September 14, 2025 • 32 mins
It was a back and forth affair between the Dolphins and Patriots, but New England made more plays to find the winner’s circle. Travis is recapping it all through themes of the game, big picture takeaways, individual standouts and so much more.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up, Dolphins? And welcome to the Draft Time Podcast.
I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show,
the Dolphins fall thirty three twenty seven to the New
England Patriots. They snap a long losing streak here at
hard Rock Stadium, and a long streak of wins for
Tuoa against that team, and a whole lot other things
that did not go in the Dolphins favor. We'll get
(00:32):
to the checklist, the themes of the game, the individual
standouts and stand downs, the takeaways from the Baptist Health
studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the
Draft Time Podcast, and.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I'm gonna run the risk here of.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Like repeating myself multiple times in the show, because I
kind of feel like I want to start with my
overarching theme on the show here, but I don't want
to spoil it and repeat myself multiple times. But I
will say this, like that was a game the Dolphins
lose thirty three twenty seven.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
If you didn't see the game, you're not listening to
the podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
I don't know why the point of doing this is,
but Miami has a punt return touchdown gives up a
kick return touchdown, back, can't answer offensively, throws a pick,
gets the ball back after a nice defensive stand to
force a long field goal, gets into prime position and
has a pass to Devon a Chan who makes another
stellar move and another long potential touchdown that gets brought
back because, like Antonio Brown for the twenty thirteen Pittsburgh
(01:27):
Steelers in that snow game against the Miami Dolphins, steps
three or four inches onto the white perimeter on the sideline,
it comes back, and the Dolphins continue to falter from
there with the same issues that have really plugged this
team for the last four years, right, three years and
two games, I should say, and.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
You can't come.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Away from that game like if you would have won
that game, it would have felt like you snatched a
victory from the jaws of defeat, right, like you stole one,
like you got away with one. And so in a
season where it starts to feel like more about ealuation,
that wouldn't have made you feel a lot better.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
You would you would have loved the win.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
And don't get me wrong, I go to the Paddock
Club to do postgame radio with Jamal bush Rod, and
I'm fist pumping. Yeah, but like after the fact, like
I was resigned to it because I see where this
is going, right, And you know, McDaniel had a comment
after the game saying that he was proud of the
way guys didn't give up or what was the exact quote.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Let me find it real quick.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I got it in text to me, I felt really
good about the lack of desperation in our team. And
then you get to the press conference post game about
the communication and the plays getting in and you know,
it kind of going into a circle of accountability and blame.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
It's just like enough, you know.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
And I had a friend text me about like the
out the the fallout from this and the outcome of
the season and what they need to do.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I'm like, who cares? Man? You know, Like I don't
get me wrong.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
I care more than anything that's I care more than
anything else in the world besides my wife and children
and my first place, Sila Maris.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Possibly.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
But show me something different, man, show me a different movie,
because I've seen this one before. It would be nice
to mix in a Citizen Kane amid the Room right,
amid Final Destination forty three, amid whatever the hell Marvel
rolls out and I apologize to Marvel fans, but they're
all the same movie to me, like, it would be
(03:21):
nice to get a godfather in there once in a
while because that Devon ah Cham play and even coming
back from down twelve, Oh gosh, the way it gets
my emotions going and then zaps them right out of you.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Oh it sucks. It just sucks. Man.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
That whole game hurt. We're we're gonna come back and
get into more than nitty gritty here. Let's go ahead
and pick this up with the pregame checklist, because from
a personnel usage standpoint, I was curious would it look
the same, would they change things up?
Speaker 1 (03:49):
And I thought there was some good and some bad there.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Tanner Connor still got a bunch of run and we'll
get into the snap count on tomorrow's episode. I don't
know exactly how much he played. I thought Devon ah
Chan was in pass bro again, but in a more
productive way where he was able to kind of chip
and get into the pattern. That was a big question
for me. Can we do that and have the right
side of the offensive line survive. Does Dante Trader take
away more of the safety snaps he would in rotation,
(04:12):
but later on Ifi Mela Famu got hurt and exited
the game, so you got more of him there. We
saw Willy Gay for the first time was at the
third of the fourth quarter, and he makes two impact
plays right away, right, so that was good to see.
I suppose Alli Gordon I was excited about his one
carry and then we never saw him again. Does Zeke
Biggers get some action compared to Jordan Phillips, which, by
the way, who played the entire game at nose tackle,
(04:34):
like duh all It took was watching film to figure
that out. I'm spicy, It's gonna be spicy today. I'm
gonna put an X on that because there was too
much of the same stuff. There was a nice pivot
to some of the good things, but with Ali, the
one carry, Willy Gay, you know, the two plays in
the fourth quarter just wasn't enough for me, So an
X on that. Did They break the huddle and snap
the ball up against the clock again, and I was
(04:55):
thrilled with how it went.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
They were awesome. They went Temple on the second drive.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
After a first drive that brought out the Boo Birds
at hard Rock Stadium, and the third drive went right
on the field for a touchdown. Again, they were cruising
on those second and third drives and had some good
stuff in the second half of the game as well.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
And lo and behold, what do you know.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
You come out of the huddle and there's twenty seconds
in the play clock to a snapping the ball with
eight nine, ten seconds left. Has the communication with the
coach and the play call up until fifteen seconds, and
he looks comfortable, he looks poised, he looks in control.
But late in the game when it all comes down
to it, and this is where it's more players than plays. Right,
we heard the Nick Saban quote talking about his first
game winning drive in high school. The coach said, hey,
(05:31):
go ahead and you call the plays. Just make sure
the ball goes to these two players. And he's like,
after the fact, the coach told him, the biggest lesson
in football is that when the game's in the line,
it's about players, not plays. And that's where this like
processing regression from the quarterback comes into play. This is
a quarterback that can't afford to not be sharp in process,
(05:52):
in anticipation, in accuracy, ball location, everything, because we saw
what happens when pressure gets in right, we see what
happens when he needs to uncork a sixty five yard throw.
And I still think you can win without those things
in this league. You just have to be top three
in the other areas. And that's where Tua was in
twenty two and twenty three and parts of twenty four
before twenty five, where it looks like we've seen a
(06:14):
massive regression back to middle of the pack in those areas.
I mean, there were some good plays, some good throws.
He posted, some good numbers, some of those corner route throws,
a touchdown to Jalen Waddle, some nice plays in there.
But by and large, it's it's mistakes, it's misses, it's
bad decisions, it's bad process. And I thought the late
game sequence was just indicative of all of that with
(06:34):
his pertaining to particularly Tua, but the entire operation. So
a big X on that after starting off so strong
because of how you ended the game, And we're gonna
come back on that point later on the show. Would
they play tighter in the curl flat and hook zones
to help us get to our exotics? No, And it
wasn't even close to good because we're dropping pass rushers
and you know, I don't feel the same way that
(06:55):
some folks out there do about like you should always
rush your edge guys. And certainly there are guys that
shouldn't be dropping into coverage because that's just not their
skill set. But man watching like fifteen get into the
hook zone on the curl flat zone, they're just picking
him apart in those spots because he just doesn't really
have a feel for it. And I'm not gonna blame
Jalen for that. Like you got to find a way to,
I guess, maximize what he does well and reduce what
(07:17):
he doesn't do well.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
And that's one of those things.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
And they allowed the soft coverage to lend, you know,
more space the running game kind of a rinse and
repeat from last week. How was the route spacing and
distribution in the offense. That's the one that I'm going
to put a check on. I thought some of the
taking advantage of the vulnerabilities of cover twos and going
after their man coverage with picks and rubs and nice little,
you know, angle routes of the running back over the
middle of the field. I thought the route spacing and
(07:40):
the offense and the timing of all that looked pretty good.
So I guess we're one for five today on the
pregame checklist. How about the themes of the game, because
the Patriots opened this thing with three consecutive runs that
they got like what eleven yards out of the three runs,
which is not going to break your back, But I
thought you saw how that opened up the play action
game akin to what we saw last week with the
(08:01):
Colts who were able to you know, run the misdirection game,
run split zone, run a split zone look, and then
throw the ball to the split zone blocker. Off of
that because the linebacker has kicked in and hasn't gotten
the width that he needed to to cover that play,
it got our inside linebackers taking false steps and then
with that it would replace those guys with the football.
The first touchdown Malik to mac Hollins, Tyrel Dotson took
(08:24):
like four false steps in that play and took himself
all the way out of the play for a pitch
and catch, wide open touchdown that you hope to get
in your backyard football league as a kid with your friends,
and Dotson wound up chase in that play and multiple
plays from multiple steps behind. That was a tough element
of the entire game, and the Patriots went to work
on that. They got to their exotics. The Dolphins did
because there was enough run defense early in the game.
(08:46):
There were certainly plays that got away from the Dolphins,
but there was enough early in the game to create
third and six, and there was a couple third and
fours in there, but third and twelves and we got
to the exotics and there was some pressure. There was
a you know, Jordan Brooks a really nice sack on
Drake May to get the ball back after the offense
had gone down taken a lead, and you're feeling pretty
good about the team at that point, I mean as
good as you can.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
And they got that sack.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
But then there was more exotics where it opened up
rush lanes and the Dolphins lost rush land integrity and
he would hit you for a big run. So that
was an element the defense didn't quite have success with.
And man, you're talking about fifteen possessions they've been out
there for. If you take away the kneel down at
the end of the half and they've scored thirteen times
has the opponents, so that's not going to work. They
(09:29):
over the ball throws against deep hook drops and against
the curl flat not tight enough.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Same story as last week.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
That was the theme in this one again, what the
hell happened to the quarterback that's in here as well,
Like you know, even the biggest detractors out there, and
quite frankly, if you have champion for Brandon Dowdy of
a Ryan Tannehill and for Skyler Thompson over to a
tongue bay Low and Quinn yours like, I don't none
of those opinions are valid to me because you just
(09:56):
want somebody else for the sake of wanting somebody else.
But even those guys, you know, you can't say that
these areas of his game were to strength.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
I mean they will, because that's what they do.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
But for someone like me that was a supporter, like in,
a believer in a fan obviously like this became a
different player in these last two games.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
The decision making has been awful.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
The first pick of the game without that penalty, You're like,
what the hell was that? The end of the game
situation like it just has you know, missing Tyreek on
that little curl route on first and twenty after another
operational penalty.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
I don't fault too if for not going.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
To Julian Hill on that little like swing check down,
because that's like a chip in the in the past
protection assignment. Does he even have a role where he
goes out like we don't know that without being part
of the call. And I liked the fact that he
threw the ball because don't take a sack on fourth
down with the game on the line, But he threw
it right to the guy, and our entire scramble drill,
it's clear that it's not like an emphasis, and why
(10:49):
would it be when your quarterback doesn't really do it
that often. But there were a couple of times where
two broke contain and broke the pocket and tried to
make a play outside the pocket, and the receivers just
kind of stand there like there's no rhyme or reason
to come back to the football, to come with the quarterback,
to angle back to the quarterback and try to make
a play for him. So we're gonna get to more
to a talk. I'm just kind of ripping through this here.
I did like the sequencing and layers because that second
(11:11):
drive was exactly how you wanted it to look. You
got to the line scrimmage early, you had run game variations,
whether it was a Chan catching swings behind the line
turning that into run gameplays, a Chan with outside zone
taking the outside track at the tackle and then coming
back on Malik Washington inside misdirection back around the outside corner.
Then you go to Allie Gorn on an inside zone
run where he gets a light box and powers through
(11:34):
a couple of arm tackles for eight yards. You get
a two man route combination where Jaalen Waddle has one
of these sickest releases in the game and showed you
what he's about in this game today, where he takes
the inside release and angles back to the corner and
the eight chan motion holds that cloud corner the cloud
linebacker underneath to create that throw.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
It was all good. It looked great.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
That was the best sequencing and game planning and play
calling from Mike McDaniel we've seen, I would say since
twenty twenty three, quite frankly, maybe since the Bills game
last year. Then that continued on the third drive of
the game where you know Reeke gets a deep comeback.
That's the area of vulnerability right that deep like ten
to eighteen yard range on the comebacks and the corners,
(12:14):
the sales, the deep outs, you can run hitches back
in that area. We got Wattle on a quick game
catch and a similar play on third down that gets
eight Chan wide open across the middle on that arrow route.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
You continue to.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Go after the areas of vulnerability with the corner routes.
Two of those to Wattle, Reek on the deep comeback
at the end of the first half, Riek on the
little stop hitch on the first drive of the first
successful drive of the game. The arrow routes over the
middle of the field where you widen their man coverage
and you displace a linebacker with an initial slam and
then run an angle route and behind that to create
you know, a bunch of space for Devon h Chan
(12:44):
to go off the way he did. And it was
also two young Patriots safeties that we talked about with
Taylor Kyle's that just don't quite frankly don't have the
stuff yet, you know, putting them in precarious situations where
they have to make quick decisions and you got after
him that way. That was one of the best parts
the Patriots in side run game, and surge from tight
splitz was one of the bad parts there was a
noticeable shift at one point in the first half where
(13:05):
the Patriots began having these super tight splits on the
offensive line where guys are just closer together Splitzer, how
far apart you are senator guard guard to tackle, and
they were getting surge on the defensive tackles. They were
knocking Zach Sealer off the football, they were knocking Matthew
Butler off the football. And it continued on the first
scoring drive of the second half, big run after the
the vermon j Stevenson fifty seven yard catch, the two
(13:28):
point play, they we run trapped, they run wham, just
kept on getting space on the inside, and we had
nothing to say about it. Let's go ahead and take
a break rate there, come back and do the stats,
the critical moments.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
We talk about standouts and stand downs.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Planning to come your way here on the Dolphins thirty
three twenty seven Lost Recap podcast of the Patriots Draft Time,
brought to you by Auto Nation. It feels like after
games like this and seasons that start this way, you
wind up I wind up monologuing about state of Dolphins
fans and state of the franchise and all that stuff.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
And I told you, guys, throughout.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
The week that it felt like the week one game
spelt the end of the twenty The build that began
twenty nineteen and Ernest started with, you know, counting wins
and losses because twenty nineteen to me was a totally
lost year for multiple reasons. But in twenty twenty, right,
and you were never a team that lost more than
nine games eight and nine was the worst you did
in the last five years. But to try to execute,
(14:25):
you know, a soft rebuild, a soft reset, a pivot
of your style, and well not even of style, just
of the roster construction. And to get away from the
pivot of the approach that was something I was hoping
would happen but didn't. It's kind of like unleashed this
new level of fan in me, and first and foremost, like, yeah,
I'm an employee, but the first and foremost, I'm a
(14:47):
fan of this football team. And it's kind of unleashed
this new side of me. I've noticed, Like I used
to get really defensive about negativity towards Miami Dolphins. You
guys know that pretty well. Now it's like apathetic towards it.
And I was such a believer this entire process because
when you acquire all those draft picks and all that
cap space, especially the draft picks man, and to get
lucky the way they did with you know, Houston finishing
(15:09):
four and twelve the year they had their first round pick,
and that becoming a new bounty of draft picks. Like,
it was hard to not make this thing working, to
see the vision through. And on December, you know, fourth
whatever it was, December thirteenth, twenty twenty three, it looked
like that's what you got. You were a nine to
three football team with the Titans, Jets and Cowboys coming
(15:31):
to your building, or the chance to go to twelve
and three and have the one seed heading into those
final two games, you know of that year that was
supposed to be the peak of the build. And you
wind up losing to the Titans, you beat the Jets
and the Cowboys, you get blown out by Baltimore, you
lose a heartbreaker to Buffalo, and you're a no show
in the playoffs in Kansas City. And it's just been
on a downward trajectory ever since then. And you know,
for me to be five six years invested into that idea,
(15:53):
in that thought process, probably slower than some of you
guys to kind of let go of the rope and
accept where this thing is moving. But for the game today,
and you know, even if they had won the game,
I don't think it changes this perspective. I mean, they
still had all the issues there. If eight chant doesn't
step out of bounds, you still got plays in late.
There were still communication issues getting the plays into the huddle,
and you know, Tyreek breaking the huddle the wrong way,
seemingly half the damn plays. Like I just it's unlocked,
(16:17):
like a new cynical side of me, and I don't
love it. But at least from here, at least if
there's an upshot and there's fifteen games left to go,
I'm not going to write the entire season off. But
I have a projection, a swing in the opposite direction
of the initial projection this offseason where I thought they
made the necessary roster changes and said the right things,
(16:37):
to make the correct changes to fix the shortcomings that
you've had, and also reemphasize the things that made you
a really good football team for two years.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
None of that has happened, right, None of that has happened.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
So that's where you get this apathetic approach and it's
going to be, you know, covered the same way for
the next however many days, weeks, months, years that it
goes like this, Let's go ahead and talk about the
stats the game before we get to the critical moments.
So thirty three to twenty seven, the headline on Yahoo's
app is historically bad defense dooms Dolphins in AFC clash
(17:09):
with Man. They had a at one point a seventy
one percent winning probability in this game.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Jeez.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
The end of the game stats they had sixteen first
downs did the Dolphins of the Patriots eighteen? Miami was
four for ten on third downs the Patriots seven for twelve.
Oh for two on fourth was Miami one for one
was the Patriots. Miami outgained New England three fifty eight
to three thirty three. It was two ninety seven through
the air to sixty one on the ground for Miami,
two to eleven through the air, one twenty two on
the ground for the Patriots. They ran fifty five plays,
(17:40):
we ran fifty two. That's a low number of plays
for a football game. One turnover for the Dolphins, done
for the Patriots. So two games in no takeaways for
Miami's defense. The Dolphins got sacked five times, the Patriots
got sacked three times, ten penalties for sixty five yards,
and you had the football for twenty six minutes and
fifteen seconds. Numbers were really good until that last pick.
(18:01):
And it doesn't matter because you know, like we saw
how the game went. Twenty six for three two, three
hundred and fifteen yards, nine point eight yards for past,
two touchdowns and a pick. I mean, if eh Chan
goes in for a game winning touchdown, those numbers are
gonna be perfect with three touchdowns and like what three
hundred and forty yards. But it doesn't matter because you
saw with your eyes what you saw the critical moments
in this game. A fourth and three on the first drive,
(18:22):
they go bunch with timing, quick game, and I thought
Stefan Diggs's ability to throw down in the zone and
find that space against you know, more soft Dolphins coverage
was a win for the Patriots. So one to zero
for them there. The third down catch to Kaishawan Boody,
that was great coverage by Jack Jones. He was all
over that may knew that he was hot. Threw a
great ball to the corner and it was a great
throw at a great catch. Not much you can do
about that, but they made the play we did in
(18:43):
two and zero, second and twenty five. This isn't a
critical moment. It's kind of cheating the process here. But
you've given up two conversions of twenty five yards or
more through two games through penalties.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
What are you doing? Man?
Speaker 2 (18:54):
I hated the call, by the way, but still it's
basically points because they went down scored. It would have
been third and twenty five from their own side of
the field three and zero, third and goal. At the
end of the first half of the Patriots they had
good coverage the Dolphins did Dante Trader and trail position.
Malcolm Butler got a hand on the football and broke
it up, so I thought it was a bad Drake
may throw, but we deflected the pass three and one
end of the first half drive, moved it to the
(19:14):
plus thirty four yard buying quickly right.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
A couple of explosive plays.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
One minute to play in the half, one time out left, bang,
two plays, touchdown five for Tyreek, twenty nine yards to
Devon eight chen two and three, third and twelve or
sorry sorry, third and thirteen.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Beginning of the second half.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Forty seven yard bomb the Tyreek Hill who just flew
past the defense a quarters beater, I think it was
quarters if I remember it correctly, just runs right past
the defense. He was way behind everybody. Could have been
a touchdown, had to come back to the football, makes
a catch and you kick a field goal. So I'm
going to call that a win, even though it could
have been a touchdowns. Now you're three and three, right, yeah,
three and three, third and seven, Patriots first drive after
(19:48):
the Miami's first lead, where May misses a second down throw,
and I thought there was a good job by Jordan
Brooks getting depth into the hook zone on that play
to create an incomplete pass to create a third and twelve.
Then they dial up a pressure and you get Jordan
Brooks Entrevon Henderson love that matchup and he wins. He
strains through the block, gets the sack.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Four and three.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
So that's why you're leading the game by two points
because you're four and three in critical moments, third and
eleven at the twenty yard line, the plus twenty up
by two. You convert here, you can burn more clock,
get to the fourth quarter, possibly take a two score lead.
And Patrick Paul gets beat around the corner. Jonah Sibi
Nya gets beat inside, Laria borm gets beat across his face,
pressure all across the board.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
They sack you a kick a field goal.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Make it four and four, third and three at the
end of the third quarter, fifty five yard Passermandre Stevenson
Jalen Phillips just missed a sack.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
You had to finish that.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
It creates a disjointed coverage in the back end after
the fact, and it turns into a fifty seven fifty
eight yard play. That's where you need coverage and rush
to be in the same vein. It was not your
three and five. Now third and eight at the minus
forty eight in a three point game, thirteen minutes to go.
We scramble for no yards. He did break contain Tua did,
but again no routes coming with him. They just kind
of stopped and stared at him. It looked like, now
(20:56):
you're three and six and then E league Washington.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Baby, that's the tweet win.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
What a return? Special teams turns the game on its head.
Let's go, baby. We're not supposed to cheer in the
press box, but I was executing some pretty good silent
fist pumps. Pumps to get to four and six. There
then they take it back, so four and seven with
their kick return going for a touchdown. Third and seven,
four minutes left down three ball to minus forty two,
gets sacked, but gets out of it and throws a
(21:21):
nice ball to Nick Westbrook Akine to convert amid the wreckage.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
I lost.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
My record was I three and four and six, So
this is a five and six, right, five and seven
in the critical moments, and then one more final drive
of the game fourth and twelve. Their pressure of the
entire second half got after US broke through the right
side split Keon and Larry for a sack.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Game over.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
So you fall to four and seven. And if you
call that NOI and five and eight, I don't even
know what difference is to make.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
They lost.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
They were five and eight, five and nine, gold jacket,
green jacket. They lost the game because they didn't win
enough critical moments. That's the whole point. Standouts from the game. Offensively,
Devon eight Chan was explosive in this game. Man. I've
been hard on Devon for some of the past game stuff,
but he keeps proving me right about my initial draft
slotting wrong about my kind of you know, Maya Colpa
and pass protection. But the way he creates his explosive angles,
(22:07):
it's free yards when you give him those swing routes
because he can find the perimeter and turn it up
for a big game. The angle route for the touchdown,
the way he finished that at the goal line. He
just makes plays. He was awesome today. Stays in bounced
off htiy I win this game. But whatever, Lake Washington.
The illegal motion call, like, we got to be better
about that because that's a given and it was a
first down conversion. He kind of angles his motion back
(22:27):
to the line of scrimmage at the before the snap
gets off, and maybe it's on the snap, maybe it's
on the center of the quarterback. I don't know, but
it's got to be better than that. But he's a
threat from the backfield.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Man.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
I would like to see Alli Gordon get more carries,
but you know, three carries from League Washington is a
nice change of pace, nice little Jarvis Landry action and
that punt return was just was freaking awesome. So Malik
is a standout Olli Gordon one run, but I loved it.
Eight yards downhill, ran through tacklers. Jalen Waddle has one
of the best inside releases in the entire National Football
League for an outbreaking route, and they hit him on
(22:56):
two corner routes. He made tough catches, got drilled a
bunch of times by tight throw going up making plays
in the football. I love you than Wadall. He's a
great player. Good to see him go off a little
bit today. Tua had a really good game until he
didn't right. The first drive was cheeks. The rest of
the game until the last part of the game was
really good, had some nice getting through progressions. And by
the way, the whole knock onke doesn't you know panics
(23:17):
after the first read. That's not true, man, And I'm
not gonna sit here and blow smoke up your backside,
but that's just not true. What's true is when the
pressure gets in and he has to make a move
and can't play in rhythm and play, you know, within
the timing of the offense, which you can admonish him
all you want for that not being an effective way
to win in today's NFL, but that's what it is.
(23:38):
It's not the first reads covered and he gets panicked.
He progresses through things when he has good protection and
plays good football in those positions. But in a league
where the edges are two hundred and sixty pounds and
they run four four eight forty yard dashes and are
just more athletic and better than the offensive lineman, your
quarterback has to be able to handle that and move
off the spot and make plays. And that's not what
he can do. That's where he panics the most. But
(23:59):
he threw some great balls. The third and five Far
hashed out to Tyreek to convert was a really nice
throw there had that big miss late though, I mean
the sequence to the end really cost him. But I
thought by and large had some good stuff, but the
end of the game kind of ruined him being in
this category. Tyreek came back to the football. We'll do
more on two. In the third segment. Tyreek came back
to the football, did a great job throttling into zones
(24:20):
I thought, kind of pushed, you know, ran the defense
off of their coverage a few times. His best game
in a while, over one hundred yards and he got
that thirty plus yard catch. Defensively, Chop had some really
good plays, disengaging and closing speed on the Drake May sack.
He forced to hold the next play did get hurt,
but he turned to the game. That's a good sign
for the Dolphins. Jordan Brooks, you know, sack coverage play,
did some nice stuff. And then Jordan Phillips's just don't
(24:43):
rewatch the game because you're not gonna want to. But
if you do, just watch number ninety four come off
off the football and watch what happens the guy across
from him. He controls those dudes with pure power as
your backup nose tackle stand downs. I need more tape
on the offensive line, but I thought it was a
struggle collectively. I'll get a look at it on the
tape him. But I thought Paul struggled. I thought Keon
and Larry struggled, and Aaron had two holding calls, so
(25:06):
not great. And then Connor Tanner Connor just more losing
the edge. I didn't think Julian had his best day
either defensively. Explosives on play action after the conversion the
tight end leak to a wheel route was just like more,
where are we busting coverages again?
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Like we did last week?
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Tyrel Dodson was not his best game, got lost in
coverage in the first touchdown, lost in coverage a few times.
Jalen Phillips again that the spot drops in coverage, they
just don't seem to be very effective. That big miss
sack as well. I'll do more of this on the
on the Recap podcast tomorrow. Zach Seeler, I thought got
washed down a few times. Again, hasn't hold the point
very well and then the kickoff returned for a touchdown?
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Whoof last break? Right there?
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Come back into the Five Takeaways Draft Time podcast, brought
to you by Autoation. Five Takeaways from the Dolphins thirty
three twenty seven loss to the New England Patriots Number one.
The end of game sequence was emblematic of the issues
of this team four years into the build, even when
they were a winner. And I saw this tweet from
(26:06):
Eric Smith, which it's I mean, it's a continuation of
last week, a continuation of last year, continuation from the
years before that, and I've belabered the point about how
you know, the thought was always if we can just
get these short yardage woes, if we can just cut
these penalties down, we're going to have this explosive offense,
run game, balance and pass rush, and it's going to
be great. We're gonna be the best team has ever
(26:27):
seen a football field. Well, you didn't get that. What
Ins said happened was you built some ways into trying to,
you know, rectify that. You reduced your ability to do
the other stuff. The quarterback re regressed in some of
the processing stuff, and all the issues are still there.
In fact, they're they're magnified at this point. And I
want to read this tweet from Eric who who wrote
about this. He said, what's crazy about this game is
(26:47):
that we're inches from a game winning play, and maybe
you don't feel great about the team, but you feel
some encouragement coming out at one and one, but a
chance stepped out of balance, and then the same issues
that have plagued this team for the year's resurface plenty.
We have time after the eight cham play while the
refs discuss and the ball is respotted to get a
first down play in and then.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
They had to call the Dolphins.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
I thought they had to call their own time out,
but it was a Patriots time out because of injured player.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
But they wouldn't have got that snap off. That's me
talking back to Eric.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
First and fifteen, the team has gained chunk yards, so
you try to get some back. But again we're pushing
the play clock to less than ten seconds and even
breaking the huddle at that time, and literally have to
accept a delay of game.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
You can't have that right.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
They weren't even close to the snap to line up
first and twenty shot to wallow eight yard game to
ask es Gridge third and twelve to a flush out
of the pocket and walks out of bounds because he
has been told to not take hits.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Yeah, I agree, Eric.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
When tanner' connor was coming uncovered for an easy completion,
I didn't see that. I'll have to go back and
watch that. I'm gonna take Eric's word for it. Then
fourth and twelve throws an interception directly to a defender
when he has Julian Hill for what should have been
a simple completion and a chance at the first. That's
tough to get to, but I understand the sentiment there.
Maybe the issue is that to it doesn't have confidence
in Tanner or Julian making a play. But that's an
issue in its own right. All of that because of inches,
(28:03):
Maybe it's better he stepped out of bounds because it's
been rinse and repeat, and I'm just thinking like, yeah, man,
you know, I mean the field goal drive that could
have put him up by they were up by two,
could have gone up nine with a touchdown on a
pat you you know, a holding call is tough, but
you had two holding calls. But it would have been
first in goal at the four. Instead it's first in
(28:23):
twenty at the nineteen or twenty nine yard line, right
that cost you four points right there.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
But the procedural stuff like.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
A third down that got a conversion that got called
back because of a legal motion, like it just is
the same final destinations two hundred and seventy whatever. And
then to a man, that's kind of part B of
the takeaway. Like on a day where the numbers were good,
that first interception was like what the hell was that?
The deep shot to Tyreek, the mist Tyrek in the
last drive, the sack, the pick Oh I got another
(28:50):
chance at the end and he couldn't complete it, Like
there was a minute left and it had thirty yards ago.
That is plenty of time, plenty of time to get
down the field. So emblematic of all the issues in
the past, and a regressing quarterback is spelling some not
so good performances Number two, the negative plays. We talked
about it this all summer on the podcast. Right you ran,
you had more negative plays last year than any team
in the NFL since twenty seventeen, the Buffalo Bills that year,
(29:13):
and it was like twelve more than the next team.
When you run fifty two plays and eleven of those
are five sacks and six tackles for loss on top
of ten penalties for sixty five yards, I mean, how
many of those were procedural? Right? That's the difference between
our successful drives and not. If you play a clean drive,
you don't have a negative run or a sack and
no penalties, they probably score a touchdown. That's who we are,
(29:35):
But who you also are is do you have half
your drives a game? They get bogged down by those,
and that's who they've been for four years. Number three
McDaniel got himself on a heater with the ball distribution offense.
I thought the second and third drives were mastery. Shaated
A twenty twenty three got me fist pumping in the
press box. We broken it down at length that those
were great to see if they could keep that role,
and I was like, okay, they'll be all right, they'll
be able to be the nine to ten win team
(29:56):
that people were hoping they could be.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
We have good skill guys too.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
We find the rhythms around to reek and e chan
and waddle and maleak get all involved. You know, different variations,
corner routes, comebacks, use that space, run the ball in
the middle, run the angle routes. I thought we saw
how this offense is capable of keeping a defense on
their hills, and maybe down the road this is a
good thing for you know, the next iteration of this
team we'll see, but right now it's all lost in vain.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
But that's the takeaway.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Number three is we found the old Dolphins there for
a little bit of time. Number four, the defense has
to find its rhythm and fast because you know, ten
possessions in of the season without getting a stop. They
bounce back after that and give them their credit tip
of the cap. They fought and didn't you know, go
into a shell after twelve to nothing, after you know,
all the successful drives, but then you couldn't execute and
(30:42):
get off the field. And it looked to me like
a lack of chemistry at points. And we've talked about
this in a week one press conferences, not playing you know,
tight enough on the outside, the pressure looks when they
take chances. All of that just seems like it's a
little bit out of rhythm for these guys. And you know,
I suppose they could find it like they did last year.
But starting off with losses against the Colston Patriots, when
you got you know, Baltimore, Buffalo, Washington Chargers. You know,
(31:03):
these teams coming up like you can't afford to go
to and six again, brother, not this year. Number five
special teams given and special teams take it away Kyle
Krabs plus your heart, great tweet about the generational Craig
Ackerman is tweet. And then they give up a kick
return on the next play. So three phases it looked
like you had to win the margins. It could have
won the game for you on special teams. But it
goes by the boards late and the Dolphins are zero
(31:25):
and two with a short week to Buffalo. Tomorrow, we're
gonna have the film review podcast. We'll have the preview
podcasts for you guys on Wednesday, no podcast early on Thursday.
We'll come back on Thursday night with the recap show.
Do the film review on Friday, take the weekend off,
and we'll go from there. So you guys, try your
best to enjoy it. The Mariners have won nine games
in a row and have overtaken first place in the
AL West.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
I'm gonna enjoy that. I'm gona enjoy my kids.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Disney on Ice was great last night as well, so
it's not all bad, guys, It's not all bad. In
the meantime, you all please be sure subscribe, rate review,
follow me on social at NFL, the team at Miami Dolphins.
Check out the YouTube channel for Dolphins HQ, media availabilities,
and so much more. Last, but not least, Miami Dolphins
dot com. Until next time, Friends Up, Caroline Cameron Willow
Daddy co
This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up, Dolphins? And welcome to the Draft Time Podcast.
I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show,
the Dolphins fall thirty three twenty seven to the New
England Patriots. They snap a long losing streak here at
hard Rock Stadium, and a long streak of wins for
Tuoa against that team, and a whole lot other things
that did not go in the Dolphins favor. We'll get
(00:32):
to the checklist, the themes of the game, the individual
standouts and stand downs, the takeaways from the Baptist Health
studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the
Draft Time Podcast, and.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I'm gonna run the risk here of.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Like repeating myself multiple times in the show, because I
kind of feel like I want to start with my
overarching theme on the show here, but I don't want
to spoil it and repeat myself multiple times. But I
will say this, like that was a game the Dolphins
lose thirty three twenty seven.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
If you didn't see the game, you're not listening to
the podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
I don't know why the point of doing this is,
but Miami has a punt return touchdown gives up a
kick return touchdown, back, can't answer offensively, throws a pick,
gets the ball back after a nice defensive stand to
force a long field goal, gets into prime position and
has a pass to Devon a Chan who makes another
stellar move and another long potential touchdown that gets brought
back because, like Antonio Brown for the twenty thirteen Pittsburgh
(01:27):
Steelers in that snow game against the Miami Dolphins, steps
three or four inches onto the white perimeter on the sideline,
it comes back, and the Dolphins continue to falter from
there with the same issues that have really plugged this
team for the last four years, right, three years and
two games, I should say, and.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
You can't come.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Away from that game like if you would have won
that game, it would have felt like you snatched a
victory from the jaws of defeat, right, like you stole one,
like you got away with one. And so in a
season where it starts to feel like more about ealuation,
that wouldn't have made you feel a lot better.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
You would you would have loved the win.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
And don't get me wrong, I go to the Paddock
Club to do postgame radio with Jamal bush Rod, and
I'm fist pumping. Yeah, but like after the fact, like
I was resigned to it because I see where this
is going, right, And you know, McDaniel had a comment
after the game saying that he was proud of the
way guys didn't give up or what was the exact quote.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Let me find it real quick.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I got it in text to me, I felt really
good about the lack of desperation in our team. And
then you get to the press conference post game about
the communication and the plays getting in and you know,
it kind of going into a circle of accountability and blame.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
It's just like enough, you know.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
And I had a friend text me about like the
out the the fallout from this and the outcome of
the season and what they need to do.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I'm like, who cares? Man? You know, Like I don't
get me wrong.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
I care more than anything that's I care more than
anything else in the world besides my wife and children
and my first place, Sila Maris.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Possibly.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
But show me something different, man, show me a different movie,
because I've seen this one before. It would be nice
to mix in a Citizen Kane amid the Room right,
amid Final Destination forty three, amid whatever the hell Marvel
rolls out and I apologize to Marvel fans, but they're
all the same movie to me, like, it would be
(03:21):
nice to get a godfather in there once in a
while because that Devon ah Cham play and even coming
back from down twelve, Oh gosh, the way it gets
my emotions going and then zaps them right out of you.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Oh it sucks. It just sucks. Man.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
That whole game hurt. We're we're gonna come back and
get into more than nitty gritty here. Let's go ahead
and pick this up with the pregame checklist, because from
a personnel usage standpoint, I was curious would it look
the same, would they change things up?
Speaker 1 (03:49):
And I thought there was some good and some bad there.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Tanner Connor still got a bunch of run and we'll
get into the snap count on tomorrow's episode. I don't
know exactly how much he played. I thought Devon ah
Chan was in pass bro again, but in a more
productive way where he was able to kind of chip
and get into the pattern. That was a big question
for me. Can we do that and have the right
side of the offensive line survive. Does Dante Trader take
away more of the safety snaps he would in rotation,
(04:12):
but later on Ifi Mela Famu got hurt and exited
the game, so you got more of him there. We
saw Willy Gay for the first time was at the
third of the fourth quarter, and he makes two impact
plays right away, right, so that was good to see.
I suppose Alli Gordon I was excited about his one
carry and then we never saw him again. Does Zeke
Biggers get some action compared to Jordan Phillips, which, by
the way, who played the entire game at nose tackle,
(04:34):
like duh all It took was watching film to figure
that out. I'm spicy, It's gonna be spicy today. I'm
gonna put an X on that because there was too
much of the same stuff. There was a nice pivot
to some of the good things, but with Ali, the
one carry, Willy Gay, you know, the two plays in
the fourth quarter just wasn't enough for me, So an
X on that. Did They break the huddle and snap
the ball up against the clock again, and I was
(04:55):
thrilled with how it went.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
They were awesome. They went Temple on the second drive.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
After a first drive that brought out the Boo Birds
at hard Rock Stadium, and the third drive went right
on the field for a touchdown. Again, they were cruising
on those second and third drives and had some good
stuff in the second half of the game as well.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
And lo and behold, what do you know.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
You come out of the huddle and there's twenty seconds
in the play clock to a snapping the ball with
eight nine, ten seconds left. Has the communication with the
coach and the play call up until fifteen seconds, and
he looks comfortable, he looks poised, he looks in control.
But late in the game when it all comes down
to it, and this is where it's more players than plays. Right,
we heard the Nick Saban quote talking about his first
game winning drive in high school. The coach said, hey,
(05:31):
go ahead and you call the plays. Just make sure
the ball goes to these two players. And he's like,
after the fact, the coach told him, the biggest lesson
in football is that when the game's in the line,
it's about players, not plays. And that's where this like
processing regression from the quarterback comes into play. This is
a quarterback that can't afford to not be sharp in process,
(05:52):
in anticipation, in accuracy, ball location, everything, because we saw
what happens when pressure gets in right, we see what
happens when he needs to uncork a sixty five yard throw.
And I still think you can win without those things
in this league. You just have to be top three
in the other areas. And that's where Tua was in
twenty two and twenty three and parts of twenty four
before twenty five, where it looks like we've seen a
(06:14):
massive regression back to middle of the pack in those areas.
I mean, there were some good plays, some good throws.
He posted, some good numbers, some of those corner route throws,
a touchdown to Jalen Waddle, some nice plays in there.
But by and large, it's it's mistakes, it's misses, it's
bad decisions, it's bad process. And I thought the late
game sequence was just indicative of all of that with
(06:34):
his pertaining to particularly Tua, but the entire operation. So
a big X on that after starting off so strong
because of how you ended the game, And we're gonna
come back on that point later on the show. Would
they play tighter in the curl flat and hook zones
to help us get to our exotics? No, And it
wasn't even close to good because we're dropping pass rushers
and you know, I don't feel the same way that
(06:55):
some folks out there do about like you should always
rush your edge guys. And certainly there are guys that
shouldn't be dropping into coverage because that's just not their
skill set. But man watching like fifteen get into the
hook zone on the curl flat zone, they're just picking
him apart in those spots because he just doesn't really
have a feel for it. And I'm not gonna blame
Jalen for that. Like you got to find a way to,
I guess, maximize what he does well and reduce what
(07:17):
he doesn't do well.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
And that's one of those things.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
And they allowed the soft coverage to lend, you know,
more space the running game kind of a rinse and
repeat from last week. How was the route spacing and
distribution in the offense. That's the one that I'm going
to put a check on. I thought some of the
taking advantage of the vulnerabilities of cover twos and going
after their man coverage with picks and rubs and nice little,
you know, angle routes of the running back over the
middle of the field. I thought the route spacing and
(07:40):
the offense and the timing of all that looked pretty good.
So I guess we're one for five today on the
pregame checklist. How about the themes of the game, because
the Patriots opened this thing with three consecutive runs that
they got like what eleven yards out of the three runs,
which is not going to break your back, But I
thought you saw how that opened up the play action
game akin to what we saw last week with the
(08:01):
Colts who were able to you know, run the misdirection game,
run split zone, run a split zone look, and then
throw the ball to the split zone blocker. Off of
that because the linebacker has kicked in and hasn't gotten
the width that he needed to to cover that play,
it got our inside linebackers taking false steps and then
with that it would replace those guys with the football.
The first touchdown Malik to mac Hollins, Tyrel Dotson took
(08:24):
like four false steps in that play and took himself
all the way out of the play for a pitch
and catch, wide open touchdown that you hope to get
in your backyard football league as a kid with your friends,
and Dotson wound up chase in that play and multiple
plays from multiple steps behind. That was a tough element
of the entire game, and the Patriots went to work
on that. They got to their exotics. The Dolphins did
because there was enough run defense early in the game.
(08:46):
There were certainly plays that got away from the Dolphins,
but there was enough early in the game to create
third and six, and there was a couple third and
fours in there, but third and twelves and we got
to the exotics and there was some pressure. There was
a you know, Jordan Brooks a really nice sack on
Drake May to get the ball back after the offense
had gone down taken a lead, and you're feeling pretty
good about the team at that point, I mean as
good as you can.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
And they got that sack.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
But then there was more exotics where it opened up
rush lanes and the Dolphins lost rush land integrity and
he would hit you for a big run. So that
was an element the defense didn't quite have success with.
And man, you're talking about fifteen possessions they've been out
there for. If you take away the kneel down at
the end of the half and they've scored thirteen times
has the opponents, so that's not going to work. They
(09:29):
over the ball throws against deep hook drops and against
the curl flat not tight enough.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Same story as last week.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
That was the theme in this one again, what the
hell happened to the quarterback that's in here as well,
Like you know, even the biggest detractors out there, and
quite frankly, if you have champion for Brandon Dowdy of
a Ryan Tannehill and for Skyler Thompson over to a
tongue bay Low and Quinn yours like, I don't none
of those opinions are valid to me because you just
(09:56):
want somebody else for the sake of wanting somebody else.
But even those guys, you know, you can't say that
these areas of his game were to strength.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
I mean they will, because that's what they do.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
But for someone like me that was a supporter, like in,
a believer in a fan obviously like this became a
different player in these last two games.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
The decision making has been awful.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
The first pick of the game without that penalty, You're like,
what the hell was that? The end of the game
situation like it just has you know, missing Tyreek on
that little curl route on first and twenty after another
operational penalty.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
I don't fault too if for not going.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
To Julian Hill on that little like swing check down,
because that's like a chip in the in the past
protection assignment. Does he even have a role where he
goes out like we don't know that without being part
of the call. And I liked the fact that he
threw the ball because don't take a sack on fourth
down with the game on the line, But he threw
it right to the guy, and our entire scramble drill,
it's clear that it's not like an emphasis, and why
(10:49):
would it be when your quarterback doesn't really do it
that often. But there were a couple of times where
two broke contain and broke the pocket and tried to
make a play outside the pocket, and the receivers just
kind of stand there like there's no rhyme or reason
to come back to the football, to come with the quarterback,
to angle back to the quarterback and try to make
a play for him. So we're gonna get to more
to a talk. I'm just kind of ripping through this here.
I did like the sequencing and layers because that second
(11:11):
drive was exactly how you wanted it to look. You
got to the line scrimmage early, you had run game variations,
whether it was a Chan catching swings behind the line
turning that into run gameplays, a Chan with outside zone
taking the outside track at the tackle and then coming
back on Malik Washington inside misdirection back around the outside corner.
Then you go to Allie Gorn on an inside zone
run where he gets a light box and powers through
(11:34):
a couple of arm tackles for eight yards. You get
a two man route combination where Jaalen Waddle has one
of these sickest releases in the game and showed you
what he's about in this game today, where he takes
the inside release and angles back to the corner and
the eight chan motion holds that cloud corner the cloud
linebacker underneath to create that throw.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
It was all good. It looked great.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
That was the best sequencing and game planning and play
calling from Mike McDaniel we've seen, I would say since
twenty twenty three, quite frankly, maybe since the Bills game
last year. Then that continued on the third drive of
the game where you know Reeke gets a deep comeback.
That's the area of vulnerability right that deep like ten
to eighteen yard range on the comebacks and the corners,
(12:14):
the sales, the deep outs, you can run hitches back
in that area. We got Wattle on a quick game
catch and a similar play on third down that gets
eight Chan wide open across the middle on that arrow route.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
You continue to.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Go after the areas of vulnerability with the corner routes.
Two of those to Wattle, Reek on the deep comeback
at the end of the first half, Riek on the
little stop hitch on the first drive of the first
successful drive of the game. The arrow routes over the
middle of the field where you widen their man coverage
and you displace a linebacker with an initial slam and
then run an angle route and behind that to create
you know, a bunch of space for Devon h Chan
(12:44):
to go off the way he did. And it was
also two young Patriots safeties that we talked about with
Taylor Kyle's that just don't quite frankly don't have the
stuff yet, you know, putting them in precarious situations where
they have to make quick decisions and you got after
him that way. That was one of the best parts
the Patriots in side run game, and surge from tight
splitz was one of the bad parts there was a
noticeable shift at one point in the first half where
(13:05):
the Patriots began having these super tight splits on the
offensive line where guys are just closer together Splitzer, how
far apart you are senator guard guard to tackle, and
they were getting surge on the defensive tackles. They were
knocking Zach Sealer off the football, they were knocking Matthew
Butler off the football. And it continued on the first
scoring drive of the second half, big run after the
the vermon j Stevenson fifty seven yard catch, the two
(13:28):
point play, they we run trapped, they run wham, just
kept on getting space on the inside, and we had
nothing to say about it. Let's go ahead and take
a break rate there, come back and do the stats,
the critical moments.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
We talk about standouts and stand downs.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Planning to come your way here on the Dolphins thirty
three twenty seven Lost Recap podcast of the Patriots Draft Time,
brought to you by Auto Nation. It feels like after
games like this and seasons that start this way, you
wind up I wind up monologuing about state of Dolphins
fans and state of the franchise and all that stuff.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
And I told you, guys, throughout.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
The week that it felt like the week one game
spelt the end of the twenty The build that began
twenty nineteen and Ernest started with, you know, counting wins
and losses because twenty nineteen to me was a totally
lost year for multiple reasons. But in twenty twenty, right,
and you were never a team that lost more than
nine games eight and nine was the worst you did
in the last five years. But to try to execute,
(14:25):
you know, a soft rebuild, a soft reset, a pivot
of your style, and well not even of style, just
of the roster construction. And to get away from the
pivot of the approach that was something I was hoping
would happen but didn't. It's kind of like unleashed this
new level of fan in me, and first and foremost, like, yeah,
I'm an employee, but the first and foremost, I'm a
(14:47):
fan of this football team. And it's kind of unleashed
this new side of me. I've noticed, Like I used
to get really defensive about negativity towards Miami Dolphins. You
guys know that pretty well. Now it's like apathetic towards it.
And I was such a believer this entire process because
when you acquire all those draft picks and all that
cap space, especially the draft picks man, and to get
lucky the way they did with you know, Houston finishing
(15:09):
four and twelve the year they had their first round pick,
and that becoming a new bounty of draft picks. Like,
it was hard to not make this thing working, to
see the vision through. And on December, you know, fourth
whatever it was, December thirteenth, twenty twenty three, it looked
like that's what you got. You were a nine to
three football team with the Titans, Jets and Cowboys coming
(15:31):
to your building, or the chance to go to twelve
and three and have the one seed heading into those
final two games, you know of that year that was
supposed to be the peak of the build. And you
wind up losing to the Titans, you beat the Jets
and the Cowboys, you get blown out by Baltimore, you
lose a heartbreaker to Buffalo, and you're a no show
in the playoffs in Kansas City. And it's just been
on a downward trajectory ever since then. And you know,
for me to be five six years invested into that idea,
(15:53):
in that thought process, probably slower than some of you
guys to kind of let go of the rope and
accept where this thing is moving. But for the game today,
and you know, even if they had won the game,
I don't think it changes this perspective. I mean, they
still had all the issues there. If eight chant doesn't
step out of bounds, you still got plays in late.
There were still communication issues getting the plays into the huddle,
and you know, Tyreek breaking the huddle the wrong way,
seemingly half the damn plays. Like I just it's unlocked,
(16:17):
like a new cynical side of me, and I don't
love it. But at least from here, at least if
there's an upshot and there's fifteen games left to go,
I'm not going to write the entire season off. But
I have a projection, a swing in the opposite direction
of the initial projection this offseason where I thought they
made the necessary roster changes and said the right things,
(16:37):
to make the correct changes to fix the shortcomings that
you've had, and also reemphasize the things that made you
a really good football team for two years.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
None of that has happened, right, None of that has happened.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
So that's where you get this apathetic approach and it's
going to be, you know, covered the same way for
the next however many days, weeks, months, years that it
goes like this, Let's go ahead and talk about the
stats the game before we get to the critical moments.
So thirty three to twenty seven, the headline on Yahoo's
app is historically bad defense dooms Dolphins in AFC clash
(17:09):
with Man. They had a at one point a seventy
one percent winning probability in this game.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Jeez.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
The end of the game stats they had sixteen first
downs did the Dolphins of the Patriots eighteen? Miami was
four for ten on third downs the Patriots seven for twelve.
Oh for two on fourth was Miami one for one
was the Patriots. Miami outgained New England three fifty eight
to three thirty three. It was two ninety seven through
the air to sixty one on the ground for Miami,
two to eleven through the air, one twenty two on
the ground for the Patriots. They ran fifty five plays,
(17:40):
we ran fifty two. That's a low number of plays
for a football game. One turnover for the Dolphins, done
for the Patriots. So two games in no takeaways for
Miami's defense. The Dolphins got sacked five times, the Patriots
got sacked three times, ten penalties for sixty five yards,
and you had the football for twenty six minutes and
fifteen seconds. Numbers were really good until that last pick.
(18:01):
And it doesn't matter because you know, like we saw
how the game went. Twenty six for three two, three
hundred and fifteen yards, nine point eight yards for past,
two touchdowns and a pick. I mean, if eh Chan
goes in for a game winning touchdown, those numbers are
gonna be perfect with three touchdowns and like what three
hundred and forty yards. But it doesn't matter because you
saw with your eyes what you saw the critical moments
in this game. A fourth and three on the first drive,
(18:22):
they go bunch with timing, quick game, and I thought
Stefan Diggs's ability to throw down in the zone and
find that space against you know, more soft Dolphins coverage
was a win for the Patriots. So one to zero
for them there. The third down catch to Kaishawan Boody,
that was great coverage by Jack Jones. He was all
over that may knew that he was hot. Threw a
great ball to the corner and it was a great
throw at a great catch. Not much you can do
about that, but they made the play we did in
(18:43):
two and zero, second and twenty five. This isn't a
critical moment. It's kind of cheating the process here. But
you've given up two conversions of twenty five yards or
more through two games through penalties.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
What are you doing? Man?
Speaker 2 (18:54):
I hated the call, by the way, but still it's
basically points because they went down scored. It would have
been third and twenty five from their own side of
the field three and zero, third and goal. At the
end of the first half of the Patriots they had
good coverage the Dolphins did Dante Trader and trail position.
Malcolm Butler got a hand on the football and broke
it up, so I thought it was a bad Drake
may throw, but we deflected the pass three and one
end of the first half drive, moved it to the
(19:14):
plus thirty four yard buying quickly right.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
A couple of explosive plays.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
One minute to play in the half, one time out left, bang,
two plays, touchdown five for Tyreek, twenty nine yards to
Devon eight chen two and three, third and twelve or
sorry sorry, third and thirteen.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Beginning of the second half.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Forty seven yard bomb the Tyreek Hill who just flew
past the defense a quarters beater, I think it was
quarters if I remember it correctly, just runs right past
the defense. He was way behind everybody. Could have been
a touchdown, had to come back to the football, makes
a catch and you kick a field goal. So I'm
going to call that a win, even though it could
have been a touchdowns. Now you're three and three, right, yeah,
three and three, third and seven, Patriots first drive after
(19:48):
the Miami's first lead, where May misses a second down throw,
and I thought there was a good job by Jordan
Brooks getting depth into the hook zone on that play
to create an incomplete pass to create a third and twelve.
Then they dial up a pressure and you get Jordan
Brooks Entrevon Henderson love that matchup and he wins. He
strains through the block, gets the sack.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Four and three.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
So that's why you're leading the game by two points
because you're four and three in critical moments, third and
eleven at the twenty yard line, the plus twenty up
by two. You convert here, you can burn more clock,
get to the fourth quarter, possibly take a two score lead.
And Patrick Paul gets beat around the corner. Jonah Sibi
Nya gets beat inside, Laria borm gets beat across his face,
pressure all across the board.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
They sack you a kick a field goal.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Make it four and four, third and three at the
end of the third quarter, fifty five yard Passermandre Stevenson
Jalen Phillips just missed a sack.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
You had to finish that.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
It creates a disjointed coverage in the back end after
the fact, and it turns into a fifty seven fifty
eight yard play. That's where you need coverage and rush
to be in the same vein. It was not your
three and five. Now third and eight at the minus
forty eight in a three point game, thirteen minutes to go.
We scramble for no yards. He did break contain Tua did,
but again no routes coming with him. They just kind
of stopped and stared at him. It looked like, now
(20:56):
you're three and six and then E league Washington.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Baby, that's the tweet win.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
What a return? Special teams turns the game on its head.
Let's go, baby. We're not supposed to cheer in the
press box, but I was executing some pretty good silent
fist pumps. Pumps to get to four and six. There
then they take it back, so four and seven with
their kick return going for a touchdown. Third and seven,
four minutes left down three ball to minus forty two,
gets sacked, but gets out of it and throws a
(21:21):
nice ball to Nick Westbrook Akine to convert amid the wreckage.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
I lost.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
My record was I three and four and six, So
this is a five and six, right, five and seven
in the critical moments, and then one more final drive
of the game fourth and twelve. Their pressure of the
entire second half got after US broke through the right
side split Keon and Larry for a sack.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Game over.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
So you fall to four and seven. And if you
call that NOI and five and eight, I don't even
know what difference is to make.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
They lost.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
They were five and eight, five and nine, gold jacket,
green jacket. They lost the game because they didn't win
enough critical moments. That's the whole point. Standouts from the game. Offensively,
Devon eight Chan was explosive in this game. Man. I've
been hard on Devon for some of the past game stuff,
but he keeps proving me right about my initial draft
slotting wrong about my kind of you know, Maya Colpa
and pass protection. But the way he creates his explosive angles,
(22:07):
it's free yards when you give him those swing routes
because he can find the perimeter and turn it up
for a big game. The angle route for the touchdown,
the way he finished that at the goal line. He
just makes plays. He was awesome today. Stays in bounced
off htiy I win this game. But whatever, Lake Washington.
The illegal motion call, like, we got to be better
about that because that's a given and it was a
first down conversion. He kind of angles his motion back
(22:27):
to the line of scrimmage at the before the snap
gets off, and maybe it's on the snap, maybe it's
on the center of the quarterback. I don't know, but
it's got to be better than that. But he's a
threat from the backfield.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Man.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
I would like to see Alli Gordon get more carries,
but you know, three carries from League Washington is a
nice change of pace, nice little Jarvis Landry action and
that punt return was just was freaking awesome. So Malik
is a standout Olli Gordon one run, but I loved it.
Eight yards downhill, ran through tacklers. Jalen Waddle has one
of the best inside releases in the entire National Football
League for an outbreaking route, and they hit him on
(22:56):
two corner routes. He made tough catches, got drilled a
bunch of times by tight throw going up making plays
in the football. I love you than Wadall. He's a
great player. Good to see him go off a little
bit today. Tua had a really good game until he
didn't right. The first drive was cheeks. The rest of
the game until the last part of the game was
really good, had some nice getting through progressions. And by
the way, the whole knock onke doesn't you know panics
(23:17):
after the first read. That's not true, man, And I'm
not gonna sit here and blow smoke up your backside,
but that's just not true. What's true is when the
pressure gets in and he has to make a move
and can't play in rhythm and play, you know, within
the timing of the offense, which you can admonish him
all you want for that not being an effective way
to win in today's NFL, but that's what it is.
(23:38):
It's not the first reads covered and he gets panicked.
He progresses through things when he has good protection and
plays good football in those positions. But in a league
where the edges are two hundred and sixty pounds and
they run four four eight forty yard dashes and are
just more athletic and better than the offensive lineman, your
quarterback has to be able to handle that and move
off the spot and make plays. And that's not what
he can do. That's where he panics the most. But
(23:59):
he threw some great balls. The third and five Far
hashed out to Tyreek to convert was a really nice
throw there had that big miss late though, I mean
the sequence to the end really cost him. But I
thought by and large had some good stuff, but the
end of the game kind of ruined him being in
this category. Tyreek came back to the football. We'll do
more on two. In the third segment. Tyreek came back
to the football, did a great job throttling into zones
(24:20):
I thought, kind of pushed, you know, ran the defense
off of their coverage a few times. His best game
in a while, over one hundred yards and he got
that thirty plus yard catch. Defensively, Chop had some really
good plays, disengaging and closing speed on the Drake May sack.
He forced to hold the next play did get hurt,
but he turned to the game. That's a good sign
for the Dolphins. Jordan Brooks, you know, sack coverage play,
did some nice stuff. And then Jordan Phillips's just don't
(24:43):
rewatch the game because you're not gonna want to. But
if you do, just watch number ninety four come off
off the football and watch what happens the guy across
from him. He controls those dudes with pure power as
your backup nose tackle stand downs. I need more tape
on the offensive line, but I thought it was a
struggle collectively. I'll get a look at it on the
tape him. But I thought Paul struggled. I thought Keon
and Larry struggled, and Aaron had two holding calls, so
(25:06):
not great. And then Connor Tanner Connor just more losing
the edge. I didn't think Julian had his best day
either defensively. Explosives on play action after the conversion the
tight end leak to a wheel route was just like more,
where are we busting coverages again?
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Like we did last week?
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Tyrel Dodson was not his best game, got lost in
coverage in the first touchdown, lost in coverage a few times.
Jalen Phillips again that the spot drops in coverage, they
just don't seem to be very effective. That big miss
sack as well. I'll do more of this on the
on the Recap podcast tomorrow. Zach Seeler, I thought got
washed down a few times. Again, hasn't hold the point
very well and then the kickoff returned for a touchdown?
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Whoof last break? Right there?
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Come back into the Five Takeaways Draft Time podcast, brought
to you by Autoation. Five Takeaways from the Dolphins thirty
three twenty seven loss to the New England Patriots Number one.
The end of game sequence was emblematic of the issues
of this team four years into the build, even when
they were a winner. And I saw this tweet from
(26:06):
Eric Smith, which it's I mean, it's a continuation of
last week, a continuation of last year, continuation from the
years before that, and I've belabered the point about how
you know, the thought was always if we can just
get these short yardage woes, if we can just cut
these penalties down, we're going to have this explosive offense,
run game, balance and pass rush, and it's going to
be great. We're gonna be the best team has ever
(26:27):
seen a football field. Well, you didn't get that. What
Ins said happened was you built some ways into trying to,
you know, rectify that. You reduced your ability to do
the other stuff. The quarterback re regressed in some of
the processing stuff, and all the issues are still there.
In fact, they're they're magnified at this point. And I
want to read this tweet from Eric who who wrote
about this. He said, what's crazy about this game is
(26:47):
that we're inches from a game winning play, and maybe
you don't feel great about the team, but you feel
some encouragement coming out at one and one, but a
chance stepped out of balance, and then the same issues
that have plagued this team for the year's resurface plenty.
We have time after the eight cham play while the
refs discuss and the ball is respotted to get a
first down play in and then.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
They had to call the Dolphins.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
I thought they had to call their own time out,
but it was a Patriots time out because of injured player.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
But they wouldn't have got that snap off. That's me
talking back to Eric.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
First and fifteen, the team has gained chunk yards, so
you try to get some back. But again we're pushing
the play clock to less than ten seconds and even
breaking the huddle at that time, and literally have to
accept a delay of game.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
You can't have that right.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
They weren't even close to the snap to line up
first and twenty shot to wallow eight yard game to
ask es Gridge third and twelve to a flush out
of the pocket and walks out of bounds because he
has been told to not take hits.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Yeah, I agree, Eric.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
When tanner' connor was coming uncovered for an easy completion,
I didn't see that. I'll have to go back and
watch that. I'm gonna take Eric's word for it. Then
fourth and twelve throws an interception directly to a defender
when he has Julian Hill for what should have been
a simple completion and a chance at the first. That's
tough to get to, but I understand the sentiment there.
Maybe the issue is that to it doesn't have confidence
in Tanner or Julian making a play. But that's an
issue in its own right. All of that because of inches,
(28:03):
Maybe it's better he stepped out of bounds because it's
been rinse and repeat, and I'm just thinking like, yeah, man,
you know, I mean the field goal drive that could
have put him up by they were up by two,
could have gone up nine with a touchdown on a
pat you you know, a holding call is tough, but
you had two holding calls. But it would have been
first in goal at the four. Instead it's first in
(28:23):
twenty at the nineteen or twenty nine yard line, right
that cost you four points right there.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
But the procedural stuff like.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
A third down that got a conversion that got called
back because of a legal motion, like it just is
the same final destinations two hundred and seventy whatever. And
then to a man, that's kind of part B of
the takeaway. Like on a day where the numbers were good,
that first interception was like what the hell was that?
The deep shot to Tyreek, the mist Tyrek in the
last drive, the sack, the pick Oh I got another
(28:50):
chance at the end and he couldn't complete it, Like
there was a minute left and it had thirty yards ago.
That is plenty of time, plenty of time to get
down the field. So emblematic of all the issues in
the past, and a regressing quarterback is spelling some not
so good performances Number two, the negative plays. We talked
about it this all summer on the podcast. Right you ran,
you had more negative plays last year than any team
in the NFL since twenty seventeen, the Buffalo Bills that year,
(29:13):
and it was like twelve more than the next team.
When you run fifty two plays and eleven of those
are five sacks and six tackles for loss on top
of ten penalties for sixty five yards, I mean, how
many of those were procedural? Right? That's the difference between
our successful drives and not. If you play a clean drive,
you don't have a negative run or a sack and
no penalties, they probably score a touchdown. That's who we are,
(29:35):
But who you also are is do you have half
your drives a game? They get bogged down by those,
and that's who they've been for four years. Number three
McDaniel got himself on a heater with the ball distribution offense.
I thought the second and third drives were mastery. Shaated
A twenty twenty three got me fist pumping in the
press box. We broken it down at length that those
were great to see if they could keep that role,
and I was like, okay, they'll be all right, they'll
be able to be the nine to ten win team
(29:56):
that people were hoping they could be.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
We have good skill guys too.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
We find the rhythms around to reek and e chan
and waddle and maleak get all involved. You know, different variations,
corner routes, comebacks, use that space, run the ball in
the middle, run the angle routes. I thought we saw
how this offense is capable of keeping a defense on
their hills, and maybe down the road this is a
good thing for you know, the next iteration of this
team we'll see, but right now it's all lost in vain.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
But that's the takeaway.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Number three is we found the old Dolphins there for
a little bit of time. Number four, the defense has
to find its rhythm and fast because you know, ten
possessions in of the season without getting a stop. They
bounce back after that and give them their credit tip
of the cap. They fought and didn't you know, go
into a shell after twelve to nothing, after you know,
all the successful drives, but then you couldn't execute and
(30:42):
get off the field. And it looked to me like
a lack of chemistry at points. And we've talked about
this in a week one press conferences, not playing you know,
tight enough on the outside, the pressure looks when they
take chances. All of that just seems like it's a
little bit out of rhythm for these guys. And you know,
I suppose they could find it like they did last year.
But starting off with losses against the Colston Patriots, when
you got you know, Baltimore, Buffalo, Washington Chargers. You know,
(31:03):
these teams coming up like you can't afford to go
to and six again, brother, not this year. Number five
special teams given and special teams take it away Kyle
Krabs plus your heart, great tweet about the generational Craig
Ackerman is tweet. And then they give up a kick
return on the next play. So three phases it looked
like you had to win the margins. It could have
won the game for you on special teams. But it
goes by the boards late and the Dolphins are zero
(31:25):
and two with a short week to Buffalo. Tomorrow, we're
gonna have the film review podcast. We'll have the preview
podcasts for you guys on Wednesday, no podcast early on Thursday.
We'll come back on Thursday night with the recap show.
Do the film review on Friday, take the weekend off,
and we'll go from there. So you guys, try your
best to enjoy it. The Mariners have won nine games
in a row and have overtaken first place in the
AL West.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
I'm gonna enjoy that. I'm gona enjoy my kids.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Disney on Ice was great last night as well, so
it's not all bad, guys, It's not all bad. In
the meantime, you all please be sure subscribe, rate review,
follow me on social at NFL, the team at Miami Dolphins.
Check out the YouTube channel for Dolphins HQ, media availabilities,
and so much more. Last, but not least, Miami Dolphins
dot com. Until next time, Friends Up, Caroline Cameron Willow
Daddy co
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