December 16, 2024 • 34 mins
We are back in the film room to assess what went wrong, who stood out and everything in between from the Dolphins 20-12 loss Sunday in Houston.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
As you can tell, no intro music on the show.
I kind of feel like it's a little bit misplaced
to run this hype music and talk about Dolphins playoff
pushes with the product you're seeing right now on the field.
So Joe Robbie in my reviews, who said please change
the intro music about a thousand times, or I think
your screen name is, it's still Joe Robbie to me,
you're getting your wish this week, my friend, I think
(00:20):
I'm going to find a new intro and roll with that.
But for now, we'll break down the All twenty two
tape here from the Dolphins loss in Houston. That's what's
coming up today on the Draft Time podcast from the
Baptist Hell Studios inside the Baptist Hell's training complex. This
is the aforementioned Draft Time podcast maybe ugly Ugly tape
(00:41):
Offensively and we'll start there. And I thought the Texans
plan defensively was actually really good and took away a
lot of what we were trying to do off the top.
The primary look they would show this man free coverage,
which is, you know, they're one of the bigger cover
one teams in the NFL. Single high safety, middle of
the field and coverage on the outside. It's their most
(01:02):
run defense, and they run it almost as much as
anybody else in the NFL. But when we would have
Rob Jones tap Aaron Brewer before the snap your road
game indicator to get the snap off, those pressed up
cornerbacks would see that, they would bail out and invert.
And what that means is they would play basically a
Cover two look, but because of their ability to play
(01:26):
kind of zone turn off of the perimeter, they could
then work vertically down the stem or up the up
the stem, I should say, and prevent deep shots from
happening behind them, but also turn back downhill and come
play the short underneath game. And it basically gave them
like thirteen defenders with how we were unable to adjust
to what they were doing. And then they could also
(01:48):
spam the middle of the field because that middle of
the field safety wouldn't gain depth. And I suppose that
is maybe part of the Tua tungueo ii looa evolution
we have to see, and you can probably say, like
limitation in terms of his ability to drive the ball
down the sea might kind of cause some of this consternation.
But they just weren't that concerned about us attacking the
deep middle portion of the field with those perimeter cloud
(02:10):
cornerbacks being so fluid to play both deep and short,
and they would squat on the crossers over the middle
with that middle of the field safety and prevent those
checkdowns and swing routes to getting big yards. Most of
the time we did hit a few of those, but
for the most part they held that stuff in check.
I thought the mix of that look playing with you know,
man free where they would come down and play that
(02:32):
pressed up coverage look and have that safety get depth
and play this the deep field part of the field.
They would then use that to bring an extra pass rusher,
so they would spam the middle of the field and
get basically two way perimeter players with their four man
rushes on the outside, and then play that single high
look with their pressure looks and bring five or six players.
And they did a good enough job with their four
(02:54):
man rushes to affect Tuoa before those could open up.
And then on their blitzes they got in enough to
make him have to move off the spot away from
where the opening was in the coverage. Does that all
attrack to you, Guys like for instance, third and long
second drive of the game, Wattle gets outside leverage against
a press cornerback, so he is inviting Waddle to run
an inbreaking route into the middle of the field to
(03:16):
the backside of the formation. And there's a middle of
the field safety who had been, you know, clamping down
on these crossing routes all game long to this point.
But he gets vertical and gets that depth. So the
incut is there. But what do they do but send
the overload pressure from that same side where Wattle is open,
because if they can cause confusion, which off of Leam
(03:36):
Mikenberg and Jackson Carmen was pretty much whenever they wanted
to do it, it would force Tua to have to
move to his left. And there isn't a quarterback on
the planet that can move off the spot to his left,
Not even Josh Allen can do this and throw that
eighteen yard incut to the backside without it getting picked off.
It was a great plan. It was great executed, really
well executed. I can't even say freaking words. It completely
(03:58):
stifled our offense and has been the case. There was
minimal ability to adjust or simplify and find man beaters
and part of that is the structure of it, but
part of that is also the personnel you had up
front on the offensive line, which just off that right
side was not good enough to compete in an NFL game.
One nice adjustment that was there because they had a
(04:19):
few adjustments that tracked and worked, was throwing the hookups
and sticks to tight ends like we found John Ewis
Smith a couple of times. I think Durham got one
in the game. There was one to a running back
as well, where you split those second level defenders and
you know this one area of space where they play
that style where the mic linebacker gets more depth and
helps that safety when he gets vertical or just gives
(04:39):
a second player in the middle of the field.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Like if you if you peel.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Back and look at the Texans coverage, most of the
time you would see a what would you call it,
like a two to one two formation almost if you're
talking about soccer or volleyball or I guess even basketball,
Like two linebackers in the five yard hook area, another
linebacker in like the ten yard hook area, and then
two split field safeties at the numbers like fifteen twenty
yards down the field. Just basically saying, you're not gonna
(05:04):
throw the ball to this direction, and we have the
best cornerback in the NFL and Derek Stingley that we
can play no safety help because he's gonna beat Tyreek
Hill all game long. And he did that. So that's
what happened, and we had guys play like crap. We
adjusted a little bit. Those stick routes kind of worked
and they would find some space in those hook zones,
but the Texas would eventually adjust and we could not
(05:26):
Readjust to the readjustment. I thought there was another really
good adjustment though, where John Wu, and this was kind
of like the evolution that had to happen more. I
think in the game where John Wu ran what looked
like a crosser from an inline why position, and they
would bring a receiver who was in the slot, you know,
further to the left of John U, to the left
side of the formation, and he would run that same
crosser path. But then Johnny would just stop his route
(05:48):
and sit down between the two linebackers covering and zone,
and that one receiver would kind of widen that middle
of the field coverage and create space for Johnny. We've
got the fourth down conversion on a play just like that,
and there was another stick throw that we had on
that same look. That was a nice game for the offense.
But even then, the Texan zones were so well connected,
like they could have that you know one that cover
(06:09):
one Tyreek to the outside, but he also has inside
eyes that could peel off and go downhill and make
that tackle on the leak Washington when he runs that
little pivot route that breaks to the outside. So you're
covering the one vertical, but you also have eyes on
the two because that vertical is designed to get the
cornerback running with him to create that out route throw
for Tua that we hit against the Jets all day long.
(06:31):
But because they're so good at zone turning and having
you know, really four to three vertical speed, which if
you go back to like the Brian Flores defense and
the Bill Belichick defense, really one of their core principles
at cornerback was you have to run four to three
because that allows you to be able to get vertical
and take away deep passes but also come downhill and
cut down backs and tight ends or slot receivers on outs.
(06:52):
It just expands the field defensively and gives you extra
defenders really against the count because you're not having to
play these three high safety looks where we're going to
basically just give you all the underneath work. We're going
to cover that and have the skill set to be
able to come back down the stem and make those
plays so you can hit those against this coverage, against
these looks. But it's like five and six yard gains,
(07:13):
and that's a really tough way to make a living
in this league, especially when you commit you know, ten
penalties in the game, and you have drop passes, you
have a misthrow from a quarterback. Every single miss will
ruin one of those drives if you try to make
it that way, and that's never going to lead to
more than points in the team.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
So it's not a good way to make a living.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
And just to get into this more like you know,
I've been complaining about it on various you know, channels whatnot.
But if you want to defeat this, you're going to
have to lift that middle of the field camping safety
and you need to throw corner routes, which I think
we've proven would be a better option for a catch,
you know, a catch point pass catcher, someone that can
(07:51):
go out rebound the defenders, and Travis has to take
an l ry here because for years I thought it
doesn't matter how big your receivers are, just get open.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
You throw to open guys.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
But when they run certain structures and coverage, I have
learned and have had to adjust my approach to analyzing
football and just evaluating in general that sometimes those throws
do require a certain pass catcher. I talked about it
even in the Jets game when Tua tried Tyreek on
a couple of those contested plays. He ain't making those catches.
Those balls are getting knocked down. But my biggest gripe
(08:21):
of the entire game tape is the effort. This is
an offense that and you heard coach say this right
has to play very well connected for it to work.
And that's a whole other can of worms I don't
feel like getting into right now. I feel like Ck
Parrott on Twitter kind of spelled that out for you
if you want to go check out how troubling that
might be and how much you know you put on
the quarterback's plate to get to the line scrimmage and
(08:43):
you know, get the snap off by the time he
goes through his you know rolodex of checks he has
to make. And while that might have been over emphasized
in this scheme, you know the idea to play so connected.
It's true for everybody. But like a poker player, you know,
you install your false keys, your play, you're ball handling,
you run your decoy route. These are the pre the
(09:04):
pre flop rays that you make. You carry out your action.
After the flop comes out, you make a bet on
the turn that kind of indicates you're still playing that
same hand. You have to convince the defense that what
you're doing has merit, that your bets have merit, that
you have the hand that you're saying you have. On
this bluff on the first drive of the game, to
what tries a glance to waddle but throws it high
(09:25):
as the middle linebacker gets depth on the pass play
on play action, I should say you're trying to get
him to fall step downhill one or two steps to
create that throwing window over the middle for your quarterback
against an outside leverage cornerback. It's how you spring big plays.
The false steps on play action. Throw the endbreaker. Hopefully
Wattle can make a safety miss and we're off to
the races right, but on this particular play we fake
(09:47):
the give and the running back, which in this instance
was devon a. Chan jogs through the lane and you
can see number forty three. He takes like a half
step forward. He very clearly sees the balls not going
to eight Chan, who's not selling the fake run at all,
and he backs off and puts his hand right in
the passing lane and to his throw goes right over
the top of his hand, which is too high for waddle.
(10:07):
He was able to impact the play because we did
not sell the run action hard enough. And that's why
I say, like, it's not this tear down rebuild to
make things work. It's just these fine little details. And
when you say that, ultimately that comes back to the top.
So if you want to think it's intangible, I think
it kind of is in some regards. I think that
McDaniel's certainly within his ability to make those changes, or
(10:29):
he's gonna have to be, because you can't keep doing
this right. And I think that you can go to
him and say, you know, or to anybody that wants
to get this thing corrected, and say like, this is
what has to be corrected, and we're gonna have to
make some changes to make it happen. And I think
that that's very well within you know, again his skill set.
But that's what has to happen, regardless of who it is.
That is what has to happen. You have to find adjustment,
(10:50):
and you have to find better effort and just more
strain in those particular moments because you are not doing
enough to execute those fine details.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
And again I'll go back to Cee K.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Parrott that he wrote that out in terms of, you know,
some of the off seas and decisions, and I'll leave
him to give you, I think a pretty good glance
at how some of those things can change. And then
how about this that third down play on the first
drive where Tua just scrambles out of bounds. You see
Tyreek bunched right next to Malik Washington and they both
run in cuts at the exact same depth down the field.
(11:20):
And then Tyreek changes where he's going because I think
he realizes he probably ran the wrong route, which happened
three or four times in this game. Then he starts
blocking thirty yards down the field with the flat defender
in front of Tua, and Tua's not gonna make anybody miss.
We know that, so why we block him? Like all
he had to do was come back downhill and run
towards the sideline and Tua would have had a target
and you could have found him for a first down.
(11:41):
But instead it goes for a short run or a
negative run for like one yard and we're punting.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
So yeah, I can't have that.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
The next drive, the Tua scramble both Reek and maleik
Okay that rams occupy the same five yards of space
after they break off the stem. Somebody ran the wrong
route once again, not for nothing. I think Derek Stingley
again might be the best cornerback in football. The fourth
quarter pick wasn't the only rep where they trusted him
without safety help on Tyreek hill. And the way he
(12:09):
can flip his hips and get vertical at that four
to three speed then change direction right back down the stem.
I don't think there's anybody in the league that does
it like him. And the way they run to the
football and hit they pack a punch. That's a damn
good defense that has taken on the personality of their
head coach. Go watch Demiko Ryans play a middle linebacker
for the Houston Texans and go watch the Houston Texans
(12:29):
play that game yesterday. It's the exact same thing. You
are a reflection of your head coach. That has been
true since day one, back in freaking nineteen ten football,
and it is today in twenty twenty four. And look,
I think there are a lot of issues that tie
back to that, you know, the top. And this is
not my platform to, like, you know, say make this
change and hire this guy, like I'm not doing that.
(12:49):
But I think it's fair to say that we were
soundly out coached. And that is a freaking theme my
friends in these games. If you want to see a
great example, And look, I praised some of the adjustments, right,
but pull up third quarter, eight thirty seven. We run
all stick. It's five end of the route, empty formation.
They all run five yards down the field and turn
back to the quarterback. And it looks like when you're
(13:10):
playing pick up basketball with your mates and nobody wants
to like do anything to get open. Everyone just stands
around and looks at each other and nothing happens. So
I don't know, man, it just wasn't a good plan.
It wasn't well executed, it wasn't well adjusted and that's
why you got beat. And I think it's you know,
a theme that has developed for this team in the
last three years. And again not to I saw someone
(13:33):
that doesn't like my work but listens to all the podcasts,
first of all, said.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Whoa, it's me. No, it's the saying is woe is me? Dude,
and not whoa, it's woe woe is me.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
I thought that was hilarious that they came at me
so hot and had that commentary. I'm assuming he'll hear
this podcast as well. Not to like, you know, complain
about being a Dolphins fan for thirty years and getting
no fruit from it, but rather than getting my whole
career made by working for the team. But you know,
like I was talking to Crabs about this on Sunday night,
and like, dude, this perpetual cycle, especially when we go
(14:04):
from Brady to Josh Allen, right, you know, not even
a season's break there, we got like the you know,
you couldn't get like one division title layup for yourself
in the one off year. You go right from one
great to the probably like Josh Hallin's is the best
quarterback of all time right now, My goodness, but it
was nice to have that two year reprieve right where
it wasn't like eight to nine, nine and eight in
the hunt column, which was the worst place to be
(14:26):
those I've talked about on the podcast, those you know,
twenty really nine to like twenty eighteen Dolphins. That's the
worst place to be in the entire National Football League.
And grant that we're we're kind of back there right
now with some you know, mitigating circumstances that have caused that,
and luckily, you know, better quarterback play will typically get
you out of that. And we have that even though
he missed four games, and you can argue that those
(14:47):
are the four games that.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Kept out of the playoffs. YadA YadA yah.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
But the whole point is this, Like, I don't think
it has to be this doom and gloom, like we're
only going to be this nine and eight team again forever.
I think that you're not that far away from making
some tweaks and adjustment, but you will, you know, it
will require some philosophical core changes, maybe some big pieces
going on, maybe addition by subtraction, just all the things
that you look at with this team. I don't advocate
(15:10):
for anything in particular. I'm, you know, here to go
with the motions and basically go with the flow of
what they decide. But I think that we can all
agree that there has to be something that changes. You
can't just roll back the same program, same philosophy, same
concept in year number four. You just can't do that right.
It hasn't worked. You have to make an adjustment. That's
my plea. Let's come back here and do the quarterback
(15:31):
and the rest of the offense, and the next segment,
third second, we'll do the defense. It will be a
quicker show today than the Tuesday show usually is Draft
Time Podcast, your host, Travis Wingfield, brought to you by
Auto Nation. All right, let's get to the quarterback talk here.
Segment two, Film review podcast. Dolphins lose twenty twelve to
the Houston Texans. Gosh, should have won that football game. Man,
(15:52):
offense gotta be better than that, and the quarterback has
to be better than that too. He had some accuracy
issues early on that I thought kind of brought back
some of those same feelings about big game moments for
Tua Tounguaailoa, and I do think that those are a
little bit overstated because there's a lot of the things
I just talked about, But he certainly has his hand
in this issue as well. Twenty six year old quarterback.
Is this who's going to be forever in terms of
(16:14):
some of the misthrows in these spots. I don't think
that's how it works, but I can certainly understand your
concern if you do feel that way. And he had
accuracy issues early on, and the Texans clearly wanted to
flood the interior with pressure, and I thought he did
a good job early of getting off the spot and
moving to his left. The first instant had no route
peeled back with him. But then the second one, the
(16:34):
one that Tyreek Hill kicked, which hey, if you can
get a foot on it, you can probably get a
hand on.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
It, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
But Tua's throw was way off the market. It should
have been a much easier pitching catch than it was.
To have missed that one cost us a first down
on that spot. Then he missed on a corner to Tyreek,
and frankly, I thought it was their best play design
early in the game of the day because the Texans
had been holding that cloud corner that I'm talking about
ad nauseum here and I'm just so impressed by that
ability to do that, and I realizing, you know, the
(17:06):
athletic ability they have at the position. As much as
I love and praise the Dolphins cornerbacks, we don't have
that change of direction skill set to get back downhill.
But the cornerback was able to get some depth and
take away up to like ten yards on the outbreaking stuff,
and Tua shoots one for Tyreek with Wattle running an
out from the slot, and Tua pumps the ball to Wattle,
who's the two, right, the second receiver from Again, if
(17:28):
you listen to the show, you know this, but for
your first time listening, the one receiver is the closest
to the sideline, the two is the next closest inside,
three is the next. It just keeps going inside until
you get to you know, three or four, maybe even five,
but nobody runs five zero formations is three by one,
sometimes four by one, sometimes sometimes two by two. But anyway,
so Reek is the one and he takes this uh.
(17:49):
He runs this corner route with an inside release back
to the corner, and Wattle's job as the two is
to run a speed out and to pull that cloud
corner back up to create space in the to the
corner throw for ty. But if he gets depth, you
throw the out route, and in this particular instance, to
a pumps to waddle and that does bring that cornerback
up a little bit, not as much as I would
like to, but he did bring him up. But then
(18:09):
he sails the throw. And the reason he sails the
throw to me is because he has to reset his
feet after the pump, and you see his base get
too wide, and that can change your arm slot, and
the ball winds up high when the arm slot dips
lower than you're used to when you cut that thing loose.
So a miss, miss mechanic, mechanical myss there, I should say.
On the sack fumble, I thought that's where you started
to see the way their effective game plan made to uncomfortable.
(18:32):
They did such a good job of challenging us at
the line of scrimmage and mixing it up that you
actually say, to a normally one of the best processors
and decision makers, double clutch make him think, and you
don't want your quarterback having to do that too often.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
And it was most of his dropbacks.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
It was, uh, you know, I think Kyle talked to
Darryl Bevell this summer about you know, RBIs in the
in the at the quarterback position and giving him reps
off where he doesn't have to make high level, stressful
reads like this was not one of those games. It
was consistently having to parse through a lot of coverage
and that's a lot of mental strain on your quarterback,
and of course he has to be tough enough to
handle that, but you want to make it easy. I
(19:07):
think the entire job of the play caller is to
reduce that from the quarterback. And on this particular play,
he has Kraycraft on an out to the field from
the one. But the way they would show man and
flip back to the zone, I don't think Tua knew
if the slot cornerback would carry his man or peel
out into the curl flat, so he double clutches. The
protection breaks down against the four man rush, and the
play just totally falls apart. Their defensive tackle bull rushes
(19:29):
Liam right into his lap, which Liam not in this game, buddy,
But he's able to get out of that. But the
problem is when he bubbles back. So usually two of
steps up and through pressure. On this one, he retreats
a couple of yards and because of that, Daniel Hunter,
who Jackson Carmen had a pretty good rep on this
particular play, when he bubbles back, that gives Hunter the
ability to shed that block and go get the sack
(19:51):
fumble on Tua didn't have good ball security either, so
that's really it. They just made him uncomfortable, made him
double clutch, and that pass rush against what we had
in terms of a available bodies. It's a really, really
tough way to make your offense go. I think on
the first pick you saw more of what we talked
about with how the Texans were able to expand their
hook drops that hook linebacker in the middle of the
(20:12):
field and actually this is maybe, you know, probably it
probably should have been in legal contact in the play
he hip checks Tyreek Hill before the ball gets out
and it's eight yards down the fields. That's a flag
to me, and I think that's what causes the route
to round off the way it did. Now you do
have to flatten that route out and you have to
work for the defender. In fact, I texted to OJ
and he was like, you have to cross his face.
You cannot go around him that way because that's what's
(20:34):
going to happen on that throw because that will draw
the flag if you go through him, run through the
guy because he's standing there, it's going to be I
legal contact. And this is another reason to say the
Dolphins probably need more size at the position and Travis
takes a big, fat l guys that can get to
spots with their physicality, because this has been a theme
for three years now and Tua and I mean he
has to be able to see that and not throw
(20:55):
it as well. I get that you got the look
you wanted, but man, Tyreek was never even close to
get into that spot, so he let the reroute work.
And maybe I'm wrong for saying two I should see that.
I don't know, man, but it's just bad football all around.
They got him off his game pretty early, and that's
where I thought the mistakes happened. You know, he worked
Raheem on a little flat route on I think it
was the touchdown drive, maybe the field goal drive. I
(21:17):
forget where Tyreek ran stick nod and it would have
been it was before the Johnny touchdown pass. Tyreek runs
stick nod and we should have run that play all
game long because that's how you open up the middle
of the field when they're doing what they're doing, and
John here runs a slant off the backside of that
was also open. He didn't see any of it, went
to the other side for Raheem Moster. Now, the touchdown
throw to Johndrey Smith was picktime. Quarterback play extends a
(21:37):
play that was dead, which has happened a lot. And
you know two is not a creator, right, he does
has a little bit of his game, but there's too
many play calls that die out for him where he
has to find a way to create. And this time
he does it and puts the ball in the perfect
location for that particular play.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
What a throw gets us back into the game.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
And on the pick the two picks to end the game,
I don't know what he saw on the first Stingley pick.
That one's on him to me. And also a non
human level change of direction skill set from Stingley. Good
play by him, bad play by our guy cost us
in a spot where you could have tied the game
right there on the final pick. Listen, if you're nitpicking
about the ball being throw a foot shorter than it
had to be, I think that you probably just have
(22:14):
an agenda right, because that's a good football. It's not
a perfect ball, but it's a good ball. Catch the ball, man,
there's a moment where it's in only Tyreek's hands and
not in Stingley's at all strong hands. Pull it away.
Keep that football for yourself. But we've dropped balls in
every single big game we've played the last three years.
So yeah, that was two's worst game of the year.
He's played to me two bad games this year. But
I don't even sweat it because you know that he'll
(22:35):
put in three hundred hours of work this offseason to
fix that part of his game, to attack the type
of coverage to make the throws he has to make
to get over that hump, and he'll make it our strength.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
He always does.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
I think when you can pressure as frequently as they
did with three and four and then mix up your
looks and make him hesitate, that's literally the aim of
every defensive game plan you've ever heard.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
So tip your cap to them.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
They lead the league in takeaways and negative plays for
a reason, and we were not good enough.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
That's all it is.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
That's how you lose football games. Individual standouts, there were
not many. Patrick paul I continue to be very encouraged
about what I see with him. I thought he connected
well on some reach blocks. I thought he held his
blocks in the running game as well as anybody the
entire game. And the one area I was hoping to
see some growth from was when rushers would overset him
and then cross face, and there was a rep on
Will Anderson where he locked that exact move down. Now,
(23:21):
he did get beat inside on a glance throw to
Waddle where to had him and it forced an incomplete pass.
He had a holding call they picked up for some
reason where he got beat on that same look. Not
sure why, but to me, another good showing from Patrick Paul.
I think left tackle, center, and quarterback have been the
most consistent positions on the offense this year, and Patrick
Paul has contributed to quality starts to that list. I
(23:42):
thought Malik Washington did some good stuff in the run
blocking game. He ran hard with the football. I thought
Wattle was sharp before he got hurt, and thought Rob
Jones had one of his better games. He had some
nice blocks at the point of attack. Really really tough
day for the offense, though, like even these tiny little details,
we throw a little chip release screen to John hus
Smith and Brewer has a block lined up. The cornerback
ducks the block and is able to trip John new
(24:04):
Smith like he's run through way horror tackles and Brewer's
made way tougher blocks.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
It was just one of those days.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Now, individual misses, there were plenty Liam Eikenberg, so you
know how he's always in the ground like it happens
because of poor balance, and you see that on reps
when guys go for their shed move or if they
overwhelm him with power. The minute a guy engages in
a two gap role and then detaches, Liam falls off
like a stick of melting butter in the microwave.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
He reads.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
His reads and pass protection were terrible all game long,
turning the a gap free with no defenders slanting his direction.
He also consistently failed to get his half of the
man blocked on combinations. This is one of his worst games,
even by the standard the Dolphins fans have for him
in general. There were drop eights where they got pressure
held the play before the first two a pick was
a two man rush and they still moved to off
(24:50):
the spot by bull rushing. Liam protection slide was bad,
but geez man, you know I've said I think that
Liam's a good three position backup on the interior next year.
Hopefully he's super durable, tough as hell. You know, he
played through a tough injury last year. He can play
five positions in a pinch. I don't want to see
him at center, but I think that if you make
him your sixth man on the interior, that's not a
bad place to be. But this game made me think
(25:11):
like that looked like last year at center. Not a
good look, but it wasn't It wasn't good in this one.
I still hold out hope for that long term, you know,
backup role, maybe the seventh offensive lineman. But you get
what I'm saying, Jackson Carmen. There's not a need to
do a deep dive here. It's just not an NFL player.
Let's just leave it at that. I thought Aaron Brewer
missed a lot of blocks were used to him hitting
at the second level. He looked human in that regard.
Julian Hill lost the point of attack more than usual.
(25:34):
I thought Alec kind of got bounced around a little
bit tyreek. The effort was just in freelancing. Can't do it.
And then a Chan that one effort play just drove
me crazy. Snap counts for the offense, the quarterback and
O line go the distant sixty eight snaps. Tyreek played
all the snaps but two. Malik Washington played fifty nine percent,
Wattle thirty eight percent after the injury, of course, Craig
Craft thirty one and Do both sixteen percent. John new
(25:56):
Smith played two thirds of the snaps, Julian Hill played
forty percent, m twenty four percent. A Chan again your
lead back at two thirds of the snaps, Most played
one third, and Jalen Wright had three snaps and alec
Ingold had sixteen snaps in this football game. Last break
right there, come back into the defense Draft Time podcast,
your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Autoundation. All right,
(26:19):
defensive review. I think this was just a lot of
out execution on our part. I mean, not a ton
of mixture in disguise or anything like that. We play
a lot of that Cover three, our primary coverage. We
roll out by running it at the second highest rate
in a game we have in this season. The Rams
game was number one, but we just beat them up
up front time and time again. And as I say
that on the first play of the other side of
(26:40):
the two minute warning in the first half, they run
that exact same inverted two middle of the field buzz
safety look I talked about with the Texans defense, which
fits because they run a Bobby Slowik offense off the
Shanahan tree. Right, we didn't have anybody travel and I
thought that there was you know, more so mixing roles
in different matchups and playing zones and man and blitzing
your slot cornerback here and there. And I thought that
(27:01):
produced way better connectivity than we did last week with
several coverage busts when we had Ramsey, Cater and Kendall
all healthy and practicing all week together. I think the
secondary plays really good football despite some kind of shaky
safety play the whole year. I thought our rushes were coordinated.
I thought our backers were reading the way our defensive
line was engaging and shedding blocks and scraping off of
(27:21):
those blocks. Accordingly, just a really sound, well executed game
plan that mixed it up more as the game went on.
But they just kind of outplayed the Texans in that way.
I mean, if not for the fake punt, we're probably
talking about a thirteen point day for the defense and
shoot the touchdown we scored after that fake punt drive
that led to a touchdown, and you know, who knows
if the game plays out this way, but that would
(27:42):
have been to make it thirteen to twelve, pending a
pat that we would miss.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
So who knows how different?
Speaker 1 (27:47):
It looks really good showing best players played really good
games and kept us in it. And speaking of those
standout players, Cater Kohu is one of the tops on
the list. He studied his butt off this week. Man,
he knew what was coming on a couple of the
big plays he made. He punched out the fumble on
the opening drive and watching that back, Javon Holland is
a fraction of a second from scooping that thing up
just like Jordan Brooks did later in the game and
(28:07):
taking it back for six. So he knocks that football
free on a screen. He blows up a block on
a screen two drives later and gets a TfL. Then
on the drive right before the half, he knows where
his help is, plays outside leverage, anticipates the outbreaking route
and drives on to challenge Tank Dell and break up
the pass. One of the best games I've seen Ko
Kohou play probably since his rookie year Chop Robinson. You
(28:29):
can see his impact before they even get to the production.
Watch how the other team plans for him, how he
influences the way they call games. They are sliding, they
are chipping, they are flat out dedicating multiple bodies on
straight up double teams to take care of your rookie
edge rusher, and he still wins.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Man.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
I think about what a healthy Jalen Phillips could do
to just not just to bookend him, but playing some
three technique next to him in some of the ways
that he can run games and create picks for Chop.
Get well soon, JP, because man, that combination is going
to be fun to watch if we get JP back
healthy a sealer. It started early for him in the
two technique positions, slants off the inside guard's face and
(29:08):
just runs right past him with peer speed and forces
Stroud to throw the ball away. So when a man
like this, with his size, power, length and motor, when
he beats you with speed on the second staf of
the game, that's got to be a pretty hopeless feeling.
Because he can basically go five or six pitches deep
into his bag and he can get you out with
all of them.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
He can throw them all in three two counts.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
And I know baseball is not everyone's favorite sport here,
but it's important to have multiple pitches to get outs with.
And that's what Zach Sealer has. On the individual sack
he had, he jab steps upfield, has a violent arm,
over rips his way into the gap, and closes on
a downhill line to the quarterback finish the sack. What
a great game for Zach Seiler. He would get plenty
more pressure in the backfield, including a critical holding call
(29:49):
on him, and another half of the sack to help
keep the Dolphins alive.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
In the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Jordan Brooks is a hell of a football player, really
really good football player. Starts the game off where he
matches Joe Mixon on a slow play wheel route. You
see mix and slow roll what he's trying to sell
as a flat route. Then he just turns on the
Jets and he gets on top of Jordan Brooks. But
Brooks does a good job of widening the route by
staying in phase just enough to squeeze mix unto the perimeter.
(30:13):
But Stroud's ball is fine, but the way Jay the
way that Jordan Brooks pinned him to the sideline, it
made the throw go out of bounds. On the next drive,
when I Seeler sack, you see a mug up in
the A gap and slant his rush right into the
left guard and the running back steps up to pick
him up and pass pro but he gets past him
with speed and that creates this natural pick that allows
Seiler to scrape off and close on Stroud for that sack.
(30:33):
The very next play makes a TfL in the next
drive where he goes from a stack off ball linebacker
position all the way to the sideline where he splits
a block, defeats a crackback from a receiver, and finishes
by getting mixed into the ground. These last two games
have been as good as you can play off ball linebacker.
I still can't believe he scooped that ball off the
turf from the phone recovery. He scoops it up while
doing a jumping one ad to avoid all the bodies
(30:55):
at his feet. Unreal athletic ability. I think Quentin Bell's
to development arc is pretty interesting. Big combine testing guy
didn't find his way onto a defense to play a
serious role in the first couple of years in Atlanta,
gets here makes a great impression as a practice squad guy,
a good scout team guy, has a great camp and
makes the team, doesn't play much, gets more and more ops,
(31:17):
and starts to play better and better as the year
goes along. He sets such a hard edge in the
running game. He's a guy that I love to have
in the rotation down the road so you can have
your big guns, like you know, Chop and Phillips. Give
him a breather on first and second downs here and
there between a couple of series, because you know, you
can get fifteen snaps from Quentin Bell playing the run game,
and you can get you know, equal run production and
(31:38):
get your guys a couple of plays off to get
them a breath there in the game. He really resets
that thing and gives himself the opportunity to get off
the block both in the B and C gap, and
that's how you have to play the edge. And then
a good game from Javon Holland. I like it when
they sneak him down to the box and let him
fit the run, fly up field against screens and jet
sweeps and just let him play the hook coverage role.
He has some big sticks and they're tight end of
(31:59):
this game, even out Dalton Schultz for a couple of
plays individual misses. I just thought Walker looked really slow
on that tank Dell jet sweep. I mean he also
got lost in coverage in the first touchdown. Maybe he's
banged up, and you know, him and Ployer had a
kind of weird communication or coverage in that play. And
I'm not going to get into Poyer talk because we've
done it so much this year, but I thought it
(32:19):
was rough for him as well. And then Emmanuel ogbad
just the juice on four man rushes just as not
there opposite Chop it would be, you know, and that's
gonna happen when you lose your top two guys to
injury and the third guy never makes it to camp.
So the Dolphin's edge and tackle groups are so banged
up that I don't know what more you can ask for.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
At this point.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
You can say they brought in too many injury prone guys.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
I guess if you want.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
But you're not gonna be able to go four, five,
six deep at these positions and still be productive.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
So that was it.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
The snap counts Javon Holland, Jordan Brooks, Anthony Walker, Kendall Fuller,
and Jordan Poyer all went the distance. Elijah Campbell played
twenty percent of the snaps. He was kind of a
big nickel in this game, or that they ran more
big nichol I should say, and that was his role.
Sealer plays ninety two percent, Campbell sixty four, Benito fifty two,
DeShawn Hand forty percent of the snaps. And that's the
(33:05):
workload you get when this team feels they're kind of,
you know, thin at the edge position without Tyas Bowser.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Obviously they like to.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Run Campbell off the edge a little bit more and
some sealer two so that gives Benito and Hand more
snap counts. Ogbab played eighty four percent of the snaps,
Chop fifty six, Quentin Bell played forty percent, and Mo
Kamara gave you two snaps. No other linebacker played in
the game. And then cater Co who played fifty four percent.
It's a slot and then mc morris, Duck, Saran and
Duke all had one snap on defense. My top five
(33:32):
tapes were Jordan Brooks, Zach Seeler, cater Coohu, Chop, Robinson
and Javon Holland fin Let's Get out of Here podcast
on Wednesday, probably gonna be a bigger picture, maybe off
season preview of sorts even though we're still alive. People
will talk about the scenarios just for the hell of it.
I said I wouldn't do it on the show yesterday,
but hey, we're comprehensive here. We have to cover both.
You know, if you want a podcast talking about the
(33:52):
season's over, we'll do that for you, and we'll talk
about how you can keep the season alive.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Why not?
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Right, why not? Let's do that on Wednesday. Meantime, you
all please be sure subscribe, rate, review the show, follow
me on social. Check out the fish Tank podcast with
Juice and Seth. Great episodes every single Tuesday. Check out
the YouTube channel Dolphins HQ, Media availabilities, and much much more,
and last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot com. Until
next time, fins up, Caroline and Cameron, Daddy just come home.
As you can tell, no intro music on the show.
I kind of feel like it's a little bit misplaced
to run this hype music and talk about Dolphins playoff
pushes with the product you're seeing right now on the field.
So Joe Robbie in my reviews, who said please change
the intro music about a thousand times, or I think
your screen name is, it's still Joe Robbie to me,
you're getting your wish this week, my friend, I think
(00:20):
I'm going to find a new intro and roll with that.
But for now, we'll break down the All twenty two
tape here from the Dolphins loss in Houston. That's what's
coming up today on the Draft Time podcast from the
Baptist Hell Studios inside the Baptist Hell's training complex. This
is the aforementioned Draft Time podcast maybe ugly Ugly tape
(00:41):
Offensively and we'll start there. And I thought the Texans
plan defensively was actually really good and took away a
lot of what we were trying to do off the top.
The primary look they would show this man free coverage,
which is, you know, they're one of the bigger cover
one teams in the NFL. Single high safety, middle of
the field and coverage on the outside. It's their most
(01:02):
run defense, and they run it almost as much as
anybody else in the NFL. But when we would have
Rob Jones tap Aaron Brewer before the snap your road
game indicator to get the snap off, those pressed up
cornerbacks would see that, they would bail out and invert.
And what that means is they would play basically a
Cover two look, but because of their ability to play
(01:26):
kind of zone turn off of the perimeter, they could
then work vertically down the stem or up the up
the stem, I should say, and prevent deep shots from
happening behind them, but also turn back downhill and come
play the short underneath game. And it basically gave them
like thirteen defenders with how we were unable to adjust
to what they were doing. And then they could also
(01:48):
spam the middle of the field because that middle of
the field safety wouldn't gain depth. And I suppose that
is maybe part of the Tua tungueo ii looa evolution
we have to see, and you can probably say, like
limitation in terms of his ability to drive the ball
down the sea might kind of cause some of this consternation.
But they just weren't that concerned about us attacking the
deep middle portion of the field with those perimeter cloud
(02:10):
cornerbacks being so fluid to play both deep and short,
and they would squat on the crossers over the middle
with that middle of the field safety and prevent those
checkdowns and swing routes to getting big yards. Most of
the time we did hit a few of those, but
for the most part they held that stuff in check.
I thought the mix of that look playing with you know,
man free where they would come down and play that
(02:32):
pressed up coverage look and have that safety get depth
and play this the deep field part of the field.
They would then use that to bring an extra pass rusher,
so they would spam the middle of the field and
get basically two way perimeter players with their four man
rushes on the outside, and then play that single high
look with their pressure looks and bring five or six players.
And they did a good enough job with their four
(02:54):
man rushes to affect Tuoa before those could open up.
And then on their blitzes they got in enough to
make him have to move off the spot away from
where the opening was in the coverage. Does that all
attrack to you, Guys like for instance, third and long
second drive of the game, Wattle gets outside leverage against
a press cornerback, so he is inviting Waddle to run
an inbreaking route into the middle of the field to
(03:16):
the backside of the formation. And there's a middle of
the field safety who had been, you know, clamping down
on these crossing routes all game long to this point.
But he gets vertical and gets that depth. So the
incut is there. But what do they do but send
the overload pressure from that same side where Wattle is open,
because if they can cause confusion, which off of Leam
(03:36):
Mikenberg and Jackson Carmen was pretty much whenever they wanted
to do it, it would force Tua to have to
move to his left. And there isn't a quarterback on
the planet that can move off the spot to his left,
Not even Josh Allen can do this and throw that
eighteen yard incut to the backside without it getting picked off.
It was a great plan. It was great executed, really
well executed. I can't even say freaking words. It completely
(03:58):
stifled our offense and has been the case. There was
minimal ability to adjust or simplify and find man beaters
and part of that is the structure of it, but
part of that is also the personnel you had up
front on the offensive line, which just off that right
side was not good enough to compete in an NFL game.
One nice adjustment that was there because they had a
(04:19):
few adjustments that tracked and worked, was throwing the hookups
and sticks to tight ends like we found John Ewis
Smith a couple of times. I think Durham got one
in the game. There was one to a running back
as well, where you split those second level defenders and
you know this one area of space where they play
that style where the mic linebacker gets more depth and
helps that safety when he gets vertical or just gives
(04:39):
a second player in the middle of the field.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Like if you if you peel.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Back and look at the Texans coverage, most of the
time you would see a what would you call it,
like a two to one two formation almost if you're
talking about soccer or volleyball or I guess even basketball,
Like two linebackers in the five yard hook area, another
linebacker in like the ten yard hook area, and then
two split field safeties at the numbers like fifteen twenty
yards down the field. Just basically saying, you're not gonna
(05:04):
throw the ball to this direction, and we have the
best cornerback in the NFL and Derek Stingley that we
can play no safety help because he's gonna beat Tyreek
Hill all game long. And he did that. So that's
what happened, and we had guys play like crap. We
adjusted a little bit. Those stick routes kind of worked
and they would find some space in those hook zones,
but the Texas would eventually adjust and we could not
(05:26):
Readjust to the readjustment. I thought there was another really
good adjustment though, where John Wu, and this was kind
of like the evolution that had to happen more. I
think in the game where John Wu ran what looked
like a crosser from an inline why position, and they
would bring a receiver who was in the slot, you know,
further to the left of John U, to the left
side of the formation, and he would run that same
crosser path. But then Johnny would just stop his route
(05:48):
and sit down between the two linebackers covering and zone,
and that one receiver would kind of widen that middle
of the field coverage and create space for Johnny. We've
got the fourth down conversion on a play just like that,
and there was another stick throw that we had on
that same look. That was a nice game for the offense.
But even then, the Texan zones were so well connected,
like they could have that you know one that cover
(06:09):
one Tyreek to the outside, but he also has inside
eyes that could peel off and go downhill and make
that tackle on the leak Washington when he runs that
little pivot route that breaks to the outside. So you're
covering the one vertical, but you also have eyes on
the two because that vertical is designed to get the
cornerback running with him to create that out route throw
for Tua that we hit against the Jets all day long.
(06:31):
But because they're so good at zone turning and having
you know, really four to three vertical speed, which if
you go back to like the Brian Flores defense and
the Bill Belichick defense, really one of their core principles
at cornerback was you have to run four to three
because that allows you to be able to get vertical
and take away deep passes but also come downhill and
cut down backs and tight ends or slot receivers on outs.
(06:52):
It just expands the field defensively and gives you extra
defenders really against the count because you're not having to
play these three high safety looks where we're going to
basically just give you all the underneath work. We're going
to cover that and have the skill set to be
able to come back down the stem and make those
plays so you can hit those against this coverage, against
these looks. But it's like five and six yard gains,
(07:13):
and that's a really tough way to make a living
in this league, especially when you commit you know, ten
penalties in the game, and you have drop passes, you
have a misthrow from a quarterback. Every single miss will
ruin one of those drives if you try to make
it that way, and that's never going to lead to
more than points in the team.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
So it's not a good way to make a living.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
And just to get into this more like you know,
I've been complaining about it on various you know, channels whatnot.
But if you want to defeat this, you're going to
have to lift that middle of the field camping safety
and you need to throw corner routes, which I think
we've proven would be a better option for a catch,
you know, a catch point pass catcher, someone that can
(07:51):
go out rebound the defenders, and Travis has to take
an l ry here because for years I thought it
doesn't matter how big your receivers are, just get open.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
You throw to open guys.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
But when they run certain structures and coverage, I have
learned and have had to adjust my approach to analyzing
football and just evaluating in general that sometimes those throws
do require a certain pass catcher. I talked about it
even in the Jets game when Tua tried Tyreek on
a couple of those contested plays. He ain't making those catches.
Those balls are getting knocked down. But my biggest gripe
(08:21):
of the entire game tape is the effort. This is
an offense that and you heard coach say this right
has to play very well connected for it to work.
And that's a whole other can of worms I don't
feel like getting into right now. I feel like Ck
Parrott on Twitter kind of spelled that out for you
if you want to go check out how troubling that
might be and how much you know you put on
the quarterback's plate to get to the line scrimmage and
(08:43):
you know, get the snap off by the time he
goes through his you know rolodex of checks he has
to make. And while that might have been over emphasized
in this scheme, you know the idea to play so connected.
It's true for everybody. But like a poker player, you know,
you install your false keys, your play, you're ball handling,
you run your decoy route. These are the pre the
(09:04):
pre flop rays that you make. You carry out your action.
After the flop comes out, you make a bet on
the turn that kind of indicates you're still playing that
same hand. You have to convince the defense that what
you're doing has merit, that your bets have merit, that
you have the hand that you're saying you have. On
this bluff on the first drive of the game, to
what tries a glance to waddle but throws it high
(09:25):
as the middle linebacker gets depth on the pass play
on play action, I should say you're trying to get
him to fall step downhill one or two steps to
create that throwing window over the middle for your quarterback
against an outside leverage cornerback. It's how you spring big plays.
The false steps on play action. Throw the endbreaker. Hopefully
Wattle can make a safety miss and we're off to
the races right, but on this particular play we fake
(09:47):
the give and the running back, which in this instance
was devon a. Chan jogs through the lane and you
can see number forty three. He takes like a half
step forward. He very clearly sees the balls not going
to eight Chan, who's not selling the fake run at all,
and he backs off and puts his hand right in
the passing lane and to his throw goes right over
the top of his hand, which is too high for waddle.
(10:07):
He was able to impact the play because we did
not sell the run action hard enough. And that's why
I say, like, it's not this tear down rebuild to
make things work. It's just these fine little details. And
when you say that, ultimately that comes back to the top.
So if you want to think it's intangible, I think
it kind of is in some regards. I think that
McDaniel's certainly within his ability to make those changes, or
(10:29):
he's gonna have to be, because you can't keep doing
this right. And I think that you can go to
him and say, you know, or to anybody that wants
to get this thing corrected, and say like, this is
what has to be corrected, and we're gonna have to
make some changes to make it happen. And I think
that that's very well within you know, again his skill set.
But that's what has to happen, regardless of who it is.
That is what has to happen. You have to find adjustment,
(10:50):
and you have to find better effort and just more
strain in those particular moments because you are not doing
enough to execute those fine details.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
And again I'll go back to Cee K.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Parrott that he wrote that out in terms of, you know,
some of the off seas and decisions, and I'll leave
him to give you, I think a pretty good glance
at how some of those things can change. And then
how about this that third down play on the first
drive where Tua just scrambles out of bounds. You see
Tyreek bunched right next to Malik Washington and they both
run in cuts at the exact same depth down the field.
(11:20):
And then Tyreek changes where he's going because I think
he realizes he probably ran the wrong route, which happened
three or four times in this game. Then he starts
blocking thirty yards down the field with the flat defender
in front of Tua, and Tua's not gonna make anybody miss.
We know that, so why we block him? Like all
he had to do was come back downhill and run
towards the sideline and Tua would have had a target
and you could have found him for a first down.
(11:41):
But instead it goes for a short run or a
negative run for like one yard and we're punting.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
So yeah, I can't have that.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
The next drive, the Tua scramble both Reek and maleik
Okay that rams occupy the same five yards of space
after they break off the stem. Somebody ran the wrong
route once again, not for nothing. I think Derek Stingley
again might be the best cornerback in football. The fourth
quarter pick wasn't the only rep where they trusted him
without safety help on Tyreek hill. And the way he
(12:09):
can flip his hips and get vertical at that four
to three speed then change direction right back down the stem.
I don't think there's anybody in the league that does
it like him. And the way they run to the
football and hit they pack a punch. That's a damn
good defense that has taken on the personality of their
head coach. Go watch Demiko Ryans play a middle linebacker
for the Houston Texans and go watch the Houston Texans
(12:29):
play that game yesterday. It's the exact same thing. You
are a reflection of your head coach. That has been
true since day one, back in freaking nineteen ten football,
and it is today in twenty twenty four. And look,
I think there are a lot of issues that tie
back to that, you know, the top. And this is
not my platform to, like, you know, say make this
change and hire this guy, like I'm not doing that.
(12:49):
But I think it's fair to say that we were
soundly out coached. And that is a freaking theme my
friends in these games. If you want to see a
great example, And look, I praised some of the adjustments, right,
but pull up third quarter, eight thirty seven. We run
all stick. It's five end of the route, empty formation.
They all run five yards down the field and turn
back to the quarterback. And it looks like when you're
(13:10):
playing pick up basketball with your mates and nobody wants
to like do anything to get open. Everyone just stands
around and looks at each other and nothing happens. So
I don't know, man, it just wasn't a good plan.
It wasn't well executed, it wasn't well adjusted and that's
why you got beat. And I think it's you know,
a theme that has developed for this team in the
last three years. And again not to I saw someone
(13:33):
that doesn't like my work but listens to all the podcasts,
first of all, said.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Whoa, it's me. No, it's the saying is woe is me? Dude,
and not whoa, it's woe woe is me.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
I thought that was hilarious that they came at me
so hot and had that commentary. I'm assuming he'll hear
this podcast as well. Not to like, you know, complain
about being a Dolphins fan for thirty years and getting
no fruit from it, but rather than getting my whole
career made by working for the team. But you know,
like I was talking to Crabs about this on Sunday night,
and like, dude, this perpetual cycle, especially when we go
(14:04):
from Brady to Josh Allen, right, you know, not even
a season's break there, we got like the you know,
you couldn't get like one division title layup for yourself
in the one off year. You go right from one
great to the probably like Josh Hallin's is the best
quarterback of all time right now, My goodness, but it
was nice to have that two year reprieve right where
it wasn't like eight to nine, nine and eight in
the hunt column, which was the worst place to be
(14:26):
those I've talked about on the podcast, those you know,
twenty really nine to like twenty eighteen Dolphins. That's the
worst place to be in the entire National Football League.
And grant that we're we're kind of back there right
now with some you know, mitigating circumstances that have caused that,
and luckily, you know, better quarterback play will typically get
you out of that. And we have that even though
he missed four games, and you can argue that those
(14:47):
are the four games that.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Kept out of the playoffs. YadA YadA yah.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
But the whole point is this, Like, I don't think
it has to be this doom and gloom, like we're
only going to be this nine and eight team again forever.
I think that you're not that far away from making
some tweaks and adjustment, but you will, you know, it
will require some philosophical core changes, maybe some big pieces
going on, maybe addition by subtraction, just all the things
that you look at with this team. I don't advocate
(15:10):
for anything in particular. I'm, you know, here to go
with the motions and basically go with the flow of
what they decide. But I think that we can all
agree that there has to be something that changes. You
can't just roll back the same program, same philosophy, same
concept in year number four. You just can't do that right.
It hasn't worked. You have to make an adjustment. That's
my plea. Let's come back here and do the quarterback
(15:31):
and the rest of the offense, and the next segment,
third second, we'll do the defense. It will be a
quicker show today than the Tuesday show usually is Draft
Time Podcast, your host, Travis Wingfield, brought to you by
Auto Nation. All right, let's get to the quarterback talk here.
Segment two, Film review podcast. Dolphins lose twenty twelve to
the Houston Texans. Gosh, should have won that football game. Man,
(15:52):
offense gotta be better than that, and the quarterback has
to be better than that too. He had some accuracy
issues early on that I thought kind of brought back
some of those same feelings about big game moments for
Tua Tounguaailoa, and I do think that those are a
little bit overstated because there's a lot of the things
I just talked about, But he certainly has his hand
in this issue as well. Twenty six year old quarterback.
Is this who's going to be forever in terms of
(16:14):
some of the misthrows in these spots. I don't think
that's how it works, but I can certainly understand your
concern if you do feel that way. And he had
accuracy issues early on, and the Texans clearly wanted to
flood the interior with pressure, and I thought he did
a good job early of getting off the spot and
moving to his left. The first instant had no route
peeled back with him. But then the second one, the
(16:34):
one that Tyreek Hill kicked, which hey, if you can
get a foot on it, you can probably get a
hand on.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
It, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
But Tua's throw was way off the market. It should
have been a much easier pitching catch than it was.
To have missed that one cost us a first down
on that spot. Then he missed on a corner to Tyreek,
and frankly, I thought it was their best play design
early in the game of the day because the Texans
had been holding that cloud corner that I'm talking about
ad nauseum here and I'm just so impressed by that
ability to do that, and I realizing, you know, the
(17:06):
athletic ability they have at the position. As much as
I love and praise the Dolphins cornerbacks, we don't have
that change of direction skill set to get back downhill.
But the cornerback was able to get some depth and
take away up to like ten yards on the outbreaking stuff,
and Tua shoots one for Tyreek with Wattle running an
out from the slot, and Tua pumps the ball to Wattle,
who's the two, right, the second receiver from Again, if
(17:28):
you listen to the show, you know this, but for
your first time listening, the one receiver is the closest
to the sideline, the two is the next closest inside,
three is the next. It just keeps going inside until
you get to you know, three or four, maybe even five,
but nobody runs five zero formations is three by one,
sometimes four by one, sometimes sometimes two by two. But anyway,
so Reek is the one and he takes this uh.
(17:49):
He runs this corner route with an inside release back
to the corner, and Wattle's job as the two is
to run a speed out and to pull that cloud
corner back up to create space in the to the
corner throw for ty. But if he gets depth, you
throw the out route, and in this particular instance, to
a pumps to waddle and that does bring that cornerback
up a little bit, not as much as I would
like to, but he did bring him up. But then
(18:09):
he sails the throw. And the reason he sails the
throw to me is because he has to reset his
feet after the pump, and you see his base get
too wide, and that can change your arm slot, and
the ball winds up high when the arm slot dips
lower than you're used to when you cut that thing loose.
So a miss, miss mechanic, mechanical myss there, I should say.
On the sack fumble, I thought that's where you started
to see the way their effective game plan made to uncomfortable.
(18:32):
They did such a good job of challenging us at
the line of scrimmage and mixing it up that you
actually say, to a normally one of the best processors
and decision makers, double clutch make him think, and you
don't want your quarterback having to do that too often.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
And it was most of his dropbacks.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
It was, uh, you know, I think Kyle talked to
Darryl Bevell this summer about you know, RBIs in the
in the at the quarterback position and giving him reps
off where he doesn't have to make high level, stressful
reads like this was not one of those games. It
was consistently having to parse through a lot of coverage
and that's a lot of mental strain on your quarterback,
and of course he has to be tough enough to
handle that, but you want to make it easy. I
(19:07):
think the entire job of the play caller is to
reduce that from the quarterback. And on this particular play,
he has Kraycraft on an out to the field from
the one. But the way they would show man and
flip back to the zone, I don't think Tua knew
if the slot cornerback would carry his man or peel
out into the curl flat, so he double clutches. The
protection breaks down against the four man rush, and the
play just totally falls apart. Their defensive tackle bull rushes
(19:29):
Liam right into his lap, which Liam not in this game, buddy,
But he's able to get out of that. But the
problem is when he bubbles back. So usually two of
steps up and through pressure. On this one, he retreats
a couple of yards and because of that, Daniel Hunter,
who Jackson Carmen had a pretty good rep on this
particular play, when he bubbles back, that gives Hunter the
ability to shed that block and go get the sack
(19:51):
fumble on Tua didn't have good ball security either, so
that's really it. They just made him uncomfortable, made him
double clutch, and that pass rush against what we had
in terms of a available bodies. It's a really, really
tough way to make your offense go. I think on
the first pick you saw more of what we talked
about with how the Texans were able to expand their
hook drops that hook linebacker in the middle of the
(20:12):
field and actually this is maybe, you know, probably it
probably should have been in legal contact in the play
he hip checks Tyreek Hill before the ball gets out
and it's eight yards down the fields. That's a flag
to me, and I think that's what causes the route
to round off the way it did. Now you do
have to flatten that route out and you have to
work for the defender. In fact, I texted to OJ
and he was like, you have to cross his face.
You cannot go around him that way because that's what's
(20:34):
going to happen on that throw because that will draw
the flag if you go through him, run through the
guy because he's standing there, it's going to be I
legal contact. And this is another reason to say the
Dolphins probably need more size at the position and Travis
takes a big, fat l guys that can get to
spots with their physicality, because this has been a theme
for three years now and Tua and I mean he
has to be able to see that and not throw
(20:55):
it as well. I get that you got the look
you wanted, but man, Tyreek was never even close to
get into that spot, so he let the reroute work.
And maybe I'm wrong for saying two I should see that.
I don't know, man, but it's just bad football all around.
They got him off his game pretty early, and that's
where I thought the mistakes happened. You know, he worked
Raheem on a little flat route on I think it
was the touchdown drive, maybe the field goal drive. I
(21:17):
forget where Tyreek ran stick nod and it would have
been it was before the Johnny touchdown pass. Tyreek runs
stick nod and we should have run that play all
game long because that's how you open up the middle
of the field when they're doing what they're doing, and
John here runs a slant off the backside of that
was also open. He didn't see any of it, went
to the other side for Raheem Moster. Now, the touchdown
throw to Johndrey Smith was picktime. Quarterback play extends a
(21:37):
play that was dead, which has happened a lot. And
you know two is not a creator, right, he does
has a little bit of his game, but there's too
many play calls that die out for him where he
has to find a way to create. And this time
he does it and puts the ball in the perfect
location for that particular play.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
What a throw gets us back into the game.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
And on the pick the two picks to end the game,
I don't know what he saw on the first Stingley pick.
That one's on him to me. And also a non
human level change of direction skill set from Stingley. Good
play by him, bad play by our guy cost us
in a spot where you could have tied the game
right there on the final pick. Listen, if you're nitpicking
about the ball being throw a foot shorter than it
had to be, I think that you probably just have
(22:14):
an agenda right, because that's a good football. It's not
a perfect ball, but it's a good ball. Catch the ball, man,
there's a moment where it's in only Tyreek's hands and
not in Stingley's at all strong hands. Pull it away.
Keep that football for yourself. But we've dropped balls in
every single big game we've played the last three years.
So yeah, that was two's worst game of the year.
He's played to me two bad games this year. But
I don't even sweat it because you know that he'll
(22:35):
put in three hundred hours of work this offseason to
fix that part of his game, to attack the type
of coverage to make the throws he has to make
to get over that hump, and he'll make it our strength.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
He always does.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
I think when you can pressure as frequently as they
did with three and four and then mix up your
looks and make him hesitate, that's literally the aim of
every defensive game plan you've ever heard.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
So tip your cap to them.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
They lead the league in takeaways and negative plays for
a reason, and we were not good enough.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
That's all it is.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
That's how you lose football games. Individual standouts, there were
not many. Patrick paul I continue to be very encouraged
about what I see with him. I thought he connected
well on some reach blocks. I thought he held his
blocks in the running game as well as anybody the
entire game. And the one area I was hoping to
see some growth from was when rushers would overset him
and then cross face, and there was a rep on
Will Anderson where he locked that exact move down. Now,
(23:21):
he did get beat inside on a glance throw to
Waddle where to had him and it forced an incomplete pass.
He had a holding call they picked up for some
reason where he got beat on that same look. Not
sure why, but to me, another good showing from Patrick Paul.
I think left tackle, center, and quarterback have been the
most consistent positions on the offense this year, and Patrick
Paul has contributed to quality starts to that list. I
(23:42):
thought Malik Washington did some good stuff in the run
blocking game. He ran hard with the football. I thought
Wattle was sharp before he got hurt, and thought Rob
Jones had one of his better games. He had some
nice blocks at the point of attack. Really really tough
day for the offense, though, like even these tiny little details,
we throw a little chip release screen to John hus
Smith and Brewer has a block lined up. The cornerback
ducks the block and is able to trip John new
(24:04):
Smith like he's run through way horror tackles and Brewer's
made way tougher blocks.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
It was just one of those days.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Now, individual misses, there were plenty Liam Eikenberg, so you
know how he's always in the ground like it happens
because of poor balance, and you see that on reps
when guys go for their shed move or if they
overwhelm him with power. The minute a guy engages in
a two gap role and then detaches, Liam falls off
like a stick of melting butter in the microwave.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
He reads.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
His reads and pass protection were terrible all game long,
turning the a gap free with no defenders slanting his direction.
He also consistently failed to get his half of the
man blocked on combinations. This is one of his worst games,
even by the standard the Dolphins fans have for him
in general. There were drop eights where they got pressure
held the play before the first two a pick was
a two man rush and they still moved to off
(24:50):
the spot by bull rushing. Liam protection slide was bad,
but geez man, you know I've said I think that
Liam's a good three position backup on the interior next year.
Hopefully he's super durable, tough as hell. You know, he
played through a tough injury last year. He can play
five positions in a pinch. I don't want to see
him at center, but I think that if you make
him your sixth man on the interior, that's not a
bad place to be. But this game made me think
(25:11):
like that looked like last year at center. Not a
good look, but it wasn't It wasn't good in this one.
I still hold out hope for that long term, you know,
backup role, maybe the seventh offensive lineman. But you get
what I'm saying, Jackson Carmen. There's not a need to
do a deep dive here. It's just not an NFL player.
Let's just leave it at that. I thought Aaron Brewer
missed a lot of blocks were used to him hitting
at the second level. He looked human in that regard.
Julian Hill lost the point of attack more than usual.
(25:34):
I thought Alec kind of got bounced around a little
bit tyreek. The effort was just in freelancing. Can't do it.
And then a Chan that one effort play just drove
me crazy. Snap counts for the offense, the quarterback and
O line go the distant sixty eight snaps. Tyreek played
all the snaps but two. Malik Washington played fifty nine percent,
Wattle thirty eight percent after the injury, of course, Craig
Craft thirty one and Do both sixteen percent. John new
(25:56):
Smith played two thirds of the snaps, Julian Hill played
forty percent, m twenty four percent. A Chan again your
lead back at two thirds of the snaps, Most played
one third, and Jalen Wright had three snaps and alec
Ingold had sixteen snaps in this football game. Last break
right there, come back into the defense Draft Time podcast,
your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Autoundation. All right,
(26:19):
defensive review. I think this was just a lot of
out execution on our part. I mean, not a ton
of mixture in disguise or anything like that. We play
a lot of that Cover three, our primary coverage. We
roll out by running it at the second highest rate
in a game we have in this season. The Rams
game was number one, but we just beat them up
up front time and time again. And as I say
that on the first play of the other side of
(26:40):
the two minute warning in the first half, they run
that exact same inverted two middle of the field buzz
safety look I talked about with the Texans defense, which
fits because they run a Bobby Slowik offense off the
Shanahan tree. Right, we didn't have anybody travel and I
thought that there was you know, more so mixing roles
in different matchups and playing zones and man and blitzing
your slot cornerback here and there. And I thought that
(27:01):
produced way better connectivity than we did last week with
several coverage busts when we had Ramsey, Cater and Kendall
all healthy and practicing all week together. I think the
secondary plays really good football despite some kind of shaky
safety play the whole year. I thought our rushes were coordinated.
I thought our backers were reading the way our defensive
line was engaging and shedding blocks and scraping off of
(27:21):
those blocks. Accordingly, just a really sound, well executed game
plan that mixed it up more as the game went on.
But they just kind of outplayed the Texans in that way.
I mean, if not for the fake punt, we're probably
talking about a thirteen point day for the defense and
shoot the touchdown we scored after that fake punt drive
that led to a touchdown, and you know, who knows
if the game plays out this way, but that would
(27:42):
have been to make it thirteen to twelve, pending a
pat that we would miss.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
So who knows how different?
Speaker 1 (27:47):
It looks really good showing best players played really good
games and kept us in it. And speaking of those
standout players, Cater Kohu is one of the tops on
the list. He studied his butt off this week. Man,
he knew what was coming on a couple of the
big plays he made. He punched out the fumble on
the opening drive and watching that back, Javon Holland is
a fraction of a second from scooping that thing up
just like Jordan Brooks did later in the game and
(28:07):
taking it back for six. So he knocks that football
free on a screen. He blows up a block on
a screen two drives later and gets a TfL. Then
on the drive right before the half, he knows where
his help is, plays outside leverage, anticipates the outbreaking route
and drives on to challenge Tank Dell and break up
the pass. One of the best games I've seen Ko
Kohou play probably since his rookie year Chop Robinson. You
(28:29):
can see his impact before they even get to the production.
Watch how the other team plans for him, how he
influences the way they call games. They are sliding, they
are chipping, they are flat out dedicating multiple bodies on
straight up double teams to take care of your rookie
edge rusher, and he still wins.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Man.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
I think about what a healthy Jalen Phillips could do
to just not just to bookend him, but playing some
three technique next to him in some of the ways
that he can run games and create picks for Chop.
Get well soon, JP, because man, that combination is going
to be fun to watch if we get JP back
healthy a sealer. It started early for him in the
two technique positions, slants off the inside guard's face and
(29:08):
just runs right past him with peer speed and forces
Stroud to throw the ball away. So when a man
like this, with his size, power, length and motor, when
he beats you with speed on the second staf of
the game, that's got to be a pretty hopeless feeling.
Because he can basically go five or six pitches deep
into his bag and he can get you out with
all of them.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
He can throw them all in three two counts.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
And I know baseball is not everyone's favorite sport here,
but it's important to have multiple pitches to get outs with.
And that's what Zach Sealer has. On the individual sack
he had, he jab steps upfield, has a violent arm,
over rips his way into the gap, and closes on
a downhill line to the quarterback finish the sack. What
a great game for Zach Seiler. He would get plenty
more pressure in the backfield, including a critical holding call
(29:49):
on him, and another half of the sack to help
keep the Dolphins alive.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
In the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Jordan Brooks is a hell of a football player, really
really good football player. Starts the game off where he
matches Joe Mixon on a slow play wheel route. You
see mix and slow roll what he's trying to sell
as a flat route. Then he just turns on the
Jets and he gets on top of Jordan Brooks. But
Brooks does a good job of widening the route by
staying in phase just enough to squeeze mix unto the perimeter.
(30:13):
But Stroud's ball is fine, but the way Jay the
way that Jordan Brooks pinned him to the sideline, it
made the throw go out of bounds. On the next drive,
when I Seeler sack, you see a mug up in
the A gap and slant his rush right into the
left guard and the running back steps up to pick
him up and pass pro but he gets past him
with speed and that creates this natural pick that allows
Seiler to scrape off and close on Stroud for that sack.
(30:33):
The very next play makes a TfL in the next
drive where he goes from a stack off ball linebacker
position all the way to the sideline where he splits
a block, defeats a crackback from a receiver, and finishes
by getting mixed into the ground. These last two games
have been as good as you can play off ball linebacker.
I still can't believe he scooped that ball off the
turf from the phone recovery. He scoops it up while
doing a jumping one ad to avoid all the bodies
(30:55):
at his feet. Unreal athletic ability. I think Quentin Bell's
to development arc is pretty interesting. Big combine testing guy
didn't find his way onto a defense to play a
serious role in the first couple of years in Atlanta,
gets here makes a great impression as a practice squad guy,
a good scout team guy, has a great camp and
makes the team, doesn't play much, gets more and more ops,
(31:17):
and starts to play better and better as the year
goes along. He sets such a hard edge in the
running game. He's a guy that I love to have
in the rotation down the road so you can have
your big guns, like you know, Chop and Phillips. Give
him a breather on first and second downs here and
there between a couple of series, because you know, you
can get fifteen snaps from Quentin Bell playing the run game,
and you can get you know, equal run production and
(31:38):
get your guys a couple of plays off to get
them a breath there in the game. He really resets
that thing and gives himself the opportunity to get off
the block both in the B and C gap, and
that's how you have to play the edge. And then
a good game from Javon Holland. I like it when
they sneak him down to the box and let him
fit the run, fly up field against screens and jet
sweeps and just let him play the hook coverage role.
He has some big sticks and they're tight end of
(31:59):
this game, even out Dalton Schultz for a couple of
plays individual misses. I just thought Walker looked really slow
on that tank Dell jet sweep. I mean he also
got lost in coverage in the first touchdown. Maybe he's
banged up, and you know, him and Ployer had a
kind of weird communication or coverage in that play. And
I'm not going to get into Poyer talk because we've
done it so much this year, but I thought it
(32:19):
was rough for him as well. And then Emmanuel ogbad
just the juice on four man rushes just as not
there opposite Chop it would be, you know, and that's
gonna happen when you lose your top two guys to
injury and the third guy never makes it to camp.
So the Dolphin's edge and tackle groups are so banged
up that I don't know what more you can ask for.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
At this point.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
You can say they brought in too many injury prone guys.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
I guess if you want.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
But you're not gonna be able to go four, five,
six deep at these positions and still be productive.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
So that was it.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
The snap counts Javon Holland, Jordan Brooks, Anthony Walker, Kendall Fuller,
and Jordan Poyer all went the distance. Elijah Campbell played
twenty percent of the snaps. He was kind of a
big nickel in this game, or that they ran more
big nichol I should say, and that was his role.
Sealer plays ninety two percent, Campbell sixty four, Benito fifty two,
DeShawn Hand forty percent of the snaps. And that's the
(33:05):
workload you get when this team feels they're kind of,
you know, thin at the edge position without Tyas Bowser.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Obviously they like to.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Run Campbell off the edge a little bit more and
some sealer two so that gives Benito and Hand more
snap counts. Ogbab played eighty four percent of the snaps,
Chop fifty six, Quentin Bell played forty percent, and Mo
Kamara gave you two snaps. No other linebacker played in
the game. And then cater Co who played fifty four percent.
It's a slot and then mc morris, Duck, Saran and
Duke all had one snap on defense. My top five
(33:32):
tapes were Jordan Brooks, Zach Seeler, cater Coohu, Chop, Robinson
and Javon Holland fin Let's Get out of Here podcast
on Wednesday, probably gonna be a bigger picture, maybe off
season preview of sorts even though we're still alive. People
will talk about the scenarios just for the hell of it.
I said I wouldn't do it on the show yesterday,
but hey, we're comprehensive here. We have to cover both.
You know, if you want a podcast talking about the
(33:52):
season's over, we'll do that for you, and we'll talk
about how you can keep the season alive.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Why not?
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Right, why not? Let's do that on Wednesday. Meantime, you
all please be sure subscribe, rate, review the show, follow
me on social. Check out the fish Tank podcast with
Juice and Seth. Great episodes every single Tuesday. Check out
the YouTube channel Dolphins HQ, Media availabilities, and much much more,
and last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot com. Until
next time, fins up, Caroline and Cameron, Daddy just come home.
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