December 16, 2025 • 29 mins
The Dolphins lost in Pittsburgh on Monday night. Travis is taking you through the tape - what worked, what didn’t, and what’s next.
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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 Drift Time Podcast.
I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show,
you know what time it is a time to review
a film that was not very much fun to review.
We'll talk about the Steelers game offense and defense and
tell you how it went wrong in a loss that
eliminates the Dolphins from postseason contention. From the Baptist Health
(00:31):
Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
This is the Drift Time Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Welcome all massy kiss masochists who gather here, all of
you that can't get enough of the content. And I
assume that if you're here, it's not out of sheer pleasure.
It's out of a desire to know what the hell
happened in that game on Monday night football. And let
me tell your friends, you came to the right place
Week fifteen film review against the Pittsburgh Steelers. And we start,
(00:59):
as we always do, on the offensive side of the football.
And there were just so many instances in this game
of two patterns down the field with dual swing or
outlet options, and you just saw the Steelers defense have
no respect for the vertical game, and it allowed them
to play tighter in the hook zone and crash hard downhill.
(01:22):
And it's not like Tua is going to pump and
move you and extend the play and then threaten you
deep like if he moves off the spot, the ball
is not going more than twenty five yards down the field.
And this essentially kills one of the biggest staples in
the entire playbook, that escort swing that we run with
the running back who has a parallel blocker right in
front of him. That if you had to ask me
(01:44):
to guess the productivity productivity, productivity of that play over
the last two years, which has been probably aside from
the screen game, been our most frequent play we've called,
I would venture to guess that play probably averages less
than three yards per play when we call it.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
I can play of the game.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Alec Ingold gets with but he has to kind of
shuffle in place to maintain his pace with a running
back a chan and he waits for the pass because
the ball is behind his back, he can't really see it,
but Alex Highsmith can, so he gets this running start
and turns it into a pass rush rep. With this
like pretty good NFL pass rusher against a full back,
a matchup that nobody wants to garner on offense, and
(02:24):
he gets completely tossed back into the running back. He
throws him into a chan and cuts it down for
a loss. And that was kind of how the game
went for Ingold after the first couple of drives of
this game, and it's just become like repetitive in some
of these things. And this is you know, we're gonna
potentially hear about a quarterback switch. We'll see usually the
head coach, UH McDaniel on Tuesday mentioned that all things
(02:45):
are on the table. Typically, and I'm not stepping out
of school here, but typically if you say that, usually
a change comes. So I think that's going to be
the case. And I think part of the performance with
what he's been given, but also the limitations and restrictions
of the playbook because of the player that Tua has
become in twenty twenty five, I think it's this cavalcade
(03:09):
of non starters for the passing game, and I think
part of that is the distribution and the spacing. It's
effective in terms of covering every blade of grass. But
McDaniel talked on Tuesday about, like, you know, amplifying the
traits of the players you do have and building out
a game plan around that. I think the difference now
(03:30):
compared to last year when we were this quick throw,
short pass, high percent edge attack where we could be
efficient and sustained drives, although that was kind of the
only way we could move the ball last year with
all the short stuff to a Chan and to John
news Smith and kind of taking Waddle out of the
playbook entirely, the difference is the lack of the vertical threat,
and obviously Tyreek Hill's absence plays into that in a
(03:51):
big way. I've told you many times I think Tyreek's
got some elements of his game that ultimately hold the
offense back in some ways. But the one thing that
he did consistently do was lift coverage and be a
vertical presence. But I think the twenty twenty three tape
had more to do with that than anything Tyreek presented
because of the residual effect of what you got in
(04:12):
twenty three and how that impacted twenty four compared to
teams saying, well, in twenty four they didn't do any
of that, and twenty five they're probably not going to
do it either, because we haven't gotten the ball downfield
really outside of you know, a couple of deep shots
to waddle right the last couple of years and pull
up the tape, there's not there's no respect for the
(04:32):
deep game. So that second level then can play tighter,
and the third level winds up squeezing the intermediate game,
especially when if you move to off the spot, because
if he's not in rhythm to throw the football off
of one hitch timing, it's gonna float, it's going to
flutter and max out at thirty thirty five yards. He
can pump it down their fifty five yards when it's
(04:52):
off one hitch timing, But if you move them at all,
and teams are kind of getting to this in their
game plan, it's not And even on plays where he
he has to you know, reset in the pocket, like
the interception to Usante Samuel, he didn't get his mechanics
aligned and that thing floats thirty yards like a wounded duck.
This game reminds me of that two thousand and eight
playoff loss to the Ravens where they just parked ed
(05:13):
reed in the middle of the field, dared us to
go deep. And we couldn't do it because Chad Pennington,
you know, had a surgically repaired shoulder that didn't allow
him to push the ball down the field, and they
wiped out everything that made Pennington and the offense go
that year.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Actually, I would even go further.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
You know, the other routes on the escort swing is
a larger snapshot of the offense. The other routes aren't
routes that we are running with intent to even get open.
It's like brotherhood routes across the board. It's a designed
escort screen the entire way. And when that's not there,
and it wasn't, we have to throw it away because
the quarterback is not going to create off of that structure.
(05:49):
So as much as the quarterback play hurts you, and
it has really all year long, aside from a couple
of games right to have played a few games that
were pretty good this year. Outside of that, it's been
a lot of this and it's really hurting the offense.
It's more than just a quarterback play though. Man, it's
a combination combination of multiple things, Like we need separators.
Wattle consistently gets open. He does it all the time
(06:12):
across the board. But other than that, it's the same
as it's been, you know, with the depth of the
receiver's room, and you lose Tyreek Hill and all of
a sudden you're counting on guys to fill his snaps
in those positions.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
And you've you've.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Replicated or rather, you know, filled the void with tight
ends and Doniel Brun skill and running backs and all that.
But when you get to your true eleven personnel drop
back game, there's just not a lot of separation out
there now. I like some of the run game design.
I like that wham trap design on the loan Jalen
Wright carry. One week after getting twenty four carries, he
goes back to one carry in this game. But it
(06:44):
also goes to show you that it takes all eleven
because we got good blocks at both levels. But Patrick Paul,
who's been fantastic all year, got a little bit wide
and fell off of his block and they stopped right
for a short game. Something else that came across my
craw if you will, these wing t formations, man, I
just don't get it. Like Ingold has to wait for
(07:05):
things to unfold. It's it's quarterback in the pistol running
back alongside him, another running back alongside that running back,
and then a player behind them in like a pistol formation.
So it's three backs next to Tua in this wing
t formation, and there's bodies going all over the place
and Ingold.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Has to like sift through it all.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
And by the time he gets himself into the equation,
he's kicking out a defender who's not part of the
play at all anyway, So you're essentially throwing away a
hat in terms of how you block it up. I
don't think it was a bad night for Patrick Paul
and aarn Brewer. It just wasn't the same dominance you've
come to expect from those guys. And hats off to
the Steelers. Like again, the opposing team gets paid two
(07:44):
and they did a good job of getting off blocks
on those guys. Usually once those players connect on their blocks,
like the rep is over for the man across from them.
But they got off a few of those blocks and
it often led to the one tackle that the tackle
I should say that prevented the explosive run from get
out the gate. And the more I watched the tape,
this was kind of the case for the entire offensive line,
which just tells me Pittsburgh came with a really good
(08:06):
game plan and they executed it for how to attack
this Dolphins offense because we know how this goes. They
want to play downhill off the football and make every
rep look like a running play, so you'd get more
leniency in your pass protection, and they want to bring
the party to you. They want to initiate the contact
and initiate the sequence, and they did a good job
of meeting us with force, but then they could plant
(08:26):
the flag and kind of like just anchor and let
our momentum carry us off. Connection on those blocks, which
caused a bunch of these plays where our guys over
ran the block and were not able to get themselves
back in on the tackle. We just didn't seem connected
on combos the entire night, whether it was singles doubles.
Pittsburgh did a good job of shetting when it came
(08:48):
time to make the play at the point of attack.
So that's why the run game didn't quite pop off
the way I thought it could have, because some of
these plays were blocked super well, and you'd get like
one element of the play that broke down, and that
was between h and going for six, or having a
one on one against Ramsey and space for like sixty.
I'm not sure what happened here, but we had a
four on four matchup to the left side of the
(09:10):
center on the Ali Gordon third and one play and
you wind up springing Patrick Queen for a free run
in the B gap. That's probably the one guy you
don't want it to turn free, but it happened on
this play. And you know, watching that play, like if
you look at the way the end crashes, this is
the benefit of having a mobile quarterback man. If Tua
had any ability to keep the ball around the edge,
(09:30):
we could crash those with zone reads and just pick
up easy first downs a lot. And that's how this
offense could really expand itselfense why I think Zach Wilson
makes a lot of sense, just to see how it
can expand your vertical game and your run game based
upon the threat of the quarterback run. Just those things alone,
aside from everything else. You know, I didn't think in
(09:51):
camp or in the spring, or with the Jets or
at BYU that Zach ever played an on time brand
of football, which is a non starter. But maybe he's
grown there. But even if not, just that added element,
because the quarterback we've been playing hasn't been doing that,
hasn't been playing well. I just want to see what
the offense looks like when you can add that element
into it. I really liked the twenty four yard play
(10:14):
to a Chan off script. A lot of times when
Tua gets out there, there's not a lot to work
with the routes they don't break the same way he does.
But a Chan on this play did a great job
of getting himself into a spot where Twa could get
the ball to him. Let's talk about Tua, because, again,
coming off the game, off the tape, I had the
thought that I wouldn't be surprised if we heard of
a possible quarterback change, and McDaniel confirmed Tuesday that it
(10:36):
is a possibility. When they say that, it almost always happens.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
We'll see.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
He mentioned the decision should come on Wednesday, after they
have had a chance to talk to the players and
fully assess what they saw and where they want to
go forward from here. But I anticipate you probably hear something,
just me speculating that you probably hear a change, because
typically when coaches make the announcement at the podium. That's
what happens. I think Tua's twenty twenty five season is
a microcosm for why this league is so hard to predict.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
You know, like we I right, the Royal. We we
had to a fight.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
We had to fight the establishment, and the establishment being
fans on social media who were never a fan of
his game, and we had to fight them on calling
cards of Tua's game, his superpowers, the accuracy of the process,
the post nat manipulation. I refer all the time on
the show to the micd up game from twenty twenty
four against the Patriots. We're too a new what every
piece on the chessboard was doing at all times, how
(11:26):
it was going to rotate. And he threw for like
three hundred and twenty yards and four touchdowns. He carved
him up. It was surgical. He was playing you know,
catch with Dad back on Eva Beach in Hawaii. You
just haven't seen those on tape as much as you
used to, especially in this Monday night game. And the
interception was an example of just flat out not iding
a defender, which both he and McDaniel talked about in
(11:48):
the post game wrap up and the feet on that play.
He's not hitching into the throw, so the feet are
not hardwired to the eyes as he scans the field.
It results in this backfoot throw and the ball floating
to the corner route, you know, five yards down the
field in the far hash and it comes out like
fluttering on a loose spiral. And I don't want to
continue to harp on this too much because it's it's
(12:08):
like redundant at this point, but you know, there was
I talked about the Ramsey blitz where you got the sack,
and Tua had some potential options on that play, the
near pick by Alex high Smith. Just it's just not
been good quarterback process, and I think that's you know,
that's where some of the consternation comes from right now,
with how the offense is going and while you're not
scoring enough points and the box score didn't really tell
the whole story there. So we'll get more into the
(12:30):
quarterback position on the preview podcast on Thursdays. Go ahead
and just move off now and advance on to the
next part of the podcast and take our first break
right there and talk about the offensive the rest of
the offensive players. That's next Draft Time Podcast. Brought to
you by AutoNation. We talked about the offensive structure and
the quarterback plits. Go ahead and talk about the individuals
(12:51):
who popped on the tape and those that probably want
the game back.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Devon Hchen.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
It is just special, right what you're watching nine games
for one hundred yards from scrimmage. Only Ricky Williams has
done that in franchise history. He did it twice back
to back years. But the broken play reception, then you
look at some of these tiny creases where he hits
it in the inside running game. You pair that with
the speed on the perimeter in the past game prowess.
There's no other way to put it. It is just special, man.
(13:16):
You get a chance to watch it every single week
here if you're a Dolphins fan. Julian Hill, I appreciate
his toughness almost above all. That first catch and run.
That's a tone setting type of play, and I thought
it did that for the first quarter of the game,
give or take. But the way he comes in on
these wide blocks and can hit them against corners who
have all the space in the world to get away
(13:37):
from those blocks, it's been a big area of growth
for him. His landmarks is the way he's not lunging
into blocks. I think this is a player you've invested
him and developed who's really paid off this year from
all that time you invested into him. These are type
of glue pieces on your roster where you add it
all up, it becomes just as important as hitting on
your first round picks. Man, you hit on the stars
early in the draft, you develop quality role players elsewhere.
(14:00):
That's the path to a championship roster. And I'm always
happy to point these guys out because you get enough
of these guys and you can start having a core
of your roster where there's like an expectation and a
next man up mentality where you can keep the same
football despite what happens with all the attrition from injuries
that happened in the NFL. Speaking of tight ends and
guys that fill out roles in your roster, Greg dolcich,
I love this dude. What's not to love? He made
(14:22):
more plays in the passing game. There's also a rep
and it's the last play of the half and kind
of like a give up running play, but he climbs
on the Sam Becker, who is Patrick Queen in this case,
and rides him out of the entire play, Like, give
me more dol such Man, give me more Darren Waller too.
The value of those high point ball skills around the
red zone, especially in this league where defenders are faster
than ever before, they're more athletic, and they're sharper to
(14:44):
their rules than ever before. There's not many windows in
the passing game down there, so sometimes you have to
just let your guy make a play, and nobody on
the team, nobody for the last Parker wasn't that good,
GASICKI wasn't that good. I might go back to Chris
Chambers as the last player who was better at making
plays on the football in the air than Darren Waller
(15:05):
for the Miami Dolphins. The same exact concept on that
seambuster split field. You split the safeties, run down the middle,
go up and rebound above the ram. Good ball from
two on that one, Jill and Wattle. I feel for
the Penguin because this is a fourteen hundred dard receiver
who continues to kind of get become the afterthought in
the offense for three years now, and it's tough to
(15:25):
get him involved in this one given how the Steelers
played him. But he was still giving it everything he got. Man.
There was a double team rep, the one where Doulcitch
got free up the sideline late in garbage time where
he sort of just follows Waddle's vertical route and Wattle
opens up to full speed to create that lift for
his teammate. He was also wide open on a little
mesh on the first Waller touchdown, and he went and
(15:48):
celebrate with Waller the minute he caught the touchdown. I'm
always happy to point out guys are being good teammates
because he probably could have thought, like, hey, I was
the easier touchdown throw on that play, but he didn't
do that. He went and celebrate with his teammate. I
think by Aaron Brewers, it wasn't his best game. But
there was a swing play to a chan for about
fifteen yards at the start of the fourth quarter when
it's twenty eight to three, where he buries a guy
at the line of scrimmage, catches himself a rack of ribs,
(16:11):
then sprints downfield and tries to find a block. That's
a rep you can show in a team meeting twelve
times over about how you want done.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
We're down by twenty five points.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
We're getting our butts kicked, hey, and he's still playing
to the echo of the whistle.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Individual rough games.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
I just saw a clip of Jonas about Naya approaching
Cameron Heyward after the game, asking him, Hey, I what
do I need to fix?
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Bro?
Speaker 2 (16:30):
And like, I love that. I love Jonah's mindset. He's
going to be a good player for us for a
long time. But in this one he had a rough night.
He was playing upright, wasn't playing connected to the ground,
He fell off blocks, was off balance. Not his best showing.
I thought Cole Strange the exact same thing. Pass pro
wasn't up to par, and he had the exact same
issues as everybody else staying connected on blocks. I thought,
at least Patrick, Paul, Aren Brewer and Austin Jackson's pass
(16:51):
pro was good, so they got themselves into the like
no mention zone. But Jonah and Cole some pass pro
losses got him into this category. NWI mean, Malik, there's
just not separation outside of Waddle and the tight ends
and eight Chan. It's been that way for years, you know,
not Tyreek was standing snap counts on the offensive line
and quarterback. They all go the distance fifty Brunskill played
(17:14):
eight snaps in the game at receiver. Wattle forty two,
Washington twenty eight, NWI eighteen said Wilson played ten and
Esco played eight. At running back eight Chan played forty
all he played six and right played four. Ingold got
I think I don't have it written down. Was it
twenty snaps in the game, but yeah? Jalen Wright played
four snaps in the game. Darren Waller twenty seven, Julian
(17:36):
Hill twenty one, Greg Dole such nineteen. Let's go ahead
and keep this going here on the defensive side of
the football. Within this segment, they threw the kitchen sink
at Aaron Rodgers and it worked until it didn't. We
were super connected in our zone distributions on those first
three drives, carrying routes, passing them off. That first play,
Jack Jones does a great job of carrying a vertical route.
He sees a backside crosser coming into his zone coverage,
(17:59):
which allows Terrell Dotson to pass him off to Jack Jones,
who then gets downhill to chip release the chip release
tight end and cut him down for a one yard game.
It's like this beautiful symphony of playing connected together on
that first play, we got pressure sim with sim pressure looks,
we fit the run from light alignments. Early on, Minka
had one hell of a stop on a run from depth.
They didn't get anything going until like play nine when
(18:22):
they hit dk Metcalf on a dig for an explosive
play on second and ten. It's their second drive. They
converted a toush push on a fourth down previously, but
the four plays to get that first down, we're obviously
like kind of you know, in the slop if you will.
But they got this because we sim pressured it and
we pulled old Matthew Judon back into the hook zone
and he wound up covering grass and he got high
(18:43):
loaded despite there being no underneath route there. It's like
the same thing as two on the pick, like, hey,
you gotta see that sinking cloud corner. Hey Judon, there's
nobody there. You can get your depth and take away
this dig. And Rasul Douglass was in curl flap. He's
there for the outbreaking route and Rogers saw the hook
zone not getting depth and just through pitch and catch
for a big play. Now he did do a little
(19:04):
shoulder roll to the flat and that pull pulled Judon
down there. But it's like, you know, it's it's taking
the cheese right, it's taking the cheese there. So it's
the same thing we talked about in the offense. You
can have a play well covered, but you get one
missed assignment and it turns into a big play because
Brooks is all over his guy. So we're t dot
Jack and rasool too high safe he's keeping the roof on,
but we don't get depth on a hook drop and
(19:27):
it becomes a route on air throw for twenty yards
and uh yeah, he got the tail. He got the
hips flipping the wrong way and Rogers attacked it. And
that's what Rogers does. And I'm I'm more and more
impressed by this quarterback the more I watch him here,
even at age forty two. And it's funny because I
watched the Steelers in prep for this game. I watched
three of their game tapes, and I read about their
struggling offense, and if I've watched their games on broadcasts,
(19:49):
and like all the consternation about the offense and watching
those games, and this game, like the old man Stills
got it, like that forked down conversion early on, he
got us he's been doing that for twenty years. He
usually gets you with too many guys in the field,
which he did later on in the game as well
in a substitution, but this time he just goes before
we got lined up, and he did that a few
times in the game, hard counting us where guys just
(20:10):
weren't ready to play. We really did everything, though. We
saw some Tampa two in this game from single high presentations.
That's what happened on the rep where he found friar
Mouth for a twenty yard play. T Dot takes off
down the pipe and they just replaced that that evacuation
with a little hookup route from Friarmuth. He catches it
for an easy twenty yard catch and run. The first
sack that took them out of field goal range. In
(20:31):
the first quarter, we presented double mugs. That's linebackers up
over either side of the center and we stepped down
into robber three. Three robbers cover three right. The one
safety step down in the middle of the field takes
away crossing routes. Both the cornerbacks get depth, the middle
of the field safety gets depth, and you play deep
thirds with a crossing route robber. It's presented as quarters.
(20:53):
They showed four high and they rolled into three. Robber
Brooks comes, Tyrell Dotson backs out, giving us a fifth rusher.
Minka reroutes the hot route, Rastool and Jack all over
the receivers, and then Brooks just runs through the running
back and pass protection, good design, good coverage, and you're
all pro linebacker doing all pro stuff. I liked those
those big gap blitzes. I like those big gap blitzes
(21:15):
where Brooks rushes opposite seiler because they double stealers so
much so when they do that, they squeeze that side
of the rush and or their protection, and it winds
up giving you Brooks on a running back. And I'm
going to take that one hundred times out of one hundred.
I felt like things really got going for them the
more they went to those quick counts. We also stopped
(21:35):
tackling nearly as effectively after the break, Like kind of
night and day. At the halftime break, we were getting
some one on one stops in the alley, and they
started making those guys miss in the second half of
the game, but they were able to create some really
good angles and leverage advantages by snapping the football before
we got set at times. The touchdown to MVS was
an outright bust. They run dual crossers like a ten
(21:56):
yard mesh down the field in front of two safeties,
and actually I don't know the coverage because if he's
in the post and Jack Jones to the field and
Rasoul Douglas is to the boundary the short side, the
field's the wide side. We know that by now right,
Jack Jones gets depth and falls off into what looks
like split field safeties for this crossing pattern, which that's perfect.
Just run with both of those routes and get your depth.
But Rasoul chases DK metcalf in what might have been
(22:19):
meg Man everywhere. He goes against everybody else's own coverage
and ifymlafam Wu steps down to buzz the other crosser
and takes himself all the way out of the play
because Jack Jones stayed home and picked up the DK crosser.
By the time if he corrects the false step, it's
way too late. It's a walk in touchdown. And they
drew that presentation through their run game success and their formation.
(22:41):
We were in big nickel three safeties. They had unbalanced
twelve personnel, two tight ends to one side of the formation,
and they pull both Ashton Davis and Minka Fitzpatrick down
to the fit and take advantage of a post safety
who doesn't do that a whole lot, and a cornerback
who's playing a safety role. I watched the twelve men
on the field call Rogers. It's just freaking rogers. He
(23:02):
saw that, and Zeke Biggers is literally a half step
away from getting off the field. Like umpires and baseball
games on bang bang plays at first base, get that
right half of time. He saw it from twenty five
yards away and then just throws a goal ball. In
an NFL game, I think you could see some deflation
after the Metcalf touchdown where he kind of ran through
guys and it kind of set end to that point. Well,
(23:24):
maybe not set in, because the next three plays we
got a three and out and an awesome Jordan Brooks play,
but then he got penalized, and then the next six
plays went nine yards, one yard, twenty yards, five yards,
twelve yards, fourteen yard touchdown run with Judon at the
forefront of the last two. Ashon Davi was getting caught
flat footed as well. He had help on the inside,
still gave up the outside post. So yeah, but I
(23:45):
think that, you know, the defense, like they brought their
a game until about started the third quarter and they
kind of kept on straining and then things kind of
fell apart after that. So not their best, not their worst,
and tough to overcome an offense they just cannot move
the football. Let's go ahead and pause for our last break,
come back and talk about standouts. Top five tapes Draft
(24:05):
Time Podcast brought to you by Autoonation. We talked about
the defensive structure, we talked about the offense all across
the board. Let's go ahead and get into the defensive
individual standouts where Ssuell Douglas is outstanding. I think this
could be the best cornerback season we've gotten from a
player since Xavi and Howard in twenty nineteen, maybe twenty twenty.
(24:25):
The feel for coverage rules, the ability to play him
as the forced defender in the running game. That third
down stop he made on the checkdown on the opening drive.
He does everything. He's been better than Jaylen Ramsey was
for us. Like cater Cohu's has some good years in there.
But this is a smart, physical player with ball skills
who can play man and zone. I love him. I
love his game. I love Jordan Brooks's game. You can
see the way he expands our ability to draw run
(24:48):
fits from light boxes, his ability to scrape and spill,
to read his keys, the way his defensive line attacks
the blocks and then go and get those tight angles
and fit them up. It is so impressive. Man. He
hits like an app dog. Like every good defense you
watch has a player like Jordan Brooks. It's like running
around and hitting people and just like looks mean and scary.
That's Jordan Brooks for this defense. I love watching this
(25:10):
guy play. He's the first team All Pro middle linebacker
this year in the NFL. In my opinion, Kenneth Grant,
I think you're gonna see a sophomore explosion from Kenny
g Everything has gotten so much better from week one
to now. The hands, the active feet, the pad level.
He's playing under guys and through them. He's not giving
ground on double teams. He's not making like big splash plays.
But I like this tape and there's some resets and
(25:32):
some walkbacks and some pure power pass rush plays where
he's just getting under guys and taking them for a walk.
Jack Jones, those zone chops that we praised here on
the show when he first got signed.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
They're all over his tape.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
But man, he has really really taken his tackling chops
and work against the run game to a different level.
I also love his game. Him and Rasulo have been
two of the best surprises all year long. Jordan Phillips.
If you don't watch the tape, you're never going to
see it for this guy. But if you do watch it,
just watch the way this guy attacks with his un
then locks out and then takes control of his man.
It's all the damn time, and you don't see it
(26:05):
very often because the ball is not going his way
because teams are running away from him and he consistently
stands guys up and just man handles them.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Zach Steeler.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
I mentioned the double teams, but man, we get into
passing downs and can use him as part of the
rush game. And you can't always do this because you
know you have to mix it up, but you pair
it with those mugged up looks and sim pressures. It
creates these chances and where he's gotten them recently, he's
capitalized the sack. He's a one shade to the left
of the center, he crosses his face and attacks the
(26:36):
right guard. His responsibility is to crash the right guard
and run him over and create a runway for the
other rusher, which in this case was Zeke Biggers, who
loops off of that and gets picked up on the
left guard. But Seiler is so effective in his pick
stunt that he's able to stay on balance despite running
through this three hundred and twenty pounds man and then
split the gap and then get back into the rush
(26:56):
fit and finish off the sack. You see the center
come off him because he knows that pick stunt what
it has coming off the back end. So you create
this confusion with all these different looks, and then you
run Steeler in there at the forefront of your pick
stunt game. He's one of the best in the NFL
at doing that. The misses in this game, Matthew Judon
we talked about last night. I like, if you're talking
about making changes, this is one that I would do
(27:17):
as well. Quentin Bell, cam Good, Derek McClendon all on
the table for me. Bad feel and coverage washed out
in the running game over and over again by tight ends,
no pass rush juice. This was the downside of the
Phillips trade right, but ultimately that third round pick was
more valuable because you know, whether or not we wanted
to believe, this was probably always going to happen at
some point in the final four games, Bradley Chubb never
(27:38):
threatened Dylan Cook and won on one opportunities. Wasn't gap
sound in the running game? Ashton Davis saying things every week,
no feel see it, then go guy tackles missed at
the second level over and over again. Tyrrel Dotson drives
me nuts and coverage that just happens every game. Snap counts, Dotson, Jones,
and Douglas all go the distance at sixty six. Davis
played sixty three of the sixty six, Minka fifty nine
(27:59):
if He twenty eight, and Trader got fifteen snaps. Jason
Marshall got one snap late in the game. Other linebackers
Brooks played sixty two of the sixty six. Willie Gay
had nine snaps in the game. Bradley Chubb led all
edge defenders with fifty six reps. Chop forty one, Judon
twenty three, Cam Good seven On the interior, Seiler played
forty seven kg thirty eight Phillips thirty two, Biggers twenty eight,
(28:20):
and Benito nineteen. My top five tapes Number one, Jordan Brooks,
set your watch this guy. He's fun to watch every
single weekend. Devon Hcha number two, Rasul Douglas number three,
Jack Jones number four, and Darren Waller was my fifth
best tape in this game. That's gonna do it Today.
We're gonna take a break for the show. Well, depending
on when you hear this, we'll have the preview podcast
(28:40):
for you on Thursday. We're gonna have some alumni chats
for the big sixtieth celebration game on Sunday against the Bengals.
We'll have Richmond Webb, Oji McDuffie, and John Offered all
on the podcast Friday. But until then, you all please
be sure subscribe, rate, review the show, all that fun stuff,
follow me on social at Winkle NFL, the team at
Miami Dolphins, check out the YouTube channel for Dolphins HQ,
(29:01):
Media availabilities and so much more, and last button not least,
Miami Dolphins dot Com. Until next time, Caroline Cameron and
Willow Daddy. He's coming home.
This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up Dolphins and welcome to the Drift Time Podcast.
I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show,
you know what time it is a time to review
a film that was not very much fun to review.
We'll talk about the Steelers game offense and defense and
tell you how it went wrong in a loss that
eliminates the Dolphins from postseason contention. From the Baptist Health
(00:31):
Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
This is the Drift Time Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Welcome all massy kiss masochists who gather here, all of
you that can't get enough of the content. And I
assume that if you're here, it's not out of sheer pleasure.
It's out of a desire to know what the hell
happened in that game on Monday night football. And let
me tell your friends, you came to the right place
Week fifteen film review against the Pittsburgh Steelers. And we start,
(00:59):
as we always do, on the offensive side of the football.
And there were just so many instances in this game
of two patterns down the field with dual swing or
outlet options, and you just saw the Steelers defense have
no respect for the vertical game, and it allowed them
to play tighter in the hook zone and crash hard downhill.
(01:22):
And it's not like Tua is going to pump and
move you and extend the play and then threaten you
deep like if he moves off the spot, the ball
is not going more than twenty five yards down the field.
And this essentially kills one of the biggest staples in
the entire playbook, that escort swing that we run with
the running back who has a parallel blocker right in
front of him. That if you had to ask me
(01:44):
to guess the productivity productivity, productivity of that play over
the last two years, which has been probably aside from
the screen game, been our most frequent play we've called,
I would venture to guess that play probably averages less
than three yards per play when we call it.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
I can play of the game.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Alec Ingold gets with but he has to kind of
shuffle in place to maintain his pace with a running
back a chan and he waits for the pass because
the ball is behind his back, he can't really see it,
but Alex Highsmith can, so he gets this running start
and turns it into a pass rush rep. With this
like pretty good NFL pass rusher against a full back,
a matchup that nobody wants to garner on offense, and
(02:24):
he gets completely tossed back into the running back. He
throws him into a chan and cuts it down for
a loss. And that was kind of how the game
went for Ingold after the first couple of drives of
this game, and it's just become like repetitive in some
of these things. And this is you know, we're gonna
potentially hear about a quarterback switch. We'll see usually the
head coach, UH McDaniel on Tuesday mentioned that all things
(02:45):
are on the table. Typically, and I'm not stepping out
of school here, but typically if you say that, usually
a change comes. So I think that's going to be
the case. And I think part of the performance with
what he's been given, but also the limitations and restrictions
of the playbook because of the player that Tua has
become in twenty twenty five, I think it's this cavalcade
(03:09):
of non starters for the passing game, and I think
part of that is the distribution and the spacing. It's
effective in terms of covering every blade of grass. But
McDaniel talked on Tuesday about, like, you know, amplifying the
traits of the players you do have and building out
a game plan around that. I think the difference now
(03:30):
compared to last year when we were this quick throw,
short pass, high percent edge attack where we could be
efficient and sustained drives, although that was kind of the
only way we could move the ball last year with
all the short stuff to a Chan and to John
news Smith and kind of taking Waddle out of the
playbook entirely, the difference is the lack of the vertical threat,
and obviously Tyreek Hill's absence plays into that in a
(03:51):
big way. I've told you many times I think Tyreek's
got some elements of his game that ultimately hold the
offense back in some ways. But the one thing that
he did consistently do was lift coverage and be a
vertical presence. But I think the twenty twenty three tape
had more to do with that than anything Tyreek presented
because of the residual effect of what you got in
(04:12):
twenty three and how that impacted twenty four compared to
teams saying, well, in twenty four they didn't do any
of that, and twenty five they're probably not going to
do it either, because we haven't gotten the ball downfield
really outside of you know, a couple of deep shots
to waddle right the last couple of years and pull
up the tape, there's not there's no respect for the
(04:32):
deep game. So that second level then can play tighter,
and the third level winds up squeezing the intermediate game,
especially when if you move to off the spot, because
if he's not in rhythm to throw the football off
of one hitch timing, it's gonna float, it's going to
flutter and max out at thirty thirty five yards. He
can pump it down their fifty five yards when it's
(04:52):
off one hitch timing, But if you move them at all,
and teams are kind of getting to this in their
game plan, it's not And even on plays where he
he has to you know, reset in the pocket, like
the interception to Usante Samuel, he didn't get his mechanics
aligned and that thing floats thirty yards like a wounded duck.
This game reminds me of that two thousand and eight
playoff loss to the Ravens where they just parked ed
(05:13):
reed in the middle of the field, dared us to
go deep. And we couldn't do it because Chad Pennington,
you know, had a surgically repaired shoulder that didn't allow
him to push the ball down the field, and they
wiped out everything that made Pennington and the offense go
that year.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Actually, I would even go further.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
You know, the other routes on the escort swing is
a larger snapshot of the offense. The other routes aren't
routes that we are running with intent to even get open.
It's like brotherhood routes across the board. It's a designed
escort screen the entire way. And when that's not there,
and it wasn't, we have to throw it away because
the quarterback is not going to create off of that structure.
(05:49):
So as much as the quarterback play hurts you, and
it has really all year long, aside from a couple
of games right to have played a few games that
were pretty good this year. Outside of that, it's been
a lot of this and it's really hurting the offense.
It's more than just a quarterback play though. Man, it's
a combination combination of multiple things, Like we need separators.
Wattle consistently gets open. He does it all the time
(06:12):
across the board. But other than that, it's the same
as it's been, you know, with the depth of the
receiver's room, and you lose Tyreek Hill and all of
a sudden you're counting on guys to fill his snaps
in those positions.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
And you've you've.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Replicated or rather, you know, filled the void with tight
ends and Doniel Brun skill and running backs and all that.
But when you get to your true eleven personnel drop
back game, there's just not a lot of separation out
there now. I like some of the run game design.
I like that wham trap design on the loan Jalen
Wright carry. One week after getting twenty four carries, he
goes back to one carry in this game. But it
(06:44):
also goes to show you that it takes all eleven
because we got good blocks at both levels. But Patrick Paul,
who's been fantastic all year, got a little bit wide
and fell off of his block and they stopped right
for a short game. Something else that came across my
craw if you will, these wing t formations, man, I
just don't get it. Like Ingold has to wait for
(07:05):
things to unfold. It's it's quarterback in the pistol running
back alongside him, another running back alongside that running back,
and then a player behind them in like a pistol formation.
So it's three backs next to Tua in this wing
t formation, and there's bodies going all over the place
and Ingold.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Has to like sift through it all.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
And by the time he gets himself into the equation,
he's kicking out a defender who's not part of the
play at all anyway, So you're essentially throwing away a
hat in terms of how you block it up. I
don't think it was a bad night for Patrick Paul
and aarn Brewer. It just wasn't the same dominance you've
come to expect from those guys. And hats off to
the Steelers. Like again, the opposing team gets paid two
(07:44):
and they did a good job of getting off blocks
on those guys. Usually once those players connect on their blocks,
like the rep is over for the man across from them.
But they got off a few of those blocks and
it often led to the one tackle that the tackle
I should say that prevented the explosive run from get
out the gate. And the more I watched the tape,
this was kind of the case for the entire offensive line,
which just tells me Pittsburgh came with a really good
(08:06):
game plan and they executed it for how to attack
this Dolphins offense because we know how this goes. They
want to play downhill off the football and make every
rep look like a running play, so you'd get more
leniency in your pass protection, and they want to bring
the party to you. They want to initiate the contact
and initiate the sequence, and they did a good job
of meeting us with force, but then they could plant
(08:26):
the flag and kind of like just anchor and let
our momentum carry us off. Connection on those blocks, which
caused a bunch of these plays where our guys over
ran the block and were not able to get themselves
back in on the tackle. We just didn't seem connected
on combos the entire night, whether it was singles doubles.
Pittsburgh did a good job of shetting when it came
(08:48):
time to make the play at the point of attack.
So that's why the run game didn't quite pop off
the way I thought it could have, because some of
these plays were blocked super well, and you'd get like
one element of the play that broke down, and that
was between h and going for six, or having a
one on one against Ramsey and space for like sixty.
I'm not sure what happened here, but we had a
four on four matchup to the left side of the
(09:10):
center on the Ali Gordon third and one play and
you wind up springing Patrick Queen for a free run
in the B gap. That's probably the one guy you
don't want it to turn free, but it happened on
this play. And you know, watching that play, like if
you look at the way the end crashes, this is
the benefit of having a mobile quarterback man. If Tua
had any ability to keep the ball around the edge,
(09:30):
we could crash those with zone reads and just pick
up easy first downs a lot. And that's how this
offense could really expand itselfense why I think Zach Wilson
makes a lot of sense, just to see how it
can expand your vertical game and your run game based
upon the threat of the quarterback run. Just those things alone,
aside from everything else. You know, I didn't think in
(09:51):
camp or in the spring, or with the Jets or
at BYU that Zach ever played an on time brand
of football, which is a non starter. But maybe he's
grown there. But even if not, just that added element,
because the quarterback we've been playing hasn't been doing that,
hasn't been playing well. I just want to see what
the offense looks like when you can add that element
into it. I really liked the twenty four yard play
(10:14):
to a Chan off script. A lot of times when
Tua gets out there, there's not a lot to work
with the routes they don't break the same way he does.
But a Chan on this play did a great job
of getting himself into a spot where Twa could get
the ball to him. Let's talk about Tua, because, again,
coming off the game, off the tape, I had the
thought that I wouldn't be surprised if we heard of
a possible quarterback change, and McDaniel confirmed Tuesday that it
(10:36):
is a possibility. When they say that, it almost always happens.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
We'll see.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
He mentioned the decision should come on Wednesday, after they
have had a chance to talk to the players and
fully assess what they saw and where they want to
go forward from here. But I anticipate you probably hear something,
just me speculating that you probably hear a change, because
typically when coaches make the announcement at the podium. That's
what happens. I think Tua's twenty twenty five season is
a microcosm for why this league is so hard to predict.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
You know, like we I right, the Royal. We we
had to a fight.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
We had to fight the establishment, and the establishment being
fans on social media who were never a fan of
his game, and we had to fight them on calling
cards of Tua's game, his superpowers, the accuracy of the process,
the post nat manipulation. I refer all the time on
the show to the micd up game from twenty twenty
four against the Patriots. We're too a new what every
piece on the chessboard was doing at all times, how
(11:26):
it was going to rotate. And he threw for like
three hundred and twenty yards and four touchdowns. He carved
him up. It was surgical. He was playing you know,
catch with Dad back on Eva Beach in Hawaii. You
just haven't seen those on tape as much as you
used to, especially in this Monday night game. And the
interception was an example of just flat out not iding
a defender, which both he and McDaniel talked about in
(11:48):
the post game wrap up and the feet on that play.
He's not hitching into the throw, so the feet are
not hardwired to the eyes as he scans the field.
It results in this backfoot throw and the ball floating
to the corner route, you know, five yards down the
field in the far hash and it comes out like
fluttering on a loose spiral. And I don't want to
continue to harp on this too much because it's it's
(12:08):
like redundant at this point, but you know, there was
I talked about the Ramsey blitz where you got the sack,
and Tua had some potential options on that play, the
near pick by Alex high Smith. Just it's just not
been good quarterback process, and I think that's you know,
that's where some of the consternation comes from right now,
with how the offense is going and while you're not
scoring enough points and the box score didn't really tell
the whole story there. So we'll get more into the
(12:30):
quarterback position on the preview podcast on Thursdays. Go ahead
and just move off now and advance on to the
next part of the podcast and take our first break
right there and talk about the offensive the rest of
the offensive players. That's next Draft Time Podcast. Brought to
you by AutoNation. We talked about the offensive structure and
the quarterback plits. Go ahead and talk about the individuals
(12:51):
who popped on the tape and those that probably want
the game back.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Devon Hchen.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
It is just special, right what you're watching nine games
for one hundred yards from scrimmage. Only Ricky Williams has
done that in franchise history. He did it twice back
to back years. But the broken play reception, then you
look at some of these tiny creases where he hits
it in the inside running game. You pair that with
the speed on the perimeter in the past game prowess.
There's no other way to put it. It is just special, man.
(13:16):
You get a chance to watch it every single week
here if you're a Dolphins fan. Julian Hill, I appreciate
his toughness almost above all. That first catch and run.
That's a tone setting type of play, and I thought
it did that for the first quarter of the game,
give or take. But the way he comes in on
these wide blocks and can hit them against corners who
have all the space in the world to get away
(13:37):
from those blocks, it's been a big area of growth
for him. His landmarks is the way he's not lunging
into blocks. I think this is a player you've invested
him and developed who's really paid off this year from
all that time you invested into him. These are type
of glue pieces on your roster where you add it
all up, it becomes just as important as hitting on
your first round picks. Man, you hit on the stars
early in the draft, you develop quality role players elsewhere.
(14:00):
That's the path to a championship roster. And I'm always
happy to point these guys out because you get enough
of these guys and you can start having a core
of your roster where there's like an expectation and a
next man up mentality where you can keep the same
football despite what happens with all the attrition from injuries
that happened in the NFL. Speaking of tight ends and
guys that fill out roles in your roster, Greg dolcich,
I love this dude. What's not to love? He made
(14:22):
more plays in the passing game. There's also a rep
and it's the last play of the half and kind
of like a give up running play, but he climbs
on the Sam Becker, who is Patrick Queen in this case,
and rides him out of the entire play, Like, give
me more dol such Man, give me more Darren Waller too.
The value of those high point ball skills around the
red zone, especially in this league where defenders are faster
than ever before, they're more athletic, and they're sharper to
(14:44):
their rules than ever before. There's not many windows in
the passing game down there, so sometimes you have to
just let your guy make a play, and nobody on
the team, nobody for the last Parker wasn't that good,
GASICKI wasn't that good. I might go back to Chris
Chambers as the last player who was better at making
plays on the football in the air than Darren Waller
(15:05):
for the Miami Dolphins. The same exact concept on that
seambuster split field. You split the safeties, run down the middle,
go up and rebound above the ram. Good ball from
two on that one, Jill and Wattle. I feel for
the Penguin because this is a fourteen hundred dard receiver
who continues to kind of get become the afterthought in
the offense for three years now, and it's tough to
(15:25):
get him involved in this one given how the Steelers
played him. But he was still giving it everything he got. Man.
There was a double team rep, the one where Doulcitch
got free up the sideline late in garbage time where
he sort of just follows Waddle's vertical route and Wattle
opens up to full speed to create that lift for
his teammate. He was also wide open on a little
mesh on the first Waller touchdown, and he went and
(15:48):
celebrate with Waller the minute he caught the touchdown. I'm
always happy to point out guys are being good teammates
because he probably could have thought, like, hey, I was
the easier touchdown throw on that play, but he didn't
do that. He went and celebrate with his teammate. I
think by Aaron Brewers, it wasn't his best game. But
there was a swing play to a chan for about
fifteen yards at the start of the fourth quarter when
it's twenty eight to three, where he buries a guy
at the line of scrimmage, catches himself a rack of ribs,
(16:11):
then sprints downfield and tries to find a block. That's
a rep you can show in a team meeting twelve
times over about how you want done.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
We're down by twenty five points.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
We're getting our butts kicked, hey, and he's still playing
to the echo of the whistle.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Individual rough games.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
I just saw a clip of Jonas about Naya approaching
Cameron Heyward after the game, asking him, Hey, I what
do I need to fix?
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Bro?
Speaker 2 (16:30):
And like, I love that. I love Jonah's mindset. He's
going to be a good player for us for a
long time. But in this one he had a rough night.
He was playing upright, wasn't playing connected to the ground,
He fell off blocks, was off balance. Not his best showing.
I thought Cole Strange the exact same thing. Pass pro
wasn't up to par, and he had the exact same
issues as everybody else staying connected on blocks. I thought,
at least Patrick, Paul, Aren Brewer and Austin Jackson's pass
(16:51):
pro was good, so they got themselves into the like
no mention zone. But Jonah and Cole some pass pro
losses got him into this category. NWI mean, Malik, there's
just not separation outside of Waddle and the tight ends
and eight Chan. It's been that way for years, you know,
not Tyreek was standing snap counts on the offensive line
and quarterback. They all go the distance fifty Brunskill played
(17:14):
eight snaps in the game at receiver. Wattle forty two,
Washington twenty eight, NWI eighteen said Wilson played ten and
Esco played eight. At running back eight Chan played forty
all he played six and right played four. Ingold got
I think I don't have it written down. Was it
twenty snaps in the game, but yeah? Jalen Wright played
four snaps in the game. Darren Waller twenty seven, Julian
(17:36):
Hill twenty one, Greg Dole such nineteen. Let's go ahead
and keep this going here on the defensive side of
the football. Within this segment, they threw the kitchen sink
at Aaron Rodgers and it worked until it didn't. We
were super connected in our zone distributions on those first
three drives, carrying routes, passing them off. That first play,
Jack Jones does a great job of carrying a vertical route.
He sees a backside crosser coming into his zone coverage,
(17:59):
which allows Terrell Dotson to pass him off to Jack Jones,
who then gets downhill to chip release the chip release
tight end and cut him down for a one yard game.
It's like this beautiful symphony of playing connected together on
that first play, we got pressure sim with sim pressure looks,
we fit the run from light alignments. Early on, Minka
had one hell of a stop on a run from depth.
They didn't get anything going until like play nine when
(18:22):
they hit dk Metcalf on a dig for an explosive
play on second and ten. It's their second drive. They
converted a toush push on a fourth down previously, but
the four plays to get that first down, we're obviously
like kind of you know, in the slop if you will.
But they got this because we sim pressured it and
we pulled old Matthew Judon back into the hook zone
and he wound up covering grass and he got high
(18:43):
loaded despite there being no underneath route there. It's like
the same thing as two on the pick, like, hey,
you gotta see that sinking cloud corner. Hey Judon, there's
nobody there. You can get your depth and take away
this dig. And Rasul Douglass was in curl flap. He's
there for the outbreaking route and Rogers saw the hook
zone not getting depth and just through pitch and catch
for a big play. Now he did do a little
(19:04):
shoulder roll to the flat and that pull pulled Judon
down there. But it's like, you know, it's it's taking
the cheese right, it's taking the cheese there. So it's
the same thing we talked about in the offense. You
can have a play well covered, but you get one
missed assignment and it turns into a big play because
Brooks is all over his guy. So we're t dot
Jack and rasool too high safe he's keeping the roof on,
but we don't get depth on a hook drop and
(19:27):
it becomes a route on air throw for twenty yards
and uh yeah, he got the tail. He got the
hips flipping the wrong way and Rogers attacked it. And
that's what Rogers does. And I'm I'm more and more
impressed by this quarterback the more I watch him here,
even at age forty two. And it's funny because I
watched the Steelers in prep for this game. I watched
three of their game tapes, and I read about their
struggling offense, and if I've watched their games on broadcasts,
(19:49):
and like all the consternation about the offense and watching
those games, and this game, like the old man Stills
got it, like that forked down conversion early on, he
got us he's been doing that for twenty years. He
usually gets you with too many guys in the field,
which he did later on in the game as well
in a substitution, but this time he just goes before
we got lined up, and he did that a few
times in the game, hard counting us where guys just
(20:10):
weren't ready to play. We really did everything, though. We
saw some Tampa two in this game from single high presentations.
That's what happened on the rep where he found friar
Mouth for a twenty yard play. T Dot takes off
down the pipe and they just replaced that that evacuation
with a little hookup route from Friarmuth. He catches it
for an easy twenty yard catch and run. The first
sack that took them out of field goal range. In
(20:31):
the first quarter, we presented double mugs. That's linebackers up
over either side of the center and we stepped down
into robber three. Three robbers cover three right. The one
safety step down in the middle of the field takes
away crossing routes. Both the cornerbacks get depth, the middle
of the field safety gets depth, and you play deep
thirds with a crossing route robber. It's presented as quarters.
(20:53):
They showed four high and they rolled into three. Robber
Brooks comes, Tyrell Dotson backs out, giving us a fifth rusher.
Minka reroutes the hot route, Rastool and Jack all over
the receivers, and then Brooks just runs through the running
back and pass protection, good design, good coverage, and you're
all pro linebacker doing all pro stuff. I liked those
those big gap blitzes. I like those big gap blitzes
(21:15):
where Brooks rushes opposite seiler because they double stealers so
much so when they do that, they squeeze that side
of the rush and or their protection, and it winds
up giving you Brooks on a running back. And I'm
going to take that one hundred times out of one hundred.
I felt like things really got going for them the
more they went to those quick counts. We also stopped
(21:35):
tackling nearly as effectively after the break, Like kind of
night and day. At the halftime break, we were getting
some one on one stops in the alley, and they
started making those guys miss in the second half of
the game, but they were able to create some really
good angles and leverage advantages by snapping the football before
we got set at times. The touchdown to MVS was
an outright bust. They run dual crossers like a ten
(21:56):
yard mesh down the field in front of two safeties,
and actually I don't know the coverage because if he's
in the post and Jack Jones to the field and
Rasoul Douglas is to the boundary the short side, the
field's the wide side. We know that by now right,
Jack Jones gets depth and falls off into what looks
like split field safeties for this crossing pattern, which that's perfect.
Just run with both of those routes and get your depth.
But Rasoul chases DK metcalf in what might have been
(22:19):
meg Man everywhere. He goes against everybody else's own coverage
and ifymlafam Wu steps down to buzz the other crosser
and takes himself all the way out of the play
because Jack Jones stayed home and picked up the DK crosser.
By the time if he corrects the false step, it's
way too late. It's a walk in touchdown. And they
drew that presentation through their run game success and their formation.
(22:41):
We were in big nickel three safeties. They had unbalanced
twelve personnel, two tight ends to one side of the formation,
and they pull both Ashton Davis and Minka Fitzpatrick down
to the fit and take advantage of a post safety
who doesn't do that a whole lot, and a cornerback
who's playing a safety role. I watched the twelve men
on the field call Rogers. It's just freaking rogers. He
(23:02):
saw that, and Zeke Biggers is literally a half step
away from getting off the field. Like umpires and baseball
games on bang bang plays at first base, get that
right half of time. He saw it from twenty five
yards away and then just throws a goal ball. In
an NFL game, I think you could see some deflation
after the Metcalf touchdown where he kind of ran through
guys and it kind of set end to that point. Well,
(23:24):
maybe not set in, because the next three plays we
got a three and out and an awesome Jordan Brooks play,
but then he got penalized, and then the next six
plays went nine yards, one yard, twenty yards, five yards,
twelve yards, fourteen yard touchdown run with Judon at the
forefront of the last two. Ashon Davi was getting caught
flat footed as well. He had help on the inside,
still gave up the outside post. So yeah, but I
(23:45):
think that, you know, the defense, like they brought their
a game until about started the third quarter and they
kind of kept on straining and then things kind of
fell apart after that. So not their best, not their worst,
and tough to overcome an offense they just cannot move
the football. Let's go ahead and pause for our last break,
come back and talk about standouts. Top five tapes Draft
(24:05):
Time Podcast brought to you by Autoonation. We talked about
the defensive structure, we talked about the offense all across
the board. Let's go ahead and get into the defensive
individual standouts where Ssuell Douglas is outstanding. I think this
could be the best cornerback season we've gotten from a
player since Xavi and Howard in twenty nineteen, maybe twenty twenty.
(24:25):
The feel for coverage rules, the ability to play him
as the forced defender in the running game. That third
down stop he made on the checkdown on the opening drive.
He does everything. He's been better than Jaylen Ramsey was
for us. Like cater Cohu's has some good years in there.
But this is a smart, physical player with ball skills
who can play man and zone. I love him. I
love his game. I love Jordan Brooks's game. You can
see the way he expands our ability to draw run
(24:48):
fits from light boxes, his ability to scrape and spill,
to read his keys, the way his defensive line attacks
the blocks and then go and get those tight angles
and fit them up. It is so impressive. Man. He
hits like an app dog. Like every good defense you
watch has a player like Jordan Brooks. It's like running
around and hitting people and just like looks mean and scary.
That's Jordan Brooks for this defense. I love watching this
(25:10):
guy play. He's the first team All Pro middle linebacker
this year in the NFL. In my opinion, Kenneth Grant,
I think you're gonna see a sophomore explosion from Kenny
g Everything has gotten so much better from week one
to now. The hands, the active feet, the pad level.
He's playing under guys and through them. He's not giving
ground on double teams. He's not making like big splash plays.
But I like this tape and there's some resets and
(25:32):
some walkbacks and some pure power pass rush plays where
he's just getting under guys and taking them for a walk.
Jack Jones, those zone chops that we praised here on
the show when he first got signed.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
They're all over his tape.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
But man, he has really really taken his tackling chops
and work against the run game to a different level.
I also love his game. Him and Rasulo have been
two of the best surprises all year long. Jordan Phillips.
If you don't watch the tape, you're never going to
see it for this guy. But if you do watch it,
just watch the way this guy attacks with his un
then locks out and then takes control of his man.
It's all the damn time, and you don't see it
(26:05):
very often because the ball is not going his way
because teams are running away from him and he consistently
stands guys up and just man handles them.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Zach Steeler.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
I mentioned the double teams, but man, we get into
passing downs and can use him as part of the
rush game. And you can't always do this because you
know you have to mix it up, but you pair
it with those mugged up looks and sim pressures. It
creates these chances and where he's gotten them recently, he's
capitalized the sack. He's a one shade to the left
of the center, he crosses his face and attacks the
(26:36):
right guard. His responsibility is to crash the right guard
and run him over and create a runway for the
other rusher, which in this case was Zeke Biggers, who
loops off of that and gets picked up on the
left guard. But Seiler is so effective in his pick
stunt that he's able to stay on balance despite running
through this three hundred and twenty pounds man and then
split the gap and then get back into the rush
(26:56):
fit and finish off the sack. You see the center
come off him because he knows that pick stunt what
it has coming off the back end. So you create
this confusion with all these different looks, and then you
run Steeler in there at the forefront of your pick
stunt game. He's one of the best in the NFL
at doing that. The misses in this game, Matthew Judon
we talked about last night. I like, if you're talking
about making changes, this is one that I would do
(27:17):
as well. Quentin Bell, cam Good, Derek McClendon all on
the table for me. Bad feel and coverage washed out
in the running game over and over again by tight ends,
no pass rush juice. This was the downside of the
Phillips trade right, but ultimately that third round pick was
more valuable because you know, whether or not we wanted
to believe, this was probably always going to happen at
some point in the final four games, Bradley Chubb never
(27:38):
threatened Dylan Cook and won on one opportunities. Wasn't gap
sound in the running game? Ashton Davis saying things every week,
no feel see it, then go guy tackles missed at
the second level over and over again. Tyrrel Dotson drives
me nuts and coverage that just happens every game. Snap counts, Dotson, Jones,
and Douglas all go the distance at sixty six. Davis
played sixty three of the sixty six, Minka fifty nine
(27:59):
if He twenty eight, and Trader got fifteen snaps. Jason
Marshall got one snap late in the game. Other linebackers
Brooks played sixty two of the sixty six. Willie Gay
had nine snaps in the game. Bradley Chubb led all
edge defenders with fifty six reps. Chop forty one, Judon
twenty three, Cam Good seven On the interior, Seiler played
forty seven kg thirty eight Phillips thirty two, Biggers twenty eight,
(28:20):
and Benito nineteen. My top five tapes Number one, Jordan Brooks,
set your watch this guy. He's fun to watch every
single weekend. Devon Hcha number two, Rasul Douglas number three,
Jack Jones number four, and Darren Waller was my fifth
best tape in this game. That's gonna do it Today.
We're gonna take a break for the show. Well, depending
on when you hear this, we'll have the preview podcast
(28:40):
for you on Thursday. We're gonna have some alumni chats
for the big sixtieth celebration game on Sunday against the Bengals.
We'll have Richmond Webb, Oji McDuffie, and John Offered all
on the podcast Friday. But until then, you all please
be sure subscribe, rate, review the show, all that fun stuff,
follow me on social at Winkle NFL, the team at
Miami Dolphins, check out the YouTube channel for Dolphins HQ,
(29:01):
Media availabilities and so much more, and last button not least,
Miami Dolphins dot Com. Until next time, Caroline Cameron and
Willow Daddy. He's coming home.
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