Speaker 1: Touchdown, Miami Run. 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's it going to everybody? It is Wednesday.
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: And on today's show, we have a busy one. We're
Speaker 1: gonna take a look under the hood of this Dolphins
Speaker 1: and Raiders game on Saturday night, the first primetime affair
Speaker 1: for your Miami Dolphins this season. We'll get into the
Speaker 1: matchups the Raiders, key elements of their game, the scheme,
Speaker 1: the personnel, all that fun stuff. We're gonna hear from
Speaker 1: Coach Floras on this game and talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about Christmas and the holiday season. Plus, we're gonna take
Speaker 1: a look at some future draft capital and salary cap
Speaker 1: positioning for your Miami Dolphins and do a little sneak
Speaker 1: peek into the draft. Here for a second. All of
Speaker 1: that and more on this Wednesday, December the twenty three
Speaker 1: edition of the Drivetime Podcasts. They Dolphins Fans, The new
Speaker 1: year starts now at Auto Nation. Let's skip the rest
Speaker 1: of the and get to big New Year's savings on
Speaker 1: your favorite Auto Nation Chevy's, Fords, Toyotas, Hondas, and a
Speaker 1: whole lot more shops safely at the Auto Nation store
Speaker 1: near you or Auto Nation dot com and save now.
Speaker 1: And we have a bit of a day by day
Speaker 1: focus here on the Drivetime podcast. But I came across
Speaker 1: an article that was part of the top news story
Speaker 1: on Tuesday up on Miami Dolphins dot com. And the
Speaker 1: article comes from over the Cap dot com and it's
Speaker 1: called Salary Cap sunk cost in And the author of
Speaker 1: this piece is Jason Fitzgerald, and essentially what he's looking
Speaker 1: at is projecting available flexibility within the salary cap for
Speaker 1: teams heading into this offseason. We know Miami did a
Speaker 1: bunch last year to kind of turn some of those
Speaker 1: those salary cap dollar resources into extra draft picks and
Speaker 1: kind of push the can down the road to one
Speaker 1: after the first year under Brian Flores and Chris Career
Speaker 1: here in twenty nineteen, and the result of this piece
Speaker 1: up on Over the Cap dot com is the Dolphins
Speaker 1: have the third fewest amount of sunk salaries in the NFL. Basically,
Speaker 1: what you're looking at, there is the amount of salary
Speaker 1: that's not contributing to your football product on the field itself. Again,
Speaker 1: we talked about this in twenty nineteen. The Dolphins did
Speaker 1: so much to kind of to pay for salaries like
Speaker 1: Ryan Tannehill or Robert Quinn in those trades, to acquire
Speaker 1: draft capital and kind of clear the books a little bit,
Speaker 1: to get themselves in position to be able to acquire
Speaker 1: players that fit the vision in the scheme of Brian
Speaker 1: Flores and Chris Career, and to be active this past
Speaker 1: free agency going out and getting Kyle van Noyen, Byron
Speaker 1: Jones and Shack Lost and Emmanuel Agba, Eric Flowers and
Speaker 1: Ted Carriss and you guys know the players the cast
Speaker 1: of that list. But as we look at this list
Speaker 1: again put together by Jason Fitzgerald on Over the cap
Speaker 1: dot com, it gives you an idea of how Miami
Speaker 1: remains flexible in the second year of this kind of process,
Speaker 1: the third year under Brian Flores and Chris Career. And
Speaker 1: he has the Dolphins as the third the team with
Speaker 1: the third fewest sunken cost. And he puts the Colts,
Speaker 1: Buccaneers and Dolphins kind of in this grouping together saying
Speaker 1: how how much better advantageous of a situation they are
Speaker 1: in from this standpoint, from a cap structure standpoint, and
Speaker 1: the rest of the NFL. He writes this note, Team
Speaker 1: three is the Dolphins who have really utilized their salary
Speaker 1: cap purge better than anyone ever has thus far. They
Speaker 1: have embraced a different approach which gives them a ton
Speaker 1: of flexibility for a time when they want to create
Speaker 1: a ton of cap room. So that again creates this
Speaker 1: level of flexibility you have going into the off season
Speaker 1: with team building in mind, how you can approach either
Speaker 1: free agency or the draft. And going into the draft,
Speaker 1: the Dolphins have the most draft picks we also could
Speaker 1: be We'll see how it takes out that they could
Speaker 1: be the first team since the Slash two thousand Washington
Speaker 1: football team to qualify for the playoffs but also wind
Speaker 1: up with a top three pick in the NFL draft.
Speaker 1: The Washington football team went ten and six and won
Speaker 1: the a f C East, and in two thousand they
Speaker 1: actually had the second and third pick in the draft
Speaker 1: and wound up with LaVar Arrington and Chris Samuels, a
Speaker 1: pair of all pros. There in Washington, So how they
Speaker 1: got those picks from New Orleans and San Francisco, that
Speaker 1: is a fantastic job of putting yourself in position to
Speaker 1: win now but also build for the future. Miami's in
Speaker 1: a somewhat similar position, not gonna have two picks that high,
Speaker 1: but the current Houston Texans pick that came over part
Speaker 1: of that Larry Mitunsel trade currently sits number six overall.
Speaker 1: The Texans do play the Bengals in Week sixteen and
Speaker 1: then finish up with the Titans in Week seventeen, so
Speaker 1: we'll certainly monitor that to see where that draft pick
Speaker 1: lands is right now. It could fall anywhere from third
Speaker 1: overall to twelve overall in this year's draft. And going
Speaker 1: back to the draft in talking about having those high
Speaker 1: draft picks, we know Miami has the two first round
Speaker 1: picks and the two second round picks this year, and
Speaker 1: again that that second round pick from Houston could also
Speaker 1: wind up being in the top forty as that team
Speaker 1: plays out the rest of the string plays out the
Speaker 1: rest of the season this year. And it brings me
Speaker 1: up to this upcoming draft class, something we haven't looked
Speaker 1: at a whole lot. It's been a very, very different
Speaker 1: season as far as evaluating college prospects with all the
Speaker 1: college football games being canceled or postponed, or the opt
Speaker 1: outs that we've had, just the the unpredictable nature of
Speaker 1: the college football season has certainly changed things and will
Speaker 1: certainly see a change in the way the Senior Bowl
Speaker 1: and the scouting Combine has covered all that fun stuff
Speaker 1: that we've all grown to know and love and really
Speaker 1: was kind of my baby at first when I started
Speaker 1: off doing the whole football podcasting and Miami Dolphins Focused
Speaker 1: or Centric Focus podcast was taking a look at team
Speaker 1: building and acquiring players. Well, here we are going into
Speaker 1: one off season here in a few weeks, where to me,
Speaker 1: this draft class is loaded in a few areas that
Speaker 1: you know, I don't think we've seen it that way
Speaker 1: for a long time. The running back and why just
Speaker 1: here positions potentially in this year's class, depending on who
Speaker 1: declares and who doesn't with all the talent available, whether
Speaker 1: you're looking at Jamaar Chase from l s U who
Speaker 1: opted out to prepare for the draft this year, or
Speaker 1: Jalen Waddle and DeVonta Smith and Alabama, Darius Tony at Florida.
Speaker 1: Just talking about SEC receivers. See if you get entering
Speaker 1: the NFL draft, there are so many loaded receivers in
Speaker 1: this year's class, and the running back position looks pretty
Speaker 1: dang good as well. You've got Naj Harris out of Alabama,
Speaker 1: Travis E. T N from Clemson. E t M was
Speaker 1: possibly a first round projected picked by many last year
Speaker 1: by mel Keiper and Todd McShay and Daniel Jeremiah coming
Speaker 1: out of Clemson last season. He returns and just puts
Speaker 1: together an even better season this year. I think the
Speaker 1: offensive line class might be one of the deeper ones
Speaker 1: we've seen in quite some time. There are some defensive
Speaker 1: players I've got my eye on again. I want to
Speaker 1: do some more studying on this as we go along
Speaker 1: in the future. But guys like Boogie Bashman, for instance,
Speaker 1: out of Wake Forest Carlos Boogie Bashman, like two pounds
Speaker 1: six ft five, kind of has that makeup off the
Speaker 1: edge to really rush the passer, impact the running in
Speaker 1: that way as well. But just our first little primer
Speaker 1: or glimpse into some of the top players according to
Speaker 1: the Draft Network and other avenues that do this stuff
Speaker 1: year round, just looking at the possible top picks Trevor
Speaker 1: Lawrence and Justin Fields the top two quarterbacks that Jordan
Speaker 1: Reid of the Draft Network has going off the board
Speaker 1: to Jacksonville and the Jets respectively. Pine Seuled the tackle
Speaker 1: out of Oregon. He has pretty much in his freshman
Speaker 1: year there Oregan been just a people mover and an
Speaker 1: exceptional athlete with great past protection skill sets. He is
Speaker 1: a top most offensive line boards. Zack Wilson from b
Speaker 1: y U. If you guys caught the Book of a
Speaker 1: tone ball on Tuesday night, he really went ham on
Speaker 1: the UCF defense. He has been a heck of a
Speaker 1: player this year with some intriguing skills and traits as well.
Speaker 1: So three possible quarterbacks off the board here early before
Speaker 1: the Dolphins. You know that number six pick currently in
Speaker 1: this particular draft or mock draft from Jordan Reid. You've
Speaker 1: also got Micah Parsons, a linebacker out of Penn State.
Speaker 1: He opted out this year as well, but he figures
Speaker 1: to be in that top ten, top five range. And
Speaker 1: that's where they have the Dolphins sitting at number six,
Speaker 1: which some receiver talent Jamar Chase Davante Smith. You've got
Speaker 1: Caleb Farley and Patrick's Artan. The two cornerbacks who most
Speaker 1: folks have along with j C. Horne atop their cornerback
Speaker 1: big board. We mentioned Carlos Basham from Wake Forest, the
Speaker 1: pass rusher Gregory rosso Rosal from Miami and Quitty Pay
Speaker 1: from Michigan or the top two on Jordan Reed's list
Speaker 1: here Ray Shawn Slater kind of joins that penais Seul
Speaker 1: offensive line position. Jalen waddles in there as well to
Speaker 1: ground out the receiving groove Rashod Bateman out of Minnesota.
Speaker 1: So there's plenty of talent at some key positions across
Speaker 1: the offense, across the defense in this draft, as early
Speaker 1: declarations have already began this year again in this funky
Speaker 1: COVID season. But I do want to go more in
Speaker 1: depth on the draft class with some expert help and
Speaker 1: some expertise from around the NFL landscape once this season ends.
Speaker 1: Just want to go ahead and make a note that
Speaker 1: we will have a strong emphasis on getting expertise on
Speaker 1: the podcast and giving you guys some great opinions and
Speaker 1: draft breakdowns and and talk about this class as a
Speaker 1: whole as we ramp up towards the draft. But that's
Speaker 1: that's a little bit ways off. We still have plenty
Speaker 1: of ball left this season, plenty of meaningful football left
Speaker 1: this season for your Miami Dolphins. But I thought it
Speaker 1: was important sixteen or fifteen weeks into the season to
Speaker 1: update where we are ahead of the off season, because
Speaker 1: this season has flown by and the off season will
Speaker 1: be here before you know it. Let's go ahead and
Speaker 1: spend this thing forward. To Coach Flores Wednesday morning media availability,
Speaker 1: almost forgot what day it is, as he spoke a
Speaker 1: little bit about the Raiders Christmas, some stuff on his
Speaker 1: own roster. But I want to start there with Flora's
Speaker 1: talking about Christmas, his traditions with his family, and just
Speaker 1: the holiday season for Brian Flores. As far as the
Speaker 1: second point that question, Christmas, you know, for me is
Speaker 1: a lot of great memories. Again, like I've said before,
Speaker 1: similar Thanksgiving. You know, our family and my family would
Speaker 1: get together all the time and just enjoy each other's company,
Speaker 1: you know, celebrate you know, Christmas, say Birth of Christ
Speaker 1: and just enjoy enjoy one another. To me, Coach really
Speaker 1: hits the nail on the head there with that last
Speaker 1: comment about enjoying one another, because you know, get a
Speaker 1: little bit personal here on the podcast. For a long time,
Speaker 1: my family hasn't been really a singular unit where I
Speaker 1: get to spend the holidays around, you know, the people
Speaker 1: that I grew up with. My my mother passed away
Speaker 1: five years ago, and that kind of change the dynamic
Speaker 1: of our Christmas season. I try to spend as much
Speaker 1: time as I can with my brother. My one real
Speaker 1: close true relative that I have is my brother, so
Speaker 1: we spend most of the holiday together as well. But
Speaker 1: the impact of having like an adopted family almost so
Speaker 1: to speak. My wife's family has always welcomed me over
Speaker 1: to their place and we do this tradition on Christmas
Speaker 1: Eve that has become kind of a recent tradition in
Speaker 1: years that I've really grown to know and love and
Speaker 1: and will certainly miss it in years future when we
Speaker 1: don't get to do it, you know, being down in
Speaker 1: South Florida. But this year we do get to go
Speaker 1: back for Christmas Eve. I get to go home and
Speaker 1: be with my wife and my daughter and the family.
Speaker 1: So that's gonna be something I look forward to. Get
Speaker 1: the spirits going, get the gifts going. We play these
Speaker 1: games where you you have to like put oven myths
Speaker 1: on and try to unwrap this Christmas gift and it
Speaker 1: just it's a lot of fun to be around people
Speaker 1: you love, people you care about and and and enjoy
Speaker 1: the Hall Day season. So I hope all of you
Speaker 1: out there as well can't enjoy the holiday season this
Speaker 1: year and be around loved ones as much as you
Speaker 1: can in this strange year. But I think Coach Floor
Speaker 1: has nailed it on the head right there. It's about
Speaker 1: being around those that you love this time of year.
Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and get back on track here and
Speaker 1: talk a little bit more football on this Wednesday edition
Speaker 1: of the Drivetime Podcast. And to kind of go back
Speaker 1: to our opening segment, they were talking about team building
Speaker 1: and Coach was asked this morning about the twenty offseason
Speaker 1: and putting together this football team. And to me, this
Speaker 1: kind of coincides with a few points we've hit on
Speaker 1: all season long. We talked about, you know, the Dolphins
Speaker 1: making room for for building this roster, the way the
Speaker 1: vision that Brian Flores sees for the football team. We
Speaker 1: had that clip from Brian Baldinger it was either two
Speaker 1: or three weeks ago where he talked about the vision
Speaker 1: of Perry, these physical, aggressive cornerbacks like xaviing Howard and
Speaker 1: Byron Jones and rounding out the past brush with multiple
Speaker 1: versatile people that could do several different things for you
Speaker 1: and kind of fit that versatility Moniker. We talked about
Speaker 1: all the time on this podcast, freeing up the roster
Speaker 1: or the ability to go out and build the roster
Speaker 1: to that vision, I think was an integral part of
Speaker 1: what you're seeing right now with this nine and five
Speaker 1: football team and the you know, second youngest team in
Speaker 1: the NFL, building towards being you know, improving upon this
Speaker 1: nine and five record here in the near future. I
Speaker 1: think it really speaks of the Dolphin's vision to to
Speaker 1: clear the space and clear the cap and get the
Speaker 1: draft capital to go get the kind of guys you want,
Speaker 1: and those kind of guys. Brian Flora says, let's just
Speaker 1: go ahead and here from coach, you know, we wanted
Speaker 1: to add the right people guys so we're tough and smart,
Speaker 1: competitive not to play team first. So I think, you know,
Speaker 1: just with every addition that we had that in mind,
Speaker 1: familiarity was you mentioned that, but you know, guys like
Speaker 1: Shack Lawson and h Wyn Jones weren't weren't as food
Speaker 1: weren't you know, they've never been in this defense. But right,
Speaker 1: guys like you landed in vanoys. But we're just looking
Speaker 1: for the right people, guys with the skill set. All
Speaker 1: those guys are good players, they want to be coached,
Speaker 1: They work hard, and I think they worked hard this
Speaker 1: this year and improved, and that's all we're looking really
Speaker 1: looking forward. And we're going to hear from rookie quarterback
Speaker 1: to a Tongue of Byloa here at the end of
Speaker 1: this podcast. But first I want to go ahead and
Speaker 1: get to Coach Flora's answer about the importance of ball
Speaker 1: security when it came to evaluating the quarterback position this
Speaker 1: past offseason and how important that was the decision making
Speaker 1: to ultimately go ahead and draft tongue Bylowa. Fifth. Overall,
Speaker 1: here's coach. I think that's always at the top of
Speaker 1: the priority list for anyone looking at any offensive position.
Speaker 1: Turnovers at the number one, um the reason why people
Speaker 1: lose games. I would say that's hopefully at the top
Speaker 1: of everyone on the Dolphin plan list, at the top
Speaker 1: of your non um. So yes, at the top of mind.
Speaker 1: It was at the top of I think it's one
Speaker 1: of those anyone who's doing an evaluation. If you feel
Speaker 1: like this guy is gonna turn the ball over time
Speaker 1: and time again, I don't see why you would take
Speaker 1: a chance on somebody like that. The two has done
Speaker 1: a good job from that standpoint. Um, it's something we
Speaker 1: stressed on a daily basis. H and take care of football.
Speaker 1: I know it's not always perfectly. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: good players in this league who are consciously trying to
Speaker 1: take them all away. We're trying to do the same
Speaker 1: thing defensively in the kicking game. So I mean, that's
Speaker 1: the game. You know, defenders are Defenders are trying to
Speaker 1: consciously trying to take them all the way, and offensive
Speaker 1: players should be consciously trying to secure the ball. Um.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I would say that's very high my priority
Speaker 1: list at any anyone who handles the football putterer, snapper, center, quarterback,
Speaker 1: running back, tight end, receiver. Do you intercept the ball?
Speaker 1: You got to secure the football. We had that a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago. We get an interception we fund with.
Speaker 1: Thankfully we got it back. But ye have ball securities
Speaker 1: at the top of my list, and ball security certainly
Speaker 1: provides an interesting segue into the game pre we were
Speaker 1: gonna jump into here just real quick, but first I
Speaker 1: want to go ahead and hear from coach Flora's on
Speaker 1: the challenges presented by this Raider's offense. It's very multiple,
Speaker 1: a lot of personnel groups last years, our motions. Good players,
Speaker 1: so good run game, good past game. Yeah, you know, challenging,
Speaker 1: very challenging for us. We got to the job, uh
Speaker 1: communication wise on the mouse technique, I'm trying to limit them.
Speaker 1: But you know that's some explosive players, good backs, the quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: you know, regardless of which one is out there. And
Speaker 1: that provides a perfect segue into the game preview that
Speaker 1: we have up on Miami Dolphins dot Com for you guys.
Speaker 1: As I was researching the Raiders a little bit before
Speaker 1: I wrote the preview and went back and looked at
Speaker 1: the same thing that we saw last week with the
Speaker 1: Patriots offense in terms of two back personnel utilizing a
Speaker 1: fullback in the formation. We talked about Yakob Johnson having
Speaker 1: the second most snaps among fullbacks in the NFL this season.
Speaker 1: Alec Ingold from Las Vegas is number heard in that category,
Speaker 1: behind Kyle us Check and Jakob Johnson. No offense operates
Speaker 1: out of twenty two personnel. That's two running backs, two
Speaker 1: tight ends, one receiver, more than Las Vegas. And you
Speaker 1: might recall when John Gruden first got to Oakland, they
Speaker 1: acquired a bunch of big, physical tight ends. They acquired
Speaker 1: a big running back and Josh Jacobs later on the line.
Speaker 1: They also got Trent Brown, the three eighty pound offensive tackle,
Speaker 1: and that kind of lines up with the vision of
Speaker 1: that offense. They average three hundred thirty nine pounds to
Speaker 1: a man across the offensive line. That's the heaviest in
Speaker 1: the entire National Football League. And it goes deeper than
Speaker 1: just the twenty two personnel. They run one wide receiver
Speaker 1: in the formation, a league high fifteen percent of the time.
Speaker 1: This is a league where three and four receivers is
Speaker 1: pretty commonplace in the National Football League, but one out
Speaker 1: of every oh man, I don't know math, fifteen percent
Speaker 1: of the time they only have one receiver on the field.
Speaker 1: So because of that, the Radar offense ranks eleventh and
Speaker 1: scoring point nine points per game, as well as total
Speaker 1: offense at three hundred and seventy five yards per game.
Speaker 1: Their twealth in the ground game and fourteen through the air,
Speaker 1: so a top half of the league offense in every
Speaker 1: single category. On defense, nobody blitzes are only two defenses
Speaker 1: rather blitz at a lower rate than the Raiders. They
Speaker 1: bring an extra rusher on just twenty five of their
Speaker 1: defensive snaps, but the four man pass rush they utilize
Speaker 1: provides pressure on twenty two point seven percent of opposing dropbacks,
Speaker 1: at seventeenth best in the league. So anytime you have
Speaker 1: a higher pressure rate than you do blitz rate in
Speaker 1: terms of ranking, that's always a great sign. Max Crosby
Speaker 1: is a problem on that defensive line for the for
Speaker 1: the Las Vegas Raiders, almost at Oakland, You've got to
Speaker 1: get that guy blocked out of Eastern Michigan as a
Speaker 1: defense they ran and scoring total defense. They are and
Speaker 1: rushing defense and in the passing defense game, and that
Speaker 1: brings us into the matchups for the scan that I'm
Speaker 1: taking a look at, And the most interesting fact I
Speaker 1: found was the money down. The Dolphins defense has formed
Speaker 1: several habits this season, one of which is the league's
Speaker 1: top third down defense, allowing conversions on just thirty two
Speaker 1: point five percent of their oppositions third downs. On the
Speaker 1: other side of the football, the Raiders enter play with
Speaker 1: the number two ranked third down offense at forty nine
Speaker 1: point one percent conversions. Way big battle there, and both
Speaker 1: teams help set themselves up for success on third down
Speaker 1: by winning early downs. The Raiders offense averages five point
Speaker 1: one yards per play with a strong mix of a
Speaker 1: power run game but also a vertical passing attack. And
Speaker 1: what's interesting about their vertical passing attack going to guys
Speaker 1: like Henry Ruggs and Darren Waller down the field, is
Speaker 1: they won't utilize play action as much as you might
Speaker 1: think off of that look. It's actually they have a
Speaker 1: dip in production from yards per past attempt by two
Speaker 1: point three yards from play action compared to nonplay action
Speaker 1: pass It's kind of a upside down type of stat
Speaker 1: there in the National Football League. There seven point nine
Speaker 1: intended air yards ranks twenty in the NFL, so short
Speaker 1: controlled passing game to kind of go along with that
Speaker 1: running game, and they build those vertical shots in off
Speaker 1: of that. Miami's third down defense does more than get stops,
Speaker 1: though they create takeaways. Seven of miami sixteen interceptions this
Speaker 1: year have occurred on third down and a passer rating
Speaker 1: on third down of just sixty two point seven across
Speaker 1: the entire national football he does best in the NFL
Speaker 1: the number two match up here you heard coach Flores
Speaker 1: talk about both quarterbacks the yen the yang is a
Speaker 1: car is at Mariota. Either way, the Dolphins have killed
Speaker 1: quarterback stat lines all season long. Opponents have a passer
Speaker 1: rating against of eighty three point nine against Miami that's
Speaker 1: third best in the NFL. And though both are effective
Speaker 1: in twenty with Derek Carr having a one or two
Speaker 1: passer rating that's ninth best in the NFL. And when
Speaker 1: he gave way to Marcus Mariota, he throws for two
Speaker 1: d and twenty six yards and as eighty six yards
Speaker 1: on the ground in that loss to the Chargers. And
Speaker 1: Mariota wasn't sacked in his first game as a Raider,
Speaker 1: but he did take an average of three point six
Speaker 1: eight sacks per game his last two seasons in Tennessee.
Speaker 1: And the converse of that is Derek Carr has been
Speaker 1: stacked just twenty times in his four team games this
Speaker 1: season and was dumped only twenty nine times last year
Speaker 1: in sixteen games. This Raider offensive line is very very good,
Speaker 1: with Trent Brownie mentioned him the three eighty pound tackle.
Speaker 1: Formally of the Patriots, Colt Miller's having a hell of
Speaker 1: a career so far after going off the board in
Speaker 1: the first round. Rodney Hudson one of the best centers
Speaker 1: in the entire National Football League. These guys can get
Speaker 1: it done up front and can move bodies off the football,
Speaker 1: and they can pass for tech too. We talked about
Speaker 1: the low number of sacks that would be a good
Speaker 1: matchup to watch here. Miami's thirty seven sacks are tied
Speaker 1: for tenth most in the NFL and their forty quarterback
Speaker 1: hits our ninth most. Back to the discrepancy between Car
Speaker 1: and Mariota, Cars interception rate has not eclipsed one point
Speaker 1: eight percent since seen he takes care of the football. Mariota,
Speaker 1: on the other hand, has a career I n T
Speaker 1: rate of two point five. However, Mariota has thirty three
Speaker 1: career fumbles to cars sixty three fumbles, and that includes
Speaker 1: significant more time as a runner. For Mariota, he has
Speaker 1: one thousand, four hundred eighty seven career rushing yards and
Speaker 1: twelve touchdowns on the ground compared to Cars two and
Speaker 1: ten yards and five rushing touchdowns as well. So the
Speaker 1: turnover battle kind of I guess evens out when you
Speaker 1: look at the interceptions and fumbles can buy Mariota more
Speaker 1: dangerous as a runner obviously, Derek Carr more accurate and
Speaker 1: more efficient in the short passing game. It's an interesting
Speaker 1: battle and interesting mix, an interesting game plan juxtaposition among
Speaker 1: those two guys. Either way, the Dolphins have to prepare
Speaker 1: for both of them. Both can get the job done
Speaker 1: if you let them, and my third matchup key here
Speaker 1: is just to run it back. Talking about the running game.
Speaker 1: Last week, the Dolphins faced the fullback we mentioned with
Speaker 1: with Yakob Johnson, and the Patriots did get sixty four
Speaker 1: rushing yards on eleven carries out of two back personnel,
Speaker 1: so finding a way to get that average down a
Speaker 1: little bit will be a big key in this game.
Speaker 1: And the Raiders, although they are an imposing ground game
Speaker 1: with the big beef upfront and Josh Jacobs, who is
Speaker 1: six in the National Football League with over nine hundred
Speaker 1: yards on the ground, they haven't been their usual imposing
Speaker 1: self in recent weeks. Jacobs did have seventy six yards
Speaker 1: on the ground in the loss of the Chargers, but
Speaker 1: he had just one hundred and thirty one yards for
Speaker 1: an average of three point five four yards per carry
Speaker 1: over the previous three games prior to the loss to
Speaker 1: the Chargers. He's under four yards per carry this year.
Speaker 1: Last season he was over five yards per carry, but
Speaker 1: still Josh Jacobs one of them dangerous physical running backs
Speaker 1: in the entire National Football League. The running back portion
Speaker 1: refers to Miami's running game itself. They found their legs
Speaker 1: on Sunday picking up one number nine things in large
Speaker 1: part to two hundred and fifty yards on the ground.
Speaker 1: Matt Brita had eighty six rushing yards. If he had
Speaker 1: fourteen more, would have had two running backs over a
Speaker 1: hundred yards, joining Savan Akhmed, which would have been the
Speaker 1: first time since nineteen seventy five Dolphins had two running
Speaker 1: backs in one game go for over a hundred yards.
Speaker 1: And this helps provide a boon for the offensive passing
Speaker 1: game and quarterback. To a tongue of Byloa as well,
Speaker 1: we talked about the accuracy rate. Sports Info Solutions has
Speaker 1: some really cool in depth data they track and they
Speaker 1: grade catchable VERSU uncatchable passes, and on Sunday they had
Speaker 1: to with twenty four of twenty six catchable passes. He's
Speaker 1: seventh among all NFL quarterbacks in that category. So you
Speaker 1: stay accurate, you stay ahead of schedule, you stay on point,
Speaker 1: on time, and on rhythm. With a running game that
Speaker 1: can do that, man, that pairs so well with the
Speaker 1: way this Dolphins defense has played. So I think you
Speaker 1: look at the second half of that game and even
Speaker 1: include the first drive of the game or the second
Speaker 1: drive of the game where the Dolphins went nine yards
Speaker 1: and turned it over in the red zone. If you
Speaker 1: can get that type of clock management, that type of
Speaker 1: running game, that type of efficient play out of your
Speaker 1: quarterback and long drives, my goodness, this defense can rest
Speaker 1: up and feast and create takeaways and sack the quarterback.
Speaker 1: Find that balance could be a big key for this
Speaker 1: Dolphins team going forward. And it starts Saturday in Las Vegas.
Speaker 1: So there's your game preview. Take a look at the
Speaker 1: piece up on Miami Dolphins dot com. Some more details
Speaker 1: and notes in there as well. We'll recap the game
Speaker 1: on Saturday night as we do always, well it's always Sunday,
Speaker 1: but the game to day earlier this year, so we'll
Speaker 1: recap it on Saturday night on the website as well.
Speaker 1: As the Drivetime podcast before we get to our media
Speaker 1: for the day, and here from Quarterback to a Tonga Byloa.
Speaker 1: Your boy got his check mark finally on Twitter. I'm
Speaker 1: sure you saw it if you follow me at Wingfield, NFL.
Speaker 1: Saw the blue checkmark randomly on Monday night, right around
Speaker 1: eleven pm. That was a cool surprise to see. I
Speaker 1: had kind of given up on the idea of the
Speaker 1: check mark, but I will be honest, once I saw it,
Speaker 1: I was in a very good mood after that. So
Speaker 1: finally verified on Twitter. We made it. Family, finally made it.
Speaker 1: Let's get to a quick question and answer here for
Speaker 1: two a tongue of blow A Dolphins starting quarterback. In
Speaker 1: his Wednesday media availability, I asked you about the process
Speaker 1: of applying things you learn in game and later having
Speaker 1: that situation come back up in the game and taking
Speaker 1: the lessons you learned from the first look and putting
Speaker 1: it into the into action on the second look. Here's
Speaker 1: to we're talking about the interception he threw in the
Speaker 1: game Sunday compared to the rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: with similar looks from both those plays. I think that's
Speaker 1: exactly what happened there. Were different looks, um but in
Speaker 1: a way similar, you know. And the first one where
Speaker 1: I threw the interception, that was really uh es if
Speaker 1: you will, you know, throwing throwing that ball blindly. Um No,
Speaker 1: I could have just took the sack. We had points there,
Speaker 1: whether it was touchdown or field goal, and I threw
Speaker 1: that away and kind of gave the momentum back to
Speaker 1: page is the next game. But I would say definitely
Speaker 1: learned from that. I don't want to force anything, um no.
Speaker 1: And if I I could have made it with my
Speaker 1: legs and that's that was kind of the thing. And
Speaker 1: if not, then we still would have had point. Thro
Speaker 1: woud ahead, we would have been able to keep a
Speaker 1: few good Let's go ahead and put a bow on
Speaker 1: this edition of the Drive Time podcast. We have a
Speaker 1: very special feature interview with Kyle van Noy on tomorrow's podcast.
Speaker 1: Please do not miss that. For all the injury updates
Speaker 1: and latest media availability from your Miami Dolphins, go ahead
Speaker 1: and visit Miami Dolphins dot com or the team YouTube page.
Speaker 1: We also have the Week six team preview up on
Speaker 1: Miami Dolphins dot Com as well. Plenty of content for
Speaker 1: you guys in the website on the podcast even through
Speaker 1: the holiday season. Until next time. That's gonna be my time,
Speaker 1: you all. Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcast, Leave us a rating, leave us a review,
Speaker 1: give me a follow. On Twitter, It's at Wingfield, NFL.
Speaker 1: Follow the team at Miami Dolphins, check out the fish
Speaker 1: Tank and the Audible podcast, and of course Miami Dolphins
Speaker 1: dot com until tomorrow. On Christmas Eve finds up