Speaker 1: You are listening to the Miami Dolphins Podcast Network.
Speaker 2: This is Drive Time with Travis Wingfield.
Speaker 3: Back to throw to a looking clips about.
Speaker 4: A wide Dolphins touchdown, Tyriquel uncrelievable, just blue.
Speaker 2: By it for a second time.
Speaker 4: Don knew where he was going right away.
Speaker 2: I want to hit that man. I'm gonna help you.
Speaker 3: Someone will step on his man.
Speaker 2: Away Wattle, Wadle to a shotgun.
Speaker 3: Back to throw, looking at them.
Speaker 2: Up Myers touchdown.
Speaker 3: It's Waddle his sixth touchdown, paradoun.
Speaker 1: How's the King?
Speaker 2: Drive Time with Travis Wingfield begins.
Speaker 3: Now let me check your pulse if you're not for
Speaker 3: what is up?
Speaker 2: Dolphins? And welcome to the Drive Time podcast, part of
Speaker 2: the Miami Dolphins Podcast Network, covering your team, your Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 2: How's it going everybody? I am your host, Travis Wingfield.
Speaker 2: And on today's show, the Dolphins are victorious again. We're
Speaker 2: not a play win. We're gonna save that for the
Speaker 2: regular season. And yeah it is the preseason. But I
Speaker 2: think there was a ton to take away from this
Speaker 2: game in Houston as the Dolphins win twenty eight to three.
Speaker 2: Going away, we'll unpack it all the game story, five takeaways,
Speaker 2: player evals, sound from coach and Tua. All of that
Speaker 2: and more from the Baptist Hill Studios inside the Baptist
Speaker 2: Health Training Complex. This is the Drive Time podcast.
Speaker 3: Heye Gaffe first, So how about.
Speaker 2: That football game? Huh? I have my thoughts and takeaways.
Speaker 2: Let's go ahead and do some numbers here and tell
Speaker 2: you the story of the game as the Dolphins win
Speaker 2: twenty eight to three and just dominate in every sense
Speaker 2: of the word. You go down the entire stat page,
Speaker 2: it is Dolphins across the board, twenty three first downs
Speaker 2: to ten, three hundred and ninety eight total yards to
Speaker 2: one eighty six one ninety three to one to fifty
Speaker 2: four through the air, but twoh five to thirty two
Speaker 2: on the ground. Miami ran sixty nine plays nice to
Speaker 2: forty eight of the Houston Texans. They had one turnover
Speaker 2: to not get a takeaway in the game. That kind
Speaker 2: of surprised me. Also didn't get a sack. Houston got
Speaker 2: two on us. And the penalties were way down except
Speaker 2: for late in the game, six for thirty four and
Speaker 2: I think four of those were in the second half.
Speaker 2: So that was great to see. And top thirty eight
Speaker 2: minutes and forty two seconds in this twenty eight to
Speaker 2: three shmackdown of the Houston Texans. How about the efficiency.
Speaker 2: You're not gonna lose a lot of games, or ever
Speaker 2: lose a game when you go nine for fifteen on
Speaker 2: third down, two for two on fourth down, you go
Speaker 2: four for four in the red zone, and you go
Speaker 2: one for one when your goal to go, which means
Speaker 2: Dolphins scored three touchdowns from the mid to high red zone,
Speaker 2: which is cool to hear. Texans on the other side
Speaker 2: of the football two for twelve, one third down, one
Speaker 2: for three and fourth inefficiency and they were zero for
Speaker 2: one inside the red zone. And also not gonna lose
Speaker 2: many games. When you rush the ball for two hundred
Speaker 2: and five yards one hundred and forty of those in
Speaker 2: the first half, you won't lose many games when you
Speaker 2: allowed just three points as a defense and the yards
Speaker 2: we mentioned with the rushing and total yard is now
Speaker 2: didn't start very well. First play of the night is
Speaker 2: a pick. They run a little r glance wheel flat.
Speaker 2: What does that mean? The glance is the quick seam
Speaker 2: up the middle that they threw. The flat obviously is
Speaker 2: the ball out to the short flat area and the
Speaker 2: wheel is up the sideline, so you basically have three stressors,
Speaker 2: two verticals, one horizontal, and it's an RPO look, which
Speaker 2: means there's an option to hand the football off there,
Speaker 2: and you can tell that by the offensive lineman firing
Speaker 2: off the football.
Speaker 3: So they kind of.
Speaker 2: Ran this little like spam look on that where they
Speaker 2: tried to kind of catch the Texans off guard. I think,
Speaker 2: and Tua, I think if he hands that ball off
Speaker 2: you're gonna have a pretty good run on the ground there.
Speaker 2: Because the linebacker that two was working on that play,
Speaker 2: which there's always a conflict defender you work on RPO looks,
Speaker 2: he just never respected the run. He continued to get
Speaker 2: depth and Tua just kind of threw it right to him.
Speaker 2: And that's probably a play that if you hand off
Speaker 2: because he's playing that far off, I believe you get
Speaker 2: a big run out of that play, potentially one on
Speaker 2: one in open space for aheem moster. It's a mistake,
Speaker 2: you learn from it, you move on, and Tua broke
Speaker 2: it down for us after the game.
Speaker 4: It's really all it was just bad quarterback play there.
Speaker 4: It's not how you want to start out a drive
Speaker 4: anyway you look at it. So it's bad play, But
Speaker 4: like I said, I'm glad with the way we responded
Speaker 4: because the next series, you know, things were still jarred
Speaker 4: up when with the first two plays, and then we
Speaker 4: got into third down and things started to settle and
Speaker 4: we found out rhythm in the game.
Speaker 2: But how about the way to responded. Coach McDaniel liked
Speaker 2: it quite a lot.
Speaker 1: You know, I told him before the game, you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't expect him to play that long, but if
Speaker 1: if adversity comes our way, to seize it. And he
Speaker 1: he he took it extremely literal, So you know, to me,
Speaker 1: it's like, all right, perfect, what are you gonna do?
Speaker 1: You know, I think it was so valuable because it
Speaker 1: was the first play, and you know, he came back
Speaker 1: as I would expect, but the rep he had already
Speaker 1: put himself there before what happens when that happens. It
Speaker 1: was on a play that he's had a lot of
Speaker 1: success with and he threw a pick, So we got
Speaker 1: behind the sticks and I think we had like a
Speaker 1: fourteen or fifteen play drive that was critical on three
Speaker 1: or four third downs on it. So that's that is
Speaker 1: exactly what preseason's for. That's why you want somebody to play.
Speaker 1: I'm glad he got it out of the way, but
Speaker 1: more importantly, the team didn't blink. The team had a
Speaker 1: pretty short field to defend, right, And what a momentum
Speaker 1: swing that is when when your defense can come up
Speaker 1: and not bat and I hold a team for to
Speaker 1: not have points and then progressed from there. So I
Speaker 1: was happy with the way the team responded to that.
Speaker 2: And really from there it was a super clean operation
Speaker 2: twenty one first half points that began with a ninety
Speaker 2: three yard four team play scoring march, and you really
Speaker 2: got everything you could have wanted. Dominant trench play, efficient passing,
Speaker 2: a beautiful ball from Tua to Barrios, thread the needle
Speaker 2: for a big completion down in the red zone when
Speaker 2: things get tight. And speaking of Braxton, is he a
Speaker 2: guy who's just going to come up with big grab
Speaker 2: after big grab or what? You know? Seth and OJ
Speaker 2: loved the signing and I was like, I don't know,
Speaker 2: I think he's a pump returner, but I was wrong. Man,
Speaker 2: He's a good receiver, very very good receiver. I love
Speaker 2: the way he came back to the football when Skyler
Speaker 2: had that touchdown pass. He just kind of worked back
Speaker 2: on a broken play and got himself back in shape
Speaker 2: for a good play, and it turned out to be
Speaker 2: a six point play for Miami pretty easily with the
Speaker 2: cornerback falling off. But back to Tua. I loved this
Speaker 2: comment from Coach at the end of his presser on Tua,
Speaker 2: who continues here at age twenty five now to just
Speaker 2: look so much more comfortable in everything he's doing that
Speaker 2: we've ever seen him before.
Speaker 1: I think he's finding himself as a man, and he's
Speaker 1: doing it alongside teammates. And I think that that this
Speaker 1: You know, when when you're been doing something for that long,
Speaker 1: you're just enjoying the process day and day out. You know,
Speaker 1: he's he is so comfortable in his skin, and so
Speaker 1: his as for life is so strong now as a
Speaker 1: father and a husband and a quarterback, and he is enjoying.
Speaker 1: You know, he's worried about the right stuff, like you
Speaker 1: throw a pick first play that's not ideal, but you
Speaker 1: focus on okay, Well, most people, you know might let
Speaker 1: that linger and have an effect on how you approach
Speaker 1: everything else. As a competitor, I'm going to try to
Speaker 1: not have that be the case. And I think all
Speaker 1: that fits within him and his development and where he's at.
Speaker 1: And I'm excited to see him every day. And he's
Speaker 1: got a really cool new tattoo, so that's cool too.
Speaker 2: And this was to us first game since Christmas. I
Speaker 2: thought his comments here about how it felt to get
Speaker 2: back out there and before the game even was pretty
Speaker 2: cool to hear. Here's QB one.
Speaker 3: It's awesome, man.
Speaker 4: You get all the feelings that you normally feel of
Speaker 4: getting back out there again, butterflies, you know, anxious to
Speaker 4: get out there, all these thoughts going through your head.
Speaker 4: But I thought it felt really good being able to
Speaker 4: go out there, call plays with the guys, the camaraderie
Speaker 4: in the huddle. You know, things didn't go our way.
Speaker 4: Adversity hit and it was cool to see the guys respond.
Speaker 2: We also got some injury updates from coach McDaniel said
Speaker 2: that Toront Armstead's doing well. They feel optimistic that he
Speaker 2: avoided anything substantial in terms of a timeline. They will
Speaker 2: find that out, but it sounds like he is trending
Speaker 2: towards coming back sooner rather than later. Devon a Chain
Speaker 2: left with a shoulder injury. They're going to find out
Speaker 2: more tomorrow and same with Rob Jones, who you saw
Speaker 2: limp off into the tunnel with a lower extremity injury
Speaker 2: per Mike McDaniel. And they'll find out more on that tomorrow. Actually,
Speaker 2: before we get to the break here, I was gonna
Speaker 2: take a break after that. I thought this says a
Speaker 2: lot about coach when he was asked about Lester Cotton
Speaker 2: not playing in the game. I want to go ahead
Speaker 2: and play this sound for you because I think this
Speaker 2: is pretty rare across a landscape and a profession where
Speaker 2: maybe there's not so much personable relationships out there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he he had something minor. He probably.
Speaker 1: Like if if we were like I mean, he wanted
Speaker 1: to go, but I didn't think it was fair to
Speaker 1: him to gut through something and put some some.
Speaker 3: The potential of having a tape put out there that's
Speaker 3: not a reflection of how he's been playing. So he
Speaker 3: held him out. But he he.
Speaker 1: He wants to get on the field in the worst way,
Speaker 1: and we'll be excited for that.
Speaker 2: That's of course about offensive lineman Lester Cotton, who how
Speaker 2: cool is that? I mean oj I mentioned this to
Speaker 2: oj in the post game, and he was just kind
Speaker 2: of marveling over how much Mike gets it. Coach McDaniel
Speaker 2: understands it and understands the players and has his finger
Speaker 2: on the pulse of his locker room. And you know,
Speaker 2: I was talking to OJ about and I said like, yeah,
Speaker 2: he's got you know, the practice tape is there for
Speaker 2: the Dolphins, but nobody else in the league has tape
Speaker 2: on cotton besides the one game last week. And you
Speaker 2: put him out there tonight and he goes out there
Speaker 2: and doesn't play well because he's too banged up. All
Speaker 2: of a sudden, they've got one bad tape and one
Speaker 2: good tape in preseason football and that's all they get
Speaker 2: of him. So very cool, I think of coach to
Speaker 2: do that for a player. I think that just speaks
Speaker 2: to the commitment he has to the guys and the
Speaker 2: type of person that he is beyond just being a
Speaker 2: football coach, a good human being. I believe that's what
Speaker 2: Mike McDaniel is. All Right, go ahead and take a
Speaker 2: break right there, and we're gonna come back to the
Speaker 2: nitty gritty, the meat of the episode, the five takeaways
Speaker 2: from the game from Your Boy That's Next Drivetime podcast
Speaker 2: your host Travis Wingfield, Brought to you by Auto Nation.
Speaker 2: Five takeaways from a Dolphins twenty eight to three victory
Speaker 2: in the preseason over the Houston Texans, And we start
Speaker 2: here with number one. After a bad start, the offense
Speaker 2: gets rolling and the entire unit shows a bad full
Speaker 2: of many clubs. What do I mean by that, We'll
Speaker 2: talk about it here in just a second. And that
Speaker 2: was really true for both quarterbacks, you know, bad starting
Speaker 2: drives to open the game, then coming back and really
Speaker 2: just taking the game by the horns from there at
Speaker 2: the quarterback play, and really the offense having you know,
Speaker 2: more clubs in its bag. That's been kind of a
Speaker 2: point I've been harping on all off season, and I
Speaker 2: think we've seen it in both weeks so far of
Speaker 2: the preseason. Yes, last week we did not have the
Speaker 2: results at the end of drives zero for three in
Speaker 2: the red zone, but we saw the run game go
Speaker 2: for that one to twenty nine in the first half
Speaker 2: in defense really clamping down until a big punt return
Speaker 2: and a turnover with your back against the red zone
Speaker 2: that basically produced fourteen street points for the Falcons. We
Speaker 2: know this offense has explosives, right, we know what Tyreek
Speaker 2: Hill and Jaln Waddle can do. Just got a very
Speaker 2: brief glimpse at one of those guys tonight in the
Speaker 2: game No Waddle. We know this offense can destroy teams
Speaker 2: in the middle of the field, especially in that intermediate portion,
Speaker 2: and attack, you know, really vertically don the scene. And
Speaker 2: we've seen these two weeks, they've shown the running game
Speaker 2: that coach McDaniel, Frank Smith, Butch Barry erics Studisville. They
Speaker 2: have all crafted together the run game that we've all
Speaker 2: desired as fans since hiring one of the game's pre
Speaker 2: eminent run game coordinators and Mike McDaniel. And it's not
Speaker 2: like last year the efficiency was bad, they just didn't
Speaker 2: have the volume. In fact, Lewis Riddick of ESPN tweeted this,
Speaker 2: and this is a guy that I really take what
Speaker 2: he says. I really I take it to the bank. Essentially,
Speaker 2: he says this, if the Dolphins will run the ball
Speaker 2: with this kind of effectiveness in the regular season, lookout
Speaker 2: and then and then that seems kind of innocuous, right
Speaker 2: and obvious. Yeah, But the follow up was to a
Speaker 2: fan who wrote back to him like, there's just the
Speaker 2: pre serison and always gives me a kick. When someone
Speaker 2: said that to a person like Lewis who like he
Speaker 2: doesn't understand the value of preseason football, or you know
Speaker 2: what comes along with it, the stipulations that come along
Speaker 2: with it, he said to that fan. Nobody over here
Speaker 2: is overreacting to anything. I've been involved with the league
Speaker 2: for a long time. Now I know what it is
Speaker 2: and what it isn't. I know how this offense looked
Speaker 2: last year when they had the run game going and
Speaker 2: when they committed to it, versus when they did not.
Speaker 2: I have made this comment so many times in the past,
Speaker 2: and I'm certain that my top takeaway after the Browns
Speaker 2: win last year was the exact same, but the ability
Speaker 2: to win games in different ways. You're not going to
Speaker 2: have your fastball, curveball and slider and every single game,
Speaker 2: every single Sunday, it's not gonna happen. But can you
Speaker 2: get batters out with that slider? Can you get guys
Speaker 2: out with your curveball? We know we can destroy teams
Speaker 2: again in the middle of the field, but tonight we
Speaker 2: saw the speedouts work to convert third downs twice. How
Speaker 2: many times have I talked about in the podcast how
Speaker 2: the offense and training camp has put themselves in position
Speaker 2: to expand upon the things that defenses have took away
Speaker 2: from them a year ago, when the offense struggled the
Speaker 2: quick game, the outside game, the screen game, the wheels
Speaker 2: to running backs up the sidelines, finding comebacks to your
Speaker 2: star receivers after they press cornerbacks off with their speed.
Speaker 2: They had the one speed out to Tyreek, that two
Speaker 2: way go and that slot position for Tyreek like they
Speaker 2: were playing single high coverage on that and it looked
Speaker 2: like I'm thinking they might take the shot up top,
Speaker 2: but no, don't risk it on a third down conversion
Speaker 2: where you can possibly give the ball back to the
Speaker 2: opposing offense and put your defense back in a bad spot.
Speaker 2: Get the first downsion, get a fresh out of downs,
Speaker 2: and go back to work. Also, how good was Tyreek
Speaker 2: on limited work? He is just he's the best am
Speaker 2: receiver in the game. That's not even close to me.
Speaker 2: And then the one to Burrios very similar throwing. I
Speaker 2: think that was from Skyler on a speed out. They
Speaker 2: had a couple of quick shots as well as the
Speaker 2: Cedric Wilson. If I'm not mistaken on an out route,
Speaker 2: I could be wrong there, but we saw swings to
Speaker 2: the backs on the perimeter against you know, manufactured one
Speaker 2: on one chances. I love Savon Achmed, but if you
Speaker 2: have Wattle Hill, you know, chosen running vertical routes, who's
Speaker 2: the guy that's gonna get single covered by a linebacker
Speaker 2: or a safety, It's gonna be Savon Akman. He's gonna
Speaker 2: have that to the either the boundary, probably not the
Speaker 2: passing strength to the field, but he had one to
Speaker 2: the boundary. Here you throw out twohim in space. He
Speaker 2: slips a tackle on a one on one situation and
Speaker 2: he goes into the end zone. On the other one,
Speaker 2: he breaks a tackle on third down and goes for
Speaker 2: like fifteen yards in a first down. We saw Chris
Speaker 2: Brooks weave his way through blockers and minimal traffic because again,
Speaker 2: you threw away from the passing strength on a screen
Speaker 2: that put him in position to hit a couple of
Speaker 2: blocks and weave his way through for a touchdown. I
Speaker 2: see an offense that has solutions to what teams might
Speaker 2: do to take away the perceived strengths of the offense.
Speaker 2: That's what the entire off season was about to meet.
Speaker 2: Braxon Burrios fits that mold the running backs in the
Speaker 2: passing game, with most are getting better with a chain
Speaker 2: coming into the fold, with Braxon Barrios coming here. Chosen
Speaker 2: all these guys, I think give you a particular fit
Speaker 2: in a role to things you didn't do well last
Speaker 2: year because you know what you have into a tyrek
Speaker 2: and waddle. I see an offense that we know from
Speaker 2: a year ago can strike fast. I saw an offense
Speaker 2: to night that could piece together a fourteen play touchdown
Speaker 2: drive that covers ninety three yards. I saw an offense
Speaker 2: that executed the red zone third down and always knew
Speaker 2: the plan had a largely clean operation from a pre
Speaker 2: snap and getting out of the uddle with like fifteen
Speaker 2: seconds to go, manufactured clean pockets when they weren't just
Speaker 2: kicking people's butts one on ones at the point of attack,
Speaker 2: like those rolling pockets or the slide protection. That's the
Speaker 2: kind of stuff that I keep telling you guys about
Speaker 2: you're not gonna get in training camp. Like, yes, when
Speaker 2: Jalen Phillips beats James Tunstall in a training camp practice,
Speaker 2: it might look bad. That's very well, what's gonna look like.
Speaker 2: But you're not gonna get those one on one top
Speaker 2: chances in games. That's just not how this game works,
Speaker 2: and this coach last year really did a good job
Speaker 2: of creating clean pockets for Tua over and over again,
Speaker 2: regardless of the personnel. That's my main driving point here
Speaker 2: is they just games are not like practice in that sense, man.
Speaker 2: And with that, with the ability to do all that,
Speaker 2: a defense that looks the part, and suddenly now you've
Speaker 2: got multiple routes to victory. If you can sustain that,
Speaker 2: if that's who you are, you're going to be tough
Speaker 2: to beat weekend and week out and hopefully into January
Speaker 2: and into February. Because I keep thinking about this team,
Speaker 2: as you know, the best team that I ever saw
Speaker 2: at that was like the twenty seventeen Saints, and I
Speaker 2: know they didn't go all the way to the super Bowl,
Speaker 2: but the way that they relied upon Drew Brees when
Speaker 2: they needed him, and he wasn't necessarily still the same
Speaker 2: Drew Brees from two thousand and six, but when they
Speaker 2: needed him late in games, they would go to him
Speaker 2: because they had the running game, because they had the defense,
Speaker 2: they could lean on and win games that way and
Speaker 2: kind of play a conservative and then go back to
Speaker 2: Brees when they needed him. Now Miami has much more high,
Speaker 2: high powered offense that can takeover games that way too.
Speaker 2: But that sounds even better to me if you can
Speaker 2: run the ball and play defense. Takeaway number two is
Speaker 2: the running backs and the offensive line producing individuals and
Speaker 2: up performances. And they were across the board. Man, everyone
Speaker 2: had a good game. It seemed like Raheem and Savan
Speaker 2: had big plays on that second drive. Devon Achan had
Speaker 2: that big twenty yard run on third and fourteen where
Speaker 2: he just hit it. There was no messing around. I'm
Speaker 2: just gonna go get this first down. Savonn had a
Speaker 2: couple of big runs after that, like a twelve and
Speaker 2: an eight yard run. You were getting constant push seals, climbs,
Speaker 2: guys out in space hitting key blocks. Thought Austin Jackson
Speaker 2: had a great block out in space where he did
Speaker 2: go to the ground, but he wiped somebody out. I
Speaker 2: thought I saw the same thing with Connor Williams, with
Speaker 2: Rob Jones, Rob Hunt. So many guys had key, key
Speaker 2: blocks on big runs. I think butch Berry might be
Speaker 2: onto something here. Man. The offensive line has talked about
Speaker 2: how he explained he knows what he wants, and he
Speaker 2: explains it isn't that kind of an indictment of previous
Speaker 2: teaching techniques and tells you how just giving these guys
Speaker 2: a similar look, a similar teaching technique, and we see
Speaker 2: it in practice all the time. They're taught differently this year,
Speaker 2: and I think it's clicking better on the offensive line.
Speaker 2: So coaching improved depth and talent across the offensive line.
Speaker 2: I know y'all are worried about it. I'm frankly I'm not.
Speaker 2: I'm just not because Chris career is not Mike McDaniel's not.
Speaker 2: If you keep two and this offense and second and
Speaker 2: third and short, good luck, good freaking luck. You can
Speaker 2: take even more shots, you can sustain even more drives,
Speaker 2: you can rest your defense more and just win more games.
Speaker 2: That's the bottom line of it all. Savon Auchman had
Speaker 2: that third down catch in the red zone. Then he
Speaker 2: goes off for sixty five yards where again hits. It
Speaker 2: just goes explosive play. Chris Brooks had a great night, decisive, powerful,
Speaker 2: good moves in space on that screenplay. How about the
Speaker 2: blocking on that too. I thought River Craycraft was exceptional
Speaker 2: in the downfield blocking game. Guys like that, blocks like
Speaker 2: that turned fifteen yard runs into sixty five yard runs.
Speaker 2: Julian Hill was exceptional in the blocking game tonight. They
Speaker 2: ran for the most yards and a half for the
Speaker 2: Dolphins in a preseason game last week at one twenty
Speaker 2: nine since at least two thousand and top it in
Speaker 2: this game with one forty one in the first half.
Speaker 2: They finished with two hundred and five yards at five
Speaker 2: point four yards a clip. It was over six yards
Speaker 2: per carry it before a couple of negative and runs
Speaker 2: for no gain at the very end of the game.
Speaker 2: But the individual stats here twelve for ninety nine for
Speaker 2: Savon Akhmed, and coach said after the game that sa
Speaker 2: is a consummate pro who focuses on the right things.
Speaker 2: You had Chris Brooks go eleven for forty seven. You
Speaker 2: had Raheem Mostert, how good did he look? Six for
Speaker 2: thirty and tavan A chained six for twenty seven. Four
Speaker 2: point three was your lowest among individual averages in this game.
Speaker 2: You also had Akhmed four for thirty two in the
Speaker 2: receiving game and a touchdown, and Brooks won for eighteen
Speaker 2: and a touchdown in the receiving game. Let's go ahead
Speaker 2: and hear from coach on the running game performance on Saturday.
Speaker 1: You know, I think there's a lot of individual effort.
Speaker 1: There's a you know, inches in the game of football,
Speaker 1: and especially with a penetrating front like Houston has, you
Speaker 1: have to be on your p's and q's. A lot
Speaker 1: of people have to execute things and then people have
Speaker 1: to make plays when the opportunity is there. So I
Speaker 1: think the starting with the offensive line, that tight end
Speaker 1: group and the receivers all blocks and we had some
Speaker 1: ball carriers make some plays in tight windows, and you
Speaker 1: know that's it's cool for guys to get rewarded for
Speaker 1: all the work that goes on unseen, and.
Speaker 2: Can we give some more love to the offensive line
Speaker 2: and just talk about how we had like twelve guys
Speaker 2: that had standout performances. On that Raheem touchdown run, You've
Speaker 2: got a perfectly executed play where Isaiah Winn holds up
Speaker 2: his man and that allows Kendall Lamb to crash down
Speaker 2: and erase him. You get a seal from Connor Williams,
Speaker 2: Tyler Croft pins his man inside and then Durham spythe
Speaker 2: in twelve personnel package, has a tough ask where he
Speaker 2: comes across in motion and peels back to seal that
Speaker 2: backside edge, or I should say front side edge, easy
Speaker 2: touchdown for Raheem to just waltz into the end zone.
Speaker 2: And he looked fast and shifty as hell, like I've
Speaker 2: been saying. I thought that combination of Lynn Win Lamb,
Speaker 2: Lynn Lamb Win, Williams Hunt Jackson was all fantastic. I'll
Speaker 2: watch the game again and give you more notes on
Speaker 2: the next podcast, But I harken back to coach saying
Speaker 2: the comment about how he'd be worried if we didn't
Speaker 2: feel we had NFL linemen at those backup spots. And again,
Speaker 2: go on Twitter right now and you're gonna see thirty
Speaker 2: two fan bases, thirty two reporters worried about the depth
Speaker 2: of their offensive line. There's just not that much of
Speaker 2: it out there. But tonight, once you got past that
Speaker 2: front line, it was more of the same. I thought
Speaker 2: Cedric a boy, he was good. I thought Dan Feeney
Speaker 2: was good. I thought the whole damn team was good.
Speaker 2: Man Number three defensive structure and performance. I love the
Speaker 2: way this defense is designed. But you already probably knew
Speaker 2: that because Vic Fangio does this for his entire life.
Speaker 2: He's done this, He's done a great job of playing
Speaker 2: good zone defense with light boxes where you kind of
Speaker 2: sometimes occasionally blitz, but you get eyes in the quarterback
Speaker 2: and you drive downhill. You put the quarterback in peril,
Speaker 2: and you take away the top option, make them get
Speaker 2: to their backside read. And then by that time you
Speaker 2: have pressure and all of a sudden you get hands
Speaker 2: on footballs. You get takeaway opportunities, so many takeaway opportunities
Speaker 2: in this game. But the Dolphins did not execute or
Speaker 2: I should say, finish on the catches or take advantage
Speaker 2: of those balls that pop up into the air. X's
Speaker 2: pass breakup was like vintage X. Just squat, drive and
Speaker 2: make a play on the football. He was moving towards
Speaker 2: the ball before the receiver even has head back to
Speaker 2: the ball. Eli Apple had a fantastic game. He was
Speaker 2: right there on one. I don't know how the ball
Speaker 2: was caught when he was tackled quickly for like a
Speaker 2: two yard gain. Had another pass break up later on.
Speaker 2: I saw Elijah Campbell ditch his man and peel back
Speaker 2: to a different route, and damn near I get himself
Speaker 2: a pick. Now he was flagged for legal contact with
Speaker 2: the process of how this defense is being executed was
Speaker 2: all there. Bryce Thompson was there flowing all over the
Speaker 2: end of the defense with a handful of plays. The
Speaker 2: rushers are coming from everywhere, whether it was Bake or
Speaker 2: Duke or Channing. I just feel like they have a
Speaker 2: way of beating you with physicality up front of the
Speaker 2: defensive line and then utilizing all the speed you have
Speaker 2: at linebacker to fill lanes and again to expite the
Speaker 2: quarterbacks read process and thought process to really confuse them
Speaker 2: and force them into poor choices where they fill lanes
Speaker 2: with these fast linebackers and just clog things up, which
Speaker 2: again all of a sudd and making the quarterback hot.
Speaker 2: With DB's having eyes on quarterbacks, if you make a mistake,
Speaker 2: you're going down and they're driving on the football to
Speaker 2: either take it away, you know, break it up, or
Speaker 2: at a minimum, just cut down the receiver after minimal
Speaker 2: or no yak at all. Coach McDaniel discussed the defense
Speaker 2: after the game, and I thought there was a great
Speaker 2: tidbit in there that has been a theme in talking
Speaker 2: to players all camp long, the attention to detail and
Speaker 2: the way it's communicated. We got a full glimpse of
Speaker 2: that on Saturday.
Speaker 1: I think it's held true to what they with their collectively,
Speaker 1: the coaching staff headed by Vic and you know, the
Speaker 1: defense in general as a group of people. They want
Speaker 1: to continue to progress and get better. Uh, there's a
Speaker 1: you know, big part of playing defense that as a team.
Speaker 1: We talked about a ton That is, you know, the
Speaker 1: yards are cool, but they have to get in the
Speaker 1: end zone. And being that mindset is kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: very similar to to to that of the team's mindset
Speaker 1: with adversity, like sometimes you'll give stuff up, don't worry
Speaker 1: about it. You finish, they don't. That's what you're trying
Speaker 1: to get done. And yeah, it's it's always fun when
Speaker 1: you know defensive units are getting better in a real way,
Speaker 1: not because of anything but their details, their technique and
Speaker 1: their fundamentals.
Speaker 2: And again back to this depth idea. This is not
Speaker 2: on the defense or on the offensive line, but rather
Speaker 2: the defensive side obviously. But I keep seeing these tweets
Speaker 2: or takes about how thin this unit is and I'm
Speaker 2: just not seeing that at all, like at all. David Long,
Speaker 2: how good was he? That's what we've been seeing from
Speaker 2: him in camp. By the way, Seth and OJ kind
Speaker 2: of dap me up a little bit for how much
Speaker 2: I praised his game this offseason and to see it
Speaker 2: kind of come to fruition already in preseason game number
Speaker 2: one and then see him play like that and his
Speaker 2: first action was just an absolute thing of beauty. Duke
Speaker 2: and Channing, I think those are two damn good football players.
Speaker 2: We saw Van Ginkle we'll start the game off the edge,
Speaker 2: then kicked back to off ball and played well there
Speaker 2: all those plays by long that's without Christian Wilkins in
Speaker 2: front of him doing Christian Wilkins things. I think the
Speaker 2: teeth of that defense is gonna be one of the
Speaker 2: best in the league. I really really do. And we've
Speaker 2: already seen the depth at dB tested right yet Eli
Speaker 2: apples out there making all kinds of plays. How good
Speaker 2: was forty nine Perry Nickerson? By the way, Kyle Krabs
Speaker 2: locked on Dolphins was fired about him, and I can
Speaker 2: see why he's got some good tape for us already.
Speaker 2: I thought Ignoghny was in good shape on that completion
Speaker 2: he allowed, and so was Cater on another like little
Speaker 2: levels concept running on a boot leg from CJ. Stroud,
Speaker 2: who showed you on those throws why he was the
Speaker 2: number two pick in the draft, very accurate, good placement.
Speaker 2: I thought Noah was a tick late out of his
Speaker 2: back pedal and got depth when he should have drove,
Speaker 2: and that was all it took for Stroud's placement to
Speaker 2: put the ball away from him so he couldn't make
Speaker 2: a play. But I come away thinking he's a stock
Speaker 2: up guy in this game too. We'll do some more
Speaker 2: of these in the final second. But man, at one
Speaker 2: point it was seven drives, seven first downs, just three points,
Speaker 2: and they had drive start at the plus nine yard
Speaker 2: line in the minus forty two yard line. It ended
Speaker 2: with three points allowed, the lowest in a preseason game
Speaker 2: for the Dolphins since twenty thirteen. One hundred and eighty
Speaker 2: six yards was the lowest allowed in a preseason game
Speaker 2: since twenty eighteen. Same year for the ten first downs,
Speaker 2: lowest amount allowed in a preseason game since that game
Speaker 2: against the Falcons, and then thirty two rush yards in
Speaker 2: a preseason game, the lowest allowed since twenty seventeen. What
Speaker 2: a showing for Vic Fangio's side. Let's go ahead and
Speaker 2: take our last break right there and come back on
Speaker 2: the other side and talk about takeaways four and five
Speaker 2: and do some more player evals all of that's next
Speaker 2: Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you
Speaker 2: by automation. Takeaway number four from dolphins twenty eight to
Speaker 2: three preseason victory over the Houston Texans that Skyler had
Speaker 2: himself a pretty big surge in the competition for the
Speaker 2: backup quarterback position with a fifteen for twenty two, one
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty seven yard, three touchdown performance. He was
Speaker 2: sacked just once and had a one to twenty eight
Speaker 2: point two passer rating. I thought his best ball was
Speaker 2: the incompletion of Hedrick Wilson, A tough play for him
Speaker 2: with good coverage, but I thought that ball was right
Speaker 2: where it needed to be. I like the way he
Speaker 2: played off script. I think this is the best part
Speaker 2: the operation. Let's go ahead and hear from coach McDaniel
Speaker 2: on just that Scalar's operation under center.
Speaker 1: I thought Skyler uh did a did a great job
Speaker 1: handling everything. He you know, that's what you want to see,
Speaker 1: is you want to see from him. There was the
Speaker 1: how fast he was getting in and out of the huddle,
Speaker 1: you can tell was an emphasis from him as well
Speaker 1: as it was for me and and he he he
Speaker 1: didn't get bogged down with the play. There's some plays
Speaker 1: that he went back, but then he continued to press
Speaker 1: forward and uh and and try to make some plays.
Speaker 1: And I think he did a great job of that,
Speaker 1: some on schedule, some off schedule, and the key will
Speaker 1: be to go watch the tape and get better from
Speaker 1: that moving forward.
Speaker 2: I still think it's it's Mike White at QB two
Speaker 2: just based upon the body of work, but I think
Speaker 2: Scaler has shown improvement in some key air takeaway Number
Speaker 2: five are the youngsters who continue to make you excited
Speaker 2: about rounding out this roster to pair with what I
Speaker 2: continue to see called a top heavy roster. Again, I
Speaker 2: just don't see that, but that's because I believe that
Speaker 2: a lot of these guys give you opportunity to keep
Speaker 2: you flexible in the future. Interesting irons in the fire
Speaker 2: with regards to guys who could a produce for the
Speaker 2: club this year, B provide valuable depth and special teams
Speaker 2: contributions while they continue to develop for future roles, kind
Speaker 2: of like a Chaining Tindal a year ago or Eric
Speaker 2: azou coom up. Potentially they're in allowing for more roster flexibility.
Speaker 2: You find a future hit in year two or three
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, you've got that thirty one year
Speaker 2: old VET who had a down year. Maybe you can
Speaker 2: say goodbye to that player and promote a young player
Speaker 2: who's much cheaper and give you more future resources. That's
Speaker 2: how this thing works. You have to have constant thought
Speaker 2: of foresight to plan for what could happen in the future,
Speaker 2: and then of course option to see develop on the
Speaker 2: practice squad. You know, Devon a Chain looks like a
Speaker 2: hit right the way he's physical, the way he drops
Speaker 2: his shoulders and pushes the pile. Can't believe he's one
Speaker 2: eighty eight. He is very, very physical in the way
Speaker 2: he runs. Shang Tindall I thought had a fantastic game.
Speaker 2: Rob Jones. Unfortunately he got hurt, but he's had a
Speaker 2: really good camp so far. You know, Skyler's big game.
Speaker 2: Chris Brooks, Ryan Hayes. I thought I had a good game.
Speaker 2: Mitchell Lagode, Cameron good I think looks really good off
Speaker 2: the edge. I think there are more than fifty three
Speaker 2: players NFL players on this roster right now. Might we
Speaker 2: lose some of those guys to someone else, Yeah, probably,
Speaker 2: but that also could give us a nice little additional
Speaker 2: depth on the practice squad when that cutdown day comes,
Speaker 2: if you can survive some of those guys. So some
Speaker 2: of the guys I want to talk about. I mentioned
Speaker 2: the youngsters there, but again thought two after the pick
Speaker 2: was super sharp, super accurate, just really in command of
Speaker 2: the operation at quarterback Skyler's same situation. A couple of
Speaker 2: throws that were off, but for the most part, really
Speaker 2: put the ball in good position and made a lot
Speaker 2: of plays off script. The entire running back room. You know,
Speaker 2: moster are a chain Acmeden Brooks. Just what else can
Speaker 2: you say? Those guys are fantastic. I mentioned Tyreek a
Speaker 2: little bit, just seeing him get out there and have
Speaker 2: a chance to run around and make a couple of
Speaker 2: plays and just the stress puts on defense. This is so obvious.
Speaker 2: River Craycraft big catch for a first down and a
Speaker 2: third down, the blocking downfield never goes unnoticed. He has
Speaker 2: a spot in this roster. As far as I'm concerned,
Speaker 2: I think Braxon Barrows is a damn good football player
Speaker 2: who just is going to eat in those one on
Speaker 2: one opportunities. Saw some of that tonight. Durham Smith had
Speaker 2: a really good showing in this game, blocking, creating lanes
Speaker 2: in the running game. If he continues to get better,
Speaker 2: that could be a huge help to that room. I
Speaker 2: mentioned Julian Hill. I thought he was fantastic in this game,
Speaker 2: catching the football and blocking. I listened pretty much the
Speaker 2: entire offensive line. I loved Austin's game, lamb Win Connor,
Speaker 2: the two Robs, Feenie Away, he like, just good stuff
Speaker 2: across the board. Seiler was physical upfront. They've they did
Speaker 2: some creative stuff up front with that down lineman, kind
Speaker 2: of moving those guys across the board. Thought Raque had
Speaker 2: some some good reps as well, crashing down and you know,
Speaker 2: going with the flow of the run blocking game to
Speaker 2: get some stops. Thought Emmanuel Ogbass set hard edges and
Speaker 2: played really strong off the edge. I mentioned Long. I
Speaker 2: thought Jerome Baker showed you his speed on a couple
Speaker 2: of plays. I think those two guys are gonna fit
Speaker 2: together very well. Mentioned the pass breakup and just the
Speaker 2: overall play by X. Thought Eli Apple was fantastic. Mentioned
Speaker 2: Bryce Thompson, a guy that I've been pretty high on
Speaker 2: so far through camp. Elijah had that really good play,
Speaker 2: but I think got the penalty on the play, so
Speaker 2: is it a good play? I guess not, but you
Speaker 2: can see kind of the awareness and where he's kind
Speaker 2: of earned himself some playing time so far. I want
Speaker 2: to put a bookend on the show with this because
Speaker 2: I've been talking about it all camp long. I want
Speaker 2: to hear coach talk about how he calls preseason games,
Speaker 2: as it tracks with the theme we've been carrying here
Speaker 2: on draft time for a minute about how I mentioned
Speaker 2: it already. It's not the same as a game, Like
Speaker 2: listen to the way he talks about preseason how you're
Speaker 2: not scheming, you're not really having a plan for that team.
Speaker 2: Here's coach McDaniel.
Speaker 1: Well, I just think you have to balance opportunities, and
Speaker 1: there's so many compounding variables with opportunities. So you know,
Speaker 1: you get playing time, but who who are the eligibles?
Speaker 3: Who's the offensive line?
Speaker 1: You want it to be settled on the field, and
Speaker 1: it doesn't just go into game performance. It's game performance
Speaker 1: on things that you know, there's a lot of times
Speaker 1: I'm calling place for them less like concerned about the
Speaker 1: defense and like, hey we wrapped this play.
Speaker 3: We talked about it at length.
Speaker 1: I want to see what he does, you know, those
Speaker 1: type of things, so you just try to balance that
Speaker 1: stuff out across the board with every position.
Speaker 2: All right, that's gonna be my time. The next podcast
Speaker 2: will be out Monday at five o'clock. I'm going to
Speaker 2: rewatch the game on Sunday. Right now, I'm going to
Speaker 2: bed kind of rewatch the game and get you some
Speaker 2: more takeaways. We'll provide some numbers in there, get some
Speaker 2: more audio from coach McDaniel and his Monday press conference
Speaker 2: as well. In the meantime, you all please be sure
Speaker 2: to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, leave us
Speaker 2: a rating and leave us a review. You can follow
Speaker 2: me on Twitter at winkfold NFL. Follow the team at
Speaker 2: Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank podcast with Seth
Speaker 2: and Jue, check us out on the postgame show iHeartRadio
Speaker 2: one oh five nine, and I believe wiod is where
Speaker 2: you can find that postgame show. All so the YouTube
Speaker 2: channel for media Availabilities, Dolphins are a drive time and
Speaker 2: fish Tank content, so much more and last but not least,
Speaker 2: MiamiDolphins dot Com. Until next time. Finn's up, Carolina and
Speaker 2: Cameron Daddy in first Cup and Gold