from you mentioned where our seats are and It's very

(13:54):
much that kind of Madden All twenty two kind of
view from behind the player in under the play, depending
on which way you're going. And it looked like there's
definitely a lot of times where Tour maybe even had
guys further down the field and maybe watching the tape
he's like, oh, had I seen it? He's taking a
bigger play. But this felt way more controlled where it wasn't.

(14:14):
I'm always looking to, you know, to score on every play.
It's a case of I understand I need to move
the tea like, just keep the ball moving. It's far
more important. And I think especially the last what is
it now, four games, because I want to put in
there the Bills loss and the Cardinals loss. We saw

(14:35):
where we started to see this kind of happening. It
was understanding that the most important thing on any drive
is moving the chains. It's not Scoring is obviously important,
but it's really a byproduct of being able to keep
moving the chains and getting yourself into scoring positions. And yeah, great,
you can score from anywhere on the field. At some

(14:56):
point you're going to do that. That's amazing. But the
more sustained way to win is with sustained drives, and
I think we're starting to see that. And it was
finally on Sunday on third down. It didn't really feel
like any of it was rushed or was a panic play.

(15:18):
It felt like he was under control, was always going
to move the ball. And I know they failed on
a couple and ended up converting on fourth down, but
the same thing when he went in on fourth down,
there was kind of no doubt in my mind he
was going to convert because he seemed to be able
to almost I don't want to say it slowed down,
because that implies that it was the game was moving

(15:39):
too quickly for him in the first place. I don't
think that was the case. But I think he's probably
seeing it a little bit clearer than before and he
is able to say, hey, I know where I need
to go just to keep things moving.

Speaker 3 (15:50):
I want to expand on a point you made there
about having long sustained drives, and I want to ask
you about their change in philosophy on offense that has
become a power over the last few weeks.

Speaker 1 (16:02):
Now.

Speaker 3 (16:02):
They've gone from this explosive unit who could score from
anywhere on the field at any time, to an offense
that is sustaining frequent long drives. For example, against the Raiders,
they had drives of seventeen plays for eight thirteen. They
had another seventeen play drive for eight twenty two. They
had a sixteen play drive for seven forty seven and

(16:22):
that one covered ninety seven yards. They had another fourteen
play drive for five forty four. And we saw it
not so much against the Rams the previous week, but
going back two weeks against the Bills, it was a
very similar picture where they had multiple long, sustained drives
And as I said, it's like a change in philosophy,

(16:42):
isn't it? And wanted to ask you about that because
to me, it's playing playoff football, isn't it, rather than
the football that we used to seeing, particularly last season.

Speaker 1 (16:52):
Yeah, I think it's the kind of football that you
can take to any stadium against any team and hope
to succeed. Whereas they think when it is kind of
the big playoffense we saw last year, it's great. It
makes loads of highlight reels and it gives you really
great stats. We also found that now and again, if

(17:14):
someone has the answer, there is no plan B. It
becomes very difficult to slip into what a normal offense
would do in regards to maybe some of the boring
offenses that you've seen that annoy you and frustrate you
over the years, because they're just really, really good because
they find a way to convert on third down, they
find a way to convert and just keep the chains

(17:37):
moving all the time. And I think it's become apparent
to them that when you can do this, then you
can become more balanced. You suddenly have so many ways
to beat a team that if they have an answer
for one thing cool, you can focus on thing two
where you could focus something three. And they think for

(17:57):
the Dolphins this year, we saw the run game play
a huge part in some games there where the run
game looked as good as it's looked under Mike McDaniel,
and I think it struggled a little bit in the
last two games without al Kin Gold. I think he
makes a huge difference to the way this team plays,
and I think that's probably why we saw a slightly

(18:19):
different performance on the Monday night in the Monday night
win against the Rams, I think alac In Gold goes
a long way to helping that run game tick. But
when the run game is not it's and when I
say this, the run game was absolutely fine, I'm just
saying it wasn't at the high standard that it was

(18:40):
a couple of games previous. But what's happened the run
game is not quite where it was. We've suddenly seen
a huge emergence and tight end tight end play. We've
seen Julian Hill get a couple of catches. We saw
a Darren Smithe catch. Obviously, you know, Johnny Smith deserves
a lot of credit because he was always available and
said caught the fourth down touchdown pass, caught the big

(19:03):
touchdown pass at the end. I know that, I know
it's a busted coverage, but the play was still there.
He was still able to make sure he was attracting tours.
Attention two had to find him, but he was making
a good job of letting him know, hey, I'm here
and I'm wide open, and then also showing that speed
that you know adds to this offense. It obviously fits
perfectly with the way the rest of the offense is
built with. Johnny been one of the faster tight ends

(19:25):
in the NFL, but he never looked like getting caught
for that touchdown. Once he got the ball, he was
away and gotten.

Speaker 3 (19:30):
One of the downsides of having this these this change
in philosophy is that it limits the number of times
you get the ball because, excusing the kneel down at
the end of the first half, the Dolphins only had
five plays. Now, fortunately they sorry five drives. Now, fortunately
they scored on all of them, but that might not
always be the case. The downside of doing that is

(19:51):
that you have to maximize your scoring opportunities, don't you,
because they're not going to be as frequent. And we
saw this as a good example again the Raiders in
that they kind of were still in the game, so
they were almost matching the Dolphins drive for driving, score
for score, so it was important that they maximize those
scoring opportunities. Obviously, if you play do the same philosophy

(20:14):
against the team who doesn't have the same success as
the Raiders did, then it's not so urgent. But there
is a bit of a risk there, isn't there.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
It's a little bit circular, though, isn't it, Because let's
say the Dolphins aren't as successful on their drives, Well,
then they don't become sustained drives because they're not as successful,
which means there will be more drives, which means more
opportunities to have the state. Do you know what I mean? Yeah,
I know that sounds completely insane, but you kind of
see where I'm going with it if you It's a

(20:48):
case of keeping up the red zone conversion and the
points scoring, and you know, if you can keep doing that.
The Patriots and Bill Belichick found that that a good
way to win an awful lot of games and a
good way to go deep in the playoffs by when
you want to shorten the game, being able to shorten
the game. I think we've also seen it with some

(21:11):
other teams this year. Let's be honest, Josh Allen is
having a superb year, and what have they done. They
become more balanced. They're relying less on Josh. Okay, he
had the great play at the weekend against the Chiefs,
and he's still going to have those plays. But in
previous years they were relying way more on Josh Allen
being everything to the offense, rather than saying it's okay,

(21:33):
the run game can do their bit as well. These
guys are paid and they are part of the offense,
and it's okay to feature them if a game requires
just featuring the run game. Great, that's also fine, but
I think that's an evolution. Part of the evolution we've
seen with the Dolphins. The Dolphins just got their way quicker.

Speaker 3 (21:54):
So there was a bit of daylight in the end
league with the score, final score thirty four to nineteen.
And what were your thoughts as John Hu Smith went
in for that long touchdown at the end to pretty
much see all the deal and if you and I know,
just before I digress so slightly, Lee managed to get
some clips of a few Dolphins scores which he's uploaded
to social media. So check those clips out on Instagram

(22:15):
and TikTok because they're really good from a fan perspective.
Gives you a sense of being there in the stadium.
So really good clips from Lee there. But just going
back to that John Wu Smith touchdown, that's not one
of the clips on that you posted. I'm hoping because
you were caught slightly unawares and were celebrating with your
dad the winning score.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
Effectively, I was absolutely caught unawares because that score, what
was it? It came from so far out. But also
at the time, I was jumping out of my seat
because I could suddenly see how that john Hu Smith
was standing completely on his own and you're just absolutely
hoping that Tua finds him because obviously he's still going
through the progression. He doesn't realize straight off the bat

(22:55):
and like you see the ball slightly understorry because once
to a season he just needs to get the ball
to him. It doesn't matter how because it again priority one.
It moves the chains, but it also then gives him
a chance to turn the score. And I'm sure two
would love to have thrown that ball with his feet
set properly and got the ball out in front of him.
But hey, was it a fourth down play? I think

(23:16):
it was a fourth down play.

Speaker 3 (23:19):
I thought it was second down.

Speaker 1 (23:21):
I thought it might have been. I can't remember, but
you know when I was when I was gonna say,
you suddenly see it open wide up and I jumped
out my seat with my arms and yeah, like you
just throw the ball, and then obviously Johnny Smith turns
and does the rest and sails into the end zone.
And I think that's the first time we kind of
really seen john who's Smith's speed in the open field

(23:42):
as well, which is you know, it's really impressive. When
when the Dolphins signed him. We saw a lot of
the kind of social media stats come out that he's
one of the fastest tight ends in the NFL. We
saw it and it really paid off Sunday.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
So you mentioned there you stood stood up with your
arms in the air. Is that what you did when
the lady next to you asked if Eric Carr was
still with the Raiders.

Speaker 1 (24:02):
I think my hands on my head, which he asked
faces I didn't want to. I was trying to sound
really polite, and I was like, yeah, I don't think
he plays for Raiders anymore, just trying to be polite.
I was thinking, I can't believe you just asked me that.
But yeah, I also thought it was a huge point
there in with the Jalen Ramsey interception. I thought the

(24:22):
defense had played so well that they also kind of
needed that reward of an interception. I think they've gone
a couple of weeks where, you know, the performances have
been been good, but it feels like they've been getting
kind of tired towards the end of games. And obviously
they had that incredibly hard stretch earlier in the season
where they were on the field all the time, but
it felt like a worthy reward was that pick that

(24:48):
the pick didn't really seal the game, like you said,
but at the same time, it kind of cemented it,
if that makes sense. It certainly played a long way
into the You know when with Jayla Ram he picks
up off, there's a lot of people hidden for the exits.

Speaker 3 (25:04):
All's well, that ends well though, So thirty four to
nineteen victory. Shall we have some Finns factor lea from
the game.

Speaker 1 (25:11):
Absolutely, let's have some Finns facts.

Speaker 3 (25:14):
So Miami's went over. The Raiders provided the franchise with
its five hundredth regular season win, becoming the nineteenth NFL
organization to accomplish that feat, And your superstition came true.
Didn't it be?

Speaker 1 (25:27):
Because we didn't mention it.

Speaker 3 (25:29):
On last week's show, So we shall not do that
again next time. They are aiming for milestone win of sorts.
Since the Dolphins were established in nineteen sixty six, Miami
is one of five teams to record five hundred wins
and is sixth among franchises in winning percentage during that span.
Through Sunday's one PM games, you have the Dolphins with

(25:53):
a win percentage of zero point five to five to two,
and it is only bettered by the Vikings, the Steam
and the Cowboys, who are well established franchises. Of course,
that victory improves Miami's series record against the Raiders to
twenty eighteen and one in the regular season, and they've
won nine of their past eleven against the Raiders. The

(26:15):
win mark the first time the Dolphins had finished a
game without punting the ball since the thirteenth November twenty
twenty two v Cleveland. The Dolphins looking through here with
lots of stats about the game. Obviously, John Who Smith
had a career day, setting a career high receiving yards

(26:36):
and tied his career best in receiving touchdowns. So he
certainly enjoying his time over the last few weeks, isn't
he with Miami. His performance marks his second career game
of one hundred and more receiving yards in his first
game in twenty twenty three against the Vikings during his
time in Atlanta, and Smith is the only Dolphins tight
end since the nineteen seventy merger to have one hundred

(26:58):
or more receiving yards and two touches down catches in
a game. I didn't know that. That's an interesting one.
And his fifty seven yard touchdown reception was the fourth
longest reception by eight Miami tight end since the merger,
and the longest since Mike Kasicki had a seventy yard
TV reception on August the eleventh, twenty twenty versus the

(27:20):
San Francisco forty nine Ers two. Of course, we mentioned
earlier back to his best passer rating of one hundred
and twenty seven point eight, and it was the tenth
time in his career that he's thrown three touchdown passes
in a game. He's passer rating of one hundred and
twenty seven point eight is the sixth highest mark in
his career. His seventy seven point eight pass completion rate

(27:43):
marks the thirteenth time he's completed at least seventy five
percent of his passes in a game, and since twenty
twenty two, he's tied with Jared Goff and Lamar Jackson
for the most games with a pass completion percentage of
seventy or better with eighteen. As we know, lee from
a winning performance, there are always loads of stats, aren't there,

(28:05):
And there's so many more I could go into, but
it just shows you the efficiency of the offense at
the moment and how well they're playing. Absolutely okay game
balls Lee game you mentioned earlier, it's very different watching
a game in person to watching it on TV. And

(28:26):
did it kind of sway you in any way in
terms of how you awarded a game ball Because on
the TV, you get all of the analysis, you get
all of the commentary, you get all of the replays
where you see stuff going on. You don't get that
in the stadium, so you get you don't get to
necessarily appreciate the young son heroes. But where is your

(28:47):
game ball going this week?

Speaker 1 (28:49):
Well, my game boy is actually going to go to
a guy that I feel is a bit of an
unsung hero, and I want to just read out a
couple of stats because I picked him up earlier, and
I think it's worth noting that. You know, when you
face an elite player like Max Crosby and all of

(29:12):
a sudden he's going against a replacement at the position
with Austin Jackson being down, you have to see that
as a and we mentioned it last week. You had
to see that as a matchup that you have to
worry about and do something about. And as a player,
he must be licking his lips, and I'm sure he
respects all the players in the NFL. But at the
same time, you have to be happy when you're going against,

(29:36):
you know, the guy second in that position as opposed
to the starter, especially when it's a big money player
like Austin Jackson who's down, because you know, he's got
to suspect that he's going to have or at least
hope that he's going to have a much better day.
Crosby played all sixty eight snaps but didn't have a sack,
a quarterback hit, or a tackle for a loss. And

(29:57):
I think Kendall Lamb is getting a game ball from
me because I think that is an elite performance and
a tough ask. And I know there'll be other players
that helped in that. The backs helped in the game.
You definitely saw that and the tight ends. But you know,
with the right side being to its blindside, Max Crosby,
I mean, that's a recipe for how that game could

(30:18):
go south on you really quickly is having a Max
Crosby wrecord game, which we've seen him do we know that?
You know when they play against the Chiefs, the Raiders
find a way to cause the chief problems every time,
but we were able to completely nullify him on Sunday
and Kendall Lamb was a huge part of that. So
definitely getting a game ball from me for that.

Speaker 3 (30:40):
Yeah, he played well, and I was certainly under consideration
for me because whenever Max Crosby's name is called out,
you almost certainly think danger. But his name wasn't called
that much because of the job that Kendall Lamb did.
So Yeah, certainly in contention for me, but I went
for the obvious choice in the end league, Johnny Smith.
I've already said he had a career outing in both

(31:01):
terms of yards and touchdowns, and it's not often he's
been in contention for a game ball, but so I
just have to give it to him. I've also wanted
to acknowledge there were plenty of other good performances this week.
Tour played well. Of course, a chan Hill the elder's
ever mentioned on offense. On defense, Campbell and Seeder played
up to their usual standard, I think, and I also

(31:22):
like Ramsey's performance. He got the pick, of course, but
it was his awareness and knowledge of the game that's
really stood out. Right at the end of the game
when a couple of times he ensured the clock continued
to run when the Raiders players were trying to get
out of bounds. I don't know whether you've seen the
highlights of that last drively, I suspect they probably wouldn't

(31:44):
show it in the package online because they didn't score.
But the commentators were really explaining what must have been
going through Ramsey's mind as he made those tackles, doing
enough to position his body so that the players didn't
go out of bound to stop the clock. So some
good analysis there and some good awareness and kudos to

(32:05):
Bramsey for that. That was That was pretty good play.

Speaker 1 (32:09):
Absolutely, I say, I think we could have given out
a whole bunch of game balls for this. I think
there's a lot of performances. Again, I think two was
in contention every time the Dolphins win because he obviously
played such a big part in it. Like you said,
if you score on every drive except for the you know,
it's not even just the kneel down at the end
of the half. I mean, it's you get the ball
back with I think it was like forty four seconds

(32:30):
on the clock. Like, that's not a drive that I
think you can seriously expect points on so you know,
I think it's okay to take that one out of
the equation and say that you score on every drive.
And I think the three points at the end of
the game was not a was a case of you
were trying to run clock as opposed to actually it's

(32:51):
not that you're not trying to convert. But you know,
the priority here is keeping the ball safe and keeping
the clock rolling, and that's what They didn't kick the
field goal because I think how they wanted to. I
think they still had opportunities to make more plays. It
didn't feel like they kind of but it didn't feel
like they were settling for a field goal. It felt
like it was just good game management to get out

(33:12):
of the to get out of the game. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (33:15):
I do like coaches thoughts heading into a half, if
they've got the ball and the time on the clock
is not in their favor, yet they're still giving it
a bit of a go because you just never know.
Danny was sitting next to me saying, well, why aren't
they taking a knee, and it was almost like, well,
if you never know, if you get a defensive penalty,
and again, half can't end on a defensive penalty, they

(33:36):
might get a cheap shot downfield, or they might get
enough penalty yards to put them in field god range.
You just never know, do you. So Yeah, aside from
what you say about making sure you protect the ball
that we saw it last year in a game, I
think I can't remember which one it was, but the Dolphins,
it might have been the Jets possibly. They looked as

(34:00):
though they were not going to have an opportunity to
score heading into the half, yet they got that defensive
penalty and enabled them to get a field goal, so
which was totally unexpected. So there is a rationale behind that, I.

Speaker 1 (34:11):
Think, yeah, absolutely, I think that's they say it's continued
evolution as well as a team and game management. I
think that goes from the head coach all the way
to the players. I don't think it's it's just one
or the other. So that leads us into halftime. We're

(34:33):
at the halfway point of the show, and that brings
us to our trivia question from last week side, Do
you want to recap that question?

Speaker 3 (34:42):
Yep, just to recap it was how many games have
the Dolphins won in overtime in their history? Bearing in
mind they've now won five hundred. How many of one
been one in overtime? Now did you get You wouldn't
have got the answer necessarily. I don't think we talked
about that offliner, didn't we? And I would have got
it either.

Speaker 1 (35:00):
No, I wouldn't have got it. I don't know where
I would have started, to be honest.

Speaker 3 (35:04):
But it's a small, easily number of twenty thirteen home
seven away, so not as many as you might have thought.
I guess.

Speaker 1 (35:14):
So that's good if you can win the win regulation.

Speaker 3 (35:16):
Absolutely, but you're going to set the listeners a new
question for this weekly?

Speaker 1 (35:21):
Absolutely, can you name the top five Dolphins players who
have had the most one hundred yard receiving games? And
I can see the list in front of me, and
there is one, two, three, four, five I would have got.
I'm going to go with four. I could see the answers,

(35:43):
but I think I would have got four. I don't
think I would have got the fifth.

Speaker 3 (35:47):
I think I would have got three, for sure, and
I think most people should get three. I wouldn't have
got the last one either, But the other one on
that yeah, the other yeah, the other one on that list.
I probably may have got it after giving it some
real thought because it was quite a while ago. It's

(36:09):
certainly not in recent times, is it so? And he
was a pretty good receiver, let's put it that way.
Certainly one of the better early round draft picks. I
think that they've made a receiver. But there's a clue.
But yeah, we'll give the answer next week.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
Absolutely, And that takes us on to the pickham league side.
Do you want to give the results of the pick
them or would you like me to do it?

Speaker 3 (36:33):
Yeah? Go ahead.

Speaker 1 (36:34):
So at the bottom of the league, we have blueis
Co with eighty nine points, bris Mark fifty nine with
ninety one points, I have ninety five points, Miami five
oh one has ninety eight points, tied with Jojo chill
Mere that also has ninety eight points. And on onto

(36:59):
the top five. We have Builto in fifth place with
one hundred and twelve, tied with the only Beaver with
one hundred and twelve. Simon then comes in third spot
with one hundred and fourteen seventy two equals perfection drops
the second place of one hundred and eighteen points and

(37:20):
Robots seventy nine was one hundred and twenty tops the league.

Speaker 3 (37:26):
Yeah, several points dropped thereby seventy two equals perfection having
only got nine correct answers. But I do like the
little report that comes with after each week and you
get to see, as I said last week, all the
movers and losers in terms of moving up and down
the table, and Chef Randall was and Hermann and eighty

(37:49):
seven were the biggest movers this week, both moving up
six places, and Jimmy g in the I can't remember
what Jimmy g in the something stands for dropped eight places,
and Somerset Tim, who I now listens to the pot
of Think, unfortunately drops five spots, so bad that Tim
I won. Stokey Dolphan as well, who was up in

(38:11):
the top five, dropped two spots out the top ten
this week, so nice little report there. Interestingly, the Patriots
get game. Sorry. The Patriots were the least picked team
with only with them only being picked by four percent
of the pool to win this week, and the Texans
were the most picked. One hundred percent of the pool

(38:33):
picked the Texans to beat the Cowboys. Fall from grace
for Dallas there onto the state of the division then Lee. Obviously,
the Bills beat the Chiefs, who lose their unbeaten record,
and the Bills are now at nine and two. The
Jets lose a late game to the Indianapolis Colts twenty

(38:53):
eight twenty seven to drop to three and eight, and
the Patriots obviously lost that game to the Rams eight
twenty two to also move to three and eight. We're
going to take a bit of a look at the
playoff picture at projections or the PPP by Next Gen
stats taken from NFL dot com. Lee, do you want
to talk us through where the Dolphins now stand in

(39:16):
the playoff race in the AFC?

Speaker 1 (39:19):
Yeah, So, last week the Dolphins had a nine percent
chance of making the playoffs. That rose to ten percent
with Sunday's victory against the Raiders. If they were to
win again this upcoming week with a home game against
the Patriots, that jumps. That makes a much bigger jump
from ten percent up to fourteen percent, which is which

(39:42):
is interesting. It's an interesting jump, isn't it to go
one percent from last week to this week, another four
percent this week, but drops the three percent if you
were to lose to the Patriots this week. So obviously
all the games are big. We know that based on
the record and the way the season has gone so far,
we winnable games on the schedule. It'll be interesting to

(40:03):
keep track of that percentage as we move forward.

Speaker 3 (40:06):
Yeah, you're right, there are winnable games on the schedule
because you've got the Patriots obviously next week, who've won
three as we say, We've got the Jets twice who
have only won three. We've got the Browns who have
only won two. You've got the Niners who have only
won five, and you've got the Texans who have won
seven and currently sit at the top of the FC South.
So there are plenty of games on the schedule that

(40:27):
are winnable. The downside of that schedule is that they're
not playing any of the other teams around them in
the race for that last wild card spot, so they
can't take games off for example.

Speaker 1 (40:41):
Point is what you're saying.

Speaker 3 (40:42):
Yeah, the Broncos or the Bengals, they're not playing, and
the Colts are in eighth spot at the minute, and
of course they lose the tiebreaker to the Colts having
lost earlier in the season. So it's a shame that
they haven't got the Broncos or the Bengals to pinch
a game off. On those, they're very much going to
have to rely on other teams to do them a favor.

(41:04):
I think, aren't they to increase that playoff percentage?

Speaker 1 (41:07):
Definitely, I would say the obviously the key here is
to maybe not focus too much on the others and
just keep winning games and see where it lands you
at the end of the season. I think if you start,
you know, if you really worry about what the other
teams are doing, you can lose focus on on the
job in hand. And the job in hand is just
make sure you go out and win enough games to
you know, to give yourself a chance. And like you say,

(41:30):
I think the games are there TV one, So I
don't think this is one of those schedules now where
you look at it and say, oh my god, these
are the hardest games in the NFL. I think it
may have looked that way early in the season. You know,
super Bowl team in the Niners from last year, the
Browns who looked like they were trying to make a
step forward, the Jets who national media had a Super

(41:52):
Bowl bound. You know, all those teams are not suddenly
looking like the Juggernauts that they may have been. So yeah,
those games definitely offer opportunities for wins, although obviously nothing
is a given in the NFL.

Speaker 3 (42:06):
It's interesting they're only a game and a half back
beyond the Broncos, who've got that last wildcard spot. Of
the Broncos win percentage is currently at sixty six percent,
so there's a huge difference in win probability percentage for
only a game and a half, and the Broncos don't
have their buy until Week fourteen, and they're playing admittedly

(42:27):
only the Raiders and the Browns over the next two weeks.
But if the Dolphins can win keep within that game
leading into the Broncos by they've got a chance to
be really up on their shoulders, haven't they coming into
the home stretch.

Speaker 1 (42:43):
Absolutely? And it's I suppose that the thing here is
when we look at the schedules going forward as well,
is those divisional matchups are always a bugger, aren't they?
How many times have we thwarted the Patriots run to
Super Bowl where they now have to go on the
road through in the playoffs rather than having home field
advantage all the way through because they lost to a

(43:05):
team in the division that wasn't really there wasn't playoff
bound at the time. It's funny how those things work.
So I mean, having now beaten the Raiders, maybe who
can hope the Raiders go on to win a few
games going forward, help us out.

Speaker 3 (43:19):
Talking to the Patriots. The Dolphins, of course play them
next week in a rematch of their game where of
a few weeks ago where we were at the watch party.
Of course, league offensively then they ranked thirty first in
the league, rushing they ranked twenty first, and passing they
ranked bottom of the NFL in thirty second spot. Defense

(43:40):
fare slightly better overall rank of twentieth, rushing rank of
twentieth and a passing rank of twentieth, So an interesting
quirk on the defensive rankings. But before we do a
deep dive into the game itself, there are some further
Finns facts that we can share with you, Lea. Did
you want to just want to give a run three
of those?

Speaker 1 (44:00):
Absolutely? A Dolphins win would improve Miami's lead to sixty
three and fifty three in the all time regular season
series with the Patriots. It'd be Miami's eleventh win in
the last fifteen meetings with New England, giving the Dolphins
a fifteen game stretch against the sorry, the best fifteen
game stretch against the Patriots since the eighty nine to

(44:21):
ninety six seasons, where they won thirteen and fifteen matchups.
It'd be the first time the Dolphins sweep the Patriots
and consecutive season since nineteen ninety nine to two thousand.
I think we're probably going to see the reason, probably
all know the reason why that might have been the case.
Give Miami a five and one record against New England
under coach under head coach Mike McDaniel, make head coach

(44:45):
might McDaniels the first coach in Dolphins history to win
five of his first six games against New England, and
it would mark the thirty first win in the last
fifty games started by quarterback Tour Tongue Vailaua since the
start of the twenty twenty one season.

Speaker 3 (45:00):
I think to undefeated against the Patriots, isn't.

Speaker 1 (45:03):
He he is in games that he started? I think
he is against the AFC Easter, isn't he with the
exception of the Bills that he's lost to the Jets either?

Speaker 3 (45:10):
So yeah, and we'll park that one because that's an
omen or a superstition that we're not going to mention again.

Speaker 1 (45:20):
No, no, we were not. But with that said, let's
move on to Sunday's matchup against the Patriots and Week
twelve season rematch of the Classroom Week five in which
which was a close fought contest with the Dolphins coming
out on top. Sibon, where do you see the teams
the two teams now with this game also be a

(45:42):
close one or do you think things have kind of
changed a little bit since that matchup?

Speaker 3 (45:46):
Yeah, when comparing where the respective teams are now to
where they were several weeks ago for that Week five matchup,
there is definitely a contrast. The Dolphins are on ascending
team which are essentially fighting for their playoff lives, whereas
the Patriots seem to be a bit erratic going two
and four since that Week five loss. Both things will

(46:07):
have different quarterbacks at the helm, and there's certainly a
contrasting quarterback play as well. The Fins obviously have two
a back who's well into a groove now, and for
the Patriots, they've made a change with rookie Drake May
having displaced Jacoby Brissett as a starter. Even though the
Finns are only a game and a half ahead of
the Patriots. There is a clear disparity in speed at

(46:28):
which these teams are moving forward. Not quite in opposite directions,
but certainly the Dolphins are moving ahead quicker than the
Patriots are at the moment.

Speaker 1 (46:40):
I think absolutely. And with that being said, how do
you think the teams are firing? Now? Where is this
game going to be one and lost?

Speaker 3 (46:51):
I think the key word for how this game turns
out is pressure. The Dolphins are arguably under intense pressure,
knowing they can't afford any more slip ups if they
want to have aspirations of making the playoffs. The Patriots,
on the other hand, are for all intents and purposes
out of playoff contention, only having three wins, as we
said earlier, and they can afford to play with a

(47:13):
bit of a loose hand to see what they've got
with their young quarterback. They can be relaxed play without
any expectations or pressure to win. At the end of
the day, though, I think talents should prevail. But you
only have to look at the Raiders last week, who
played well for a team of their standard, and they
were in the game until near the end despite the
differences in ability. So it's how the Dolphins deal with

(47:37):
that pressure and expectant expecting the performance to generate another
win because they are playing an inferior team. If they
can just stick to their game, we'll go into our
past the victory in a moment. But if they can
handle that pressure and play their normal game, there's no
absolutely no reason why they can't come out with a win. Now,

(47:59):
taught last week about in the path of Itchy about
stopping Rock Bowers as the key because he is there
one and looked to be their best offensive weapon, and
he certainly played really, really well, didn't he, And arguably
you could say the Dolphins didn't stop him. It's almost
the similar story with the Patriots in that they don't

(48:21):
have any outstanding elite playmakers on offense other than the
Drake May who's playing alright at the minute. So it's
almost like last week you had Rock Bowers as their
key individual. This week it's Drake May. So how are

(48:42):
they going to handle Drake May? And are they going
to allow him to play his natural game having been
relaxed and without any expectation. So pressure, I think is
the key for me, is certainly the key word for
this game this week.

Speaker 1 (48:58):
Yeah, It's interesting, isn't it, the how the goals are
somewhat different for both teams right now. And you know,
obviously the Patriots will still will have to make the playoffs.
Like you said, it's a long shot from where they are,
but at the same time, their goal is different. They're
trying to develop a rookie quarterback and making sure that
they've made the correct pick and that they can trust

(49:20):
the franchise to him going forward, and you know they
can only do that with game time, so there's going
to be ups and downs. But it feels like the results.
We said a couple of weeks ago that there's no
such thing as moral victories, but I think there is
in certain cases. And I think when you're trying to
develop a quarterback, they can be because you're looking for
progression and that's not always going to result in wins,

(49:43):
but can lead you to believe that you've got that
guy that you need. So, yeah, it feels like two
teams are kind of different ambitions at this stage of
the season, even if their records, like you say, are
not that far apart. With that being said, should we
go on to our past the victory? And I thin
I think the way we're going to do this because
for a complete transparency, I only have one paft of

(50:06):
victory because I was late doing my notes for this
after driving up here. I'm going to split your path
to victory and make you go first, and then i'll
give your mind in a bit.

Speaker 3 (50:16):
Okay, well, you've got a fair excuse. You're on holiday league,
so I can't blame you offensively. I think, as we
said earlier, the Patriots ranked really low, and like the
Raiders last week I've already touched in it are not
saturated with elite playmakers. The key to them performing well,
as I said, rest on the shoulders of May. Can
he be given time to click in that offense. I

(50:38):
watched them against the Jags at Wembley and they look
decent on their opening drive, but after that they really struggled.
Playing at hard rock, it looks to be an uphill
battle to get any sort of decent output. But if
they're going to do so on offense, it's going to
have to sit with Drake.

Speaker 1 (50:53):
May absolutely, and I think my path to victory is
basically to avoid complacency, and like you said, the pressure.
There's pressure on the Dolphins to win as you know,
to win every week here because they don't, they don't
have much margin for error. But I think in the

(51:13):
past we have seen times where this team has played
down to its competition because they're not providing enough of
a enough competition, do you know what I mean? And
I think they kind of get lulled into this false
sense of everything's going to be fine, we'll figure it out.
I don't think that's happening this season, but I want

(51:35):
to see that continue. I think this is one of
those cases where it's the first real test of that
because it's a team that you've already played and beat
with a backup quarterback. The Dolphins are playing much better football.
I think it would be easy to stroll into hard
Rock on Sunday. I think you're going to come out
with a victory. But as we've said so many times before,

(51:58):
any given Sunday in the NFL, any team can win.
We've seen the Patriots look good at times. There's been
bright spots with Drake May. You can see why he
was a selection at quarterback and why they're trying to
go moving forwards. So this is I think is a
stern test of the Dolphins to see how much they
have come on from the team of a couple of

(52:19):
years ago. And you know, I think we saw that
probably with the game against the Titans last year again
that they should have won, kind of just felt flat
all the way through and that led to a late
game collapse when I think they kind of thought that
they've done enough to put it over the hill. So yeah,
I think this could be a real test of that.
So I think it's avoiding that complacency. And I don't

(52:41):
you know, I don't say that thinking that the Dolphins
are the only thing susceptible to it. I think it's
a human nature thing. It's hard to avoid the obvious.
When you do so much research into another team. You
see where their talent is or where they don't have talent,
You see why their record is what it is or
why it's not. And I think it's easy to fall
into those traps. And yeah, I think that's the big

(53:02):
one for this weekend. It's come out and do what
you do. I think there's some really interesting opportunities, like
you said, with the Patriots defensive rankings, to continue to
evolve this offense. So it feels like a you know,
a big matchup and a you know what, it could
be an important stepping stone on the hopefully the path
to get in where you want to, and that's the playoffs. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (53:24):
I just wanted to summarize really as well, in addition
to what you've said, I don't think there's a complicated
formula to win this week. I don't think you necessarily
need to focus on your passing game getting hill or
Waddle involved, nor do you need to focus on the
running game. I don't. I don't think it's a complicated formula.
As I said earlier, the Dolphins are improving their season,

(53:45):
and if the Patriots think that they are also improving
as a team with May quarterback, then fine, But the
Dolphins are improving at a much quicker rate with better results.
So all things equal, they should win the game. But
any given Sunday is something you mentioned aulit earlier, and
that certainly applies this week, and they just need to

(54:06):
execute a sound game plan and like you said, don't
get complacent or overconfident. And if they can do all
of that, then they should win the game. I'm not
saying the Patriots are going to be a walkover by
any means, but like you just go out there and
execute the game plan in the same way they did
against the Raiders, and the Dolphins should come out victorious.

Speaker 1 (54:28):
So with that better said, can you do your best
Michael Fish impression and tell me what theever's going to
be like for my trip back down to Miami this
coming Sunday.

Speaker 3 (54:37):
You'll be pleased to know, Lee, there are clear skies
sixty six degrees fahrenheit, which won't mean too much to
you in an air conditioned vehicle, but at least you
won't be driving in pouring rain always.

Speaker 1 (54:51):
Absolutely, so hopefully you say clear s guys, makes some
good football on Sunday. And so where can we catch
the game on Sunday? I will catching it person? Where
can everyone else watch the game?

Speaker 3 (55:02):
Yeah, at the moment, it's going to be on game Pass.
I checked before we started recording, and sky Sports, as
far as I know, hadn't yet announced the six o'clock
games that were going to be featured on on the broadcast.
So I'm not too sure yet whether it's going to
be the Dolphins game, but certainly game pass is the
primary option this week, unless you can tell me otherwise, Lee.

Speaker 1 (55:23):
Yes, the six o'clock kickoff is the Detroit Lions at
the Indianapolis Colts, and the nine to twenty five kickoff
is San Francisco traveling to Green Bay. So if anyone
wants to do some forward scouting for your Miami Dolphins,
the nine to twenty five game on Sky is going

(55:45):
to be a good one to watch.

Speaker 3 (55:48):
Yeah, a couple of good ones actually, so hopefully the
Colts will drop another one to help the Dolphins in
their playoff run. I think that's it from us this week.
Is there anything else you wanted to to share with
the listeners before you bring us home?

Speaker 1 (56:02):
No, I was just going to say, definitely check out
the social media channels. I'm going to give you that
spiel in a minute, probably butcher it because that's generally
how this goes. But I'm going to try anyway. But
I think it's well worth bringing to everybody's attention. The
John hus Smith touchdown celebration where he held the ball

(56:22):
up into the air. I did get that touchdown. I
got the clipper that so that's on our social accounts
if you want to check that out. But he held
the ball up into the air with no real direction
and it ended up landing with his oldest son which
is quite spectacular. Yeah, an amazing piece of luck, just

(56:44):
the way things go. But I know he's also going
to be jumping on and doing a interview with Taris Wingfield,
so I'm sure that the story of that will be
in there as well as the video which is on
NFL UK will be on a Dolphins social channels. But yeah,
check out the social channels for the Dolphins content YouTube

(57:05):
for Dolphins HQ with Travis Wingfield, the Drive Time Podcast
Daily with Travis Wingfield, and The Fish Tank with Seth
and o J. And the other podcast you need to
listen to is the Dolphin UK podcast this time next
week