November 25, 2022 • 12 mins
Miami Dolphins Tales From The Deep In the wake of Miami’s 195-yard rushing performance against the Cleveland Browns, OJ and Seth dive deeper into Dolphins’ offensive line, a unit that continues to gel. Contributors to this episode include Sean “DJ Prec” Todd. Theme song created and performed by The Honorable SoLo D.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're now diving down and this is strictly for them
to number one one. Of course, this is all the
(00:22):
nest was talk at Fitch Tank. Welcome back to the
fish Tank on a Friday. I'm step Levitt and I
am joined by the one podcaster who overvalue the store
lax on a nationally televised commercial. O. J McDuffie, juice.
We're well rested with the bye week, and if you
are anything like me, you ain't way too much during
last night's Thanksgiving meal. But my question is do you
(00:45):
have a little bit more room for some fish bites? Man?
I do? I do? Let me let me address the
snore Relax. Thank Yeah, this is a snore lax or store.
It was snore lax, okay, you know, and I thought
I thought it was you know, it was outstanding, man.
But I gave up my magmar for you know, and
I got I got schooled, man, I got school The
(01:05):
grammy I thought was okay too to give away, man,
But you know the Magma untram he got me. Well,
I played it for my kids. So if you don't
know what we're talking about, just get on YouTube and
search up. O. J McDuffie United way commercial and uh
you you will get a smile if nothing else. And
if your kids know anything about Pokemon, let them watch
my kids. Both of them shook their head. They're like,
(01:26):
he got ripped off. So really fun stuff. But yeah, man,
I am uh, I'm thankful that you've got a little
bit more room, and I'm gonna keep riding with these
awful Thanksgiving Day jokes. Let's focus today's episode on the
big fellas, who likely had a few plates themselves to
eat for thanks eving. I hope they did. Uh it's
the Miami Dolphins offensive line. We have all been impressed
(01:47):
with their play as of late, but you in particular,
have been really seeing their praises. And in fact, if
you listen to the postgame show the last time the
Dolphin stepped on the field versus of Cleveland Browns, you
split your post games old game ball into five pieces
and awarded a game ball to the entire offensive line.
Yeah man, you know, our old line has been you know,
(02:08):
work in progress, and guys in and out of lineup
getting banged up with a little bit. So at times
we didn't have a solid or consistent five guys out there.
But this last game, you know, the last game against
the Browns, they put it all together and they protected
to Hu. You know, they opened holes for a run
game and you know, and had a really solid game offensively. Man.
So you know, it's about time these guys. You know,
everybody wants to talk about the quarterbacks and the wide
(02:29):
receivers and all these other glamor positions. Man, they have
earned it one cent. But their job can't get done
unless our big uglies they're you know, getting their job done.
And boy are they getting it done. That's that's a
fair point. And so look this most recent game against
the Browns, it really was an absolute thing of beauty
and all phases. But as you said, the offensive line
particular was really special. The numbers alone. So the Russian game,
(02:52):
thirty three carries for a hundred nine yards to explosive touchdowns,
not just like one yard, which you need those as
well because when we don't get them, you're so frustrated.
But these were explosive touchdowns. There was not a single
punt by the Miami Dolphins the entire day. Unbelievable and
it felt like zero sacks. I know, we talked about
zero sacks because twa went nearly untouched for three quarters
(03:13):
three pus quarters. He didn't have to finish the game,
but technically you have to count the Cedric Wilson Jr.
Failed past play as a sack. I nobody knows, nobody
wants to hear that, but it's statistically goes down as
a sack. But I don't think there's anything that the
offensive line needs to feel badly about. My point here
is that the numbers were spectacular. And then all day Tuesday,
(03:33):
you know, Travis, our guy, Travis Wingfield dives into the
all twenty two and we just start getting text watch
this play, watch that play, and it's one pancake block
after the next. He absolutely loved it. And that was
just one game, though, Juice, because I've been saying this
for a little while, I think there's a trend developing here.
Here's what the last six games for this Dolphins rushing
attack of look like. So as we just said, thirty
(03:55):
three two touchdowns versus the Browns for seventy seven and
a touchdown at Chicago twenty six for one oh seven
and a touchdown at the Lions twenty seven for one
eleven versus Steelers seventy three versus Minnesota and then twenty
six for one thirty seven and two touchdowns against the Jets.
So they had clips a hundred yards on the ground
in four of the past six games. They are averaging
(04:17):
over the last six games almost a hundred and seventeen
yards rushing in a touchdown per game during that stretch,
and they did so at four point five yards per clip.
You do four point five times three if you just
handed off, which we're not gonna do. But right you're
getting first downs. We know you love first downs, and
so again they're getting it done on the ground and
owned by the way. In those four games since two
(04:39):
has returned to the lineup, they've given up just three sacks,
and as we said, one was the failed Cedric Wilson passattent,
so that means to has been sacked only twice in
the last four games. I'm not sure we can ask
for much more from this unit. No, I mean we
really can't, but we will right right moving forward. We
need to consistency, be able to do that weekend week out,
(05:00):
and I think they can't. Think they've got the right formula.
Two has been doing a great job of getting the
ball out on time. Guys been running open for him,
so they haven't had sustained blocks as long as sometimes
when you get sacks, but also guys are getting open.
But when you have this balance, just balance a run game.
You've been talking about big seth, it opens up a
lot of different things. We've talked about it a lot before.
What the defense is gonna do. They're gonna take away
(05:21):
our pass game with Tyreek and and and Waddle and
Gaz Sick and those guys, they're gonna try to take
away the run game. A lot of teams has been
playing these two high shells, you know, four across, which
opens up that run game. So if we can have
that balance, you know, I think it's gonna be great,
and it's gonna play into what the offensive line wants to.
You know, offensive lineman want to fire off. They don't
want to sit and pass bro And when you give
them that balance, you've got defenses off, you know, off balance.
(05:42):
You know, it helps those guys out a lot. You know,
it's like you know, you think about it. When you
get a nice rushing touchdown, that's a touchdown for ther line.
You see a lot of guys hand the ball to
to your alignment for the Spike because they know they
don't get in that end zone without their help. Man,
and those guys are fight up. You keep those guys happy. Hell,
the rest of the team will be happy. Yeah, it
makes all the sense in the world. And there's one
(06:02):
other point I want to make here, Juice. So when
we recently had Mike Pouncey in the tank and we
talked about with Mike just how unique the offensive line
is and that there's no other position group in the
game that must function, not has to or might. They
must function as one cohesive unit in the way that
the offensive line does. Right. It's vital and because of this,
(06:23):
continuity across the line is also critical. But with this
team of the line that you saw vers Cleveland was
completely different from the starting lineup that we saw in
week one, as you know, So Austin Jackson, we know
we lost him after week one. Leam Ikenburgh went down
as well. I think was it the Detroit game, right,
you know, and that was really tough to see because
he was playing so well. So with that in mind,
(06:45):
I'm gonna play a sound bite here from offensive coordinator
Frank Smith, who spoke to the media earlier in the week.
He was asked to tell the story of the offense
through ten games, and so he was speaking about the
offense as a whole. But I think that you could
go even more micro and absolutely apply his answer to
the offensive line specifically. But the thing that I like
about is not only does it help make my point,
(07:06):
but Coach Smith gave this amazing analogy and the truth is, dudes,
I just wanted to find a way to right. So
that was so good. So I'm gonna go ahead and
play that now. And it's just been awesome to watch
them respond to an NFL season together. And you know,
the the characters are ever changing in the stories. There
are some constants, but you know, ultimately it's you know,
(07:28):
if you have a great script, you know you need
great actors to fulfill to make the lines come to life.
And that's kind of really been this season. You're seeing
the story of of our actors taken the script to life,
and um, you know, hopefully we can take these last
couple of games, really the month of November and really
kind of finish off the month the way we wanted
to to end, and then now get into the game
(07:52):
month of December, where you know, everything matters, how great
was that, man? You talk about it. Man, we got
a bunch of actors that are starting to play their
role and play their role. Well, man, what a great analogy?
Man together, man, Coach Smith is it's just sharp, man.
But it's kind of the same, you know, pattern that
we've seen with the players and now the coaching staff,
the intelligence on this team and the way they think
through things, you know, to make things happen positiveatively for
(08:15):
this team. I mean, it's amazing. It starts, you know,
the headman down to the coach and staff to the
players executing it. Yeah, a lot of high i q s.
They're over at Baptist Health Training Center, and I think
that there's a writer inside that football coach's brain, of
of Coach Smith's there. So, but as he said, it was,
it was a great analogy. I think one of the
writers said it was a great metaphor. Which metaphor, I
guess technically is an analogy. I'm going with analogy. One
(08:37):
of the writers can call me out on it. But
the characters in this story are the offensive line and
the ever changing characters. As we just said, right tackle
and left guard because Brandon Shell and Rob Jones stepped
in to join the rest of the characters or the actors.
You know, you just working this analogy until it's beating
the dead horse here. But Toronto Armstead, Connor Williams, Rob
(09:00):
Hunt and they've brought this amazing script to life. So
Austin Jackson was placed on I R. As we said
after the New England game, Greg Little stepped in there
at right tackle for a few weeks, but then they
put Brandon Shell in and it was kind of and
I think that was a Minnesota game and it was like,
where have you been my whole life? I know Travis
was going nuts. I said, I might have received more
Shell tape from Travis than any other player on this
(09:23):
team who's not named to us. Yeah, I mean he
he has really enjoyed watching that guy. And I'll be
the first to admit I am no offensive line expert,
and you know, we're trying to get through this thing.
I'm talking about it, but man, when he sends those
and you've watched and he's telling you what to look
for and you're seeing what's going on, Brandan Shell is
doing his thing. And then at Detroit, as we said,
Liam goes down Rob Jones and I'll call him Big
(09:45):
Rob Jones. Big Rob Jones jumps in there juice. The
easiest way for me to sum up what we've seen
from Big Rob Jones is offensive line coach Matt Applebom
spoke as well, and he said Rob can move people
against their will. When a man can move people against
their will, against their will? Right, So, like, you know,
when you can move people against their will. I feel
(10:06):
like if you show up for a job interview and
you're interviewing for offensive Line, and you put your resume
there an objective move people against their will, you're hired
for sure. Yeah. Yeah, so those guys are doing their thing.
You've got a healthy Austin Jackson back on the roster.
It just feels like this brilliant script that Mike McDaniel,
Frank Smith and the rest of the crew of writing
is only going to continue to get more interesting. Yeah,
(10:27):
that's very, very true, Big Seth. You know, it's amazing
how how many we were bitten by injuries early in
the season and now I just starting to get healthy
at the right time coming off of bye week. You know,
I think it's um this this script is nice. It
really is. If you've got some actors that can play
multiple roles. So I think that's gonna that's important too,
because guys have gotten a lot of work. Um, this
unit is coming together. Well, there you have it. That's
another Friday fish Bite episode for you because we come
(10:49):
off the bye week ourselves. I kind of missed doing
it last Friday. As always, we're gonna kindly ask that
you subscribe and rate the show if you haven't already. Yeah,
and make sure you listen to our our latest long
form so to the of the fish Tank, you know
with acn Adele, and definitely check out the rest of
the great content on the Miami Dolphins podcast network. I mean,
Travis is always doing a great job with the Drivetime podcast,
(11:10):
Kimmy be our Girl, with the Dolphins Today and the
Perfect Season podcast. And don't forget our international partners as well,
except hud Pent And of course this Sunday, Juice, Travis,
DJ Presh and myself will have plenty to say immediately
following the Dolphins game against the Houston Texans at hard
Rock Stadium on the w q a M Fifth Quarter
post game show, Juice, I'm done. You have anything else, no, man,
(11:31):
but you know what, Dolphins. Thanks, You're now diving, sitting
down and this is strictly for the dolphins. Number one
(11:56):
one of course, just at the nest. Was tough ever
been that pitch tank? Tank? Get a goat one. Yes,
it's time to devil. Been that pitch tank. It's on
the legend that we're talking when you devel be in
that petch tank.
You're now diving down and this is strictly for them
to number one one. Of course, this is all the
(00:22):
nest was talk at Fitch Tank. Welcome back to the
fish Tank on a Friday. I'm step Levitt and I
am joined by the one podcaster who overvalue the store
lax on a nationally televised commercial. O. J McDuffie, juice.
We're well rested with the bye week, and if you
are anything like me, you ain't way too much during
last night's Thanksgiving meal. But my question is do you
(00:45):
have a little bit more room for some fish bites? Man?
I do? I do? Let me let me address the
snore Relax. Thank Yeah, this is a snore lax or store.
It was snore lax, okay, you know, and I thought
I thought it was you know, it was outstanding, man.
But I gave up my magmar for you know, and
I got I got schooled, man, I got school The
(01:05):
grammy I thought was okay too to give away, man,
But you know the Magma untram he got me. Well,
I played it for my kids. So if you don't
know what we're talking about, just get on YouTube and
search up. O. J McDuffie United way commercial and uh
you you will get a smile if nothing else. And
if your kids know anything about Pokemon, let them watch
my kids. Both of them shook their head. They're like,
(01:26):
he got ripped off. So really fun stuff. But yeah, man,
I am uh, I'm thankful that you've got a little
bit more room, and I'm gonna keep riding with these
awful Thanksgiving Day jokes. Let's focus today's episode on the
big fellas, who likely had a few plates themselves to
eat for thanks eving. I hope they did. Uh it's
the Miami Dolphins offensive line. We have all been impressed
(01:47):
with their play as of late, but you in particular,
have been really seeing their praises. And in fact, if
you listen to the postgame show the last time the
Dolphin stepped on the field versus of Cleveland Browns, you
split your post games old game ball into five pieces
and awarded a game ball to the entire offensive line.
Yeah man, you know, our old line has been you know,
(02:08):
work in progress, and guys in and out of lineup
getting banged up with a little bit. So at times
we didn't have a solid or consistent five guys out there.
But this last game, you know, the last game against
the Browns, they put it all together and they protected
to Hu. You know, they opened holes for a run
game and you know, and had a really solid game offensively. Man.
So you know, it's about time these guys. You know,
everybody wants to talk about the quarterbacks and the wide
(02:29):
receivers and all these other glamor positions. Man, they have
earned it one cent. But their job can't get done
unless our big uglies they're you know, getting their job done.
And boy are they getting it done. That's that's a
fair point. And so look this most recent game against
the Browns, it really was an absolute thing of beauty
and all phases. But as you said, the offensive line
particular was really special. The numbers alone. So the Russian game,
(02:52):
thirty three carries for a hundred nine yards to explosive touchdowns,
not just like one yard, which you need those as
well because when we don't get them, you're so frustrated.
But these were explosive touchdowns. There was not a single
punt by the Miami Dolphins the entire day. Unbelievable and
it felt like zero sacks. I know, we talked about
zero sacks because twa went nearly untouched for three quarters
(03:13):
three pus quarters. He didn't have to finish the game,
but technically you have to count the Cedric Wilson Jr.
Failed past play as a sack. I nobody knows, nobody
wants to hear that, but it's statistically goes down as
a sack. But I don't think there's anything that the
offensive line needs to feel badly about. My point here
is that the numbers were spectacular. And then all day Tuesday,
(03:33):
you know, Travis, our guy, Travis Wingfield dives into the
all twenty two and we just start getting text watch
this play, watch that play, and it's one pancake block
after the next. He absolutely loved it. And that was
just one game, though, Juice, because I've been saying this
for a little while, I think there's a trend developing here.
Here's what the last six games for this Dolphins rushing
attack of look like. So as we just said, thirty
(03:55):
three two touchdowns versus the Browns for seventy seven and
a touchdown at Chicago twenty six for one oh seven
and a touchdown at the Lions twenty seven for one
eleven versus Steelers seventy three versus Minnesota and then twenty
six for one thirty seven and two touchdowns against the Jets.
So they had clips a hundred yards on the ground
in four of the past six games. They are averaging
(04:17):
over the last six games almost a hundred and seventeen
yards rushing in a touchdown per game during that stretch,
and they did so at four point five yards per clip.
You do four point five times three if you just
handed off, which we're not gonna do. But right you're
getting first downs. We know you love first downs, and
so again they're getting it done on the ground and
owned by the way. In those four games since two
(04:39):
has returned to the lineup, they've given up just three sacks,
and as we said, one was the failed Cedric Wilson passattent,
so that means to has been sacked only twice in
the last four games. I'm not sure we can ask
for much more from this unit. No, I mean we
really can't, but we will right right moving forward. We
need to consistency, be able to do that weekend week out,
(05:00):
and I think they can't. Think they've got the right formula.
Two has been doing a great job of getting the
ball out on time. Guys been running open for him,
so they haven't had sustained blocks as long as sometimes
when you get sacks, but also guys are getting open.
But when you have this balance, just balance a run game.
You've been talking about big seth, it opens up a
lot of different things. We've talked about it a lot before.
What the defense is gonna do. They're gonna take away
(05:21):
our pass game with Tyreek and and and Waddle and
Gaz Sick and those guys, they're gonna try to take
away the run game. A lot of teams has been
playing these two high shells, you know, four across, which
opens up that run game. So if we can have
that balance, you know, I think it's gonna be great,
and it's gonna play into what the offensive line wants to.
You know, offensive lineman want to fire off. They don't
want to sit and pass bro And when you give
them that balance, you've got defenses off, you know, off balance.
(05:42):
You know, it helps those guys out a lot. You know,
it's like you know, you think about it. When you
get a nice rushing touchdown, that's a touchdown for ther line.
You see a lot of guys hand the ball to
to your alignment for the Spike because they know they
don't get in that end zone without their help. Man,
and those guys are fight up. You keep those guys happy. Hell,
the rest of the team will be happy. Yeah, it
makes all the sense in the world. And there's one
(06:02):
other point I want to make here, Juice. So when
we recently had Mike Pouncey in the tank and we
talked about with Mike just how unique the offensive line
is and that there's no other position group in the
game that must function, not has to or might. They
must function as one cohesive unit in the way that
the offensive line does. Right. It's vital and because of this,
(06:23):
continuity across the line is also critical. But with this
team of the line that you saw vers Cleveland was
completely different from the starting lineup that we saw in
week one, as you know, So Austin Jackson, we know
we lost him after week one. Leam Ikenburgh went down
as well. I think was it the Detroit game, right,
you know, and that was really tough to see because
he was playing so well. So with that in mind,
(06:45):
I'm gonna play a sound bite here from offensive coordinator
Frank Smith, who spoke to the media earlier in the week.
He was asked to tell the story of the offense
through ten games, and so he was speaking about the
offense as a whole. But I think that you could
go even more micro and absolutely apply his answer to
the offensive line specifically. But the thing that I like
about is not only does it help make my point,
(07:06):
but Coach Smith gave this amazing analogy and the truth is, dudes,
I just wanted to find a way to right. So
that was so good. So I'm gonna go ahead and
play that now. And it's just been awesome to watch
them respond to an NFL season together. And you know,
the the characters are ever changing in the stories. There
are some constants, but you know, ultimately it's you know,
(07:28):
if you have a great script, you know you need
great actors to fulfill to make the lines come to life.
And that's kind of really been this season. You're seeing
the story of of our actors taken the script to life,
and um, you know, hopefully we can take these last
couple of games, really the month of November and really
kind of finish off the month the way we wanted
to to end, and then now get into the game
(07:52):
month of December, where you know, everything matters, how great
was that, man? You talk about it. Man, we got
a bunch of actors that are starting to play their
role and play their role. Well, man, what a great analogy?
Man together, man, Coach Smith is it's just sharp, man.
But it's kind of the same, you know, pattern that
we've seen with the players and now the coaching staff,
the intelligence on this team and the way they think
through things, you know, to make things happen positiveatively for
(08:15):
this team. I mean, it's amazing. It starts, you know,
the headman down to the coach and staff to the
players executing it. Yeah, a lot of high i q s.
They're over at Baptist Health Training Center, and I think
that there's a writer inside that football coach's brain, of
of Coach Smith's there. So, but as he said, it was,
it was a great analogy. I think one of the
writers said it was a great metaphor. Which metaphor, I
guess technically is an analogy. I'm going with analogy. One
(08:37):
of the writers can call me out on it. But
the characters in this story are the offensive line and
the ever changing characters. As we just said, right tackle
and left guard because Brandon Shell and Rob Jones stepped
in to join the rest of the characters or the actors.
You know, you just working this analogy until it's beating
the dead horse here. But Toronto Armstead, Connor Williams, Rob
(09:00):
Hunt and they've brought this amazing script to life. So
Austin Jackson was placed on I R. As we said
after the New England game, Greg Little stepped in there
at right tackle for a few weeks, but then they
put Brandon Shell in and it was kind of and
I think that was a Minnesota game and it was like,
where have you been my whole life? I know Travis
was going nuts. I said, I might have received more
Shell tape from Travis than any other player on this
(09:23):
team who's not named to us. Yeah, I mean he
he has really enjoyed watching that guy. And I'll be
the first to admit I am no offensive line expert,
and you know, we're trying to get through this thing.
I'm talking about it, but man, when he sends those
and you've watched and he's telling you what to look
for and you're seeing what's going on, Brandan Shell is
doing his thing. And then at Detroit, as we said,
Liam goes down Rob Jones and I'll call him Big
(09:45):
Rob Jones. Big Rob Jones jumps in there juice. The
easiest way for me to sum up what we've seen
from Big Rob Jones is offensive line coach Matt Applebom
spoke as well, and he said Rob can move people
against their will. When a man can move people against
their will, against their will? Right, So, like, you know,
when you can move people against their will. I feel
(10:06):
like if you show up for a job interview and
you're interviewing for offensive Line, and you put your resume
there an objective move people against their will, you're hired
for sure. Yeah. Yeah, so those guys are doing their thing.
You've got a healthy Austin Jackson back on the roster.
It just feels like this brilliant script that Mike McDaniel,
Frank Smith and the rest of the crew of writing
is only going to continue to get more interesting. Yeah,
(10:27):
that's very, very true, Big Seth. You know, it's amazing
how how many we were bitten by injuries early in
the season and now I just starting to get healthy
at the right time coming off of bye week. You know,
I think it's um this this script is nice. It
really is. If you've got some actors that can play
multiple roles. So I think that's gonna that's important too,
because guys have gotten a lot of work. Um, this
unit is coming together. Well, there you have it. That's
another Friday fish Bite episode for you because we come
(10:49):
off the bye week ourselves. I kind of missed doing
it last Friday. As always, we're gonna kindly ask that
you subscribe and rate the show if you haven't already. Yeah,
and make sure you listen to our our latest long
form so to the of the fish Tank, you know
with acn Adele, and definitely check out the rest of
the great content on the Miami Dolphins podcast network. I mean,
Travis is always doing a great job with the Drivetime podcast,
(11:10):
Kimmy be our Girl, with the Dolphins Today and the
Perfect Season podcast. And don't forget our international partners as well,
except hud Pent And of course this Sunday, Juice, Travis,
DJ Presh and myself will have plenty to say immediately
following the Dolphins game against the Houston Texans at hard
Rock Stadium on the w q a M Fifth Quarter
post game show, Juice, I'm done. You have anything else, no, man,
(11:31):
but you know what, Dolphins. Thanks, You're now diving, sitting
down and this is strictly for the dolphins. Number one
(11:56):
one of course, just at the nest. Was tough ever
been that pitch tank? Tank? Get a goat one. Yes,
it's time to devil. Been that pitch tank. It's on
the legend that we're talking when you devel be in
that petch tank.
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