Speaker 1: Exact down field touchdown, Miami Run. What is up, Dolphans,
Speaker 1: And welcome to the Drive Time Podcast, part of the
Speaker 1: Miami Dolphins official podcast network, covering your team, your Miami Dolphins,
Speaker 1: each and every day. How's it going everybody? It is Thursday.
Speaker 1: I am your host, Travis Wingfield, and I am here
Speaker 1: very happily with a new microphone in hand. Hopefully those
Speaker 1: audio issues I had on Wednesday's podcast are behind me
Speaker 1: and I'm here to bring you your daily dose of
Speaker 1: Miami Dolphins football. And on today's show, we're gonna get
Speaker 1: into the nitty gritty details behind this Dolphins and Cardinals game,
Speaker 1: a big matchup coming up on Sunday between two young quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: too elusive quarterbacks to well coached teams and two teams
Speaker 1: that I think are trending in the upward direction right
Speaker 1: now in the National Football League. We'll talk about that.
Speaker 1: We're gonna hear from coach Flora's, We're gonna hear from
Speaker 1: some players. All of that and much much more here
Speaker 1: on this Thursday, November the fifth edition of the Drive
Speaker 1: Time Podcast, and Drive Time is brought to you by
Speaker 1: Auto Nation. Auto Nation, where Dolphins fans drive pink and
Speaker 1: helped raise over twenty million dollars for cancer treatment and
Speaker 1: research and where every vehicle sold and service is sanitized
Speaker 1: keep driving safe. At autoonation dot com, we had Brian
Speaker 1: Flora's speak to the media on Thursday morning. Game Days
Speaker 1: Getting Closer. Week nine in the NFL kicks off tonight
Speaker 1: in San Francisco with the Packers, and I don't know
Speaker 1: about you folks out there, but Thursday always is the
Speaker 1: kind of coming out party for the week. Like we've
Speaker 1: put the work in for the most part throughout the
Speaker 1: course of the week, and now we have sports look
Speaker 1: forward to on the weekend. Man Tuesday and Wednesday without
Speaker 1: sports on really besides some action, didn't really have much
Speaker 1: to do. So we're back here talking sports, talking football,
Speaker 1: talking Miami Dolphins. Let's go ahead and start on this
Speaker 1: podcast as we do on Thursday with Dolphins and Cardinals injuries.
Speaker 1: First up for your Miami Dolphins, Miles Gaskin, the running back,
Speaker 1: was placed on injury reserve on Thursday. As far as
Speaker 1: the Thursday participation, running back Matt Brida did not practice.
Speaker 1: He missed his second straight day with the hamstring injury,
Speaker 1: and cornerback Jamal Perry was listed as limited with a
Speaker 1: foot injury. On Thursday. Miami had several other players on
Speaker 1: the injury report, but all of them were full participants,
Speaker 1: including running back Patrick Laird, who was upgraded from limited
Speaker 1: Wednesday to full participant on Thursday for the Arizona Cardinals.
Speaker 1: The Thursday update can be found on top News on
Speaker 1: Miami Dolphins dot com, but asked for Wednesday, they had
Speaker 1: four players who did not practice running back Kenyan Drake,
Speaker 1: receiver DeAndre Hopkins, but that was not injury related, as
Speaker 1: well as cornerback Drake Kirkpatrick and defensive tackle Jordan Phillips.
Speaker 1: They had three players Larry Fitzgerald, Jordan Hicks, and Zeke
Speaker 1: Turner who were limited in practice on Wednesday. For Fitzgerald,
Speaker 1: that too was not injury related. Let's go ahead and
Speaker 1: kick off. Brian Flores is Thursday Morning d Availability with
Speaker 1: a question about Dolphins tackle Dolphins rookie number eighteen pick
Speaker 1: in the draft this past April, Austin Jackson, who was
Speaker 1: back on the practice field on Wednesday and he can't
Speaker 1: is eligible to come off the injured reserve. Here's Coach
Speaker 1: Floors on an update on Austin Jackson. Oh yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean you know he was he was down for a
Speaker 1: few weeks, so um, you know, were designated him for
Speaker 1: a return. Was out of practice yesterday. I went through
Speaker 1: a couple of drills. You know, obviously, like like any
Speaker 1: player when you're when you're out for some weeks, there's
Speaker 1: a little bit of RUSS. So just trying to knock
Speaker 1: some of that off. So a couple of drills here
Speaker 1: near um and you know, we'll just take a day
Speaker 1: to day and see see see where it goes. But
Speaker 1: it's good. It's good to get him out there. One
Speaker 1: of the benefits of having this remade offensive line here
Speaker 1: in Miami is the Dolphins have been able to put
Speaker 1: Jesse Davis at left tackle, Robert Hunt at right tackle
Speaker 1: and have been able to perform at a level commensurate
Speaker 1: with winning football. And in the past this offensive line
Speaker 1: of you know, players have gone down. Remember the offensive
Speaker 1: line when if Brandon Albert went down here, Mike Pouncey
Speaker 1: went down, all of a sudden, you had this myriad
Speaker 1: of issues because the players coming in behind them maybe
Speaker 1: cost you some value on the offensive line. But the
Speaker 1: Dolphins have these six offensive lineman and then you go
Speaker 1: Michael Dieter behind him, Julian Davenport as well on the
Speaker 1: roster guys that can step in fill in next man
Speaker 1: up mentality. I was talking to John Conjemmi at Wednesday's
Speaker 1: practice saying, man, when Jackson comes back, that might be
Speaker 1: a problem, but that's a great problem to have, having
Speaker 1: too many guys to get onto the lineup only five
Speaker 1: can play, but having six seven, eight good offensive lineman. Man,
Speaker 1: that's that's a fun problem to have. I'll just go
Speaker 1: ahead and leave it that. Next up for Coach Flores.
Speaker 1: Another injury topic here regarding the Dolphin's running back position,
Speaker 1: Miles Gaskin, Matt Brita, here's Coach Flores. Yeah, well, you know,
Speaker 1: just so you guys know, Miles will go on. I
Speaker 1: r Todays will go on. I r um. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: got we got got some some guys banged up. Jordan Howard.
Speaker 1: I think you know this guy's though, he's all, he's
Speaker 1: always practice hard, he's always look I think he's a
Speaker 1: good runner as all. We brought him here so you'll
Speaker 1: get an opportunity. And I'm medaling opportunity as well. And
Speaker 1: Patrick Lair and like our death of that position, so
Speaker 1: those guys will get an opportunity in um go to
Speaker 1: practice well and hopefully a form wall on the game.
Speaker 1: So we talked about this construction of the Dolphins running
Speaker 1: back room. I talked about DeAndre Washington's receiving skill set.
Speaker 1: On the podcast yesterday you heard coach talk about Jordan Howard. There.
Speaker 1: Another conversation I had with John Conjemmie at practice was
Speaker 1: talking about the goal line production of Jordan Howard, his
Speaker 1: short yard production early in the season. Dolphins going to
Speaker 1: him in those spots. You heard Coach Flores talk about
Speaker 1: his opportunity solving Akhmed. The running back out of Washington
Speaker 1: is a he caught so many passes down there and
Speaker 1: got out on the edge of defenses. Has a little
Speaker 1: bit of wiggle in his game as well. Patrick Laird,
Speaker 1: you know about his game as far as a pass
Speaker 1: catcher and contributions in the running game as well. So
Speaker 1: the Dolphins once again calling on some depth. Next man up,
Speaker 1: no excuse uly when it comes to players injured. That's
Speaker 1: going to be the mindset and the and the mentality
Speaker 1: of US football team, and they're gonna be testing that
Speaker 1: area running back on Sunday, Next man up in the backfield.
Speaker 1: You didn't hear a coach mentioned Matt Breta in that
Speaker 1: segment here, so he was asked to follow up about
Speaker 1: Matt Brita. Here's coach talking about the Dolphins running back
Speaker 1: with doesn't mean it really doesn't. I just didn't mention him.
Speaker 1: He's still got a chance and hamstrings are tough, So
Speaker 1: we'll see how this goes throughout the week. We like
Speaker 1: the depth at that position. We'll see how it goes.
Speaker 1: You like the depth in the backfield at the running
Speaker 1: back position. Up next, coach was asked to flip it
Speaker 1: over to the defensive side of the ball. He was
Speaker 1: asked about some of the cover zero looks no safety
Speaker 1: help you send the rush. You play tight man coverage
Speaker 1: or zone coverage on the back end with your with
Speaker 1: your stout defensive backfield you have here in Miami. Coach
Speaker 1: was asked about the Cover zero package. Here's his response
Speaker 1: to that package and how the Dolphins executed. I think
Speaker 1: Josh has done a good job as far as game
Speaker 1: planning and trying to put guys in positions. Has some success.
Speaker 1: And you know we ran we ran some zero blitzes
Speaker 1: a year ago and I think everybody has them, So
Speaker 1: I don't think we're doing anything that's different than you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of other teams. I think it's about execution.
Speaker 1: It's about preparations, about getting comfortable doing things in practice,
Speaker 1: whether it's a zero blitz or you know, eight people
Speaker 1: in coverage. Anyway, slice, you gotta execute. Um, that's a
Speaker 1: week to week think so again, I was last week. Really,
Speaker 1: you know, we got a tough test this week against
Speaker 1: the Cardinals. So and up next, coach was asked about
Speaker 1: Preston Williams and trying to maybe nurture confidence and referring
Speaker 1: to a couple of drop balls on Sunday. Coach Flores
Speaker 1: talks about how that's part of executing. And I'll just
Speaker 1: go ahead and leave it to coach. Here's coach on
Speaker 1: Preston Williams. You want to be encouraging, but at the
Speaker 1: same time, um, you you have the left players know
Speaker 1: it's important that day that the extra that's part of the
Speaker 1: the execution. Throwing, catching, blocking, defeating blocks, tackling, breaking tackles.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's all part of the execution. So the
Speaker 1: things we work on a daily basis, m it's important execute.
Speaker 1: When we don't, you know, it doesn't work out. You know,
Speaker 1: he's disappointed. We're disappointed. Um, look at Preston, I can.
Speaker 1: Ye'll let him all I want. He's probably gonna be
Speaker 1: more upset than I than I am. So UM, I
Speaker 1: think part of part part of it for him is
Speaker 1: you know, helping him move forward and move on to
Speaker 1: the next play, because we need to do that. Also,
Speaker 1: m h. Every player is a little bit different. So UM,
Speaker 1: you know, I think we we just continue to work on, um,
Speaker 1: you know, catching the football and route running and route
Speaker 1: technique and you know all those things. Um and and
Speaker 1: uh move on from the from from any you know,
Speaker 1: let's call it negative negative place. And we heard Jerome
Speaker 1: Baker here on yesterday's podcast and press conference talk about
Speaker 1: some of the self policing nature of this Dolphins football team.
Speaker 1: I asked him about if they gave Eric Rowe a
Speaker 1: hard time for not squeezing that pick six, and he
Speaker 1: took it a step further to say, like, that's what's
Speaker 1: great about this team. We hold each other accountable. We
Speaker 1: want more, we can believe, we believe we can make
Speaker 1: every play out there when it comes our way. And
Speaker 1: so you hear coach Flores talk about that there with
Speaker 1: Preston Williams and just kind of that you know, I
Speaker 1: can yell at him all I want, but he's the
Speaker 1: one that's going to be more upset than anybody else
Speaker 1: that he maybe didn't make the catches that he felt
Speaker 1: he should have made. So self policing, self motivator, self starters.
Speaker 1: That's the kind of people that Brian Floors and Chris
Speaker 1: we are brought to this Dolphins team over the course
Speaker 1: of the off season. So we'll go ahead and finish up.
Speaker 1: Coach Floors a press conference here with a remark about
Speaker 1: another player the Dolphins brought in this offseason, rookie quarterback
Speaker 1: to a tongue of Yloa. Coach addressed some I don't
Speaker 1: know what to call him, rumors reports out there that
Speaker 1: the Dolphins might be auditioning to it for a ten
Speaker 1: game season here going into next year's off season and
Speaker 1: next year's draft. Here's Coach Flora's on how he feels
Speaker 1: about that and putting a those rumors are those whispers
Speaker 1: to rest? Well, I mean now that you mentioned, you know,
Speaker 1: the quarterback, Look, there's a couple of things out there.
Speaker 1: Um let's call it a source close to Dolphins thinking
Speaker 1: saying that you know, we were auditioning you know too,
Speaker 1: And I'm just gonna tell you about my thinking. We
Speaker 1: brought to her here because we believe in them, same
Speaker 1: as all the other draft picks. M h. We believe
Speaker 1: in developing players. And I think you guys have heard
Speaker 1: me talk about it. Improvement of players on a daily basis.
Speaker 1: That would be the opposite of giving somebody any ten
Speaker 1: game audition. So I guess that's that's my thinking on that,
Speaker 1: just so everybody's clear. I mean, for me, it's about,
Speaker 1: you know, the town level of the quarterback, leadership, things
Speaker 1: of that nature. So there's a lot, there's the intangibles.
Speaker 1: There's a lot more to play in that position, you know,
Speaker 1: high weight, speed, so as as well as every other position.
Speaker 1: It's a fallow up to a question that originally started
Speaker 1: off by asking coach about the untraditional makeup or the
Speaker 1: build or the prototype of the quarterbacks. On Sunday, Kyler
Speaker 1: Murray to a tongue of by loo both at six
Speaker 1: ft or under compared to the traditional six four two
Speaker 1: pound quarterback. As Adam Beasley of the Miami Held asked about.
Speaker 1: That's Coach floors this thought on his quarterback and rumors
Speaker 1: out there with that quote unquote Dolphins thinking or a
Speaker 1: source close to Dolphins thinking, here's coach Floor's finishing up
Speaker 1: on that thought. Yes, very uncomfortable what comes out of
Speaker 1: these ten games. I think since I've been here and
Speaker 1: I think everybody's heard me talk about the development of
Speaker 1: players improvement on a daily basis. So I just don't
Speaker 1: see how someone close to Dolphins thinking I could see that,
Speaker 1: could say that this would be a ten game audition.
Speaker 1: That's just yeah, I'm not sure who who were that?
Speaker 1: Are who that where that came from. So and that's
Speaker 1: kind of the thing you point to here at the
Speaker 1: end of this presser is that coach Flores will be
Speaker 1: consistent in that message. He always has been. He always says,
Speaker 1: we're trying to work better, work to get better every
Speaker 1: single day, consistency, developing that level of consistency, improving on
Speaker 1: the things that we need to improve on, building on
Speaker 1: the things we've had success with. I mean, you might
Speaker 1: find it boring at times, but that's the message. That's
Speaker 1: the consistent message of the coach of the football team.
Speaker 1: It reverberates throughout the walls here at the facility and Davy,
Speaker 1: So it's it's nice to see coach just kind of say, look,
Speaker 1: this is my thought, and what other thought do we
Speaker 1: need besides Brian Flooress thought when it comes to this team,
Speaker 1: this quarterback, and and really everything that happens here with
Speaker 1: the Miami Dolphins on the football field. He also will
Speaker 1: point back to Chris Career, Brandon Shore, the folks upstairs
Speaker 1: when it comes to personnel stuff as well. So there's
Speaker 1: a balance, there's a mix, there's a message, and it's
Speaker 1: all consistent here with your Miami Dolphins. With that, let's
Speaker 1: go ahead and jump ahead to the Week nine preview
Speaker 1: Dolphins at Cardinals Sunday, November eight. Kickoff not my favorite
Speaker 1: kickoff time, but hey, we're gonna do it anyways. State
Speaker 1: Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. It's supposed to be sixties,
Speaker 1: six degrees and partly cloudy, but they have a retractable roof.
Speaker 1: Will they close it, will they keep it open? I
Speaker 1: don't know, but either way for Dolphins and Cardinals, it's
Speaker 1: year two for both Brian Flores and Cliff Kingsbury. And
Speaker 1: as we do on the preview piece here on Miami
Speaker 1: Dolphins dot Com as well is on the Drivetime podcast,
Speaker 1: I like to look at the similarities and the building
Speaker 1: processes and where teams are with regards to where they
Speaker 1: are in their own building process compared to the Miami Dolphins,
Speaker 1: because I think we know right now the track the
Speaker 1: Dolphins are on. A young team, still building, still growing,
Speaker 1: still maturing, still finding ways to to learn new ways
Speaker 1: to win football games. And they've shown you the last
Speaker 1: three games that they have learned how to jump out
Speaker 1: to big leads and preserve those leads and close out
Speaker 1: football games. With the Cardinals last year, some up and
Speaker 1: down moments, some some moments of brilliance from Kyler Murray.
Speaker 1: The defense needed some reinforcements, and they've got that, and
Speaker 1: they've got Vance Joseph. They're calling a hell of a
Speaker 1: game plan for that Cardinals defense. I look at both
Speaker 1: these teams on a similar trajectory in terms of where
Speaker 1: they're going. I think I might have talked about it
Speaker 1: on Twitter last year saying that my hot take was
Speaker 1: the Cardinals would be in contention for the playoffs at
Speaker 1: the end of the year. They were not. They finished
Speaker 1: six and ten. But you see where that line of
Speaker 1: thinking comes from because of the young quarterback, the innovative
Speaker 1: head coach that puts them in position to do that,
Speaker 1: and as a as a byproduct of that, their offense
Speaker 1: average just twenty nine points per game right now, that's
Speaker 1: tied for eighth most in the league. And that's where
Speaker 1: this matchup in this You know, Cliff Kingsbury Texas Tech
Speaker 1: A a big time college offensive jugger, not down there
Speaker 1: in the Big twelve. Brian Flores defensive background, special teams background,
Speaker 1: find details all the things we've covered on this podcast
Speaker 1: so many times before. And you see that that Matt,
Speaker 1: that clash, that matchup of offense versus defense kind of
Speaker 1: come to a head here. Dolphins league low eight team points,
Speaker 1: six points per game allowed, Cardinals twenty nine points per
Speaker 1: game on offense, tied for eighth best in the league.
Speaker 1: Both teams have the young quarterbacks we talked about Kyler
Speaker 1: Murray number one overall draft pick in two tongue by Low,
Speaker 1: the fifth pick in the draft this past year. And
Speaker 1: the spacing of these offenses I think tells you about
Speaker 1: not only the direction of the modern NFL game, but
Speaker 1: where these two quarterback strengths lie. They both can see
Speaker 1: the field, they both can rip it, they both have
Speaker 1: really good accuracy, good arm strength in that short intermediate
Speaker 1: area and pop that thing out quick. Cliff Kingsbury runs
Speaker 1: a ton of ten personnel. We'll talk about that here
Speaker 1: in one second. That helps designs and spacing out wide
Speaker 1: as well. But Miami has the widest width at thirty
Speaker 1: point one yards of average spacing, the Cardinals the sixth
Speaker 1: widest at twenty seven point one yards. And with the
Speaker 1: Dolphins defense playing lights out since the Week five game
Speaker 1: in San Francisco, the Dolphins are top three and points allowed, sacks, takeaways,
Speaker 1: third down conversion rate allowed. Despite playing only three games
Speaker 1: in that four week period. They have eight takeaways with
Speaker 1: the Steelers, which is tied for the most, but the
Speaker 1: Steelers have four games, so it tells you kind of
Speaker 1: where this Dolphins defense is trending. But slowing down Murray
Speaker 1: and this Cardinals offense will not be easy, especially with
Speaker 1: the home side coming off the bye week. We have
Speaker 1: the injury report up on Miami Dolphins dot com. On
Speaker 1: the game preview. There you'll find out we listed Miles
Speaker 1: Gascon on injured reserve and the rest of the injury
Speaker 1: report up on Miami Dolphins dot Com. As we went
Speaker 1: over in the open of this podcast, the matchup highlights
Speaker 1: in this game. Had a bit of a tough time
Speaker 1: picking out three of them. I wanted to be I
Speaker 1: wanted to be really concise about it. And the first
Speaker 1: thing I thought about was the spacing versus the blitz
Speaker 1: because we saw the touchdown pass last week, the lowest
Speaker 1: or the shortest window in terms of a touchdown pass
Speaker 1: in the NFL this season. Point to eight yards of
Speaker 1: separation between Devonte Parker and the Rams defensive back who
Speaker 1: interfered with him on Tongue by lowest touchdown pass. That
Speaker 1: was against the blitz. That was against a free rusher,
Speaker 1: six rushers, five guys in protection. That was what I
Speaker 1: saw too A do in college at Alabama all the time,
Speaker 1: identified that free rusher, throw the football in behind the
Speaker 1: blitz and beat them at their own game. And then
Speaker 1: you let those receivers they had an Alabama turn and
Speaker 1: run with the football and make big explosive plays. You
Speaker 1: beat them pre snap with the mind, you dice where
Speaker 1: the defense lines up, you throw the football where the
Speaker 1: vacancies are. That's what Tongue Byaloa strength was in college.
Speaker 1: That's what he did on that touchdown pass to Davante Parker.
Speaker 1: We saw the quick flip. The quick release that also
Speaker 1: helps you deal with the free rusher helps you deal
Speaker 1: with the blitz as well, so the Cardinals will turn
Speaker 1: the heat up. They have the fourth highest blitz rate
Speaker 1: this year in the NFL with fans Joseph per Pro
Speaker 1: Football Reference. And speaking of draft crushes I had in
Speaker 1: terms of Kyler Murray and two A tongue Baloa. Another
Speaker 1: one in a while back was Hassan Reddeck out of
Speaker 1: Temple who played some defensive ent played some some linebacker
Speaker 1: outside there as well. They tried to convert Hassan Redi
Speaker 1: to an off ball linebacker the first couple of years
Speaker 1: of his career and it didn't really go well. So
Speaker 1: they put him back down on the edge as a rusher,
Speaker 1: and when you know it, he's having a revival this year.
Speaker 1: Twenty quarterback pressures leads the team there for the Cardinals.
Speaker 1: He primarily lines up off the offenses right side, so
Speaker 1: Robert hunt off the right tackle spot over there as
Speaker 1: a left outside linebacker. He's played Reddick two hundred nine
Speaker 1: snaps this year on passing downs, and one hundred forty
Speaker 1: seven of those come as a pass rusher, so one
Speaker 1: D forties seven pass rushing reps. Where is that sixty
Speaker 1: two back in coverage? That's my big takeaway from the
Speaker 1: matchup Number one here, the Dolphins spacing and quick passing
Speaker 1: game against that Cardinals blitz. Number two on the other
Speaker 1: side contained the quarterback run as well as the past.
Speaker 1: We heard Josh Bowyer say this guy is special, the
Speaker 1: total package. He really has it all. But the Dolphins
Speaker 1: defense has been swarming quarterbacks early and often in recent weeks.
Speaker 1: In the first halves of the last three games, Jimmy Garoppolo,
Speaker 1: Joe Flacco Jared Goff have combined to turn the football
Speaker 1: over against this Dolphins defense seven times. That's ninety minutes
Speaker 1: of football seven turnovers. You're gonna take that. We also
Speaker 1: talked about how the Dolphins could have had more takeaways
Speaker 1: from the Rams in that game if they would have
Speaker 1: squeezed a couple of interceptions. But Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray,
Speaker 1: he played a different style of football than those guys.
Speaker 1: He has more rushing yards and those three guys combined.
Speaker 1: In fact, his four hundred and thirties seven rushing yards
Speaker 1: leads all NFL quarterbacks. Lamar Jackson the second with four
Speaker 1: hundred and of him, but he's fourteen and rushing yards
Speaker 1: regardless of what position, quarterback or running back, so top
Speaker 1: fifteen rusher in the NFL. The Dolphins have speed of
Speaker 1: their own in the second level, however, to help match
Speaker 1: Murray's quickness and maybe stay and pace and keep him
Speaker 1: hemmed in and and prevent some of those big scramble
Speaker 1: runs that he loves to do and design runs as well.
Speaker 1: Commu grug Hill four four or five forty speed. That
Speaker 1: guy can fly, he can cook. Jerome Baker four five
Speaker 1: three forty speed, Andrew Van Ginkle four five nine e
Speaker 1: Land and Roberts four six. Oh, those are your four
Speaker 1: fastest linebackers in terms of forty yard dash time. Of course,
Speaker 1: on field football movements are different, but that's the best
Speaker 1: metric we have for that. So Dolphins trying to find
Speaker 1: a way to create some confusion for Murray when he
Speaker 1: tries to get outside on the scramble, on the extended
Speaker 1: plays and also on design runs. But he also has
Speaker 1: a hotwartzer over right arm. He's twelfth in the NFL
Speaker 1: and deep passing per Pro Football Focus, four hundred and
Speaker 1: seventeen yards on passes that travel more than twenty yards
Speaker 1: in the air. His one hundred and twenty seven point
Speaker 1: seven passer rating on such throws his fourth among quarterbacks
Speaker 1: with at least ten deep throws. So the deep passing
Speaker 1: and running, that's a deadly combination. We see it with
Speaker 1: Russell Wilson in Seattle really have an impact there. We're
Speaker 1: starting to see it more and more here in Arizona
Speaker 1: with Kyler Murray. The Dolphins pressure packages have created turnovers,
Speaker 1: low completion percentages, and a league leading eleven point three
Speaker 1: points per game allowed over the last three games. Finding
Speaker 1: a way to make Murray uncomfortable boy, also Hemming the
Speaker 1: dominutive quarterback inside the pocket would go a long way
Speaker 1: towards our fourth consecutive victory. Option number three or matchup
Speaker 1: number three here is the nuclear option. You see what
Speaker 1: I did there? DeAndre Nuke Hopkins, going back to his
Speaker 1: Clemson days, his nickname was Nuke. He accounts for thirty
Speaker 1: one percent of the Cardinals pass targets this year seventy
Speaker 1: three targets through their first seven games out of two
Speaker 1: d and thirty six passes from the Cardinals, so thirty
Speaker 1: one percent. He has nearly double the targets of the
Speaker 1: team's second most frequent option in the passing game. That
Speaker 1: is Larry Legend himself probably my all time favorite receiver,
Speaker 1: Larry Fitzgerald. He has thirty seven targets compared to Hopkins
Speaker 1: seventy eight targets, and he's producing. Hopkins is at a
Speaker 1: level commensurate with those targets. Fifty seven catches, seven hundred
Speaker 1: and four yards, three touchdowns. He's catching seventy eight point
Speaker 1: one percent of his targets for an average of nine
Speaker 1: point six yards per target. You go back to his
Speaker 1: days in Houston, he had that ridiculous one handed catch
Speaker 1: against Xavien Howard who was in perfect coverage, and that
Speaker 1: shows you the types of plays this guy can make.
Speaker 1: You can have absolute perfect coverage and he can still
Speaker 1: make a highlight reel catch. Now that one didn't count
Speaker 1: because of an offensive penalty, but it shows you the
Speaker 1: skill set this guy has in the strong hands he has.
Speaker 1: But again mentioned Xxavien Howard. Enter this Dolphins defensive backfield.
Speaker 1: Eric Rows tied for the league lead amongst safeties with
Speaker 1: nine passes defense. Bobby McCain is playing all over the formation.
Speaker 1: We saw him rushing the quarterback, playing the deep, the
Speaker 1: deep center field, playing half playing quarter Whatever you want
Speaker 1: him to do, Bobby can do it, and perhaps his
Speaker 1: best work is coming up over the top. A great
Speaker 1: match up here with Bobby McCain and Kyler Murray and
Speaker 1: the deep passing game. Over those last three games, opposing
Speaker 1: quarterbacks are over fourteen when trying to old of football
Speaker 1: twenty or more yards in the air down the football
Speaker 1: field per Pro Football Focus, oh for fourteen man really
Speaker 1: good over the top defense and in games with both
Speaker 1: cornerbacks Byron Jones and Xavian Howard on the field from
Speaker 1: start to finish, we're talking Patriots, forty Niners, Jets, and Rams.
Speaker 1: The Dolphins are allowing thirteen point eight points per game,
Speaker 1: averaging two takeawayte per game, five point five yards per pass,
Speaker 1: and an opposing pass a rating of sixty one point
Speaker 1: five and wide receiver Christian Kirk on the other side,
Speaker 1: he is also a big play playmaker fifteen point four
Speaker 1: yards per catch with five touchdown catches this season, and
Speaker 1: Fitzgerald a second on the team with twenty nine catches.
Speaker 1: This matchup of strength on strength could play a big
Speaker 1: role in the outcome of Sunday's game. I would be
Speaker 1: remiss if I didn't mention Andy Isabella shifty good receiver
Speaker 1: there as well for the Cardinals. More Cardinals personnel. You
Speaker 1: can't talk about this defense without talking about Buddha Baker.
Speaker 1: He is in the mix for defensive Player of the Year.
Speaker 1: You have to i d this guy. You have to
Speaker 1: recognize where he is at all times, and you have
Speaker 1: to be aware that he's gonna probably cover sideline to sideline.
Speaker 1: This guy makes his money, hustle, plays as anybody you're
Speaker 1: gonna see. He's instinctive, he's fast, he is ferocious. Gerald
Speaker 1: Alexander knows about this guy from this time back at Washington.
Speaker 1: He loves the instincts he plays with and he is
Speaker 1: showing it this year as he is really going towards
Speaker 1: defensive Player of the Year after winning Defensive Player of
Speaker 1: the Month in October. Two sacks, two interceptions, fifty nine tackles,
Speaker 1: four tackles for loss, and a forced fumble. This guy
Speaker 1: is a star in Arizona. Former Dolphins defensive tackle Jordan
Speaker 1: Phillips signed with the Cardinals this offseason. He is an
Speaker 1: explosive penetrator. We know about Jordan Phillips, a good pass rusher,
Speaker 1: fifth on the team with nine Quarterback pressures, but he
Speaker 1: trails fellow interior defensive lineman Corey Peters, who is third
Speaker 1: on the team with twelve quarterback pressures. Cornerback Patrick Peterson,
Speaker 1: he is allowing just fifty six point eight percent of
Speaker 1: the throws in his direction to go completed, so he's
Speaker 1: back at his Pro Bowl level of style. Eight time
Speaker 1: Pro bowler there for Patrick Peterson. The Cardinals interior offensive line,
Speaker 1: going back to the other side of the football, has
Speaker 1: combined for just twenty quarterback pressures through the first seven games,
Speaker 1: and left tackle DJ Humphries is pfs eleventh highest grade
Speaker 1: run blocking tackle. So the Dolphins gotta find a way
Speaker 1: of generated pressure on the interior off the edge, keep
Speaker 1: Murray in that pocket and put pressure on the interior
Speaker 1: as well. And here's what Boyer had to say about
Speaker 1: their offensive line. They have a very athletic offensive line
Speaker 1: that does a good job working together and quote there
Speaker 1: from Josh Boyer. As far as the Cardinal scheme goes,
Speaker 1: they rank eighth and scoring their first in total offense
Speaker 1: at four hundred and nineteen point one yards per game.
Speaker 1: They're one hundred and sixty point seven rushing yards per game,
Speaker 1: is second in the NFL, and the two hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty eight point five passing yards per game is fourteenth best.
Speaker 1: I mentioned the ten personnel package they run frequently at
Speaker 1: the top of the podcast. One running back, no tight ends,
Speaker 1: four receivers. Two teams in the NFL have called that
Speaker 1: more than thirty six times. The Bucks ranked third with
Speaker 1: thirty six plays out of that four receiver package. It's
Speaker 1: the Cardinals one one times, the Bills nineties seven times.
Speaker 1: We highlighted that in the in the Bills podcast back
Speaker 1: in Week two. So Arizona uses that depth at receiver
Speaker 1: and spacing to help take advan edge of both Murray's
Speaker 1: electric rushing threat and high velocity arm. This guy can
Speaker 1: flat out spin it, and he's got options out there
Speaker 1: to throw the football to. Defensively, we talked about the
Speaker 1: blitz percentage thirty eight point six percent of the defensive
Speaker 1: snaps per Pro Football Reference. They're gonna bring an extra rusher,
Speaker 1: the fourth highest rate in the NFL, and as a result,
Speaker 1: they are top ten in sacks with nineteen knockdown percentage
Speaker 1: at eight point nine and pressure rate at twenty three
Speaker 1: point five percent, getting pressure on the quarterback and he
Speaker 1: uses those packages those rush packages with one of the
Speaker 1: league's most frequent four defensive back deployments. We always talk
Speaker 1: about how nickel is the new base in the NFL.
Speaker 1: Most teams play nickels sixty seven v and eight percent
Speaker 1: of the time Arizona goes with four dbs on the field.
Speaker 1: Of the defensive snaps, that's seventh most in the NFL.
Speaker 1: The Cardinals defense is ninth and scoring at twenty point
Speaker 1: nine points per game. They're tied for twenty second and
Speaker 1: total defense at three hundred seventy eight point four yards
Speaker 1: per game, and the rush defense ranks twenty five with
Speaker 1: one d and thirty one point one yards per game allowed,
Speaker 1: and the passing defense is eighteen at two forty seven
Speaker 1: point three passing yards allowed per game. The Dolphins lead
Speaker 1: the all time series nine to three over the Cardinals,
Speaker 1: including that last win in twenty sixteen in the rain
Speaker 1: with Matt Moore the infamous Ryan Tannehill a c L game.
Speaker 1: The dolphins one hundred forty four total first downs through
Speaker 1: seven games is the franchises most through the first seven
Speaker 1: games since when they had one hundred and fifty first
Speaker 1: downs and then his last sixteen games, Davanta Parker is
Speaker 1: tied for ninth in the NFL and receiving touchdowns with
Speaker 1: nine and six in the league with receiving yards at
Speaker 1: one thousand, two hundred twenty six. Tied end Mike Gasicki
Speaker 1: ranks fifth among NFL tight ends with two hundred and
Speaker 1: nine receiving yards, and the Dolphins offensive line has allowed
Speaker 1: just eleven sacks this season. That's the ninth fewest in
Speaker 1: the NFL. Defensive end Emmanuel Ogba is six in the
Speaker 1: NFL with six sacks and fifth among edge defenders on
Speaker 1: PFF with thirty two quarterback pressures. His six sacks in
Speaker 1: the first seven games of his Dolphin's career are the
Speaker 1: most by a Dolphin in their first seven games with
Speaker 1: the club since Danny Stubbs in nineteen six. Punter Matt
Speaker 1: Hawk forty point two career net average that is the
Speaker 1: best enfranchise history, and kicker Jason Sanders eighty six point
Speaker 1: two percent field goal percentage fifty six out of sixty
Speaker 1: five is the best mark in franchise history. So go
Speaker 1: check out the article Miami Dolphins dot Com. I'll update
Speaker 1: it throughout the week with injuries and if you guys
Speaker 1: missed the special Teams piece yesterday. That is live and
Speaker 1: published as well. I highly encourage you to check that out.
Speaker 1: This team focuses on special teams. Plenty of good quotes
Speaker 1: and stats in that piece for you on Miami Dolphins
Speaker 1: dot com. Go ahead and finish up this podcast with
Speaker 1: some player media, and we'll start with Dolphins receiver Jachem Grant,
Speaker 1: who has familiarity going back to his college days with
Speaker 1: Cliff Kingsbury at Texas Tech. Here's your Chim talking about
Speaker 1: that experience and how he and Cliff Kingsbury's relationship has
Speaker 1: evolved since that time. Um, it was tough at the
Speaker 1: first weegad. I'm not gonna lie. That's what calls the suspension,
Speaker 1: you know, the birth of my you know, my twins,
Speaker 1: right man, you know you're a college student. You get
Speaker 1: you found out you having twins. It's gonna be hard
Speaker 1: for anybody, especially as a college student. But man, like
Speaker 1: I said, I'll I worked my blood off, you know,
Speaker 1: and I was going through and I didn't I was
Speaker 1: the type of guy that didn't actually help. And you
Speaker 1: know because King was like, hey, uh you can actually
Speaker 1: help and go get tutor and do this and do that.
Speaker 1: We've got guys that you know, we've got people in
Speaker 1: the academics, uh party to help you out. And so
Speaker 1: what I did is, you know, I went and did
Speaker 1: that and you know, passed all my classes so I
Speaker 1: can get back get back on the field. If you
Speaker 1: never saw, Jachim was on a show called Undrafted back
Speaker 1: in sixteen, which is ironic because he was drafted. But
Speaker 1: I really detail Jachim's life behind the scenes and taking
Speaker 1: care of his daughters, his twin daughters and being a
Speaker 1: father and a husband. Pretty cool show. I highly encourage
Speaker 1: you to check that out. Finally, here with Jachim, he
Speaker 1: was asked about preparation for the Cardinals if the Dolphins
Speaker 1: feel any sense of added pressure because of their highly
Speaker 1: rated scoring offense this season. Here's Jachim talking about the
Speaker 1: Cardinals offense and a note about the Dolphins offense themselves.
Speaker 1: Staying after practice this week. Um, I mean, we know
Speaker 1: it's gonna be you know, the Cardinals put up they
Speaker 1: put up numbers, and we know that we got to
Speaker 1: go out there and execute to the tea. Um, we
Speaker 1: we stayed out to practice. We got toming on. You know,
Speaker 1: we got our Tomas right, you know, all of us
Speaker 1: as we received as we stayed at the practice with
Speaker 1: tour just to get our Thomas right and so we
Speaker 1: know that we got to go out there and dominate.
Speaker 1: We can't, you know, have a game like we did
Speaker 1: and we had last week and up next we got
Speaker 1: Dolphins linebacker Land and Roberts here on our media availability
Speaker 1: for Thursday, and he was asked a question about the
Speaker 1: Dolphins defensive identity. How would he describe or define this
Speaker 1: Dolphins defense if they had an identity. Here's the Land
Speaker 1: and Roberts on just that you know, believe it or not.
Speaker 1: Me just as a person, like at the end of
Speaker 1: the week after games, I always kind of you know,
Speaker 1: trying to figure out man like well, you know, as
Speaker 1: a leader, one of the leaders on the defense, I
Speaker 1: always try to think about the identity, like what is
Speaker 1: our identity? And you know it's crazy because we're playing
Speaker 1: good defense, but we're playing good and still trying to
Speaker 1: get that identity if you understand what I'm saying. So
Speaker 1: that's what I'm saying. We have so much growth on
Speaker 1: defense to steal go before we even create, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, or understand identity and nick comes between
Speaker 1: playing good football on first, second, and third down each
Speaker 1: week and you will figure out your I dunity And
Speaker 1: up next, I wanted to ask e Landon about the
Speaker 1: splash plays he's been making, those big TFLs in the backfield,
Speaker 1: the big collisions. You remember he had the and we
Speaker 1: talked about complimentary football. He had the play to set
Speaker 1: up the Andrew van genkol Fumbo returned off the Emmanuel
Speaker 1: Bus strip sack because he had a TfL on the
Speaker 1: previous play and that was the first and goal from
Speaker 1: the Dolphins seven yard line. If Darryl Henderson gains five
Speaker 1: or six yards in that play, the Rams might run
Speaker 1: the football again. You might not have a chance to
Speaker 1: go with that blitz package to get the strip sack,
Speaker 1: to get the touchdown to change the game. So he landed.
Speaker 1: Robert's making big plays to have big impacts in the game.
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask him because we've seen the style
Speaker 1: of play he has very anticipatory and just flies in
Speaker 1: there and makes plays in the backfield, not blitzing, just
Speaker 1: reading keys and getting himself in the backfield. I wanted
Speaker 1: to ask him what leads to those plays and how
Speaker 1: can the Cardinals offense with that elusive quarterback who can
Speaker 1: keep it out of the mesh point and take it
Speaker 1: around the edge himself. What kind of challenges that present
Speaker 1: to a player like e Landon Roberts who works so
Speaker 1: much aunticipation and film study. I just think, uh, you
Speaker 1: know Josh Boy and our linebacker coach, he does a
Speaker 1: great job. Campanelli does a great job as getting us
Speaker 1: prepared throughout the week, you know, and uh just film study,
Speaker 1: you know, certain things like that, you know, and just
Speaker 1: as a defense, uh, playing together and no you know,
Speaker 1: when it's time for you to uh make the play
Speaker 1: that you know you guys have been pressing on all
Speaker 1: week or that you didn't seen and practice, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. You know, m defense is about anticipation.
Speaker 1: You know, if you're watch enough film, you start anticipating
Speaker 1: certain things and stuff like that. So as a defense, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, we just you know, growing in that category.
Speaker 1: And as the corners man. They got a lead offense,
Speaker 1: you know, the quarterback man. He does a great job
Speaker 1: with that offense and stuff like that. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: a big challenge this week. Uh you know, their complete offense,
Speaker 1: you know, and it don't get no better than that.
Speaker 1: So as a defense, you know, we're just gonna have
Speaker 1: to take this game one play at the time, not
Speaker 1: get ahead, not get ahead of the downs, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, stuff like that. But that's sixty million
Speaker 1: game because that's what it's gonna be. And one of
Speaker 1: the most generic football terms you'll hear out there a
Speaker 1: million times if you watch this game enough, especially in
Speaker 1: today's game with all these uber athletic mobile elusive quarterbacks
Speaker 1: is the quarterback spy, a player whose responsibility is to
Speaker 1: keep an eye on the quarterback and follow him around
Speaker 1: no matter what he does. It's a design to help
Speaker 1: limit scramble plays an off script plays from the quarterback.
Speaker 1: E Landon Roberts was asked about spying Kyler Murray and
Speaker 1: what that might do to have an impact on your defense.
Speaker 1: But for him, and like the Dolphins defense, it's all
Speaker 1: about the specific play call on any given down. I mean,
Speaker 1: it just kind of depending on the defensive call. You know,
Speaker 1: you can shadow and man you can shut on his own,
Speaker 1: you can shout on all different types of things, you know. So, uh,
Speaker 1: it's kind of the aspect of you know, how you
Speaker 1: plan that that role. Let's go ahead and finish up
Speaker 1: here with Dolphins receiver slash running back Malcolm Perry, who
Speaker 1: was first asked about his progression as a receiver and
Speaker 1: his NFL debut. Get on the field and experienced my
Speaker 1: first NFL game, So it's good to get that, get
Speaker 1: that out of my belt. Um. And as far as
Speaker 1: progression as receiver, I think I've come a long way. UM,
Speaker 1: training the Navy, the predraft process and stuff like that. UM,
Speaker 1: I think, you know, like everybody else in the locker
Speaker 1: room will tell you, they have a long way to go.
Speaker 1: You know, there's always room for improvement. So that's my
Speaker 1: mindset going forward. So we heard your cheam earlier talk
Speaker 1: about the extra work after practice. I wanted to ask, Malcolm,
Speaker 1: what can you take away from that extra work after
Speaker 1: practice and what are you guys working on out there
Speaker 1: when practice is over. You know, you can't get anything
Speaker 1: right unless you work at it. So UM, you know,
Speaker 1: especially with two coming in recently. UM. You know, we've
Speaker 1: been working with him since since he's gotten here, so
Speaker 1: you know, we're not too far off. But there's a
Speaker 1: little fun fine tuning to do. UM. And you know, Uh,
Speaker 1: the reps after practice are you know, extremely important, just
Speaker 1: just as important as the reps in practice. So I'm
Speaker 1: getting with him and trying to get things right every
Speaker 1: day and then we get a follow up on the
Speaker 1: extra practice reps after practice. Um, it depends on the day.
Speaker 1: It depends on how how practice is going, and UM,
Speaker 1: if we need to work on something, So it can
Speaker 1: range from five to thirty minutes, It depending on what
Speaker 1: we need to work on. And it wasn't really anybody's idea.
Speaker 1: It's kind of just Yeah, I feel like we all
Speaker 1: just kind of got together to practice and knowing that
Speaker 1: we need to work on something. So it kind of
Speaker 1: became a trend. And UM, you know it's day by
Speaker 1: day how long we stay after And one more question
Speaker 1: here for Dolphins rookie receiver slash running back Malcolm Perry,
Speaker 1: who was asked about the demeanor of two a tongue
Speaker 1: of vloa in his second week as the starter, has
Speaker 1: a change at all after having a game under his belt.
Speaker 1: Here's one rookie talking about another rookie. Um, I don't
Speaker 1: think he's changed much. She's always been the same guy.
Speaker 1: He's always is confident. Um, he's always a hard, hard
Speaker 1: working and you know, um, he has a great personality
Speaker 1: in the huddle, outside out on in the locker room.
Speaker 1: So not much has changed. Um, you know, it's good
Speaker 1: to have a game under his belt. Um kind of
Speaker 1: get the field for things. But he hasn't He hasn't
Speaker 1: changed my He's pretty consistent guy. So and there you
Speaker 1: have another lengthy edition of the Drive Time Podcast. Another
Speaker 1: reminder to go on Miami Dolphins dot com and check
Speaker 1: out all the content we have there, the game previews,
Speaker 1: John Congemis, three keys to this game, and with that,
Speaker 1: think about the fish Tank and the Audible podcast. Here
Speaker 1: on the Miami Dolphins podcast network, we have nap More
Speaker 1: on tomorrow's Flashback podcast, as well as Seth and Juice
Speaker 1: of the fish Tank joining me here on Drivetime. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, that's gonna be my time. You all, please
Speaker 1: be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple, podcast, Spotify,
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcast from. Go ahead and leave
Speaker 1: us a rating, leave us a review, give me the
Speaker 1: follow on Twitter. It's at Wingfield, NFL. Follow the team
Speaker 1: at Miami Dolphins again, the fish Tank, the Audible and
Speaker 1: my Me Dolphins dot com. Until next time finds up