Drive Time: Dolphins Bills Week 9 All 22 Review

We go into the film room and dissect the 30-27 loss to the Bills. Where it went right, where it went wrong and everything in between.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Do I remove galling deep speedwas Peace dot Hell. From
the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield. He's got my heavy
hands in the playoffs. What is up Dolphins and welcome

(00:30):
to the Draft Time Podcast. I am your host, Travis Wingfield.
And on today's show, the All twenty two review from
the Buffalo lost the Dolphins fall to two and six.
I'm gonna tell you where it went right, where it
went wrong, the things I love, the things I didn't love.
Why I thought the quarterback played his best game or
any Dolphins quarterback in the last I don't know thirty years.

(00:51):
We'll break that down, tell you about how the defense
couldn't get off the field of much much more. From
the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
This is the Draft Time Podcast. Mage some general points
off the top here, and you know we'll start with
the offense as we always do on these All twenty
two reviews. I went in on this on the show

(01:13):
yesterday off the broadcast, so I won't do it in
detail again. But I just love the process and attacking
areas of the field that were left vacant by the
Bills defense. Like, okay, so look again, we're two and six.
I get there's mostly frustration across the fan base. This
team is just too talented to be in this position.

(01:34):
All of that justified, But I'm telling you this was
the next evolution for the offense to become an even
better version of the group that finished first in total
offense a year ago. I always felt like we needed
to be able to take advantage of the way teams
defend Tyreek and Waddle a little bit more, even if
that means those guys have to go a game where

(01:55):
they only get a handful of targets, or if they
have a game where they have you know, four k
just for eighty yards, it's pretty effective. It's not Tyreek's typical,
you know, ten for one eighty, but it's pretty good
and they have to be okay with that. I think
that based upon their blocking efforts, it looks to me
like they are and like we saw this with Tua
before McDaniel got here, right. I think back to the

(02:16):
twenty twenty one game at the Jets, where he played
a great game, throwing verticals to Mac Collins, getting his
checkdowns to Adam Shaheen and Miles Gaskin getting his intermediate
work to Isaiah Ford, Like he's shown that he can
move an offense by just going to the open guy,
even if it's not the most notably explosive group in

(02:37):
the world. And quite frankly, those eligible groups were probably
the worst in the NFL at the time. But if
you can give me both of those worlds, I mean,
that's how you pull teams out of the bracket funnel
two man approach we've seen, and sure enough what happened
late in the game. But a vertical shot to Tyreek,
a deep crosser like, a deep glance to Tyreek, a

(02:58):
dig to John new Smith, a deep out to Waddle
for a critical third down conversion, a scramble touchdown to Wattle, Like,
you pulled them out of that by being perfectly efficient
in your other stuff. So while they had the perfectly
timed screen dialed up on three bills blitzes on two
separate scoring drives, dammit, I just also loved the vision

(03:18):
of this offensive attack, and you see it all the time,
really good quarterbacks. They catch the snap, they hit the
top of the drop and the ball starts to come
out when I watch a broadcast and the opposing quarterback
plays like that where it's catch rock throw and you
can't see the coverage down the field because for whatever reason,
someone in football broadcasting decided that you should only see

(03:39):
the pass rushing quarterback and not the entire field. I'll
never understand that, but you usually know it's a bad
play when the quarterback's in rhythm because that means they
saw it and they ripped it and it was to
an open man when they play that fast, and that's
what two was doing all game long, and it's not sexy.
It's five and six yard throws, which we'll come back
to the concept of average depth of targeting the difficulty

(04:01):
of doing these things, because I think there's a large
contingent of non football people that don't understand just how
good that is or what goes into that. But it's
because they know what's going to be there based upon
the pre snap look with anticipation, and they can generate
this you know, forward lean or even run after the

(04:21):
catch to the receiver because they put the ball in
a good location on the upfield shoulder away from the
leverage of the defense, and you can steal seven or
eight yards here or there with really easy over the
football throws. It goes back to the concept that you
know Kyle Krabs asked this to Daryl Bevell in the
summer back in training camp about trying to lighten the
load of stressful reads for the quarterback. That's part of it.

(04:42):
When you can get those spot throws for eight yards
to give yourself a second and two when it's a
relatively easy spot, and it puts you in these consistent
second three second two spots, which is a recipe for
highly efficient football because you can attack explosives and keep
ahead of the chains like you're not going to get
stopped that frequently, especially when your quarterback plays at this level,
your offensive line plays at this level. You have receivers

(05:04):
willing to block, and they're good receivers as well, and
you got a stable of running backs that can hit
you in any cut type of way. So like just
on the first drive alone, eight Chan goes for eight
followed by a spot route to Tyreek for like four
or five. That moves the chains. Easy first down. It's
take that all the all the all day. The ball
was out right away, Tua moves this rail defender just
a little bit the sideline kind of like it's like

(05:25):
a wheel route, but it's from the it's from the
line of scrimmage, so it's not the you know, the
out and up. It's just the straight kind of takeoff
you call it. It's called a rail and the ball
hits reek right out of the break away from the leverage.
They take a sack and after that, on second and
seventeen they have a spot throw to Odell Beckham to
get you right back into the down and distance. It's
not like a shot play. It's not like a give

(05:45):
up running play. It puts you back in third long.
This is our third manageable I should say, this is
the offense that I liked, opposed to again trying to
run the ball on second and ten, which they did
that a couple times in this game, but they got
away with it in some spent some spots, but typically
I don't like to run the ball on second and ten.
I digress. They also run this fake screen draw and

(06:07):
it was, you know, a wrinkle off of the now
throws where they stand up and throw the ball to
the perimeter to the receivers and they it got us
in this positive leverage situation and it pulls ed all
over all the way upfield out of the play. They
just had like answers and then answers to the adjustment
to the answers, we cause confusion on a slow play
screen to Raheem Moster, where they the receivers were all condensed.

(06:30):
They were all inside the numbers, you know. And this
is why it worked because they short motion. Malik Washington,
he was the one receiver to the field, to the
wide side of the field. He was the furthest out
and he motions into a stack, which means he's right
behind Jalen Waddle and he's doing it on the exit
motion track. We know how he used to send Tyreek
out and he would go upfield. And the motion kind

(06:51):
of took the league by storm there for a whole season,
and it caused this confusion between the hook defender and
the curl flat defender. Travis, what does that mean? The
curl flat defense is the perimeter defender, which he can
play that like you know, eight yard curl zone, or
he can play the flat on the quick stuff to
the running back. And the hook defender is quite simply
the linebacker or a slot defender sometimes a safety in

(07:12):
the middle of the field, so it's basically that middle
level of the defense. Curl flat is outside, hook is
on the inside. So they confuse those two guys in
coverage against a Bill's three deep zone coverage, which you've
earned from all the tape you have of Tyreek and
Waddle beating teams deep. So what's the adjustment to that.
And here's why it worked. They brought the lead block

(07:34):
on the play for ahemoster from the backside, so the
front side of their zone coverage can't identify that because
they can only play what's in front of them within
their zone. And so two A patiently back pedals and
lets the rush get in before he flips it right
over their heads. That's screen game one oh one. And
you get John new Smith from the backside Malak Washington
from the front side on these downfield blocks where they

(07:54):
go hit unsuspecting defenders, and there's three defenders that are
five or fifteen yards there was two there were fifteen
yards and one that was five yards beyond the first
down marker being out of the play, and then four
pass rushers on the other side of the ball who
are behind the football and out of the place. So
you have seven defenders all the way out of the play.
You've got well timed up and good angles for Malik

(08:17):
and John who to execute their blocks in the middle
of the field, and Raheem just goes and gets it.
It's when good scheme meets good execution and that is
what makes me happy on a Monday morning watching this tape.
Is Mike McDaniel back, I think you might be We're back.
Who was that Sam Ellinger at Texas? That was a
fun drop. Later we get downhill flow on split flow action,

(08:41):
which you guys know what that is by now right.
It's when you run your zone one direction and the
tight end off the opposite side of the formation comes
back and picks off the backside defender to kind of
make sure they can't crash freely and cut down your
play from the backside. And we run this under route
to John U. Smith where he has a catch and
run of ten yards. Like when you get the run
game going like this, you can scheme up these walk

(09:02):
in the park throws to make stuff easier in your
quarterback and then you go ask your franchise quarterback to
make five or six big time plays in a game.
He had like three big time throws and two big
scrambles and off script type of throws as well. That's
what you're looking for. And this is exactly this is
to a T to a T toungue mailoa. I wrote
my three takeaways piece to day, and I wrote to

(09:24):
a T on offense like T o a tee to
a T and then parenthetical to a T to to
you tu a whatever. Who cares? I lost the thread
there again, this is what Drew Brees did his entire
career en route to the Hall of Fame, right he
you know, and the game manager stuff like I'll say

(09:46):
it for Mike mcdaalelau I asked him about in his
press conference. Which is the cool part about having this
position is I can see what you guys are talking
about and I can go ask the head coach about it.
But there was a you know, it was. It was
such a Drew Brees perform romans in terms of just
you know, Drew used to be. He would go out
four on bye weeks and he would go out at

(10:06):
one o'clock in New Orleans at the super Dome and
run the full game script. And that's just like the
type of player he was. The way he visioned the game.
And I can tell you guys right now some sideline
feedback that when we're talking about player interaction and I
guess demeanor on the sidelines, there's there's one guy that
is always locked in on the game and asking questions
about the game, looking at the tablet and coverages, and

(10:28):
it's to a tongue of by Lowa. He is a competitor.
He is locked in. He is the guy you want
to lead your franchise because of how he's wired in
that way. And that's where Drew Brees was obsessed with
the process and the you know, the route concepts and
the rush and the coverage and how all that comes together.
And that's why Breeze took a while to develop and
became the superstar quarterback in his late twenties and do
his thirties, And here we are too at twenty six

(10:49):
years old. It looks to me like he's unlocked that
next level of his game. On top of the manipulation,
on top of the anticipation, on top of the hibernation
and the consternation and the fluggabration. I'm just kidding this point,
but he like took this ability to know where things
were going to be after the snap pre snap and
maximized it. And that's why you get these massive scoring

(11:12):
runs and touchdowns. And you're scoring on sixty six percent
of your drives since he came back. You're averaging three
point six points per drive since he came back, which
is double the league average. Like this team is on
one on offense, they just need more possessions which gets
some takeaways, maybe get some stops from three and outs
and that would go a long way. But the Cardinals
and Bill's offenses both kind of got whatever they want,

(11:33):
especially in the second half of games. But it's it's
you know one o the kids say, it's giving Drew
brees Man. It really is. Now. There was a single
play that I hated on offense. It was the offset
dive to Raheem Moster on third and one on that
opening field goal drive. Without going in depth, that play
required Tyreek Hill to cut off Taylor rap across his
face when he was out leveraged by two steps. He's

(11:56):
just not going to make that block. I don't think
there's any receiver in the league that does make that
block much less year five to nine speedster, I don't
know this for sure, but I think that Tua has
autonomy to get out of that play, and in that instance,
that's one mistake that he made, aside from a drop
snap that he had. And then there was one more
layer of the game that I forgot, But we're gonna
get to the notes here just a second. We ran
this a few times but never got to it with

(12:19):
Reek and Waddle both getting open on stick nod and
stick nod. If you are not familiar with that, it's
the play that Waddle made against the Ravens two years
ago when he caught it in the middle of the
field and took off like a fifty seven yard run
and Ingold had that crushing block down field. You basically
run stick, which is like a six yard route over
the middle of the football, and then Nod is getting
back up field vertical and the quarterback meets you at

(12:40):
once you juke got that linebacker or slot defender in
the middle, and we kept going to it and says,
it's this great wrinkle off of all the short and
quick game we hit over the perimeter, and sure enough
they do come back to it on the deep ball
to Reek, which wasn't stick nod, but it was a
double move, a little out and up, which is similar
to stick nod. So we saw something there and went
after a relentless and Tua missed the throw by just

(13:02):
a hair on that deep shot. But it wasn't as
bad as they made it seem on the broadcast. Or
maybe even two was getting on himself, which you should
believe too, because he knows where the ball is supposed
to go. But Damar Hamlin, are you guys familiar with
the red line on the football field. It's on the
practice field, it's not in game day field, but it's
the line that receivers are supposed to hold when they
run vertical that way. Tamar Hamlin was like one step

(13:23):
away from where the red line would be, which means
he was gonna converge. And if the ball's even a
step further inside, I think Tyreek gets blasted. Now, there
was a perfect spot he could have put it for
a maybe a little bit more of a catch and run,
but I really don't think it cost him more than
like five or six yards, and it kept Tyreek Klan
from taking a big hit. Now, it did put the
ball into a contested catch spot, which I don't love that,
but he made the catch, so all is good here

(13:45):
on this one. Just a quick shout out to a
few guys on the a Chan Texas screen. Touchdown. Obj
has a great block downfield. Rob Jones has a crushing
block at the point of attack to give him the
initial space. Aaron Brewer winds up in the end zone
before Devon a Chan does, which just shows you how
much effort he puts into it. I love that stuff,
and gosh, like, the big takeaway is kind of this.

(14:07):
They lined up against a good football team that plays
big boy football and plays connected and has coached well
and usually beat you up in the trenches, and they
took it to them. You lined up and went at them.
There wasn't bells and whistles, there wasn't any cute bs.
They just played football and took it to them and
scored on like, what was it, six of the eight
possessions or five, however many it was. I think I

(14:31):
think that was the best part about the game, even
if you came up short at the end. The biggest
thing for me is, for the love of God, please
learn from that and keep doing it as we go forward.
That's my only thing. My final thought is this and again,
I know there's a massive section of Dolphins fans that
do not want to hear this, and that's okay. You
are within your rights as a fan to well, for one,

(14:52):
do whatever the hell you want, because you know that's
your right in any sense. But as a fan, you
can be upset about looking at black and white results,
which that's not my job here. So when I tweet
something about the game and you say one in three
though whatever it is like that, I'm not for you
go to the newspaper and read the box score, because
that's not what I do. I provide nuance and contexts

(15:15):
and critical context too, But I feel I feel like
you learn some hard lessons this year. Lessons that and
this is where I can get mad too. Should probably
have only taken four weeks, but it took them eight
and two. A injury is the caveat there. But still
the offensive structure it was bad early on, Like it
had me questioning things about the structure of the offense
and what are we doing here in your number three?

(15:36):
Like it was not what I expected coming in and
that wasn't a quarterback dependent thing. It was bad for
I thought all the quarterbacks early on didn't matter the
personnel choices I didn't love either. I thought Malik, you know,
he was hurt early on, but we've taken a lot
longer to ramp him up than I thought was required.
And you can't tell me that chose him. Braxton or
Grant Dubos were better options than that guy early on.

(15:58):
And quite frankly, he looks to me kind of like
River Craycraft two point zero in this offense, and probably
with more juice as a receiver. What a boon that
would be to the offense. So it's probably a little
bit too late at two and six. If they had
won yesterday or against the Cardinals Omber three and five,
I would say, this is your seventh seed in the
AFC playoffs. But I think you might have given yourself

(16:19):
one game too much of a whole. But what does
Mike McDaniel always say, You have to make losing purposeful.
Let's take this year, Okay, take it on the chin,
get those few week spots buttoned up on the offense,
play some really good offensive football all the way down
the stretch, develop further continuity and Anthony Weavers system, and
go remix some of the positions you're going to have
to do this offseason, like go after the edge group,

(16:41):
go after defensive line depth this offseason, and come back
and be the offense you saw yesterday, but be that
in week one and the defense that you saw in
weeks three through seven. Be that from week one, Go
win fourteen games, go play two home playoff games, and
go to the Super Bowl. Okay, that's the vision. That's
the basket I'm putting my eggs in when I'm rooting
for the rest of the year, because last week I
didn't know what to root for, because I didn't know

(17:02):
if this team had the gumption to do what we
saw yesterday offensively. Now that I've seen that, that's why
I want the rest of the way. And again more caveats.
I know Dolphins fans have the smallest patients of any
fan base and again warranted, but you have to also
be logical to understand that you cannot let twenty four
years of futility impede your decision making today. Right, what

(17:23):
happened prior to twenty twenty two is not relevant to
the staff. So if it's a six game period where
you looked like you were not NFL worthy and you
learn from that. Okay, I can bite the bullets, so
to speak, on that and invest myself into other loves
I have while this season kind of plays its way out.
My wife, my kids, my golf game. You know, I'm

(17:43):
a big film and show buff, my golf YouTube channels,
the Mariners, the Heat College hoops in March and April.
I am more than willing to not think the world
is over when the football season is kind of over
at this point in life. If you can't get there
with me, understandable again. But it does feel nice to
have direction once again and to be able to cope
with the perspective that sometimes otherwise good operations have years

(18:06):
where it just does not go their way. And I'm
going to do this on the Wednesday podcast where I
talk about some teams that had one year hiccups in
the road of otherwise good builds. And that's again the
vision that I'm hoping for. I'm not saying it's going
to happen, but that's what I think you can see
as the positive end of the tunnel light with this
whole situation. Let's go ahead and take our first break
right here, come back and talk about a quarterback that

(18:28):
I think played the best game we've seen the Dolphins
quarterback play in a very long time. The rest of
the offensive notes, the snapcounts, defensive notes, as well all
of that. Next Draft Time Podcast, your host Travis Wingfield,
brought to you by Autnation. Many many thoughts on this
edition of the Draft Time Podcast because that game kind

(18:48):
of brought me back to life a little bit, even
a loss, I know, but I think I explained myself
pretty well there. But usually the quarterback segment goes into
the first segment of the podcast, but I had so
much to say here that twe do it in the
second segment, second sessant sesgment on the posecast here with
DRIs Ton trist Swingfield. So again I mentioned it earlier,
but you know who this tape reminded me of, and

(19:12):
remember who he was compared to throughout the draft process.
That was Drew Brees playing quarterback for your Dolphin yesterday.
He knew the answers to the test before he went
into the classroom. He was like me in high school
with the water bottle and the rap on the back
of the arrowhead bottle, having the answers written on the
back of it. You unfold it, you peel it off.
You look at it, write down your test answers, turn

(19:33):
your test in, you get a passing grade. Congratulations, you
cheated away through high school. I remember Breeze efficiently spread
the football to Kamara and Ingram tight ends and receivers,
maximizing that duo of Kamara and Ingram to full effect
after it was Reggie Bush and Ingram before Kamara got there.
And I think Tua has all of that. This will
be a theme on the podcast this week, but I
feel like I'm as excited about where this offense is

(19:55):
right now as I've been during this entire three year run. Yeah. Yeah,
the two and six part sucks. It sucks. I made
peace with the fact that the season's too late, and
quite frankly, it was kind of when Tua got hurt
back in Week two where I was like, all right,
this year ain't gonna be our year, just one of
those years. But it's kind of continued that direction because
they've only won one game since then, a barn burner
against the Patriots. And you know, I suppose making my

(20:18):
piece with it that early on made it a bit
easier to swallow now. But all the last few weeks
I kept saying, I just don't know what's best for
the Miami Dolphins, But now I do know. It's this
offense doesn't have to lose any parts sans maybe a
left tackle that retires and he's playing the best ball
of his career. And hopefully the guy you drafted in
the second round is ready to take that spot in
your number two. Which that's how it should work if

(20:40):
you're going to be an effective franchise. Right, And then
we get you know, we can add better depth across
the offensive line, like that's really all you need at
some key spots and make that third receiver spot or
the depth in general a major point of contention because
I'm tired of watching it play out the way it has.
And oh, by the way, get better tight end depth
behind John Ruys Smith. Think about that. You need what
a couple of replacement level guards maybe maybe one. You

(21:03):
need a backup center probably would help. You need a
tight end two and like a receiver three ish. Like
that's like when my wife sends me to publics and says,
I need bread, milk and bread. It's the easiest shop
than the list of all time. We can execute that,
no problem. I back to the quarterback spot here. I'm
kind of I've been really thinking about like future and
tying it into today's team, so like, bear with me there.

(21:24):
But I do have one mistake. For two on the day,
it was the snap that he dropped. That's not true,
I have I wrote these notes like in different times,
so forgive me for that. But on tape, on that play,
Austin Jackson gets beat by von Miller straight away, so
it's gonna be a stack of the way. Tua's only
in completion that wasn't a throwaway was actually a drop
passed by Tyreek Hill a third eleven on the opening drive,

(21:44):
and you see Rasul Douglas's hand get in there, but
it does hit Tyreek right in the chest at the
sticks he drops it, And it wouldn't be a game
against a really good team if Tyreek did not have
a huge drop right. That's a cheap shot, but it's true.
It happens every single time we play a good team.
I mean, this game was just master for his feel
for space and time all game long, getting deep into

(22:05):
his progression, finding the outlet as the fourth and fifth option,
putting it on the upfield shoulder to help guys run
out for the catch, throwing with accuracy under the face
of pressure, creating off script. I covered a lot of
it in the general offense section, but let's start here
in the end of the third with this throw to
Tyreek Kill that you've seen a million times on social
from all the film junkie accounts, where he cuts this
thing loose with Tyreek between the two hook defenders and

(22:28):
you'll see them both leading to their left, and that's
because Tua strides that way and displaces them with body positioning,
but throws it back across his body to Tyreek Hill
on the breaker and he gets clobbered by Ed Oliver
on the play. The ball's right on the money and
it goes for thirty one yards, a career highlight type
of play from the quarterback, and he just got better
from there. On that first touchdown drive of the fourth quarter.

(22:50):
I thought he was late on the third and five
throw to eight Chan to the flat, late by like
one step, which I think cost him a first down
on that play, But he comes back and scrambles for
a first on fourth down, So who really cares? Remember
that nineteen yard seams shot the Tyreek Hill where Trent
Green praised the adjustment. On the broadcast late in the game,
you got curl flat displacement because Tua did this little

(23:11):
shoulder roll to the Wattle square in it causes the
byde up, but then he's able to get the ball
up and down so fast when he resets. That's part
of too a superpower. Where some quarterbacks take some time
to get their feet right or put themselves in position
to start their throwing motion, Tua doesn't have to do that.
They have to see it and then they can operate
the throwing motion and the release. But Tua can generate

(23:33):
all of that at the same time, like simultaneously see
it and hit it. And it's impressive as hell. And
that's the best way I can describe what makes him special.
He sees the field as well as anybody else in
the National Football League and has the physical skills to
rip it as fast as he sees it. And that
third down throw to Wattle the out route was a
thing of beauty. The blitz is on, he feels the

(23:54):
press trail technique of the cornerback and puts the ball
right on the outside shoulder right out of the break.
That ball has to be perfect location and timing and
it was third and seven game on the line. Conversion
two plays later is the nineteen yard touch throw to
eight Chan and Tua creates this by working through his
progressions and then throwing the ball on the upfield shoulder
so DeVaan doesn't slow down to stare down the barrel

(24:16):
in order to hold the defense. Then to flip back
to the perimeter and get that ball out in that location.
All that quickly is flat out talent. He holds the
defenders where they are and by the time he gets
over there, their reaction to him because the ball's out
so fast it's the same time that he goes, So
he has them beat because he's faster with them with
how quickly he can put the ball in that position.

(24:38):
And then the second touchdown the primary is not there
a little stick flag combination to wreak and waddle As
he resets the pocket moves, but he moves with it
and kind of feels how that pocket shifts around and
his movement causes the rush lanes to fall out of whack,
allows him to attack the line of scrimmage, and a
tremendous job by Waddle to move with his quarterback tu
what throws it across his body on the move to

(24:59):
the right on the money bang touchdown tie game late
in the game. That's the best tape I've seen from
Dolphins quarterback ever. That's what it is, man, probably the
best tape since number thirteen was here, almost without flaw,
high level anticipation, manipulation, creativity, big time throws on third downs,
maximizing space, in fact, one of the biggest pet peeves
I have in this game. And I spoke to someone

(25:20):
that does this at a high level, like they didn't
give them credit because the average depth of target and
like the lack of big time throws. Just by the way,
there were three big time throws in this games. Me
that Tyreek Hill shot over the middle. If that's not
a big time throw, then redo your big time throw
type of metrics. But it doesn't. Just because the throws
are short doesn't mean it's not high level quarterback play.

(25:42):
Like if they're gonna blitz and you and you identify
the blitz and throw it into that vacancy to Devon
eh Chan naked. I would rather do that than throw,
you know, a covered forty yard deep shot that gets
you know, a fifty to fifty ball that gets caught.
That's a way more effective quarterback play. It's it's it's
low risk, high reward quarterback play. And so I asked
Mike McDaniel on Monday, like, how would you push back

(26:03):
against this idea that being a game manager has a
negative connotation attached to it? And how would you also
kind of reflect upon that when you consider, you know,
Tua's game on Sunday and the fact that his brow
chart only had x amount throws down the field, Like,
how do you bundle all that together and describe what
made his performance special? Let's go to the Miami head coach.

Speaker 2 (26:23):
We've found found the hard way going against a division
opponent that's you know, at the top of of the
class and defensive football for the last couple of years,
that that you know, particularly the Buffalo Bills, UH will
UH will force bad things to happen, sack fumbles, picks

(26:46):
if you uh, if they want to take something away.
And football in general is UH is about maximizing uh,
you know, specifically our offenses maximizing overplay. And if you're
going to overplay with depth, you have to execute in

(27:07):
in high percentage completions and yards after the catch that
aren't necessarily the cross court gigantic plays, but are the
throw at for four and you get seven? Uh, and that,
And that's kind of the art of that that particular
style of defense when they want to play that, when
they want to play the way they've proven to have

(27:30):
success against our offense.

Speaker 1 (27:32):
And I thought it was a.

Speaker 2 (27:37):
A great display of Tua's evolution of finding completions and
utilizing his accuracy and challenging the areas of the field
that weren't overpopulated. And you know, with a team that
plays with a bunch of quarterback vision that relies on turnovers,

(27:58):
it's absolutely absolutely imperative to be able to pass the
pass the ball efficiently and take advantage of the areas
where they're avoiding.

Speaker 1 (28:09):
So I think that's an art.

Speaker 2 (28:13):
What you're saying, managing the game against zone defenses, you
usually can't against really good zone defenses. You can't manage
the game in the way of just finding checkdowns because
if you go to the checkdown too early in the play,
they play deep and we'll sprint forward and you'll get
you'll get a two yard game. So you have to

(28:36):
play the position to get the appropriately to get the
ball to the eligibles at the time of the play,
and that is an art form that many many quarterbacks
find very difficult, particularly against the Buffalo Bills. So I
thought yesterday was a great example of aggressively taking what

(28:58):
the defense gives you. And you know, he was able
to do some have some success that we haven't had
in the past based upon his commitment to his craft
and being aggressive to all eligibles, based upon overplay.

Speaker 1 (29:18):
All right, so go ahead and finish up the offense
here on this style. We'll take our last break into
the defense. No snapcounts today, it's just we're getting too
long on the podcast. Devon Hien is seeing it like
I thought he saw it last year. With his vision.
I don't think it's the best on the team, but
his explosiveness more than makes up for it. And it
makes for a fun combination because he can hit those
gaps and get through him with a pretty good conviction.
He converted a third and one play in the second

(29:39):
quarter where Taron Johnson squeezed down on the B gap
and Hn does this like accelerated jump cut where he
just runs right past him, and it looked so effortless.
He is a smooth glider man I put Tyreek in
here because the pacing on his routes. He blocked his
ass off again, that catch on the sideline was terrific,
so he gets into the notes this week. Waddle on
the loan sack the second drive of the game, We're

(30:00):
Austin got beat on the inside post by von Miller.
Wattle ran that same stick nod route that he ran
in Baltimore and completely jukes out the defensive back. There's
also some routes where he's pretty clearly not part of
the progression, like, for instance, we hit the rail glance
wheel replaced, which that's a mouthful, but you basically run
a deep route up the sideline, a deep route down
the seam, and then the running backs wheel route is

(30:21):
replacement of either the seam or the wheel. In this instance,
it was the seam, and Waddle's the loan eligible to
the other side of the field and he runs his
butt off just to get to the area to create
conflict and pull the play side coverage away. But he's
not getting the ball and he doesn't look back to
the quarterback. So it's a love of the game route
where you just you know, be there for your brothers.
So He also had the critical third down and long

(30:44):
conversion blocks his butt off as well, and helped create
space with his effort on non primary routes. So Wattle
did his job in this game as well. I thought
Malik Washington could play. You know, he can play in
this offense for fifteen years the way he blocks, and
I know he's tud he's like nobody else's business. There
was a toss player where Rahi Moster got like twelve
yards where Eleak Washington comes under the formation as the

(31:04):
sift man, where he kind of is like a full
back of sorts and tries to find out who's the
available block to him, and he's looking inside, but you
see Tron Armstead and Jalen Waddle execute a crackback and
a reach block for the two of them. So you
see his head quickly pivot to the outside and there's
a lone cornerback out there on an island, and he
changes his track and goes and hits the block on

(31:24):
a full sprint to spring raheem to that second level.
I think in a year or two, we'll look at
this guy kind of like a river Craycraft of sorts
with more receiver juice. Which is a great thing for
depth of this receiver room. Alec Ingold just massive props
to the number of times he's asked to go wham
a defensive tackle or play head up on a five technique.
He's giving up seventy pounds two. He's a tough dude,

(31:44):
a big part of this offense. I'm out of superlatives
to give to Aaron Brewer, I said last week. I
think he's on the AFC Pro Bowl squad in the
sense that there aren't two centers playing better football than
him in the conference. I'm gonna go ahead and call
him the starter right now because he's just as awesome.
You're talking about an out leverage linebacker the second level
that he goes and gets and wipes out with five

(32:05):
yards of depth down the field, twenty five yards of
width across the field. You're talking about reaching and pinning
one shades to the playsign on the regular, which is
not a block. You should win all that often, much
less every damn time. You're talking about flawless footwork in
transition to pick up rush games across the front. You're
talking about finding work and going and getting a rack
of ribs and pass protection. You don't got anybody to block.

(32:26):
Go hit the guy that's blocked up with your guard
and make him regret that pass rush like it's the
best center player you've had since Mike Pouncey. I said
that in the podcast last week, I might have to
start going back to Dwight Freak and Stevenson. With the
way he's playing, it's elite tape after elite tape every
single week. Austin Jackson is a great player too, Exceptional
seals at the point of attack on many a big runs,

(32:47):
more elite attacking defenders in space on the perimeter. He
had one bad pass set where he got beaten gay
up of sack, but his ability to get a piece
with some quick movement and athletic ability and how that
pairs with his edge that he plays with is such
a fun player man. His block on the eighth Chan
touchdown run, he's outflanked by a gap and a half
wins across a one gap upfield. Edge's face who wants

(33:08):
to play downhill himself, so he has to get off
the snap, quick hold his balance, and play with physicality
and run him off the spot while he's trying to
run the other direction like he's trying to basically move
a Ford pinto from you know, going twenty five miles
an hour in a school zone and he fights like
hell to stay on the outside shoulder and he seals
it off. Maybe the best play of his entire career.
Having another great year, really really good football weekend week out,

(33:32):
Toront Armstead more of the same. I think it's his
best year as a dolphin. He's going out and getting
key blocks on screens. Looks to be in great shape,
He's faster, he's more explosive. Great year for Toront Armstead.
I think Liam and Rob have had a good month
as well. They have really taken to the multiple scheme
and hey, you know, the nice part about being so
good in the running game is you remove the spots
that rushers crave all day long on true drop back passes,

(33:54):
and we barely had any of those because these guys
are getting their job done and outside zone, inside zone, duo,
pen and pool everything and they do it with connectivity
and physicality. Again, however, please allow me to state this.
I think the shortcoming of the offensive line are the
true drop back sets from those two guard positions and
sometimes Austin Jackson, but to Tyreek to a had tyreek,

(34:17):
I should say on stick nod for a touchdown, but
because Liam got abused in a one on one spot
against at Oliver, he couldn't get the ball out there.
But he did find the checkdown quite beautifully. So there
are shortcomings, they're just not all detrimental until you get
down by three touchdowns, which the game is usually over
at that point anyways. So that's where my soapbox ends.
I feel like you could put the entire offense here.

(34:37):
John Nus Smith had a big day as well. Raheem
was good until the fumble. Individual misses. It's gonna sound
like I'm calling somebody out, but that's kind of what
it was. There was one miss in the entire offense
on balance, and it's a player That've been talking about
this way for a while now. I mean, I'm looking
at good pre snap leverage on outside zone against Casey
two Hill, you know, not Casey three Hill, Casey two Hill,

(34:58):
and you're a blocking tight end. He just throws on
your butt like it just has to be better than that.
For Durham Smyth, we missed Julian Hill, if you can
believe that much. And that's the biggest area I need
to address on the offense next year. Receiver three probably
right there too. But I think that you just can't.
You know, Odell Is I like him on tape. I
don't think he can count on the guy and I
don't think he's you know, fitting in quite well enough.

(35:19):
But yeah, it's the shopping list from earlier. And you
know Durham with the false start, with zero juice in
the passing game and below replacement the whole point of
attack play, it's just unplayable. Let's come back on the
other side, talk about the defense quickly, get out of here.
Drivetime podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by automation. Defensively,
we don't have the personnel that's the podcast now. I'm

(35:40):
just kidding it, but that kind of is the case.
You know. I do love that there's a real emphasis
on playing the style of game that your opponent calls for.
Like the Dolphins played their most quarters coverage over a
quarter of the snaps fittingly on the season, and also
had no snaps in cover two, which is you know,
you guys, help those coverages are and the reason you
do that is is to not get man cornerbacks turning

(36:02):
away and running off the perimeter, and for a quarterback
that can beat with his legs, and when the quarterback
takes off and runs, you're more likely to have defenders
that can close from depth in those spots, especially when
you can you have a robber peel off and do
it from those quarters looks where you can play some
four high and also protect the middle of the field
against those crossers and deep digs and things of that nature,
Whereas in too deep you typically get even deeper drops

(36:26):
from those safeties, and those defenders can much more easily
be ran off their post by vertical routes, whereas in
quarters you can pass off and still you know, keep
your eyes in the backfield and just respect the quarterback
run a little bit more. The other thing from a
design standpoint that I really liked was the emphasis on
holding the edge against Josh Allen, especially that right edge.
We saw it on the AGBA TfL early in the game.

(36:46):
We saw it a couple times when we were able
to effectively marry up the interior pressure with the cutoff
escape patch off the right to not allow him to flee,
and that's when he will just sometimes fade away from
it and throw the ball away and live to fight
another day, which is a great development for his game
because he should be willing to take another down because
any given down, this guy can smoke you. And don't
turn it over and you give yourself more cracks at

(37:07):
the apple. And that's what he's been doing for the
last couple of years. I don't really have any qualms
with how it looked from a scheme standpoint. I thought
making the switch to Anthony Walker was the right move
given David Long's I guess availability right now. I like
how they used Cam on the perimeter exclusively, and they
kind of used a healthy mix of both Ramsey and
Fuller inside. I just think we are really, really, really

(37:27):
shorthanded in some key areas. I know Jaln Phillips played
a good chunk of the Buffalo game in this week two,
but we've now played three straight games against Buffalo without
Beach Ubb and an of those games two and a
half those games without JP. We didn't have Javon for
two of those games. Seler misses this one. It's like
core pillars at every level of your defense and they
just don't have the I mean, it's not a scheme

(37:47):
like Buffalo's where everyone knows it for the last eight
years and they have the development and depth to keep
running it. Our depth is bad, and then that's what
you're seeing right now. I do think there's a miscommunication
with Neil and Fuller on the mac Hall touchdown, but
that's what return motion can do to you, where they
motion a player away from his original position and then
back to it, and it causes this confusion in the communication.

(38:10):
And then not only does Sarran Neil not run with him,
he collisions Kendall Fuller, which creates a natural row on
the defensive side. It's a good play call. They got
us tip your cap and it was a big play
in the game. Last note here, real quick. I thought
cam Smith had his best rep as a pro on
the Jordan Poyer personal foul. He stayed right on top
of that double move, stayed in phase, and broke it
up textbook coverage. It's just too bad Trojan Horse killed

(38:33):
the play. Individual standouts Chop Robinson's first third down of
the game. He smokes Dion Dawkins, a great left tackle
off the football and forces Alan to basically throw the
ball away. He just turned into a vacant area of
the field in that one, so big impact play from
the jump and defense gets off the field. The sack
on the last drive was one of several instances where
he put Dion Dawkins on skates, falling back on his heels.

(38:55):
But that neutral zone infraction just cannot happen, dude. Like
on that final he they just ran three verticals all
into double coverage and Alan just said like, I'm gonna
give it a chance, and the Trojan Horse did it
for him. But if you're third and fourteen, I wonder
how different that might look. Ogba played a very emmanual
ogball game. There's not really a lot of juice in
the pass brush, but a true forced defender off the

(39:16):
edge that he lost contained just one time and it
was a big run, But for the most part he
did a good job of really holding gap integrity off
that edge. Kalayus Campbell continues to be dominant. You can
just see it off the tape, like jumping off every week.
He doesn't get displaced. He can one gap you, he
can force your back into stopping his feet, or he
can mess with the rhythm of your passing game and
the quick game and he does it from so many positions. Man,

(39:38):
the way the way he puts guys on the ground
with both quickness and power, like his swim move and
his crossover steps. He just messes with so much stuff
on his own. And we got to get Seeler back
because those two guys together were kind of holding things together,
and without Sealer, some of Campbell's plays don't quite go
as noticed Ramsey. I just find it so fun to
track his pre snap alignments on down the down base.

(40:00):
They have him come down and fit the run, blitz
the edge, match up on a tight end, play head
up over the X, cover the slot, play the curl, flat,
play a deep fourth and quarters. He does everything at
a high level. And that's why I don't think the
proverbial cornerback cliff is a real thing for him. You know,
most cornerbacks kind of fall off of a cliff, like
xaviing Howard at age thirty. And the reason I don't
think that applies to him is because I don't think

(40:21):
he's a cornerback. I think he's a defensive player. He's
the next Charles Woodson. And yeah, that pick, it's a
drop pass, but the way he ripped it away was
just flat out awesome. And then Kendall Fuller is the
last one here. I just love his feel and spatial awareness,
like he's so adept at passing off and picking up,
and that's so valuable for a guy that plays as
many positions as he does. I think right now with
Sealer down, he and Ramsey as a pairing are the

(40:43):
best element of this defense, one of the best tandems
in the entire NFL. Individual misses, there was lots of them,
the entire front, beyond Campbell, Ogbaugh and Chop like hand
Benito Peelee. It was rough Feral. I don't see it
there at all. He's constantly washed out. Without Seiler, we
have almost no hope and shit short yardage, He's such
a difference maker there and teams just kind of run
the ball down our throats in third and short. May

(41:05):
was not good. The mistackle on the radium a touchdown.
He was also in great shape on Keyon Coleman on
the two point conversion and he gets joked out by
a guy who moved like a carnival cruise line. Can't
have that. Jordan Poyer, He's made more winning plays for
the opposition, you know, the drop pick last week, the
personal foul this week, then he's made general plays for us.
It's two to nothing right now, so I would you know,

(41:27):
I'd love to see Patrick mc morris get back and
take that job. Cam Smith, I thought struggled. They ran
this rub where he took the long way around the backside.
You just can't do that. You'd be more aware of that.
But he doesn't have, you know, a ton of reps,
so I suppose that that's something he has to kind
of grow with. Next play he gets flagged for a
PI that I disagreed with. I'd like to see him
keep playing, and that's probably the case for a lot
of the younger guys here. I do think we can

(41:47):
go on a run, especially if you beat the Rams.
It's kind of like, how do we do through the
Jets game. I think you can win all four of
those games as well, and if you do that, you'd
be five or seven and six going to Houston with
four more games to play and the season's back on.
But I think that the bigger thing you should focus on,
because you know, you can lose football games in any
any type of way. Sometimes they don't always go your way.
Is to you know. Give Jalen Wright the one B role,

(42:09):
give them a leak Washington the receiver three role. Give
Chop Robinson more of a role than he already has,
which I guess you can't Wally to do so he's
in a good spot. Give Mohammed Kamara a bigger role.
I'd start Patrick McMorris when he gets back. I think
the only one I would I would keep it the
way it is is Patrick Paul because Tron Armstead is
playing like a pro bowler and I'm not going to
mess with two was offensive line Saran Neil. Shame on
me for calling for more snaps on defense in August

(42:31):
because he was brutal in this game. That third down
holding call was key on cross and Esque like everything
else was covered up. We had the right call, we
won based upon the call, and you just bear hug
the receiver and give him a free first down. Just
game changing stupidity there. I thought Jordan Brooks had one
of his more challenging games. The Ray Davis touchdown. I
thought was mostly his issue because he never got out there.

(42:52):
I could be wrong, but I thought that was his responsibility.
I thought Anthony Walker was better than David Long last week,
but that was a low bar to clear because Long
had a really rough game. He got stuck on that
mesh that or that James Cook dropped that would have
been an easy touchdown, and was just out of position
a couple times, like the big key on Coleman play
on their last touchdown drive. He just ran himself in
the no man's land with faalse steps and Alan flips

(43:12):
it over his head for a big play. If he
could have got depth in the hook zone, could have
made a play on the football there and created a negative.
It was just bad man. We're playing with a lot
of guys that I don't think she'd be playing really
anywhere in the league. I think right now you've got Campbell, Seeler, Brooks,
Ramsey and Fuller as true lunch pins. Caterer has come on,
so I'm curious see what he looks like when he
comes back. Javon has what is his third injury of

(43:34):
the year. He had like three or four of them
last year, and he's not been that impactful when he
has played. We're going to get you know, we're not
gonna get the edge help we need this year. Like
it's that's just how it is. It's kind of like
last December. It's it's just kind of over there. It's
gonna be about this offense, kind of trying to carry
the water the rest of the way and to do
something special and run the table because that edge spot
is just not repairable in season. Man, how quickly things

(43:56):
change because you go from the deepest edge group in
the NFL last couple years with Phil and Chubb and
Van Ginkel and not having any of those guys in
SHAQ barrett retirement, which was a bigger blow than I
think we maybe thought myself especially I just don't know
how you cobble it together going forward. But yeah, it's
bad really across the board. My top five tapes Number one, TUA,
number two, Aaron Brewer, number three, Devon eight Chan, number four,

(44:17):
Jayalen Ramsey, number five to Ron Armstead and five B
just for a shout out to Chop Robinson. I thought
he played his best game as a pro. You all
please be sure to subscribe, rate review, Follow me on
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(44:38):
Until next time. Finn's Up. Carolin and Cameron Daddy come
and hold