International Series Hot Takes and the Dolphins dealt another loss by the Cards

With an International Series game confirmed for the 2025 season, Lee and Simon speculate on where, when and whom. They also review the Cards game and discuss whether the matchup against the Bills is a must win.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, this is that more and you're listening to the
Dolphin UK podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
On Jeep Steeves Take them Away very well.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Hello, Welcome to the Snatch Defeat from the Jaws of
Victory edition of the Dolphin UK Podcast. As we reflect
on the cards dealing the Dolphins and other loss, the
return of tour and the prospect of the Bills looming
on the horizon. Here with me to discuss all of
that and more is Lee as always. How are you doing, sir?

Speaker 3 (00:54):
Very well? Thank you number two.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
We're here number two.

Speaker 3 (00:59):
Yeah, more fun weekend. It definitely gives us somebody to
talk about later in the show.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Yeah, we'll talk about the game in a moment. But
first some news. And it was announced this week in
an email to season ticket holders that the Dolphins are
going to be hosting an International Series game in the
twenty twenty five season. What are your initial thoughts on
that league?

Speaker 3 (01:20):
I mean, initially, I'm excited. Any time I think it
presents an opportunity to see the Dolphins play is great.
And I say that on the presumption that there is
a chance that it will be in Europe. I won't
say anymore, but yeah, that gets me excited. I've had

(01:41):
a lot of fun going to International Series games in London.
I went into the game in Frankfurt. Was amazing to
meet a whole bunch of fans the pregame party in
Frankfurt as well, and see Charlie from Go Time Dolphins
and his family that were over with him, you know,

(02:04):
was there with Dean. We had a great time. So
I don't know, it just adds an extra element of it.
I think doing it almost on the road, but on
the road, on the road, if if you you what
I mean, with the fans traveling as well. Yeah, just
a really cool atmosphere. I say, I loved Frankfurt, always
enjoyed the London games. But I suppose say probably the

(02:24):
more important question is where do you think we will play?
And who do you think we will play.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
I've been having a little dig into the history of
International Series games and trying to cross match it the
trends that we see in there, and cross match it
with our twenty twenty five opponents for information purposes. Our
twenty five home opponents are the Bills, the Pages, and
the Jets, of course, plus the Ravens, the Bengals, the Saints,
the Buccaneers, and one team from the AFC West and

(02:53):
another team from the NFC East to be determined depending
on where the Dolphins finish in their division. I was
interestingly taking those opponents into account, but also considering where
the Dolphins hold international marketing rights, because I don't think
it's unreasonable to think that they might want to play
a game in one of those territories because it makes

(03:14):
absolute business sense to do so, and they've got international
rights in the UK as we know, Spain, Brazil, Argentina,
Columbia and Mexico. Now, in terms of hosting games at
the moment, only the UK, Spain and Brazil are on
the list to host games. I think whilst in theory

(03:37):
going forward you could eventually see games being hosted in
those countries, I don't think those markets are mature enough
yet to host a game. Maybe Mexico because they've hosted
a game before and that I know the Dolphins hosted
a watch party in Mexico for the game last weekend.
I think so Mexico is an outside possibility, but you

(03:58):
mentioned alluded it to it. The more likely scenarios is
probably UK, Spain or Brazil because they're more established. I
think in those markets. Now I've been looking at so
I don't so. I think UK, Spain and Brazil are
leading the favorites at the moment, and bearing in mind
the NFL have already announced the game in Madrid. Again,

(04:18):
you can put two and two together if you want,
and make four and come to the conclusion that the
Dolphins could quite confusive see conceivably be playing that game
in Madrid. That's not ruling out the UK and Brazil,
of course, or any of the other countries, but there's
a bit of common sense being applied here that it
could be Madrid. Looking at the history of in terms

(04:39):
of who they're going to play, I'm going to look
at the history of the International Series game since twenty seventeen,
and there are only being four divisional matchups played overseas
since twenty seventeen, So the trending away from scheduling divisional games,
which if that trend continues, can rule out the Bills,
the Patriots, and the Jets. Most of the games seem

(05:02):
to be tending and leaning towards interconference games EAFC v NFC.
That's not to say divisional games have been excluded, but
the general tendency does seem to be leaning towards interconference games,
which leaves the New Orleans Saints, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers,

(05:23):
and a team from the NFC East. Now, are they
going to want to schedule another overseas series game overseas
game against the Saints league because they've already played them
at Wembley.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
I'm not sure.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
Yeah, I'm not sure they would want to schedule the
same game because I don't think they've had the same
game scheduled more than once in any particular location. Same
could be applied to the Giants. If they were to
play the Giants from the NFC East, would they want
another matchup with the original International Series game that happened
at Wembley in two thousand and seven? So maybe he
could rule the Giants out, which leaves leaning towards interconference game.

(06:01):
It leaves the Buccaneers plus one of the remaining teams
in the NFC East, And of course, the Eagles have
already played in Brazil this year, so would they want
to give up a game or play internationally two seasons?
And I'm not sure. That also leaves them the Commanders
and the Cowboys as well as potential contenders, So you
can apply a bit of logic and a bit of

(06:22):
common sense and narrow the field down. There is a
possibility if they go as for a conference matchup, then
the Ravens or the Bengals or somebody from the FC
West could also be included in that. But the Chiefs
travel to Germany, are they going to want to repeat
of Dolphins Chiefs internationally? I'm not sure they would do,

(06:43):
which leaves them the Broncos, they Chargers, and the Raiders,
so potentially one of those teams could factor into the
mix as well. So interesting concept is in it to
look at the trends of international series games, cross it
match it with the Dolph the country that the Dolphins
have marketing rights in, plus looking at or ruling out

(07:04):
some of the opponents based on some logic as well.
It's interesting thought, isn't itally to see where they would
go with this.

Speaker 3 (07:10):
Oh yeah, absolutely, I'd love to hear what other people saying.
Definitely let us know on any of the social channels
who you'd like to play and who you think they
will play. It's interesting, as you were talking, and we
did speak about this a little bit before we hit record,
something that just occurred to me. I wonder if the
Chiefs game is appealing. I wonder if the Chiefs gave

(07:32):
up a home game against the Dolphins, and then the
Dolphins give up their home game against and it kind
of okay, we'll play both games on the neutral field
until the next cycle. I wonder if that's an interesting
way to look at it that I'd say that with
absolutely no knowledge, just wondered if it was an interesting concept.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
I think you have to also consider the Dolphins are
going to play an AFC West team who finished in
the same po position in the division, So you'd have
thought the Chiefs are going to win their division. At
the moment, it's unlike the Dolphins will win their division.
So the chances of it being the Chiefs I would
have thought probably remote given some extramely turnaround or collapse
side both teams.

Speaker 3 (08:10):
Interesting. Yea, yeah, no, you're absolutely right. But yeah, definitely
let us know who you guys would like to play,
who you think will play, and way you'd like to
see the game played, because there's a lot of interesting
elements to this, very exciting. I mean, obviously would love
it to be in London, either at Wembley or Tottenham's ground.

(08:33):
I mean both great experiences and it's amazing for people
here to get to see the team. I think we're
fairly lucky that hopefully we'd be able to travel with
it somewhere else, especially in Europe, so also presents an
interesting opportunities well, but of course a London game would
be great for us.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
Yeah, I'm putting my money on Madrid. I think obviously
we've got no inside knowledge whatsoever. We're purely speculating and
it's nice to talk about out but my money's going
on Madrid. And in fact, Lee, I'm so confident you
will be pleased to know that I have even booked
my accommodation in Madrid for November twenty twenty five, across

(09:12):
every single weekend, so I wouldn't. It's not without its risk,
of course, but I've made sure the accommodation I've booked
is fully refundable and I don't have to pay in
advance either, so I've got all my braces covered. If
it's in November, now you watch, it's going to be
in September, isn't.

Speaker 3 (09:28):
It in London? Absolutely?

Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah, I mean I don't think it will be October
because the London games tend to be in October unless
it is. Of course it's London, so I don't think
they're they're gonna clash with that. I think they'll schedule
it for a separate weekend like they do with Germany,
like they do with Brazil.

Speaker 3 (09:45):
Yeah. Kind of interesting, isn't it Because Germany the games
have been in November. I believe it's obviously this time
it will be in November. When we played, it was
in November. But interesting that Brazil opened the season this year.
So yeah, definitely a lot to taking. There's a lot
of equations, there, a lot of math going on.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
Yeah, And another factor consider that if it is going
to be against an AFC West team, the chances are
that they that AFC West team, if we are traveling
to Europe, would have to have a game on the
East coast week before to minimize that travel, which would
rule out week one.

Speaker 3 (10:24):
But there would be no travel the week before because
you could leave when I you wanted.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
Yeah, but yeah, I suppose yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (10:29):
Could there be no restriction from week one?

Speaker 1 (10:32):
It depends where they played the week before in terms
of the preseason, know, unless there's a break between there
is Yeah, so.

Speaker 3 (10:39):
Yeah, interesting, we could true that we could down in
a real rabbit hole here.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
We could, but yeah, interesting regardless, we know there's going
to be a game overseas for the Dolphins next.

Speaker 3 (10:49):
Year, absolutely, and moving on slightly from an international game
and heading back to hard Rock Stadium. Should we talk
a little bit about the game on Sunday against the
Arizona got the Arizona Cardinals. So I wanted to get
your thoughts on the game after taking a step back

(11:09):
and not getting caught up in that kind of immediate
emotional reaction that I think is commonplace, especially on social media.

Speaker 1 (11:19):
Especially in WhatsApp groups.

Speaker 3 (11:21):
What was your assessments to the team's performance this week?

Speaker 1 (11:26):
Yeah, it was emotional in that WhatsApp group after the
game was and I just needed to take a step
back from reading some of that. But to go back
to the team's performance offensively, I think the Dolphins played well.
They rushed for one hundred and fifty yards and this
is a continuation of what we've been seeing over the
last few weeks. Over the last three weeks. In fact,
they're rushing attack ranks fourth in the NFL at one

(11:49):
hundred and seventy seven yards a game. In addition to that, tour,
came back in and played well enough to make the
offense look tons better than it has been. You didn't
show any obvious signs of rust apart from the issues
he had handling the ball. They were really good on
third down, going eleven or fifteen, which is seventy three percent.
Their red zone efficiency was seventy five percent on their

(12:10):
eight possessions, they only punted twice, and they didn't commit
any turnovers. So looking at those stats and giving it
the eye test, two the offense had a good, if
not spectacularly a game, and two A looked good on
his return to and played reasonably well defensively. I said
last week the strength in the Cardinals offense was running
the ball, So it's not unreasonable to think the Dolphins

(12:31):
d was playing well enough week in week out to
think that they could attempt to take away the strength
of that Cardinals team, and largely they did. James Connor
only rushed for fifty three yards and Kyler Murray was
held to nineteen yards rushing, so thinking about stopping the
Cardinals running north and south, the game plan largely worked.

(12:53):
I think they have too many weapons to think about
being able to take away all of the all of them,
so it's almost like pick your poison, isn't it. They
stopped the run but allowed two hundred plus yard receivers.

Speaker 3 (13:08):
Absolutely. I thought it was interesting the response, especially during
the game. You know, I was obviously watching the game live,
but following along on Twitter as well with X because
it's just interesting to gauge kind of the impressions of
the fan base. And I thought it was interesting how

(13:28):
there was almost this feeling that it should have been
some sort of gimme game. I was like, the Arizona Cardinals,
unbeaten in a division, are improving. You mentioned all the
stats last week in regards to why this team would
be hard to beat, and that's exactly what we saw.
We saw a close fault game that was one on
a last second field goal. I don't think it was

(13:50):
that was ever really the case that it should have
been considered a gimmi game, But that being said, we
did drop to the last second field goal. So where
do you think it went.

Speaker 1 (14:02):
I mentioned largely being able to stop the run, and
statistically it was true, but stat stats and I mentioned
specifically the North South run game, you know, the up
and down the field, but stats don't measure the east
west run game or the running from side to side,
and this is where the Dolphins struggled to contain Murray
and allow and they allowed him to dominate that aspect

(14:24):
of the game, which led to a successful passing game.
The type of player he is makes him elusive, and
he was able to showcase those type of skills time
and again. It looked like he was going to be
brought down in the backfield, but the Dolphins defense had
no answer to that. I don't think sometimes you have
to give credit to the opposing player, and Murray played

(14:45):
really well. He didn't turn the ball over, he was
able to find time to get the ball to his
receivers downfield. And on that note, it seemed as though
the Dolphins defense were caught between a rock and hard
place in those moments, not knowing whether to drive forward
and try and stop Murray given his potential for scrambling ability,

(15:06):
or to hold back and try and stop the past.
I think you have to remember the cards receiving court
are used to Murray scrambling and finding them downfield, whereas
the Dolphins defense is not defense is not, so it's
not surprising they were able to move the ball in
this way. The Cards deserve a lot of credit offensively
for the way they move the ball the way they did.
I just think the Dolphins d was gassed having to

(15:28):
chase Murray across the field for the whole game and
not knowing how to properly deal with him probably cost
them at the end on that final drive as well.

Speaker 3 (15:36):
Yeah, those players get extended, they go on for a
long time. Coverage has to hold up for a long
time when you can't get home. In the first instance,
there was a lot of instances where they were, like
you said, they were close. It felt like sag was imminent.
It felt like a player was going to be a
bit stopped, only for it to continue on, which I'm

(15:57):
sure is incredibly frustrating as a player as well as
it is for us watching. But I thought the overall performance,
I agree that you know, for the large part, there
was a lot of good to come out of that
game as well as definitely good to see the team
look kind of like the team that we expected heading

(16:18):
into the season. I mean, again, this is this is
not you know, we've banged on about backup quarterbacks for
the last four weeks, obviously, but you know this is
not to put those guys down, but to really prop
Tour up and say, well, I mean, it just looks different,
doesn't it. There is just a it's not even necessarily

(16:42):
it obviously shows in the stat sheets, but it's getting
the ball out before a player is out of his break.
We saw it a couple of times of John new Smith,
especially with a ball to Jalen Wardle that he hit
on a comeback route. That sort of trust just isn't there.
We're back up quarterbacks because there's less practice, there's less timing.
Then there's a reason that you know Tour was a

(17:04):
first round talent because he does those things at an
exceptionally high level. But it was really good to see
them get back to some of that and see this
as well as see the improved run game continue to
do well. And I thought they did. I thought this
was a far more balanced performance on offense. And we've seen,
you know, over the last two years, I think they

(17:25):
tend to have been a lot sided in favor of
the past all the run game, whereas this just don't
felt more balanced, it felt more complimentary.

Speaker 1 (17:35):
Talking about the run game, I want to expand on
that point a little bit more because they're running the
ball really well at the minute, as I mentioned earlier
in that they're ranked number four overall over the last
three weeks. Yeah, we don't see the likes of Jail
and Wright having too many touches, which is not particularly
a concern at the minute because of how well they

(17:55):
are running the ball. But we see on social media
fans clamoring to get more of the ball. But I
don't think he needs to at the minute because most
and a chan are doing more than enough to move
the ball downfield. So an interesting point that we've got
this triple headed monster in our back pocket, haven't we
that potentially could be brought out if there's an injury
or going forward. It's just an extra dynamic to the

(18:19):
game plan that they're not really utilizing at the minute
in terms of jailing right.

Speaker 3 (18:23):
Yeah, absolutely, And I think we've seen it maybe in
the past where players get used early and often in
the season and it leads to leads to them getting
worn down later in the season. And all the time,
like you say, you have the top two guys running
the way they are, this is an opportunity to build
him into the offense in what hopefully is a sustainable

(18:46):
way going forward. I think he's also got some learning
to do in the blocking game. It's not always perfect blocking,
and that's a learning process. We know that most bats
coming out of college really have to work on that
aspect of the game. We know what a high price
coach McDaniel puts on it, not only from the running backs,
but from the receivers as well. And then you throw

(19:08):
into the mix a quarterback returning to the game, you know,
after sitting out from suffering a concussion, and do you
want to put that element of risk in there, because
I mean, certainly there was a few games where Jalen
has completely read the play wrong and given up pressure

(19:30):
or given up a sack, and that's just a learning
that's not a problem. I don't see that as a
huge problem. But maybe in two's return, it's more a
case of, right, let's keep everything clean and give him
a chance to kind of get his feet under the table,
so to speak, because like he needs to get on track,
he needs to get on track fast because this team

(19:50):
season kind of hangs on it.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
You touched on a point there about injuries, and this
is kind of where I was going with this. Conversation
that last year we have the same two headed monster
in the backfield, plus the likes of Sa Med and
Jeff Wilson who were thrown in occasionally, and we saw
towards the end of the season injuries decimating the team,
and the running back position was no exception to that.
So there is an advantage of keeping Jalen right back

(20:15):
a little bit for that end of season running where
they might need him.

Speaker 3 (20:19):
Yeah, I mean, do you think there's any chance that
we see some of Devon ah Chan used more as
a receiver to get the other guys involved as well?
Bearing in mind the kind of results we're having in
the wide receiver room where obviously Ode Beckam's still trying
to get up to speed and he's obviously going to
see more snaps and more opportunities based on Braxton Burios

(20:43):
getting hurt because he obviously had the experience and the
trust of the offense. So you know those are coming.
But do you see a scenario where maybe you can
get more involved.

Speaker 1 (20:52):
That way of the three running backs, Yeah, he's the
one most likely to do that. I think he's more
suited to that kind of receiver s type position, isn't
he I don't think most is, and he's more likely
to be the one that you would hand it off
to run through the tackles, whereas Jane and Wright is
probably the one that would sprint to the outside, whereas

(21:13):
Devon A. Chang can probably do a bit of both
of that. Plus he's a better receiver, I think. So, Yeah,
I could see potential for the offense maybe think about
doing something a little bit different, just to kind of
keep the opposing defenses on their toes a little bit.

Speaker 3 (21:28):
Yeah. We saw a taste of it last ye didn't
we when he was wide open on a Tyree kill
touchdown on the road against against Washington. So you know,
the president is kind of there. But it's just an
interesting way of getting all your best guys on the
field at the same time and presenting the ultimate challenge
to the defense.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
But nevertheless, though they did lose to a league despite
a good offensive performance, it's nice to see the offense
on track again after what we've had to look at
over the last few weeks. Has no no, and we've
said it before, there's no doubt that he, whilst we
acknowledged to her, wasn't the savior. He is the player
that makes that offense tick. And I just wanted to

(22:11):
talk to you about that league that he is good.
He is good to see him back, isn't it? And
nice to see the kind of offensive old come on
the field in certain in certain respects.

Speaker 3 (22:26):
Oh yeah, definitely the store, the straw that stirs to drink.
Let's be honest. It was a huge improvement from what
we've seen the last four weeks. He was more comfortable.
We saw less penalties, we saw less pre snap issues.
Just everything was sharper, snappier against the Lion quicker. Play

(22:51):
calls was obviously getting kind of disseminated to the team quicker.
And then you saw some of the stuff that you
expect from tour. Like I said, I mentioned the comeback
route to Jaylen Waddle and some of the passes to

(23:11):
John Nu Smith where he wasn't even out of his break.
We saw the classic deep ball down the right sideline
to Tyreek Hill, which is on an absolute platter. They
missed one just before that where I think it was
there for him. He just kind of had to throw
off platform with the pocket breaking down a little bit.
But we kind of saw all the elements that we
expect from to and that was good to see coming

(23:31):
back because it didn't look like a rusty performance. And
then on top of that, we saw the cherry on
top the umbrella in the drink if you like. And
that's the fancy handoffs because I mean, he's just a
magician with the way he handles the bull. He really
is something to watch. It's exciting. We saw it on
the plate to Julian Hill, which was almost a score,

(23:54):
almost a fumble and then recovered but eventually went in
for a touchdown. And then obviously we saw it on
the ball that he threw behind himself. I think it
was a Jayleen right there was you know, just perfectly insaneing.
The ball was almost just stopped him there exactly the
right point for Jalen Wright coming through. And you know,

(24:16):
we said it so many times, it's all about timing,
it's all. That's how you can see the timing of
it because to us not looking, he's putting the ball
exactly where Jalen Wright needs to arrive, and it does that.
It's just there waiting for him. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:33):
That the backwards No, that's the back ones.

Speaker 3 (24:36):
Yeah, and it's like and there was another note look
past during the game as well a forward look past
and it's just like, yeah, that's you know, we're seeing
everything we expect from him. I actually came away from
the game feeling fairly positive, obviously disappointed, because you want
to win every time you see the team play. It
feels like every game feels super important. We'll come on
to the layer because of you know, having having lost

(24:58):
those games while while he's been out, but it felt
like it's against an improving Cardinals team that will you know,
there is a chance we look back on and say, actually,
that's a kind of a good team, as much as
looking at the back end of our schedule now and
saying maybe it's not scary as we thought it was
in the preseason.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
Cardinals are top of the NFC West, don't they joint
with the Rams and the Niners. So yeah, like you said,
what earlier it why people were thinking it was a
bit of a gimmi game just because it was the
Cards clearly very much mistaken.

Speaker 3 (25:28):
I think maybe we had that that sort of hesitant
to call it childish, but almost that the childish optimism
where it's like, because we were getting back to what we
thought was going to be good, that it definitely equal
to win, and I don't know that was the case.
I spoke to a friend, our friend Jay, who works

(25:49):
in the betting industry, and I spoke to him in
the morning, and I said to him, what do you
think is like it feels like one of those games.
It could go either way. That's exactly how it played out.
I play here or there and the Dolphins win that game.
You know, the safety, I thought you did a good
job of avoiding that being a touchdown. I thought that
was a great Obviously, it looked like he was actually

(26:09):
trying to flick it over his head to keep it
in the field of plight. But either way, he prevented
that from being a touchdown. I imagine if you're a
Cardinals fan, you're saying, Wow, if we've only got a touchdown,
we could have put this game bay earlier because the
ball was there. So, you know, it just felt like
one of those game. Two good teams went at it,
and unfortunately we came out on the wrong side of it.
But I think there was a lot of good to

(26:30):
take away from it.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
Yeah, I didn't want to touch briefly on the safety league.
It was unfortunate it happened of course, it's just one
of those things. And we've heard from both players involved
in that. Aaron Brewers said he shouldn't have put as
much a zip on the ball, and to it said
pretty much he should have caught it. How much emphasisity
plays on the safety contributing to the end result, because

(26:51):
they did only win by a point. You take the
safety off of the board and they lose. But I
don't think you can read too much into it myself
that The only thing I would say is that it
allowed them to double dip in terms of scoring, because
they got the two from the safety and then went
down and Marvin Harrison got a really good catch in
the end zone for six. So it allowed them to

(27:11):
double dip, which perhaps they wouldn't wouldn't have been able
to do had that safety not occurred, of course, So
that was the only thing I would say about that
wouldn't suggest for one moment it was the defining moments
who contributing to the loss.

Speaker 3 (27:29):
Yeah, I think there was way too much time left
in the game when it happened. It's unfortunate. It's the
sort of thing that imagined doesn't happen. The more they
get to work together, you know we mentioned this earlier
in the season. They haven't had too much time to
work together with Aaron being hurt during the preseason and
then playing with a cast in the first couple of games,
and they played what six quarters together before that, So yeah,

(27:54):
I mean two are coming back after four weeks off.
I know he said he's been been working, but that
center to quarterback exchange is obviously crucial. I think if
you want to put your finger on that, say it's
a defining moment, obviously you can do. I think there's
plenty of time to and possessions left where you could
have made plays to put a field goal on the

(28:17):
board to count director.

Speaker 1 (28:20):
Before we move on, I do want to mention that
the WhatsApp group, we're both part of it. It's the
kind of the modern day equivalent of a Facebook game
day chat, isn't it where which you used to do
back in the olden days, it's now moved on to WhatsApp.
So if you're not a part of that group, it
is entertaining, especially on game day. If you want to
be part of it and you're not already, then just

(28:40):
drop us a message on social media and we can
share a link with you smile on your face. Lead.

Speaker 3 (28:47):
Yeah, absolutely. I was just thinking it's a great range
of emotions as a game plays out and then a
week continues in your head into the next week. Yeah,
it's a cool place to be.

Speaker 1 (28:58):
Now, one thing I will say, we might not agree
or ways on people's opinions, but the one thing we
do have in common is that we're all passionate fans
about the Dolphins. So and that certainly gets shown, especially
during during a game, doesn't it.

Speaker 3 (29:11):
Yeah, And I think there's there's also a lot of
healthy debate. You know, we can we can disagree on something,
We disagree on things. I've been on Kadeem Show and
disagreed with him. We talk about this all the time.
It's okay to disagree and have a healthy conversation about it.
That's what makes us all fans and have opinions. It's cool,
that's interesting. And I say there's there's a lot of
interesting chat goes on. So yeah, it's a fun place
to do. Yeah. So that brings us onto halftime. We

(29:40):
had the midway point of the show, and that brings
on to some trivia. So side we had do you
want to do trivia? Sorry? I completely measured that in
my notes.

Speaker 1 (29:52):
That's why A. Should we go over last week's one
and then you can set the question for for this week.

Speaker 3 (29:57):
If you like, Yeah, let's do that.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
This week's question was the Dolphins have rewritten the record
books in two full season under coach Mike How many
team or individual season or game records have been broken
in that time? I said last week, Lee, It's not
necessarily about the number, because I think it will be
very difficult to actually guess the number of records. It's
more about the topics and the types of records that

(30:23):
have been broken.

Speaker 3 (30:24):
I think absolutely so we got.

Speaker 1 (30:27):
Total was sixteen records and thirteen individual records have been
broken mid ones. Yeah, I mean the names on there
you would expect to see, you've got. I. Do you
want to give some examples, Lee, of some of the
records that have been broken over the last two seasons?

Speaker 3 (30:47):
Yeah, I am going to start. I got to start.
The top were total touchdowns I think most twenty one
total touchdowns in twenty twenty three rushingdowns Raheem most passed
Rickey Williams last season, rookie one hundred yard games for
Davon e Chaan with four rushing average with Davon cham

(31:10):
seven point eight for the season, completion percentage, which is
a huge one when you've got someone like Dan Marino
in your history, this is always going to be a
big stat because you know, it's easy as a Dolphins
fan to consider dam Mariage one of the greatest quarterbacks

(31:32):
in NFL history, but when you hear it from so
many of the other players in the NFL, it just
solidifies what is actuly that it that is and you know,
obviously a Hall of fameer, a comple completion percentage record
belongs to a tongue of I Loo at sixty nine
point six receptions with Tyreek Hill one hundred and nineteen

(31:52):
which he matched in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty
three receiving yards, which is Tyreek Hill one than seven
hundred and ninety nine was obviously on that quest for
two thousand last year felt just short, but still set
the Dolphins record one hundred yard receiving games, Tyreek Hill
eight of them. Last year, the team rushing average was

(32:14):
the highest it's ever been, Rushing touchdowns were the most
they ever had, and the most sacks in the season
as well.

Speaker 1 (32:21):
So those were the single singason team single season records.
There were single game records as well, and Devon ah
Chan set four rookie touchdowns in a game and that
was against the Broncos. Most pats in a game was

(32:43):
Jason Sanders with ten in that same game, most rookie
rushing yards and also in that same game, there's a
theme here, Devon ah Chan with two hundred and three.
Rushing average was Devon ah Chan was thirteen point seven,
which was not that game. It was on in the
season early October. I'm not sure I'll remember which game

(33:04):
it was, maybe the Giants one, possibly passing TD's in
a game tour with six and that was of course
the Ravens points scored for a team seventy, most yards
in a game team seven hundred and twenty six, and
most rushing yards for the team was three and fifty.
So a lot of records were broken in that Broncos

(33:26):
game last year.

Speaker 3 (33:28):
Absolutely, and that brings us on to setting a new
question for this week. And someday we saw the return
of two a tongue number one for your Miami Dolphins
to action. But how many players have worn the number
one jersey for the Miami Dolphins. Now, so you wrote
this question out and I can see the answers. I

(33:49):
would have got one of them, not any of the others.
So sorry, two of them, because obviously I would have
got two as mentioned in the question.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
I was going to say the one you got was
probably too it wasn't it.

Speaker 3 (34:02):
No, it wasn't. It wasn't the one that wasn't the one,
the first one on your list I got.

Speaker 1 (34:07):
Yeah, I probably would have struggled to get any of them,
to be honest, Now, two were kind of more recent
than others. I'd have probably struggled, if I'm honest with you,
I wouldn't have got obviously two as the office one,
but wouldn't have got the other four.

Speaker 3 (34:26):
Well, talking of struggling, should we move on to the
pickam Lee?

Speaker 1 (34:31):
Yeah? Why not? Yeah? Because you're not bottom Lee, I
have to say I did want to say so. Tommy j.
H forgot to set his picks this week, so we
missed out on overall what was a really good week
for guessing correctly. So we lost nine or ten marks
you would have thought, and plummeted down the table to

(34:53):
bottom spot. Now, so he's at the bottom with an
overall total of sixty three. So it just shows you
if you don't remember to completely picks each week, you
could plummet to the bottom of the table. But he
saved your bacon a little bit, Lee, because you're one
is not above him. On sixty five Louis Coe, which
is who's got sixty six? Interesting little side story for

(35:14):
Blue Coe. As we've said on the chovyfore, that was
Steve from Ireland who won tickets and the dolphin y
k Raff would to go to the game AT's Pursey
of the week. He attended the watch party afterwards, and
I have some good news in that he was, if
you remember, Lee, one of the last two in contention
to win that signed Jalen Ramsey jersey at the watch party.

(35:35):
Would he dropped me an email today to confirm that
he has in fact now received he signed Jalen Ramsey jersey,
so now remembered he kept his word and thanks to
Elizabeth who was also at the watch party, they've managed
to make sure he gets that jersey. So great stuff
for Steve, but he's unfortunately he's down there. On sixty

(35:55):
six All sport cards sixty seven and Brismark nine is
on sixty nine and at the top very little change.
Stokey Dolphan has got eighty one. I'm back into the
top four also on eighty one, having got twelve right
this week, which was the joint high score with Dan Crowe,

(36:18):
who's middle of the table, but also seventy two equals Perfection,
who is in second place on eighty six. Currently, Raybots
seventy nine on eighty eight is still out in front,
so he's got a little bit of a cushion in
front of seventy two equals Perfection, so Ray is still
in the lead.

Speaker 3 (36:40):
Great stuff. And there was literally as you were reading now,
trying to set some picks for this week early to
just do that thing that you just mentioned and not
submit zero picks, which I have done already this season,
because you know, I am terrible for remembering to do
it when I'm in my That's my biggest problem. I

(37:02):
forget to set all my fantasy line ups on like
in the morning. Cool. What I'm going to do is
going to wait for all the enactors to come out.
I'm going to do it because I'm hearing them on time,
rather than sit it maybe the night before, which is
what I do at home. I said it the night
before and then kind of make any tweaks on the
day based on the injury report. Somehow always managed to
forget and see kick off and go like cool, that's

(37:22):
half of them done.

Speaker 1 (37:24):
There are a few people who have done it a
week or two in advance, actually, because you can tell
on the app who's done it advanced because they've already
got a default score of zero. So great forward planning,
but only forget them.

Speaker 3 (37:36):
Right absolutely, So that brings us onto the state of
the division side. Would you like to give out the
results from Sunday evening?

Speaker 1 (37:47):
Yes. The Bills are now at six and two, having
won at Seattle thirty one ten obviously game against the
Dolphins next week which will come on too shortly. The
Jets lost twenty two to twenty five to the Patriots
and face a tricky game at home to the Houston
Texans on Thursday Night Football, who are six and two

(38:08):
but have lost Stefon Diggs with an ACL injury for
the season. The Patriots obviously beat the Jets and move
up to two and six, and they face another tricky
game away at the Tennessee Titans, who are at one
and six, so an important game at the bottom of
the AFC there for those guys, which leads us nicely

(38:29):
to the Bill's game preview league. So the Bills offensively
rank overall number thirteen, rushing rank is twelfth, passing rank
is eighteenth. Defensively, their overall rank is seventeenth. They rank
fifteenth against the rush and thirteenth against the pass. How
do the Dolphins go into this game with any confidence

(38:51):
league based on the recent record versus the Bills and
recent results.

Speaker 3 (38:56):
It's a tricky one, isn't it Because the results recently
don't necessarily reflect the overall position of this team. We
expect that. I expect that it would be very different
had to have played all of those games. So I
think we're still in that we don't really know what
this team is. I mean, what's the famous quote, you

(39:19):
are what your record is, But as usual, that takes
some investigating. It's not always that straightforward. I think this
is one of those cases. I think there is an
opportunity to go in not with confidence, but not with
your tail between your legs either. I think you have
played the Bills well at times. Over Mike mc daniels tenure,

(39:43):
you obviously have a win, you have a good performance
on the road in Buffalo in the snow, there is
reason to believe that you can go in there and
compete with Buffalo. I think they have struggled at times
this year as well, Like they've won a lot of games.
They're obviously a very good team, but they're not unbeatable.

(40:06):
Having watched them, and I think we have plenty of
improvement that we have seen in the Dolphins. And I
mentioned this earlier and I will mention it again in
my part of victory. That being able to stay balanced
I think is very much in the dolphins favor. I
think they're going into play a Buffalo team for the
first time with maybe the run game in the best
state has been in, which is good. I think last

(40:31):
season maybe we also went in to play Buffalo in
Buffalo at the overconfident because we were coming in off
the back of a seventy point victory. And I'm not
sure that is necessarily Obviously, the coaches and players all
do the right things. They are trying to not drink
their own cool aid, but it's when you be a

(40:54):
team has put up seventy points. I think it's just
very difficult at a human level not to have a
level of confidence like we can conquer the world. And
obviously we came down to earth with a bit of
a bump after it last year. So I think there
is the opportunity to say, hey, look, we know we
can go in there compete. We've got we've got the

(41:17):
talent to do it. And we've had some good results
this season in regards to keeping offenses below their averaging points.
You know, we've made games difficult even in defeat. So
I think there is an opportunity to go in here
and put up a performance that worries the Bills.

Speaker 1 (41:37):
I'm going to ask you the million dollar question, given
the season, how it's gone so far for both teams,
is it a must win?

Speaker 3 (41:44):
I think it'd be really easy for me to hear
and say, yeah, every game I must win, because when
you've got the number of losses that we have on
the board already, you just need to start stacking wins
no matter what. But I mentioned it earlier in the
show that in the preseason, we did our predictions and

(42:05):
we looked at the schedule and we picked a number
of losses that the Dolphins might have or the games
that they might win. And we looked at the back
end of the schedule and said, that's really difficult. We're
all of a sudden, that's not necessarily the way it
looks where So I think there is an opportunity here
to get on a run and to make things interesting.

(42:26):
There's still there's still an awful lot of bad football
being played across the NFL this deep into the season,
which is weird. It's not usually the case, but you know,
I was watching flicking between games after the Dolphins have
played the other day, and I was just a lot
of bad football being played. So I think there's opportunities.

(42:47):
Does it make it a must win, yeah, like a
lot of them are going to be feeled that way.
But the goal here, I think when Tour went down
and you knew there was going to be a four
week period without him, I think that the goalpost change
at that point for them. Do you expect to be

(43:07):
competing for the division win? Well, obviously that would have
relied on the Bills losing games in that period of time.
They didn't do that, So now the goal has to
be can you find a way to make a world cud.
I think the games, the games ahead of you there
is opportunities on the schedule. You'll still got you still
have to play teams that have won two games like us.

(43:29):
The difference is a lot of those two win teams
we're playing with their starting quarterback and we weren't. So
it feels like there's opportunities coming up. This could be
a huge catalyst. So I'm not saying it's a must
win game, but it feels like it could be the
catalyst for what could be a good end of the season.

Speaker 1 (43:47):
Yeah, if you want my opinion on the same question,
if you've got any aspiration for winning the division, which
realistically is looking difficult at the moment, it is a
must game. I must win because they're three and a
half games back already, and if they lose this game,
there'll be four and a half games back, and they
will lose the time breaker as well, So for all

(44:09):
intents and purposes, that would put them five games back.
And you can't see the Bills throwing away a five
game lead or at the moment the way the Dolphins
are playing, retrieving five games. So if you've got any
aspiration for winning the division, then yeah, it is as
it must win. However, like you said, given that.

Speaker 3 (44:30):
There is a goal post. Is it still the case.

Speaker 1 (44:32):
Yeah, you can move the goal post and have a
new target in terms of trying to get a wild cut,
and then once you get in the playoffs, anything can happen.
So that has got to be the goal now and
new goal posts. If you like, rack up enough wins
to get yourself in the playoffs, and if you are
right and saying that there's a lot of bad football
being played across the NFL, then stacking up a few

(44:54):
wins would give you a better chance there of grabbing
what are those World.

Speaker 3 (44:58):
Cardssolutely they say, there's a few teams on the on
the schedule and in the division alone that you know
now looked like winnable games through at the beginning of
the season, you know, the media especially, we're talking the
Jets as a Super Bowl contender. There are two win
team that have made moves to try and improve and
are still losing. Like I say, we just got one

(45:23):
of the leading passes in the NFL back, it feels
like we've made a bigger jump. Having to a return
is a way bigger jump than adding a Mari Cooper
or Devonte Adams to your team. So not I must win,
But I think we have to reset the expectations for
what can happen going forwards and say I'm hoping for

(45:47):
a win on Sunday. I think there is a path
to a win and that could be a great catalyst
for the back end of the season and some exciting
meaning for football. But with that being said, so what
is your path of victory on site?

Speaker 1 (46:03):
I just I just wanted to digress slightly on that
notely because you talk about a Dolphins win and there
are some interesting Finns fact that a Dolphins win would
would give us. Did you want to quickly run through
those before we get onto the more detailed path of
victory just because you were talking about a Dolphins win there,

(46:24):
and I thought it was an interesting thing to look at.

Speaker 3 (46:29):
Absolutely So, a Dolphins win would improve Miami's lead to
sixty three fifty nine to one in the over time
series with the Buffalo Bills, including five postseason games. It
would be the Dolphins first win against the Bills since
Week three of twenty twenty two season, and the first
at Buffalo since twenty sixteen, which I believe was a

(46:49):
walk off field goal as well, wasn't it. I could
be wrong?

Speaker 1 (46:53):
Yeah, yeah, it would. It was that was the the
Jji game, wasn't it, where he ran for a couple
of long touchdowns as well, I think.

Speaker 3 (47:01):
And then it would also be the dolphins four hundred
and ninety ninth overall regular season win, putting them one
way from becoming a nineteenth franchise in history to reach
five hundred regular season wins. Now, the interesting thing about
that is what is the game after the Bills game?

Speaker 1 (47:20):
Rams? Monday night football is a home and no in La.

Speaker 3 (47:26):
Interesting. It'd be cool to be for five hundred win
to come at home, but on the road, and they
will be fine too. So talking about the road, let's
get ourselves on the path and the path to victory.
So do you have a pat of victory? Can the
Dolphins win on Sunday in Buffalo?

Speaker 1 (47:47):
They can win because any given Sunday and all of that.
Whether they will or not is another story, but there
is a I've got a couple of paths to victory.
The first one is controlled the time of possession. The
Dolphins game has been exceptional, as we've mentioned a few
times on the show over the last few weeks, so
they need to keep that momentum going and it's not

(48:08):
only going to help them move the ball, but just
as important it will control the game tempo and the clock.
They've got a good triple headed monster, as I said earlier,
with different running styles, just to reiterate, you have most
who can run between the tackles, a chan who's good
at running outside and receiving the ball in the backfield.
And you have Jailen Wright who can spell either of

(48:30):
those two and compliment them nicely. So I think that
is if the Dolphins do want to win the game,
control the tempo, keep the crowd quiet, control the clock,
keep Josh Allen off the field. And they've demonstrated them
more than capable of doing that, as I say, over
the last few weeks. So that's the first one I have.

(48:51):
The second one is pretty basically and that's avoiding mistakes
and turnovers on offence. Now turn over of largely determined
game outcomes. When these two have met, certainly in Week
two in Miami and we were there, of course, it
was turnovers that the main reason that the Bills won
the game. I don't think there's any doubt at the

(49:13):
moment the Bills are a better team right now. But
Miami can compete on their day. They've demonstrated that they've
got to keep the fundamentals, though, and they've got to
do them properly, like run the ball, don't make city
unforced errors, key penalties to a minimum, protect the quarterback.
If they can do all of those, there's a chance
they can be competitive and make the game interesting. So

(49:34):
they're kind of my two paths to victory. Any thoughts
on those lead before we move on to yours.

Speaker 3 (49:41):
Absolutely, I'm going to go straight onto mind because my
first one coincides with what you said, and it's almost
that Bill Belichick approach of and he did it so
often against the Dolphins, which is just shortening the game
and lowering the number of possessions. That the best way,
and you mentioned it of stopping Josh Allen him not
to be on the field at all. That way, he

(50:02):
can't extend plays and he can't make ridiculous plays after
holding onto the ball for a long time and do
it running east west like Kyler Murray did. I think
we've seen the last couple of weeks that we've been
hurt a couple of times with Anthony Richardson and then
with Kyler Murray. Well, when it comes to the top
of the quarterbacks that can do that and throw the ball.

(50:23):
Josh Allen is right there, so can we We can
use our balanced offense to make the clock keep running.
We can still hit all those passes that we want to.
We know that too, is incredibly efficient, especially across the
middle of the field. But like you say, use the
improved run game to just shorten the game and keep

(50:47):
the positions low even you know, so it leads to
a low scoring game. As long as you score more points,
that's all the matters. So that seems like a perfect
path to victory. And again, if you can do that,
it means hopefully you've completed your second part of it
is just keeping it kind of mistake free.

Speaker 1 (51:07):
What about on defense, Lee, we saw over the last
few weeks the defense are playing reasonably well, which is
why potentially there's performance against the Cardinals was a little
bit surprising. But what did the defense need to do
to help the Dolphins get over the line in Buffalo?

Speaker 3 (51:21):
Yeah? I think the Dolphins obviously really missed sax Seiler
on Sunday. I mean, we've sunk his praises so many
times and say how underrated he especially among other fan
bases in the general NFL. But I think you saw
that on Sunday, how they had to use players to
kind of fill in for him, And I thought the
d line played well, but Zach Zeiler is a little

(51:43):
bit different, so we hope, hope for a speedy recovery
from him. It'd also be great to see the Dolphins
turn a lot of those near Sax into actual Sex.
And it was obviously a problem on Sunday because they
seem to be close so many times but not quite

(52:04):
get home, and it feels like they are almost there.
So if you can find a way to keep contained
and bring Josh Allen down a few times, it could
be the difference between a win and a loss.

Speaker 1 (52:20):
So if Zach Sealer doesn't make it, unfortunately, but the
Dolphins do get to Josh Allen into it be Sax
without Zax.

Speaker 3 (52:29):
SAX without Sax, absolutely, but we hope Sack's going to
be there. But yeah, it seemed like this. You know,
the scheme is doing what it should do in regards
to freeing players up to make those plays. It's now
just a case of finishing the play. We've had hands
on quarterbacks, We've not been able to bring them down.
We've just got to take that next step and that

(52:52):
will obviously help the back into the defense as well,
not having to cover for so long and allow those
kind of spectacular plays that we see, especially you know,
you mentioned it, Marvin Harrison did it a couple of
times on Sunday, where you know, if the play wasn't
allowed to go on for that long, he doesn't find
a way to get open. So you know, it feels

(53:14):
like the plays are there to be made and they're
not a million miles away from doing it. We're not
We're not trying to rewrite the defensive playbook here. It's
just a case of just a little bit more execution,
and I think they have a chance.

Speaker 1 (53:29):
And we wish Zach Zeila all the very best, of course,
in a return to health from his fractured orbital socket.
I don't know how you get one of those when
you wearn a helmet. It's almost like somebody would have
to stick their hands full in the visor and just
give them a good old poke around. So I don't
I don't know how you get one of those if
you're if you're wearing a helmet.

Speaker 3 (53:48):
But scary to suffering a practice as well, isn't it
You'd have to have too like accuracy to get through
the gap in a helmet to poke someone in you.

Speaker 1 (53:59):
I can under stand it happening in a game situation
where you're fighting for a ball at a fumble. Like
his helmet came off the other week. Perfect example of
a risky injury happening there.

Speaker 3 (54:10):
If his helmets off, amazing, it doesn't happen there, but
it happens in a practice.

Speaker 1 (54:14):
Yeah, exactly, So we wish him all the best. Thankfully,
it's not an end of season game in Buffalo, which
means the temperatures are not or that there's no snow forecast.
But give us the weather watch, Lee, what's it going
to be like in Buffalo this weekend?

Speaker 3 (54:29):
So it's due to be overcast with forty seven degrees,
which is interesting because it was due to be overcast
on Sunday. But I thought the sun came out. I
thought it was actually looking like it was heating up.
But yeah, like you say, not a night game, not
hopefully not a super cold game that we have seen
in the past.

Speaker 1 (54:49):
Again, where can we watch the game?

Speaker 3 (54:51):
The game is obviously returns to being a six o'clock
kickoff this week and at the moment is only going
to be available on game Pass because I haven't seen
or we hadn't seen at the start of this the

(55:12):
schedule for the games on Sky. So the Sky Sky
do like to show AFC clashes, but yeah, just checking
out and nothing as of yet, so could be on there,
stay locked into social media channels and we will post
it once we see it if the Dolphins are on Sky.

(55:41):
So with that being said, that kind of wraps up
our preview of the Bills game. And did you want
to talk a little bit about Stephen Ross.

Speaker 1 (55:49):
Yeah, I've just got a little funny story I found
out the weekend League, which is quite remarkable. So years ago,
when I lived at home with my parents, we lived
in a quite COLDI sack on the end and in
the house opposite there were two boys living with their family,
Andrew and Michael, who were a little bit younger than
my brother and I but they're now fully grown up

(56:09):
with their own families, and the younger one, Andrew, just
happened to bump into my mum in town over the
weekend and it's the first time they'd seen each other
in the years and they just happened to be talking,
and you know how it goes, It's like, how are you,
what's your family up to, what they're doing now, that
sort of thing. And apparently the older brother, Michael, he's

(56:31):
a chef and he's chosen profession and he's living in
Monaco right now and he has been for a few years.
But there was a time when he was the personal
chef to Stephen Ross. Would you believe so? Amazing coincidence? Yeah,
that he lived as a young boy rot opposite me.
So I'm not not in touch with him anymore, of course,

(56:52):
but I just thought it was remarkable that of all
the people he could be working for, he happened to
be working as a personal chef to Stephen Ross.

Speaker 3 (57:00):
Amazing. So I think that kind of wraps us up
for this week. Do you have anything else before we
get out of it?

Speaker 1 (57:11):
No, other than feel free to leave us a rating
and a review. It's always nice to have some feedback,
especially when they're nice, so please feel free to do that.
It would be very much appreciated.

Speaker 3 (57:24):
And other than that, don't forget to follow us on
social media on Instagram x TikTok under the podcast name.
You will find us check out Dolphin's HQ of Travis Wingfield,
the Drive Time podcast with Taris Wingfield, the Fish Tank,
and obviously the Dolphins social media channels for all the

(57:45):
latest news and pressors from the team and until then,