Speaker 1: Exact touchdown Miami. What is up? Dolphins? And welcome to
Speaker 1: the Drive Time Podcast, part of the Miami Dolphins official
Speaker 1: podcast network, covering your team, your Miami Dolphins, each and
Speaker 1: every day. How is it going everybody? It is Thursday.
Speaker 1: I am your host, Travis Wingfield, and I am here
Speaker 1: to bring you your daily dose of Miami Dolphins football.
Speaker 1: On today's show. It is preview Thursday. Week eight kicks
Speaker 1: off tonight in Charlotte for Panthers and Falcons, and that's
Speaker 1: the weekend appetizer for Dolphins Rams Sunday at hard Rock Stadium. Boy,
Speaker 1: I can't wait to get out there for that game
Speaker 1: on Sunday. We're gonna preview the game with the matchups,
Speaker 1: personnel scheme. We're gonna hear from Coach Flora's about the
Speaker 1: r p O game, condensed formations, injury updates, and get
Speaker 1: some players perspective on the game as well. All of
Speaker 1: that and more on this Thursday, October, the twenty nine
Speaker 1: edition of the Drive Time Podcast. Drive Time was brought
Speaker 1: to you by Auto Nation. There are so many reasons
Speaker 1: to drive pink, but for Auto Nation, there's only one
Speaker 1: to finish the fight against cancer. In fact, Auto Nation
Speaker 1: has helped raise over twenty five million dollars to drive
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Speaker 1: store near you, or drive pink dot com. On a Thursday,
Speaker 1: here on Drivetime, we have to get you caught up
Speaker 1: on the latest from Dolphins and Rams with the injury report.
Speaker 1: We'll go ahead and start with your Miami Dolphins and up. First,
Speaker 1: Linebacker Andrew van Ginkle was removed from the injury report
Speaker 1: on Thursday. Lynn Bowden was added, but only because he
Speaker 1: did not practice because he had the birth of his child.
Speaker 1: Congratulations Lynn for that. Jakeem Grant did not practice on
Speaker 1: Thursday because of an illness listed on the injury report.
Speaker 1: Dolphins had six players who were full participants on Thursday,
Speaker 1: Ray Kua, Davis, Cavan, Frasier, Commu, grug Hill, Xaviing Howard,
Speaker 1: Byron Jones, and Shack Lawson, as far as limited participants,
Speaker 1: five of them Bobby mccame, DeVante Parker, Jamal Perry, who
Speaker 1: was upgraded from did not practice on Wednesday, and Kyle
Speaker 1: van Neu was also limited on Thursday. For the Rams,
Speaker 1: on Wednesday, we have their report. Four players did not practice.
Speaker 1: Two of those were because of an illness with tight
Speaker 1: end Gerald Everett and wide receiver Tristan Jackson, while veterans
Speaker 1: Aaron Donald on the defensive line and offensive lineman Andrew
Speaker 1: Whitworth did not practice, but those were not injury related
Speaker 1: on Wednesday either. And then Tyler Higbee, the tight end
Speaker 1: he was limited on Wednesday's practice with a hand injury.
Speaker 1: Will have the rest of the Rams updated injury report
Speaker 1: for you guys on the Blitz on Friday morning on
Speaker 1: Thursday's top news as well, so keep it locked Miami
Speaker 1: Dolphins dot com as well as the Drivetime podcast for
Speaker 1: the latest on Dolphins and Rams injuries. Let's go ahead
Speaker 1: and kick off coach flores Thursday morning media availability with
Speaker 1: the question about release time from the quarterback and the
Speaker 1: system that calls for quick passes holding the ball a
Speaker 1: little bit longer. Here's Coach Flora's talking about his offensive approach.
Speaker 1: Regardless of who the quarterback is, there's a lot that
Speaker 1: goes into whether or not you want the ball out quickly.
Speaker 1: I mean it's really case by case, team by team,
Speaker 1: week by week. So you know, one week you might
Speaker 1: want to hold it a little bit longer, get the
Speaker 1: ball down field more. You know, some other weeks, you
Speaker 1: might want to get it out quickly. I think, you know,
Speaker 1: in general, you want a little a mix of all
Speaker 1: those things. So m you know, if Itz did a
Speaker 1: good job of that, and practice I think too has
Speaker 1: done a good job of that. But you know, we'll
Speaker 1: see how this is how it shows up in the game.
Speaker 1: And on the same topic of the quarterback position here,
Speaker 1: Coach was asked about to managing expectations and keeping his
Speaker 1: his focus singularly on the Los Angeles Rams. Here's Coach
Speaker 1: on where the quarterbacks focus is heading into his first
Speaker 1: NFL start. Think a lot of that has to do
Speaker 1: with to man because his focus is on um, you know,
Speaker 1: this week and really, you know, not much else. I
Speaker 1: think he understands that it's it's not two against the Rams,
Speaker 1: it's the Dolphins against the Rams. You know, he's a
Speaker 1: team guy, and I think his teammates are supportive of him,
Speaker 1: and that's kind of the approach we've all taken. I
Speaker 1: think he's staying out approach. Also, go ahead and finish
Speaker 1: up here we're gonna hear more from Coach in the
Speaker 1: middle of the game preview section of this podcast. We'll
Speaker 1: go ahead and finish up this initial look into his
Speaker 1: Thursday morning media availability, he was asked about the importance
Speaker 1: of other players winning their one on one matchups when
Speaker 1: you do have to double somebody on the defensive line.
Speaker 1: Coaches talked all week long about how this RAMS defense
Speaker 1: is more than just Aaron Donald. They have several good players.
Speaker 1: Here's coach on that topic. Yeah, I mean they got
Speaker 1: they have good They have good players, you know, outside
Speaker 1: of Aaron on with a lot of good players. So again,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a team effort. I think, Yeah, Iron
Speaker 1: Donald is a great player. He's uh, very productive, high energy,
Speaker 1: high intensity, high effort um. But you see that from
Speaker 1: a lot of their guys, so m obviously we'll play
Speaker 1: close attention to him. Aaron Donald's I'm speaking of. But
Speaker 1: like I said all week, you know, I think you know,
Speaker 1: Leonard Floyd's playing real good football right now. So it's Brocker's,
Speaker 1: so it's Jane Ramsey, you know Johnson, the BC guy
Speaker 1: back there playing good ball as well. So it's a
Speaker 1: tough test really across the board. They got good team
Speaker 1: and so there is Coach Flores this Thursday morning media availability, again,
Speaker 1: we're gonna jump back into a couple more of the
Speaker 1: comments he made in the preview portion of the podcast.
Speaker 1: It just kind of drives well with some of the
Speaker 1: topics I covered in the preview portion. And with that,
Speaker 1: let's go ahead and preview this Dolphins and Rams games
Speaker 1: Sunday at one o'clock Eastern November the first at hard
Speaker 1: Rock Stadium. Three and three Dolphins five and two Rams,
Speaker 1: eighty four degrees, fifty chance of rain. Feels like every
Speaker 1: game we've had this year at home has had some
Speaker 1: type of raindity an eleven mile prior wins. So a
Speaker 1: typical South Florida Sunday down here in November. And I
Speaker 1: always like to look at the parallels between the two
Speaker 1: teams in the intro paragraph of my preview piece up
Speaker 1: on Miami Dolphins dot com, and I find it interesting
Speaker 1: there are a few coaches in the league right now
Speaker 1: under the age of forty. Brian Flores and Sean McVeigh
Speaker 1: both fall into that category. And both these guys were
Speaker 1: popular head coaching candidates as coordinators before they got their jobs, obviously,
Speaker 1: and they met back in that Super Bowl when Sean
Speaker 1: McVeigh took his Rams team as the head coach to
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl and Brian Flores was the defensive play
Speaker 1: caller for the Patriots and that third team to three
Speaker 1: win for the Patriots over the Los Angeles Rams. And
Speaker 1: you look at where McVeigh is now in his fourth
Speaker 1: season as the head coach of the Rams. Had a
Speaker 1: good playoff run his rookie season, went to the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl and you're number two, and then missed the playoffs
Speaker 1: for the first time last season. But he has had
Speaker 1: the first, second, and eleventh rank scoring offenses and currently
Speaker 1: ranked eighteenth and scoring offense this season. You can see
Speaker 1: where his specialty is, his bread and butter on that
Speaker 1: offensive side of the ball, whereas Brian Flora is now
Speaker 1: and your number two. Kind of like McVeigh did in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles with his offense, Flora's has his defense as
Speaker 1: the number third ranked scoring defense right now at eighteen
Speaker 1: point eight points per game. So as they say, styles
Speaker 1: makes make fights, and this is good on good with
Speaker 1: the Rams offense and this Dolphins defense. On the Rams
Speaker 1: defensive side, their first year coordinator Brandon Staley is doing
Speaker 1: a hell of a job on that defense. They have
Speaker 1: the second rank scoring defense right now at seven teen
Speaker 1: points seven points per game. And he'll get a look
Speaker 1: at rookie quarterback to a Tongue of Valoa who makes
Speaker 1: his first start of his Miami Dolphin's career, and McVeigh
Speaker 1: was asked about preparing for a young quarterback like to
Speaker 1: a Tongue of Valoa, and he said, with any quarterback
Speaker 1: in general, it's about establishing a rapport between the offensive coordinator,
Speaker 1: he says chan Gailey and the quarterback to a Tongue
Speaker 1: of Valoa, which he says, I'm sure they've done so
Speaker 1: you don't surprise him with anything. But he says that
Speaker 1: everything he does starts with the quarterback. That's the first
Speaker 1: thing you start with the offense. On the defense aside,
Speaker 1: he talked about Brian floras A scheme and Josh Bowyer's
Speaker 1: scheme over here in Miami, and he praised him for
Speaker 1: being multiple, for being mixed, saying, quote, they do a
Speaker 1: great job being able to mix up a variety of looks,
Speaker 1: coverage principles, front structures that they had a lot to
Speaker 1: deal with and a very tough thing to prepare for,
Speaker 1: especially on a short week. They play hard, they play physical,
Speaker 1: They've got good players, but I think they're a really
Speaker 1: sound defense. They challenge you at the right spots, but
Speaker 1: I think the mixture and the versatility that Flores can
Speaker 1: activate poses a real challenge for you. So similar to
Speaker 1: the other night, we've got to be fishing in early downs.
Speaker 1: We have to have good balance and a good mixture
Speaker 1: of some things we can that we can activate towards them.
Speaker 1: And the Rams do have to come across country, of course,
Speaker 1: in that one o'clock Eastern time zone ten am Pacific
Speaker 1: body clock game for a West Coast team coming east,
Speaker 1: and this is an area where typically you say there's
Speaker 1: an advantage there, but the Rams, like the Seahawks in
Speaker 1: the previous contest we had like this, have been just
Speaker 1: fine in that role under McVeigh, coming over from the
Speaker 1: West coast to the East coast. The Rams are two
Speaker 1: and one playing in those circumstances this season, and since
Speaker 1: mcveigh's arrival, they are six and two in the one
Speaker 1: o'clock eastern time zone kickoff in the NFL, so they
Speaker 1: handled that pretty well as well as anybody, and they
Speaker 1: also run the football pretty much as well as anybody
Speaker 1: in the National Football League right now. Darryl Henderson, who
Speaker 1: has been kind of in a bit of a time
Speaker 1: share there with a couple of running backs with Malcolm Brown.
Speaker 1: They also have Cam Akers, the rookie out of Florida State,
Speaker 1: but Darryl Henderson is the leading guy right now. He
Speaker 1: has the fourteenth most rushing yards in the NFL with
Speaker 1: four hundred and twelve and he has four four nine speed,
Speaker 1: which he really helps used to get to those to
Speaker 1: get to the edge on those outside wide zone runs
Speaker 1: that the Rams are so accustomed to having success on.
Speaker 1: He evered just four point seven yards per carry behind.
Speaker 1: Pro Football focuses number seven ranked offensive line, so they
Speaker 1: move guys off the ball, they get the edge, and
Speaker 1: they win it in the running game. And Andrew Whitworth
Speaker 1: is like really the market name up front on that
Speaker 1: offensive line. He's in third his thirteen season as a
Speaker 1: professional football player, his fourth in Los Ange List, four
Speaker 1: time Pro Bowler, All Pro honors two times in his career,
Speaker 1: and we heard coach Hobby on Tuesday talk about Whitworth
Speaker 1: going back to their college days in the SEC. Here's
Speaker 1: coach talking about his history with Andrew Whitworth. I'll tell
Speaker 1: you what, He's been a great player in his whole career. Now,
Speaker 1: he went through his college days playing against him. Oven
Speaker 1: He's a l S. I was at Old Miss, so
Speaker 1: I've watched his career go through college into the pros
Speaker 1: man he's a pro. You know, he's a savvy vet. Uh.
Speaker 1: He doesn't make a lot of mistakes, you know. He
Speaker 1: he could tell he game plans for each opponent. He
Speaker 1: has a plan. I'll tell you what he He is
Speaker 1: one of the best players in this league. So we'll
Speaker 1: see probably Shack Lawson get his fair share of opportunities
Speaker 1: up against Andrew Whitworthy, veteran off the left side of
Speaker 1: the offensive line, but the entire Rams line has been
Speaker 1: good for a long time. Rob Havenstein off the other end,
Speaker 1: is another big body, so it's big on big with
Speaker 1: loss and all up against Whitworth and having Stein off
Speaker 1: the right side. There At the tight end position, Tyler
Speaker 1: Higbie is fifteen among tight ends with two hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty three receiving yards. His three touchdowns are tied for
Speaker 1: seventh among tight ends. But we know that Eric Rohe
Speaker 1: Dolphins safety has had his day in the sun against
Speaker 1: pretty much all tight ends he's seen since his switched
Speaker 1: to safety last season. Held down Zach Urts to one
Speaker 1: catch last year, held George Kittle to one catch, in
Speaker 1: the Niners game a couple of weeks back as well,
Speaker 1: for just twelve yards per Pro Football Focus. There the
Speaker 1: Rams receivers, they have two guys in the top thirty
Speaker 1: in the league in receptions and Cooper Cup and Robert Woods.
Speaker 1: And Cup from what actually the town that I came
Speaker 1: here from, from Yakima, Washington. He is a savvy route runner.
Speaker 1: He is a guy that understands leverage. He knows how
Speaker 1: to beat both man and zone defenses. Just a really
Speaker 1: good underneath receiver. They can show the numbers to the
Speaker 1: quarterback and make big plays and move the chains that way.
Speaker 1: Speaking of big plays, Robert Woods, this guy does a
Speaker 1: little bit of everything, short, deep, intermediate, running that fly sweep,
Speaker 1: jet motion, taking handoffs, taking under routes, doing whatever he
Speaker 1: can to move the football down the field and keep
Speaker 1: that offense on schedule. They also have Josh Reynolds into
Speaker 1: there as well. We'll see about the health of Gerald
Speaker 1: writ as both he and Higbee were on the injury
Speaker 1: report as we reported earlier on the podcast today. But
Speaker 1: that offense has plenty of weapons in the backfield at
Speaker 1: tight end and at receiver. But as far as the
Speaker 1: Dolphins are concerned, to be able to combat that depth.
Speaker 1: Since Byron Jones came back from his growing injury in
Speaker 1: Week five, the combination of he and fellow cornerback Xavien Howard,
Speaker 1: they've been targeted twenty two times, giving up six catches
Speaker 1: sixty nine yards, two interceptions, and three pass breakups. That's
Speaker 1: a passer rating of two point seven two point seven.
Speaker 1: That's it against Jones and Howard over the last two games.
Speaker 1: On the other side of the football, the Rams have
Speaker 1: an all Pro cornerback in their own right, Jalen Ramsey.
Speaker 1: He's allowing just fifty three point five percent of targets
Speaker 1: to be completed for five point three three yards per target.
Speaker 1: You want to be up over seven into the eight
Speaker 1: there for a good above average receiver. Jalen Ramsey putting
Speaker 1: the clamps on receivers at that spot, and the passer
Speaker 1: writing against him is just seventy seven point one. And
Speaker 1: also in that backfield, John Johnsons PFF number nineteen graded
Speaker 1: safety in the NFL this year. We'll jump more to
Speaker 1: the personnel and scheme usage there of the Rams, but
Speaker 1: first I want to go ahead and jump in to
Speaker 1: the matchup highlights here and where else can you start
Speaker 1: besides the Dolphins interior three up against the Rams interior
Speaker 1: pass rush and primarily Aaron Donald, and they do have
Speaker 1: Michael Brocker's involved there as well, another very good player
Speaker 1: been in the league for a long time. But Donald is,
Speaker 1: as coach Flores said, one of, if not the best
Speaker 1: player in the entire league, regardless of position, and few
Speaker 1: players really stand out the way this guy does. Since
Speaker 1: Donald has finished as Pro Football focuses number one interior
Speaker 1: defensive lineman grade wise every season except for his rookie year,
Speaker 1: which he was number two behind J. J. Watt. Back in,
Speaker 1: He's back at it. In quarterback pressures that's more than
Speaker 1: anybody in football, not just interior defensive lineman, edge rushers,
Speaker 1: outside linebackers on the football. He has the most quarterback
Speaker 1: pressures in the NFL from his interior spot. Also has
Speaker 1: the second most sacks behind Myles Garrett and edge rusher,
Speaker 1: where sacks typically come from. Garrett had nine. Donald has eight,
Speaker 1: that second in the National Football League. He also has
Speaker 1: thirteen run stock, which is tied for thirteen along with
Speaker 1: Christian Wilkins among defensive tackles and the Dolphins interior offensive line.
Speaker 1: They're set to neutralize interior pressure. They have done an
Speaker 1: all season long, stopping the game's most dangerous disruptive force
Speaker 1: on the inside on a combined seven hundred and seventeen
Speaker 1: pass blocking snaps for guards Eric Flowers and Solomon Kinley
Speaker 1: and center Ted Carriss among the three of them, just
Speaker 1: quarterback pressures allowed one every thirty four point one snaps.
Speaker 1: Of the twenty one pressures, only seven of those have
Speaker 1: resulted in quarterback hits. Ideally, you want to get your
Speaker 1: entire front five blocking off and keeping a good pocket
Speaker 1: for the quarterback. But if you can keep that interior,
Speaker 1: that interior portion of the pocket sound, the quarterbacks more
Speaker 1: likely to be able to navigate edge pressure as they
Speaker 1: kind of condense things inside and force that rusher behind
Speaker 1: the quarterback so he can step up, get off the spot,
Speaker 1: flee the pocket left or right, or go right through
Speaker 1: the middle. So holding up the interior pressure is certainly
Speaker 1: the most important thing when it comes to having that
Speaker 1: solid pot it for the offensive games. That's why this
Speaker 1: matchup is so so big. Donald does command the most
Speaker 1: double teams in the NFL per Next Gen Stats, and
Speaker 1: how the Dolphins decided to block him and deal with
Speaker 1: the blitzers and rushers operating next to him will be
Speaker 1: an integral part of how this game shakes out for
Speaker 1: the Dolphins offensively and how they move the ball and
Speaker 1: Tugo blows first start. The next matchup here is early
Speaker 1: down runs and this goes for both sides of the football.
Speaker 1: McVeigh comes from the same tree as Kyle Shanahan and
Speaker 1: that forty offense we saw a few weeks ago. They
Speaker 1: both came out of Washington under Kyle's father, Mike Shanahan,
Speaker 1: and they really emphasize that outside run and then from
Speaker 1: there the play action passing game takes off and it
Speaker 1: can really help take advantage of all the misdirection. They
Speaker 1: use a pre snap motion shifting the I candy, which
Speaker 1: is designed to create false steps for your linebackers, for
Speaker 1: your defenders, get them moving one direction, throw the ball
Speaker 1: into the window vacated or created by that misdirection you
Speaker 1: show them. But the Dolphins were able to successfully thwart
Speaker 1: the forty play action game a couple weeks ago, as
Speaker 1: Jimmy Garoppolo had a season low fifteen point seven passer
Speaker 1: rating in that game. But they're gonna have to one
Speaker 1: up that performance against this Rams offense because Jared goff
Speaker 1: has the most dropbacks three total from play action. He's
Speaker 1: completing sixty eight point eight percent of those throws for
Speaker 1: an average of eight point nine yards per pass and
Speaker 1: a passer rating of one fourteen point six. That passer
Speaker 1: rating is twenty point nine points higher than his general
Speaker 1: passer rating of point seven on non play action throws.
Speaker 1: So GoF throws off play pass on of his passes.
Speaker 1: A lot of that comes off the bootleg action. And
Speaker 1: the reason they can have success on that is they
Speaker 1: are averaging six point five yards per rush running off
Speaker 1: left tackle and nine point one yards per rush off
Speaker 1: the right side per pff. That's their two best rushing
Speaker 1: gaps by average. And then from there they'll pill Jared
Speaker 1: Goff off and have him kind of work the backside
Speaker 1: of the formation, hit up crossers from all those condensed formations,
Speaker 1: which we'll talk about here in just one second. And
Speaker 1: for the Dolphins offense, the play action game is the
Speaker 1: best friend of any quarterback, particularly a rookie quarterback making
Speaker 1: his first art and we saw a tongue of Byla
Speaker 1: execute the play action bootleg on the first pass of
Speaker 1: his career. Out of that pistol formation against the Jets
Speaker 1: along the end line of the end zone, moving to
Speaker 1: his left, throws a strike to Patrick Lair, gets a completion,
Speaker 1: gets out of bounds, and then on the next play,
Speaker 1: the Dolphins moved the chains on third and seven, but
Speaker 1: ideally you would cut that down to third and three,
Speaker 1: third and two, right. The shorter distances really increase your
Speaker 1: odds of moving the chains and staying on the field.
Speaker 1: So the Dolphins can have a better third down success
Speaker 1: rate in this game hopefully and hopefully keep the kicking
Speaker 1: game on the sideline when it comes to the offense.
Speaker 1: But if you can't, if you have to go to
Speaker 1: the punting and field goal units, that's a good match up.
Speaker 1: Here are third matchup between the Dolphins and Rams to highlight,
Speaker 1: and Johnny Hecker is a full blown weapon. Man pinned
Speaker 1: four points down inside the ten yard line on Monday
Speaker 1: Night Football against the Bears. That gives him a league
Speaker 1: high sixteen points down inside the twenty yard line this season.
Speaker 1: But Matt Hawk has a little bit better of a
Speaker 1: net punting average at forty two point four compared to
Speaker 1: Hecker's forty two point oh and the Dolphins special teams
Speaker 1: units are collectively ranked third on Football Outsiders d v
Speaker 1: o A. That's defensive adjusted value over average. It removes
Speaker 1: the It's kind of like war and saber metrics and
Speaker 1: baseball removes outside factors that contribute to certain elements of
Speaker 1: the game. I won't sit here and pretend to know
Speaker 1: the mathematic equation behind that, but I know that a
Speaker 1: lot of folks really rely on the Football Outsiders d
Speaker 1: v o A. And Dolphins are third and special teams
Speaker 1: collective ranking. They're on Football Outsiders and running back Matt
Speaker 1: Brita and safety Cavan Fraser both lead the Dolphins with
Speaker 1: three tackles each on special teams, and Jachim Grant has
Speaker 1: the third most punt return yards in the NFL with
Speaker 1: one d and thirty nine. And Jason Sanders, who was
Speaker 1: named the October Special Teams Player of the Month his
Speaker 1: second time in the last three months. He won it
Speaker 1: last December. He did that by kicking eleven field goals
Speaker 1: or eleven successful field goals on eleven tries. He's now
Speaker 1: fifteen for fifteen on the season, thirteen of thirteen on
Speaker 1: p A t s. And the Rams on the other side,
Speaker 1: recently released kicker Samuel Sloman and brought Kai for Bath
Speaker 1: onto the roster. He has not made a kick this
Speaker 1: season and he has not attempted a kick, I should say,
Speaker 1: but he was successful in all eleven of his kicks
Speaker 1: last year. As far as the Rams schematics that we
Speaker 1: talked about, offensively ranking eighteen and points per game of
Speaker 1: twenty five point one points per game, and total offense,
Speaker 1: they ranked tenth with three hundred and eighty five point
Speaker 1: seven yards per game, rushing their seventh with one thirty
Speaker 1: eight point nine and passing there eighteen with two hundred
Speaker 1: and forty nine points six yards per game from Jared
Speaker 1: Goff and the passing offense. And if play action is
Speaker 1: the Rams bread and butter on offense, eleven personnel is
Speaker 1: the milk and eggs, so to speak. One running back,
Speaker 1: one tight end, three receivers is the Rams preferred offensive
Speaker 1: package by a long shot. They've run three hundred and
Speaker 1: seventeen plays from that grouping. That's sixth most in the NFL.
Speaker 1: So you're gonna get three receiver looks plenty of times.
Speaker 1: Aside from eleven, they really only ever go to twelve
Speaker 1: and thirteen personnel, and that second number of the grouping
Speaker 1: means tight ends. So twelve is two tight ends, thirteen
Speaker 1: is three tight ends, and you just take a receiver
Speaker 1: off the field for every tighten you bring onto the field.
Speaker 1: And so with that, the Dolphin's depth at cornerback and
Speaker 1: linebackers should be able to help combat the Rams depth
Speaker 1: at both receiver and tight end. And no team in
Speaker 1: the NFL operates out of tighter splits than the Rams.
Speaker 1: Per NFL next Gen Stats, the Rams with between their
Speaker 1: furthest with split receivers on the field is twenty point
Speaker 1: four yards, the tightest in the NFL, and that will
Speaker 1: test Miami's communication and ability to fight through all the
Speaker 1: crossing and traffic of those condensed formations. But coach Flores
Speaker 1: talked about this and his presser on Thursday morning about
Speaker 1: one of the reasons or one of the elements that
Speaker 1: contributes to that is the rams ability to get out
Speaker 1: of the huddle and go quick. Let's go ahead and
Speaker 1: hear from coach Flores on the condensed formations. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure the next Gen Stats has, you know, the their
Speaker 1: ability to line up quickly on the ball. I think
Speaker 1: a lot of that's the line up quickly. That's why
Speaker 1: they're condensed because they get to the ball and snapping quickly,
Speaker 1: you gotta go out wide. It takes a little bit
Speaker 1: more time. I'm not sure what the next Gen stats
Speaker 1: sees all that, but yeah, there's a and just a
Speaker 1: line up tight. I would say one of them is
Speaker 1: that they can get to the ball quickly and snap
Speaker 1: it quickly, and there's some advantages to aligning the wide.
Speaker 1: They do a good job of both and offensively. Next
Speaker 1: Gen has the Dolphins as the widest split offense in
Speaker 1: the National Football League and at coach flores as presser,
Speaker 1: he was asked about the r P O game and
Speaker 1: what that can do to a defense to help create
Speaker 1: space and create conflict for the defense. Here's coach on
Speaker 1: the RPO game. I mean, put you in conflict. Run player,
Speaker 1: they're reading. They're reading basically the run player, and if
Speaker 1: the run player plays run, they throw a pass. If
Speaker 1: the run player plays pass, they run it. Put you
Speaker 1: an immediate conflict, you know. Just defensively, you just have
Speaker 1: to do just do a good job of recognizing those
Speaker 1: sets and adjusting the defense in order to to play
Speaker 1: those schemes. I mean, we really haven't done much of
Speaker 1: that this season, So a couple of days of practice.
Speaker 1: It's hard to you know, put something like that. So
Speaker 1: just you know, if we see them. I know they
Speaker 1: got a couple of them over there, not too many,
Speaker 1: but you know, we gotta we have to be ready
Speaker 1: to defend them on a weekly basis. I think they
Speaker 1: show up every week in this league in some form
Speaker 1: of fashion. So some RPO talked there with coach Flores.
Speaker 1: On the Rams defensive side of the football, only five
Speaker 1: teams have called more dime defense this year with six
Speaker 1: defensive backs on the field, and of their four hundred
Speaker 1: and forty five defensive plays, one hundred and seven have
Speaker 1: come from dime to seventy seven from nickel. That's five
Speaker 1: defensive backs and fifty nine with four defensive backs on
Speaker 1: the field. Those fifty nine snaps with only four defensive
Speaker 1: backs on the field is the fifth lowest in the NFL.
Speaker 1: So they'll defend whether it's you know, two tight end
Speaker 1: packages with their nickel defense, and they did that a
Speaker 1: few times. In the Monday night game against the Bears.
Speaker 1: Their twelve personnel calls for Chicago, fourteen of the sixteen
Speaker 1: calls came out with nickel defense against twelve personnel, So
Speaker 1: interesting matchup there. Other way, they go with the smaller
Speaker 1: bodies against the bigger bodies of the tight ends in formation,
Speaker 1: and the Rams don't really rushed the passer as far
Speaker 1: as blitzing more than your league average their eighteenth and
Speaker 1: blitz rate eight percent of the time they do get
Speaker 1: home though. With that four man rush, quarterback Sacks has
Speaker 1: tied for the third most in the National Football League.
Speaker 1: Their defense on balance ranks second, was seven teen points
Speaker 1: seven points allowed per game, and their defense allows just
Speaker 1: three hundred and twelve point nine yards per game, which
Speaker 1: is six in the NFL. The passing defense is fifth
Speaker 1: to twelve point four and rushing defense at one hundred
Speaker 1: point four yards per game ranks seventh in the NFL.
Speaker 1: So the defense ranks good no matter how you splice
Speaker 1: this thing. Some final game notes here. The Dolphins are
Speaker 1: leading the all time series against the Rams eleven to two,
Speaker 1: with a four game winning street going back to two
Speaker 1: thousand four. The last time the Rams beat Miami when
Speaker 1: they were St. Louis was at ten win back in
Speaker 1: two thousand one. On the note of the starting quarterback,
Speaker 1: Tongue Byloa expected to make his first start of his
Speaker 1: NFL career. He was the fifth pick in the NFL Draft,
Speaker 1: the highest quarterback selected in franchise history since Bob Greasy
Speaker 1: was selected number four overall in nineteen sixty seven. Last
Speaker 1: week against the Jets, Tongue Baloo became the fourth left
Speaker 1: handed quarterback to throw a pass for Miami, Jim del Gazo,
Speaker 1: Scott Mitchell, and Pat White. Among those others Ronnie Brown,
Speaker 1: Jarvis Landry. Those guys didn't count because they did throw passes,
Speaker 1: but they were not quarterbacks. And when Tangua Balaloo starts,
Speaker 1: he'll become the seventh rookie to start a game at
Speaker 1: QB in Dolphins history. He joins Ryan Tannehill twelve, John
Speaker 1: Beck two thousand seven, Dan Marino n three, David Woodley
Speaker 1: and eighty, Bob Greasy and sixty seven, and Rick Norton
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixties six. He will step into a lineup
Speaker 1: with an impressive performance upfront. So far, despite starting four
Speaker 1: new players on the offensive line, just ten sacks allowed
Speaker 1: that's ninth fewest in the National Football League and on
Speaker 1: the other side, generating plenty of pressure as well. The
Speaker 1: Dolphins seventeen sacks is tied for eleventh in the NFL,
Speaker 1: and in six games, Miami has nine takeaways that marks
Speaker 1: tied fort in the National Football League. The Dolphins have
Speaker 1: also four six fumbles that's tied for fifth in the NFL,
Speaker 1: and the third down defense has been solid, limiting opponents
Speaker 1: to just thirty one point three percent conversion on third
Speaker 1: down that is best in the National Football League. For
Speaker 1: postgame coverage, on Sunday night, we're gonna have the Recap
Speaker 1: Podcast with John con Jemmy. I'll get my takeaways, the
Speaker 1: individual performances, the stats, John's takeaways plenty to come for
Speaker 1: you guys. On that podcast will have the Sunday Spotlight
Speaker 1: taking a look at the Dolphins top performer and his
Speaker 1: statistics from that game, as well as the game recap
Speaker 1: up on Miami Dolphins dot com. That's it for the preview.
Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and jump now to the rest of
Speaker 1: the media availability from Thursday and here from some Dolphins players,
Speaker 1: and we start there with cornerback Byron Jones, who first
Speaker 1: was asked about the development of the Dolphins secondary bunch
Speaker 1: of new parts in this defensive back over the last
Speaker 1: couple of years and Byron being the newest of them,
Speaker 1: how is it coming along? So far here in Miami
Speaker 1: with he Xaviing Howard, Bobby McCain, Eric Row and the
Speaker 1: veterans on the back end, it's fun. We're starting to
Speaker 1: build the chemistry as a secondary um. The young guys
Speaker 1: are are paying attention to learning and getting up to speed.
Speaker 1: But it's nice to be out there with the vets
Speaker 1: who've been out there for a while and we're kind
Speaker 1: of building building our chemistry and we understand each other.
Speaker 1: We're keeping communicating a lot better. So that's that's the
Speaker 1: big that's a big plus for having everyone out there
Speaker 1: at the same time. And how about Byron's take on
Speaker 1: how rookie quarterback to a tongue Baloa has looked this
Speaker 1: week in practice. Yeah, he looks he looks good. Uh,
Speaker 1: he's hipping the ball. You can tell his confident back there. So, um,
Speaker 1: you know, it's cool to see young guys do well
Speaker 1: in this league. And I think he's definitely gonna be
Speaker 1: one of them. So you know, for him, is learning
Speaker 1: as much as possible from Ryan Fitz and putting it too,
Speaker 1: putting U into use. So I think we're in a
Speaker 1: good spot. We talked a lot about this in the
Speaker 1: preview portion of the podcast, all the eye candy and
Speaker 1: shifting and motion and the relative comparability to the fort
Speaker 1: offense we saw a few weeks ago. Here's Byron Jones
Speaker 1: and all the shifting and motion and the importance of communication. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so one of the biggest components to an offense like this.
Speaker 1: He's communicating pre snap, so understanding where the motions can
Speaker 1: can come from and understanding how that changes our defense. So, um,
Speaker 1: if you ever receive an attack position, he's looking in
Speaker 1: towards the quarterback. It's communicating to the dvs to the
Speaker 1: other side like, hey, this guy may go on motion. Man,
Speaker 1: surely you check this or check that. It's just really
Speaker 1: about that as a defense being on the same page
Speaker 1: and communicating. Because they have different snap accounts, they have
Speaker 1: different motions and different shifts. So this is a game
Speaker 1: where we have to communicate to do a pre snap
Speaker 1: as opposed to, you know, when the boss being snapped up. Next,
Speaker 1: we got Dolphins right tackle Robert Hunt, and a common
Speaker 1: question this week has been about the lefty quarterback instead
Speaker 1: of the right handed quarterback. Here's Robert Hunt on the
Speaker 1: offensive lines approach and how it's all about the entire line.
Speaker 1: All five guys properly communicating on Sunday. I don't think
Speaker 1: we felt pressure. UM. I think that everybody, um wants
Speaker 1: to be on the same page, and including like the
Speaker 1: left side of center. I think everybody want to be
Speaker 1: on the right page. And um, you know, keep two
Speaker 1: up and two go down. Um first to anybody, that's
Speaker 1: the end. To keep them up and keep those guys healthy,
Speaker 1: you know, and keep him up with as much as possible.
Speaker 1: And how about how rookie Robert Hunt spent his first
Speaker 1: NFL by a week? Where was he at in the facility?
Speaker 1: I mean I just I was here, you know a lot. Um,
Speaker 1: I was up at the complex, you know, just doing
Speaker 1: a lot of guys up here, you know, just getting
Speaker 1: workout standing in there. Um. You know you need treating
Speaker 1: on your body, just staying proactive on your body. Stuff
Speaker 1: like that. Um. You know things that I think I
Speaker 1: need to work on personally for myself, I worked on
Speaker 1: and then I just enjoy some time some downtime at home.
Speaker 1: And we'll go ahead and finish up with Rob here
Speaker 1: with a question about where is this Rams defensive front
Speaker 1: stack in terms of the teams they faced so far
Speaker 1: this season. In Robert Hunts rookie year me personally, Man,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm a rookie. So I think everybody we play
Speaker 1: so far i've been really good. I mean, this is
Speaker 1: the National Football League, so everybody's good. Um, these guys,
Speaker 1: they just I've been seen him. You haven't played against
Speaker 1: me yet, but on family and they're fast and they're
Speaker 1: strong and they do a lot of good things. On defense.
Speaker 1: We go from one tackle to the other, from the
Speaker 1: right side to the left side, from a rookie to
Speaker 1: a veteran to Jesse Davis, who first was asked about
Speaker 1: what he's seen so far from two a tongue of
Speaker 1: volt or preparing for his first NFL start this past
Speaker 1: week in practice. Um, yeah, you know too. He's cool,
Speaker 1: he's comfortable in pocket, he's you know, he's in the
Speaker 1: huddle and he's confident. You know. I walked in here
Speaker 1: on bye week and he's in the quarterback room watching
Speaker 1: tape study and so, I mean that's that was very
Speaker 1: pleasing to see. You know, he's doing his job for sure.
Speaker 1: I think he's gonna be a good player. I think
Speaker 1: I can't wait to see him play on Sunday. Had
Speaker 1: a good scenario coming into this season with Fitz being
Speaker 1: his mentor kind of which showing defense is showing um,
Speaker 1: you know, what to expect out there. So watching him
Speaker 1: progress through O T A S the training camp to
Speaker 1: you know now has been you know, it's been cool
Speaker 1: to see. You know, he's gotten a lot better. He's
Speaker 1: you know, he's throwing the ball really well. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: he looks good and so for a big rob. It
Speaker 1: was his first bye week as a pro, but Jesse
Speaker 1: Davis has used the bye week in the past. He
Speaker 1: knows what it's for, recharging the batteries, and he also
Speaker 1: says the Dolphins might have had their best practice on
Speaker 1: this past Wednesday coming back off the bye week. Here's Jesse. Yeah, Ivan,
Speaker 1: I think we had four days off for whatever it was,
Speaker 1: and um, you know it very well, like it helps
Speaker 1: somebody actually relax, you know, heals some old wounds. But
Speaker 1: you know, coming into just recharging the batteries is probably
Speaker 1: the best I can put it. Getting away from the
Speaker 1: facility or football for a little bit and just you know,
Speaker 1: now we're coming back, we're you know, we're more energizing.
Speaker 1: Wednesday I was probably one of our best practices we had,
Speaker 1: you know, the energy level with the scout team, you know,
Speaker 1: giving a great look to the quarterbacks, you know, putting
Speaker 1: the ball in the money. And I think that bye
Speaker 1: week was very It's a good spot for it. And
Speaker 1: the guy or one of the guys that Jesse and
Speaker 1: Rob block for running back. Miles Gaskin was first asked
Speaker 1: about his experience in the RPO in college. Did Washington
Speaker 1: run it? Are there pros and cons for it? Here's
Speaker 1: Miles on the r p O in the NFL. Um,
Speaker 1: I am familiar with it ran Washington, Yes, and uh,
Speaker 1: I don't see any pros and cons about it. It's
Speaker 1: just the offense. I mean it has president cons in
Speaker 1: every offense. I'll just try and do what I can
Speaker 1: when I get the ball and then just run out
Speaker 1: of my faith doubt. And here's Miles on what he's
Speaker 1: seen from Okay quarterback to Wa Tongo by looa. Uh,
Speaker 1: he's looked great. He's always looked great, I mean since
Speaker 1: day one. Um. I think he's getting more comfortable obviously
Speaker 1: with the role now that is his right now. UM,
Speaker 1: I think he's stepping up. He's communicating a lot, so
Speaker 1: he's doing everything you want to see out of a
Speaker 1: out of the NFL quarterback. I think I think Fits
Speaker 1: has taught him a lot in the past games, and
Speaker 1: I think he's still teaching them, so you kind of
Speaker 1: see it kind of the trickle down effect, and I'm
Speaker 1: really excited for him. And a question for Miles. And
Speaker 1: one thing you see a lot with Punden's out there
Speaker 1: praising his game is the vision he has. The way
Speaker 1: he presses the holes and gets defenders to commit to
Speaker 1: a certain gap and he winds that thing back out
Speaker 1: to the outsider or just picks the correct gap, and
Speaker 1: it's it's something that happens fast, the reactive, the instincts.
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask Miles about can you work on
Speaker 1: that vision, can you improve it? Or is it more
Speaker 1: of a god given ability? Um? I would say a
Speaker 1: lot of his God given Thank God, UM. And definitely
Speaker 1: throughout the week you see tendencies because he has always
Speaker 1: been great about teasings about the fronts, about what what
Speaker 1: this front may may lead to, what the cutback maybe,
Speaker 1: or where the cut maybe with a whole ba B.
Speaker 1: So obviously a pre snap, you've got to diagnose what
Speaker 1: you want and what you want to do with it.
Speaker 1: But as soon as the ball snapped, you're playing football
Speaker 1: and things things closed fast, games that ran on the
Speaker 1: front line. So you've got a good idea. But I
Speaker 1: would say a lot of this god given and just
Speaker 1: kind of feeling playing football life. So and we'll go
Speaker 1: ahead and finish up on the theme I had for
Speaker 1: my question today about the bye week and how players
Speaker 1: feel coming off the bye week going back into another
Speaker 1: game on Sunday with two weeks since their previous game.
Speaker 1: Here's Myles Gascon and running back on the bye week.
Speaker 1: Definitely physically, you get the rest of your body, You
Speaker 1: get to uh get kind of some of the kinks
Speaker 1: out or whatever. You give a massage or two whatever,
Speaker 1: you whatever. Anybody's root en is. But I think it
Speaker 1: made me a little bit more hungry watching everybody else
Speaker 1: play personally just missing out or not missing out. Obviously
Speaker 1: everybody gets a vibe, but just watching other people do
Speaker 1: good is inspiring, inspiring, inspiring, motivating everyone to call it,
Speaker 1: but just excited to be back in the building, back
Speaker 1: into god as weird with COVID, you don't want to
Speaker 1: be around nobody, So the bybe we kind of was
Speaker 1: kind of kind of excited to be back here morning
Speaker 1: more than years in the past, so and there you
Speaker 1: have it. That is going to do it for us.
Speaker 1: On this edition of the Drive Time podcast. We have
Speaker 1: the preview up on Miami Dolphins dot com. If you
Speaker 1: missed the Bobby McCain feature, go ahead and check that out,
Speaker 1: as well as the podcast on Wednesday that accompanies that
Speaker 1: with my exclusive interview with Bobby McCain. We'll come back
Speaker 1: tomorrow with flashback. I had Seth and OJ on the
Speaker 1: podcast for an extended version talking about Over the Rams
Speaker 1: with O J who was on the field that day
Speaker 1: for that game, for that win, the last in the
Speaker 1: career of Don Shula. Plenty of content coming your way
Speaker 1: all ahead of Sunday's kick off again Us the Rams
Speaker 1: and we'll recap that entire thing for you guys with
Speaker 1: John con Jemmy and on Miami Dolphins dot Com. From
Speaker 1: yours truly until then, you all, please be sure to
Speaker 1: subscribe to the podcast on Apple, podcast, Spotify, wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcast from. Go ahead and leave us a rating,
Speaker 1: leave us a review, give me a follow on Twitter.
Speaker 1: It's at Wingfield, NFL. Follow the team at Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 1: Check out the fish Tank, check out the audible, and
Speaker 1: of course Miami Dolphins dot com until next time fins
Speaker 1: Up