Speaker 1: Touchdown, Miami Run. What is up? Dolphins? And welcome to
Speaker 1: the Drive Time Podcast, part of the Miami Dolphins podcast network,
Speaker 1: covering your team, your Miami Dolphins. How's it going everybody?
Speaker 1: I am your host, Travis Wingfield and as always I'm
Speaker 1: here to bring you your daily dose of Miami Dolphins football.
Speaker 1: And on today's show, it's omission Tuesday. The game has
Speaker 1: been rewatched a couple of times. I have some additional notes.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get to the snap counts, the advanced metrics takeaways,
Speaker 1: We're gonna punt on the scanning, the social segment. This week,
Speaker 1: we're gonna hear from Coach Flores, some sideline audio from
Speaker 1: a J Ross at the Dolphins game against the Bengals
Speaker 1: on Sunday. Plus we'll play another clip from the post
Speaker 1: game show on w q A M with Me, Seth
Speaker 1: and O J McDuffie. All of that and a whole
Speaker 1: bunch more from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist
Speaker 1: Health Training Complex. This is the Drive Time Podcast. Somebody
Speaker 1: holds the head coach Brian Flores on Monday, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna get to that here in just one moment. But
Speaker 1: before we even get started on the podcast. Coach did
Speaker 1: say in that media availability that there would be some
Speaker 1: cuts on Monday. All right, we're gonna get into the
Speaker 1: omissions for the tape the rewatch, and I have more
Speaker 1: than a few on that rewatch, but I wanted to
Speaker 1: start with a player that was in our takeaways on
Speaker 1: the recap podcast on Sunday night slash Monday morning, and
Speaker 1: we did some extensive film talk on him in rookie
Speaker 1: Jalen Phillips, and Coach kind of confirmed for us what
Speaker 1: I said on the podcast about his work in that game.
Speaker 1: Here's Coach talking about Jalen Phillips, his usage and the
Speaker 1: general usage for players in this Dolphins defense. Um, well
Speaker 1: that uh, the way we structure the defense. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: it's not a four three where there's just full time
Speaker 1: defensive ends on the field that at all times. So, um,
Speaker 1: we have a little bit more of a hybrid scheme
Speaker 1: where we could be up, it could be down. It
Speaker 1: could be we could be four down, but um, it
Speaker 1: could be you know, base could be it could be
Speaker 1: in a few different um fronts. So uh, I think
Speaker 1: that we've we feel like Jalen can do a few
Speaker 1: different things. I think maybe some different things in early
Speaker 1: downs and some different things and some obvious passing situations. Uh,
Speaker 1: and you know, we wanted to just see him in
Speaker 1: those roles yesterday. UM. I think that's the goal for
Speaker 1: him is to play you know, a few different positions.
Speaker 1: But you know, right now we're just kind of checking,
Speaker 1: checking to see, you know, where he's comfortable. And then um,
Speaker 1: as the staff, we'll talk about it and kind of
Speaker 1: review things and see what we want to use them
Speaker 1: during the regular season. Getting players to speed in the
Speaker 1: full complement of their skill set and the full ask
Speaker 1: of this defense, working on every element and trying to
Speaker 1: find out just how versatile these guys are and how
Speaker 1: they can be. And a quick aside to that, I
Speaker 1: just love that first sentence. I guess the fews the
Speaker 1: first couple of sentences. The way we structure to the defense.
Speaker 1: It's not a four three where there's just full time
Speaker 1: defensive ends on the field at all times. We have
Speaker 1: a little bit more of a hybrid scheme where he
Speaker 1: could be up, he could be down, it could be
Speaker 1: four down, it could be based, it could be a
Speaker 1: few different fronts. So some good insight there once again
Speaker 1: from coach as he has want to do here in
Speaker 1: these media availabilities talking about football and then something else
Speaker 1: we talked about and really did an entire segment on
Speaker 1: this on the postgame show with Seth and o J
Speaker 1: on the five six w q a M postgame show,
Speaker 1: the Dolphins fifth Quarter post game show after every single
Speaker 1: Miami Dolphins game, about how this is a tougher roster
Speaker 1: to make than it was a year ago and certainly
Speaker 1: two years ago, and Brian Flores his first season here
Speaker 1: and coach really communicated that with us this year. He
Speaker 1: touched on tough cuts they're gonna have to make, how
Speaker 1: there are guys on this team that might not make
Speaker 1: the fifty three, but we'll go somewhere else and catch
Speaker 1: on somewhere else. But he also talked about the value
Speaker 1: that this camp and that competition that this team had
Speaker 1: and all those position groups, how it made this football
Speaker 1: team better. At the end of the day, We've had
Speaker 1: a very competitive group at all positions. I think you know,
Speaker 1: the players you're you mentioned the guys who um you know,
Speaker 1: we may have to move on from. I think, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, in a lot of instances, you know, just
Speaker 1: in our conversations this morning, Uh you know, they've made
Speaker 1: our team better because they've pushed some of the guys
Speaker 1: on that we're gonna keep. Steve kind of mentioned this.
Speaker 1: I think that's you know, probably some of the things
Speaker 1: that we're seeing is you know, there's been a lot
Speaker 1: of good competition and that's pushed guys and um, help
Speaker 1: some other guys play a little bit better. Um, so
Speaker 1: we're you know, those guys think they're there. Like I said,
Speaker 1: there's gonna be some guys who we feel like our
Speaker 1: our roster players in mistake and we have to move
Speaker 1: on from them. But I think they certainly helped our
Speaker 1: team in this training game. It's nice to have, whether
Speaker 1: it's you know, fifty five, sixties, sixty five guys that
Speaker 1: you feel like might have a chance to be Like
Speaker 1: Coach mentioned their rosterable players, and I'm just putting, you know,
Speaker 1: potential fictional numbers out there. I don't know what that
Speaker 1: number actually is, but just thinking about the tough decisions
Speaker 1: they have to make it so many position groups, you
Speaker 1: could probably argue that the you know, three or four
Speaker 1: or five position groups have tough tough calls at each
Speaker 1: of those spots. And I also loved Coach saying that
Speaker 1: in this press conference, that he's honest with guys in
Speaker 1: those conversations. You're gonna have several tough conversations in total
Speaker 1: with guys. You're going to cut. You'll bring you know,
Speaker 1: sixteen of them back or hope to get sixteen of
Speaker 1: them back on the practice squad. But I like the
Speaker 1: way he just said it's about transparency and honesty. Tell them, Ruth,
Speaker 1: tell the player why we didn't think it worked out,
Speaker 1: things they can improve on, but also if he thinks
Speaker 1: they have a good chance to catch on somewhere else.
Speaker 1: So that transparency, I think, And you know, we've heard
Speaker 1: so many accounts of people that just love playing for
Speaker 1: Brian Flores, and that right there has to be a
Speaker 1: big part of it. All Right, that's it for the
Speaker 1: media on this Tuesday podcast. I want to get into
Speaker 1: the omissions for the podcast recapping the final preseason game.
Speaker 1: That's right, the next time we do this, it will
Speaker 1: be a game that counts in the win lost column.
Speaker 1: Read Sure was the story in that game, wasn't he?
Speaker 1: But I thought that was cool to hear him talk
Speaker 1: about his role in the Dolphins quarterback room and all
Speaker 1: the throws he seemed to make that he wouldn't even
Speaker 1: dare try to make out there on the practice field.
Speaker 1: And I tweeted before Reid came in against the Bears
Speaker 1: in that preseason opener and that I think fans are
Speaker 1: gonna have fun watching him play. And boy did they
Speaker 1: get that chance to see that in Cincinnati, where he
Speaker 1: was extending plays, rolling away from pressure, setting up in
Speaker 1: the face of pressure, and throwing the football knowing that
Speaker 1: he's gonna take that big shot. What a game again,
Speaker 1: most passing yards three forty three by any player in
Speaker 1: the preseason since at least as for the main takeaway
Speaker 1: on my rewatch, because Reid was so in your face
Speaker 1: with the performance he put out there against the Bengals.
Speaker 1: It was the offensive line for me, and there was
Speaker 1: several guys that got in the notes here, but as
Speaker 1: a whole, as a collective, just the push they got
Speaker 1: up front from some of those guys, and especially on
Speaker 1: double teams, which has been really the case of the
Speaker 1: preseason so far with some whether it's Robert Hunt and
Speaker 1: Liam Eichenberg, or Austin Jackson and Solomon Kinley, or Greg
Speaker 1: Little and Dervall Kidd as netto, whatever the case was.
Speaker 1: You see these guys getting that hip to hip, shoulder
Speaker 1: to shoulder, foot to foot and driving guys off the football.
Speaker 1: But we start here with Solomon Kinley because I tweeted
Speaker 1: about this in the On the Monday rewatch during my
Speaker 1: rewatch that I thought that he showed not just the
Speaker 1: power and poise and chippiness that you love from Solomon Kinley,
Speaker 1: Like when he gets a rep where he doesn't have
Speaker 1: a a body to work on, a player to pass
Speaker 1: protect on, he'll go find work and he'll go put
Speaker 1: a big hit on a guy. And you always see
Speaker 1: him play through the echo of the whistle in a
Speaker 1: way that can kind of frustrate guys. And I think
Speaker 1: that's really that's a really valuable asset to have on
Speaker 1: your offensive line. One of those kind of nasty, mean
Speaker 1: guys that gets under guy's skin. And I think that
Speaker 1: could be Solomon Kindley. Even though he's such a sweetheart
Speaker 1: and a fan favorite as far as when he does
Speaker 1: his great postgame press conferences and the like, he's kind
Speaker 1: of kind of chippy out there on the field, and
Speaker 1: I think you need that on the offensive line because
Speaker 1: there was one clip where he came off of his
Speaker 1: responsibility because nobody rushed his guy backed out and he
Speaker 1: wouldn't put a chip on the left tackles man and
Speaker 1: decleted him, and that was awesome to see. But then
Speaker 1: later on he has a rep where the Bengals kind
Speaker 1: of fake this game up front, fake a slamt and
Speaker 1: he works inside and the player that kind of fakes
Speaker 1: that slant inside goes back around the outside towards the
Speaker 1: left tackle, and you see Solomon stay engaged and keep
Speaker 1: those feet chopping and kind of race to the spot
Speaker 1: to get himself in position to stay square. Has your
Speaker 1: shoulder pads, got to stay over your feet otherwise you're
Speaker 1: gonna be in tough shape. And watching Solomon at that
Speaker 1: size get that accomplished, that's a really positive sign going
Speaker 1: forward for the big Fish. Another guy was very impressed
Speaker 1: with was Robert Jones. In fact, probably even maybe even
Speaker 1: the most impressive offensive lineman in this game for my money,
Speaker 1: the push he got consistently getting guys out of their
Speaker 1: gap in creating space, cut blocking some guys, and making
Speaker 1: those blocks happen effectively getting up to the second level
Speaker 1: where you catch that first level, climb to the second
Speaker 1: level and take out a linebacker on the hunter long
Speaker 1: drop he chipped a slant from the offensive lineman coming
Speaker 1: in and then picked up a looper coming around the
Speaker 1: inside and put that guy on the ground and then
Speaker 1: kind of stood over the top of him like you
Speaker 1: would do in the game Halo, for instance, when you
Speaker 1: get that big kill and you kind of show off
Speaker 1: about it. I thought that was a really cool, a
Speaker 1: really cool look there from Robert Jones after a really
Speaker 1: solid day, and of course I talked about it on
Speaker 1: the Sunday podcast, but he had a play out in
Speaker 1: space on a screen where he got out there and
Speaker 1: tossed somebuddy out of the club. So Robert Jones, the
Speaker 1: undrafted rookie out of Middle Tennessee State Man, I thought
Speaker 1: he had himself a heck of a ball game, and
Speaker 1: so did der Ball kidaz Netto. He and Greg Little
Speaker 1: did so much work in the run game to push
Speaker 1: guys off the football. We'll talk about the stats running
Speaker 1: the football off the left side, plenty of that coming
Speaker 1: behind der Ball and Greg Little. But he had a
Speaker 1: great pin and seal in the second quarter on a
Speaker 1: fourteen yard run from Jared Oakes where he got to
Speaker 1: the tackle or the defense event I should say, got
Speaker 1: outside the outside shoulder and pinned him inside. And speaking
Speaker 1: of Greg Little, he got part of that double team
Speaker 1: as well and then climbed up to a linebacker and
Speaker 1: wiped him out to give Dokes some space for that
Speaker 1: fourteen yard run. But I wrote down into my notes
Speaker 1: that he has a really good looking kick slide where
Speaker 1: he covers a bunch of ground and gets himself square
Speaker 1: and comes to balance before that contact arrives of that rusher,
Speaker 1: and that's only gonna help him hold the point against
Speaker 1: bull rushes or redirects or counter moves back inside. I
Speaker 1: thought you saw plenty of that in this game. And
Speaker 1: then just to push in the running game, like I
Speaker 1: mentioned where he was wiping out that edge consists he
Speaker 1: had several good blocks to spring some runs. And then
Speaker 1: Adam Pankey just a veteran pro player in my in
Speaker 1: my opinion, here a patient set in past protection can
Speaker 1: get in the right position to just get in front
Speaker 1: of guys and make sure they don't get to the quarterback.
Speaker 1: And he continues to get good push in the run
Speaker 1: game too. He was one of the guys they would
Speaker 1: come off the bench and heavy personnel last year and
Speaker 1: come into the game six seven offensive lineman and get
Speaker 1: pushed in those short yardage or goal line situations. Cameron
Speaker 1: Tom and Matt Scura. I thought the center position was
Speaker 1: good all day long. Coach Flores talked about it. Scura
Speaker 1: started off the game and played strong and went and
Speaker 1: then gave way to Cameron Tom, who I thought did
Speaker 1: well as well with plenty of push and some of
Speaker 1: those seal blocks where they just get that butt around,
Speaker 1: get it into the gap and fill and seal that
Speaker 1: guy off and create space that way. Larnel Coleman had
Speaker 1: some struggling moments early on in the game, but I
Speaker 1: thought he had a really nice seal block on what
Speaker 1: I thought was going to be a touchdown run on
Speaker 1: that first possession by Patrick Laird where he creates a
Speaker 1: path outside and there was no defender out there but
Speaker 1: Patrick Lair jamda back inside. But I thought that was
Speaker 1: good to see there from Larnel Coleman. Defensively, Nick need Hum,
Speaker 1: I mean, we'll talk about this in the snap count portion,
Speaker 1: but he played a lot of ball and just continues
Speaker 1: to just show what he's all about. Relentlessness, toughness, perseverance.
Speaker 1: The guy just embodies a lot of the things that
Speaker 1: Brian Floors and Chris career look for here in the
Speaker 1: Miami Dolphin and you saw that on the second play
Speaker 1: of the game, the Jamaar Chase screen that went in complete.
Speaker 1: He fought around that block and got his helmet onto
Speaker 1: the football or hand on the football, helmet onto the chest.
Speaker 1: There just continues to find ways to get in the
Speaker 1: right position to make plays. And then later in the
Speaker 1: game there's a rep it's a third down in completion
Speaker 1: going into the end zone for the Bengals are going
Speaker 1: into the reds and I should say, and I talked
Speaker 1: a lot about his feet and his the smoothness of
Speaker 1: his transition from the back pedal to driving out of
Speaker 1: that back pedal and then run up to the to
Speaker 1: the draft after he was a U d f A
Speaker 1: for this Dolphins team back in twenty nineteen, and the
Speaker 1: feet continued to look impressive to me. On this particular rep,
Speaker 1: he's got inside leverage, so you're trying to wall off
Speaker 1: the inside, and once the receiver tries to cross face
Speaker 1: and go back inside on an incut, he flips those
Speaker 1: hips and they just look so fluid, as Mike Mayock
Speaker 1: would call them the oily hips back in his days
Speaker 1: at the NFL Network as the lead draft analysts there
Speaker 1: oily hips and smooth feet. And on that play in
Speaker 1: the second half where Taylor got the deflection, Needham drove beautifully.
Speaker 1: Trent Taylor got the deflection reception for that big game.
Speaker 1: Nick Needham drove beautifully on that slant for the breakup
Speaker 1: and normally you count that, but a fluke play where
Speaker 1: it bounces right into another man's hands for a long
Speaker 1: reception there for the Bengals. So Nick Needham continues to
Speaker 1: just show you what he's all about. And then I
Speaker 1: put down Sam aguav and same thing on the ability
Speaker 1: to fight through a screen. First play of the game,
Speaker 1: did it where he got around the block and made
Speaker 1: a play. And he was just a force throughout the
Speaker 1: course of this game and has been all preseason long.
Speaker 1: I will say on the Bengal side, Fred Johnson for
Speaker 1: the Bengals man, he put in some work. My goodness,
Speaker 1: he had himself one hell of a game. Some other
Speaker 1: Dolphins players on here, Jonathan led Better just wrote down
Speaker 1: that he continues to get off blocks really well. I
Speaker 1: think he has the strong lockout where he can kind
Speaker 1: of get under a guy's pads, jack them back up
Speaker 1: and get that push back and then come off the
Speaker 1: block as well. Saw that Georgia saw that his rookie season.
Speaker 1: Seeing some of that here now in Benito Jones got
Speaker 1: some good push, particularly on a third and two conversion
Speaker 1: of the Bengals, a running player that converted where he
Speaker 1: kind of stood his guy up and knocked him back
Speaker 1: into the backfield. Couldn't quite get off of the tackle
Speaker 1: right at the line, but good work there from Benito
Speaker 1: Jones and then John Jenkins. I mean, the story oldest
Speaker 1: time with his push he gets in the running game.
Speaker 1: Saw him do some stuff as well as a pass
Speaker 1: rusher win one on one, and we saw the heavy
Speaker 1: hands where he's able to kind of strike a guy
Speaker 1: with a cross punch and lock them out and get
Speaker 1: them on their skates. You can get that kind of
Speaker 1: pressure up the interior, man's gonna open up some opportunities
Speaker 1: for guys off the outside. And that's kind of where
Speaker 1: we go here. In this next part of the segment,
Speaker 1: Duke Riley had a great fill in a run play
Speaker 1: where he shot the gap and got to stop right
Speaker 1: at the line. In fact, it was his lone run
Speaker 1: stop of the day. But the focus that I wanted
Speaker 1: to put on there was how I think this d
Speaker 1: defense we've seen so far in the preseason really gives
Speaker 1: this linebacker opportunity a chance to feast and make some
Speaker 1: plays because there's so many big guys that can put
Speaker 1: up front that can play multiple roles. So when you
Speaker 1: have I've talked about it so many times, Davis, Seeler, Wilkins,
Speaker 1: and Butler can play anywhere from the zero tech out
Speaker 1: to the five tech and so many of these fronts
Speaker 1: you can put them up in, like a bare front
Speaker 1: where you go zero tech and then a pair of
Speaker 1: two techniques, and what that means is a man head
Speaker 1: up over the center and then to a defensive lineman
Speaker 1: head up over either guard. And those guys are capable
Speaker 1: of stacking up bodies and taking on double teams at
Speaker 1: the point of attack, and it can free up so
Speaker 1: many gaps and lanes for your outside linebackers and your
Speaker 1: inside linebackers. And again those four guys I mentioned, they
Speaker 1: can all do it. John Jenkins does it as well,
Speaker 1: and we saw a lot of that in the second
Speaker 1: half lineup. I thought with John Jenkins, Jonathan led Better
Speaker 1: and Benito Jones, three guys that can play multiple roles,
Speaker 1: and it goes back to a bit of what Brian
Speaker 1: Flores said about varied fronts and multiple fronts this defense
Speaker 1: can run and then finally last out here towards the
Speaker 1: end of the game. I thought Noah Igmanogeny had a
Speaker 1: really really good drive there towards the end, especially on
Speaker 1: the final play of the game and pass coverage on
Speaker 1: the game ending pass breakup he had, and then earlier
Speaker 1: he had a pass breakup on that same series, and
Speaker 1: the broadcast got on him for not intercepting the past,
Speaker 1: but I couldn't disagree with that more. I thought he
Speaker 1: made a great play to drive and get his hand
Speaker 1: in there for a big time p BU. So that
Speaker 1: was the rewatch. Let's go ahead now and get to
Speaker 1: our snap count takeaways and deep dive on the analytics
Speaker 1: the PFF numbers and start there with the ladder first
Speaker 1: offensive line play. Like to look at how many pressures
Speaker 1: were given up. Dolphins allowed just ten as a team
Speaker 1: collectively in this game. Larnel Coleman five, Robert Jones three,
Speaker 1: Dirve Ball kidd As Neto too, and that was it.
Speaker 1: None for Solomon Kinley, Adam Panky, Cameron, Tom Matt Skura,
Speaker 1: and Greg Little, So some really good work again by
Speaker 1: the guys upfront tem pressures for a whole football game
Speaker 1: with sixty five snaps, that's a good place to be now.
Speaker 1: Rushing direction stats again kind of coincides with what we
Speaker 1: talked about in the observations from the rewatch on that
Speaker 1: second run back through of the game. Dolphins offensive line
Speaker 1: had three runs off left tackle or left end and
Speaker 1: that was primarily off the Greg Little left tackle position
Speaker 1: or portion of the game, i should say, and those
Speaker 1: three runs went for twenty nine yards. We mentioned Little
Speaker 1: in the game that he had no pressure and that
Speaker 1: running statistic. Pretty solid day for the new Miami Dolphin.
Speaker 1: At the left tackle and then the middle right gap,
Speaker 1: which is what they're calling it here on PFF, a
Speaker 1: gap off the center's right side. Robert Jones was the
Speaker 1: primary culprit, actually the only guy that played right guard
Speaker 1: all game. Four carry's sixteen yards and a touchdown off
Speaker 1: that gap, and that touchdown was of course from Jared Oaks,
Speaker 1: who averaged two point four or four yards after initial
Speaker 1: contact to lead the team. He also had to ten
Speaker 1: plus yard runs and four of his sixteen runs were
Speaker 1: for either first downs or touchdowns. We've talked about redsen
Speaker 1: It's day a lot in this podcast when he was
Speaker 1: blitzed four for four fifty three passing yards under pressure,
Speaker 1: six for eleven hundred and thirteen yards and a touchdown
Speaker 1: no picks. He also averaged again back to the offensive
Speaker 1: line two point seven six seconds to throw. Pretty good,
Speaker 1: especially when you have an average depth of target of
Speaker 1: ten point four yards. For read Senate, he was also
Speaker 1: three of five for one hundred and four passing yards
Speaker 1: and two touchdowns on passes thrown twenty or more yards
Speaker 1: down the field, so the vertical attack was clicking on
Speaker 1: all cylinders for this Miami Dolphins offense. He was five
Speaker 1: of six for ninety five yards in the intermediate portion
Speaker 1: between eleven and twenty yards as well, so a big
Speaker 1: day there for read Senet. His pass catchers, Kirk Merritt
Speaker 1: produced seventy two yards on five targets and average ten
Speaker 1: point seven yacht yards per reception, and Malcolm Perry had
Speaker 1: six point eight average yards after catch on his four
Speaker 1: catches and produced sixty nine yards on those five targets. Defensively,
Speaker 1: four players had two pressures each. They were Jalen Phillips,
Speaker 1: Jonathan Ledbetter, Calvin Munson and Brennan Scarlett. Scarlett both of
Speaker 1: his pressures where QB hits and Phillips had the other
Speaker 1: quarterback hit of that group, and the fourth came from
Speaker 1: Duke Riley now lad Better in addition to his two pressures,
Speaker 1: also had two run stops, and Munson, in addition to
Speaker 1: his two pressures, had three run stops. Tyshan Render and
Speaker 1: Jamal Perry the safety tied Munson with three run stops
Speaker 1: for the team leads with Jamal Perry getting all kinds
Speaker 1: of action down around the line of scrimmage, making plays
Speaker 1: that way like we've grown to know and love from him.
Speaker 1: The last couple of years, No egg bonogamy allowed just
Speaker 1: twenty nine yards on seven past targets. A great number
Speaker 1: there for Igbo. And then how about Nick need him
Speaker 1: getting targeted just twice on forty one snaps. If you
Speaker 1: don't get targeted, that's kind of the name of the game.
Speaker 1: Don't let the quarterback see something he likes, make him
Speaker 1: go somewhere else. You do that three or four times
Speaker 1: in a play, you're gonna get yourself a cover sack.
Speaker 1: So Nick need him another very good game from him.
Speaker 1: And then finally Sam Ego Van had another pressure, another
Speaker 1: run stop, and a handful of tackles in this game
Speaker 1: as well. And that's we're gonna go ahead and call
Speaker 1: it on the podcast. But there's more. I want to
Speaker 1: continue to give you guys more from the post game show.
Speaker 1: Here is segment too from the post game show on
Speaker 1: five sixty w q AM with myself and Seth Levitt
Speaker 1: and o J mcduffee from the fish Tank podcast. Here
Speaker 1: part of the Miami Dolphins Podcast Network segment number two
Speaker 1: from the Sunday night recap show the postgame Show on
Speaker 1: w q AM, and we come back from this break,
Speaker 1: o J. We talked about this a lot throughout the
Speaker 1: course of the day because we're trying to put together
Speaker 1: a show here for a third and final preseason game,
Speaker 1: and this used to be kind of what you would
Speaker 1: see in the fourth preseason game, right where all the
Speaker 1: starters are in their ball caps and they've got the
Speaker 1: sunflower seeds. We talked about that already, but I was
Speaker 1: curious to get your take on this because we noticed
Speaker 1: some guys having some good play, some good moments, some
Speaker 1: guys having some not some good moments. And I kind
Speaker 1: of told you about some of these guys having really
Speaker 1: strong training camps. I wanted to get your take on
Speaker 1: this about how coaches or even the guys on the
Speaker 1: on the in the locker room, on the playing field
Speaker 1: will kind of way what they see in these exhibition
Speaker 1: games where it's only these four and now in this
Speaker 1: case three days out of the entire month, can paired
Speaker 1: to those twenty or maybe even your day the two
Speaker 1: days we have forty practices in the month of August. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I tell you what it's It's really interesting because you
Speaker 1: never know how a coach um you know, looks at
Speaker 1: evaluated player, but you do want to What you do
Speaker 1: want to see is you want to see if guys
Speaker 1: go out there and work hard and practice, but you
Speaker 1: also want to see if it translates and moves into
Speaker 1: a game situation, and sometimes it doesn't. Some guys. We'll
Speaker 1: see some guys that don't practice for crap, but then
Speaker 1: they go out there in their ballers on game day
Speaker 1: and vice versa. Which you don't want to be is
Speaker 1: a guy that really has great practices and then when
Speaker 1: the lights are on, you don't shine like you should
Speaker 1: and that you know you gotta be able to on
Speaker 1: game day is more important than anything obviously. So I men,
Speaker 1: you can show as much as you want a potential
Speaker 1: in practice, but really really counts, you know, when it's
Speaker 1: you know, we got the uniform with your name on
Speaker 1: the back of it, you know, and everybody's you know,
Speaker 1: there's no more like the defense is wearing awkwad, the
Speaker 1: offensive wearing white. You're on the same color. That's when
Speaker 1: it really needs to shine, man. So I feel bad
Speaker 1: for guys sometimes that you see them have great training amps,
Speaker 1: but then every single time they get an opportunity in
Speaker 1: the preseason games they don't shine or they get beat
Speaker 1: or they drop balls or whatever, man, Because I mean
Speaker 1: they're pressing, they are pressing, and I get it. It's
Speaker 1: their livelihood, their lives on the line, man. Their dream
Speaker 1: is on the line, what they grew up as a
Speaker 1: kid thinking about is on the line, man. So it
Speaker 1: is important to show in practice, but you also have
Speaker 1: to show that when game day comes and the lights
Speaker 1: are on, that you can be that same guy. It's
Speaker 1: the biggest high stakes business there is, really. I mean, guys,
Speaker 1: you talked about fighting for jobs coaches or players or
Speaker 1: otherwise high stake stuff, man. And you know, Seth, we
Speaker 1: talked about this a little bit as well, about this
Speaker 1: this third preseason game and the Dolphins kind of get
Speaker 1: here healthy, healthy, healthy enough I think to head into
Speaker 1: New England week one and we got out of it
Speaker 1: today with not really anything serious I think as far
Speaker 1: as injuries go. But what's your take on this as
Speaker 1: far as how the Dolphins kind of came into this
Speaker 1: preseason Because you know O J talks about it, I'm
Speaker 1: thinking about maybe in his time before the Twitter days,
Speaker 1: you didn't have the play by play Travis Wingfield training
Speaker 1: camp updates, you know, and you had only the three
Speaker 1: or four preseason games they go off of. But now
Speaker 1: you've got these daily camp reports, so fans are getting
Speaker 1: ahold of that. But back to the main point. You know,
Speaker 1: we saw a lot of teams around the league this
Speaker 1: week play a lot of their starters and main guys
Speaker 1: in this third game. What do you think of the
Speaker 1: Dolphins approach to really get the unload the clips, so
Speaker 1: to speak, in those first two games and the rest
Speaker 1: guys here in week number three. Yeah, Well, you know,
Speaker 1: going back to what you said and being a copycat league,
Speaker 1: it's kind of fascinating to to see every team did
Speaker 1: it a little bit differently, and so I think that
Speaker 1: was a little bit interesting, and it'll it'll be even
Speaker 1: more interesting to see how that develops from year to year.
Speaker 1: But uh, look at me trying to find something interesting
Speaker 1: here in the preseason. You know, I don't want to
Speaker 1: say you brought it all the way over to the
Speaker 1: dark side, Travis, but you know, look, and Juice was
Speaker 1: saying this after last game. I've seen enough of him.
Speaker 1: I've seen enough of him. Get him out of there.
Speaker 1: And I like what Coach did. And it was fun
Speaker 1: to see some of these younger guys. It really is.
Speaker 1: And we're gonna talk about this a little bit more later.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be hard to make this team. It's a
Speaker 1: harder This is a harder roster to make than it's
Speaker 1: been in a few years. And and so it was
Speaker 1: fun to see some of these guys get some extra work.
Speaker 1: There were some guys that we wanted to see and
Speaker 1: maybe some guys that we didn't see enough of. But
Speaker 1: I I agree with the approach, not that Coach Flores
Speaker 1: cares if I agree or not, but you know, why
Speaker 1: risk it especially there are some starters that have been
Speaker 1: banged up throughout camp, and I like that we have
Speaker 1: this extra time between the end of the preseason and
Speaker 1: the start of the regular season. It's a little bit
Speaker 1: different than what we're accustomed to and let these guys
Speaker 1: get healthy for when it matters most. Yeah, absolutely, and
Speaker 1: you know, and the little things. You know, it takes. Honestly,
Speaker 1: you get banged up early in the season or laden camp,
Speaker 1: it is a tough deal trying to get get back
Speaker 1: to health, you know, because you really need time, and
Speaker 1: there is no time in NFL. There's no you know,
Speaker 1: dirty day or sixty day dal like you get in
Speaker 1: baseball or you know, ten day you get maybe in
Speaker 1: basketball because they have eighty two or two games when
Speaker 1: there's only sixteen or seventeen games this year. Every single
Speaker 1: week is so critical. So if you get nicked early, man,
Speaker 1: it's a monster to deal with all year long. And
Speaker 1: nobody wants to be in the training room. Oh, all
Speaker 1: year long in the training room. Not anybody was going
Speaker 1: to make the team that morning, afternoon, evening. I remember
Speaker 1: when I got hurt late in my career, they were
Speaker 1: coming to my house for a fourth treatment. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: had the night treatments, man, something like damn. So yeah,
Speaker 1: getting banged up right now. And you said the best
Speaker 1: seth was best for these guys now was the amount
Speaker 1: of time they're gonna have between that opening game and
Speaker 1: some of the little injuries Travis are going to be
Speaker 1: able to get taken care of at least minimize as
Speaker 1: much as possible, because I'll have so much time to
Speaker 1: get that work in. Now. You take the on the
Speaker 1: on call, house call treatment nowadays, wouldn't you. I definitely would. Man.
Speaker 1: They're not sending it out, no, no, no, no, They're
Speaker 1: not coming knock at any one door these days anyway.
Speaker 1: But you know, I wanted to look at something here
Speaker 1: because around the league, we talked about this a little
Speaker 1: bit before coming on the air, that a couple of
Speaker 1: prominent running backs went down this preseason and they're gonna
Speaker 1: be lost for the entire year. And these young guys
Speaker 1: too are j K. Dobbins just yesterday lost for the
Speaker 1: entire season. Travis e t and the first round draft
Speaker 1: pick of the Jaguars. He's gone, and then Can Makers
Speaker 1: from the Rams. We see them replace him with a
Speaker 1: new running back they traded for and Sony Michelle from
Speaker 1: the Patriots. So I think it's a good thing the
Speaker 1: Dolphins were able to get to this point get their
Speaker 1: guys valuable work. It seemed like that rep count number,
Speaker 1: the match number was about seventy eight reps for some
Speaker 1: of these guys. I mean, we saw the first team
Speaker 1: offensive line play a good chunk of of the preseason.
Speaker 1: And you know, Seth, I think you talked about this
Speaker 1: in the previous segment. Penalties were low and the Dolphins
Speaker 1: larderst domination for every all of these games. And and
Speaker 1: you know we talked about this as well with how
Speaker 1: the Dolphins threes started the game against the Bengals ones
Speaker 1: and I think their two's on defense in this game.
Speaker 1: But Miami held their own against those guys. And so
Speaker 1: when they played Atlanta with our ones and their twos
Speaker 1: and threes, it was a rough shot, you know, run
Speaker 1: up and down the field. But they showed up today,
Speaker 1: didn't they? They really did. It was impressive to see
Speaker 1: and and look, some guys were saying our third team,
Speaker 1: but there's there's some decent players that were out there
Speaker 1: playing or some young guys that we have high expectations for,
Speaker 1: and uh, it was great to see. It was great
Speaker 1: to see the want to and it was great to see,
Speaker 1: like you said, that they could hold up against guys
Speaker 1: who are gonna have jobs they got, you know, they
Speaker 1: they're not just playing against other guys that that may
Speaker 1: not be playing in the NFL this season. So it
Speaker 1: was really great to see. And I love that you
Speaker 1: talked about the penalties or lack thereof, and it just
Speaker 1: you know, and Juice mentioned it too, that this is
Speaker 1: a Brian Flores coach team. I mean, this is something
Speaker 1: that's important to him. He does not like to give up.
Speaker 1: It's hard enough to stop offenses in this league or
Speaker 1: or you know, for your defense to to do the
Speaker 1: things that they need to do. But when you give
Speaker 1: up yards, when you give up yards and and you're
Speaker 1: just giving them away because you know, you're not disciplined,
Speaker 1: I imagine that's gotta be a tough pill to swallow
Speaker 1: for this coaching staff. And they don't have to swallow
Speaker 1: it too often. So it's really impressive that doesn't matter
Speaker 1: who's out there, that they that they understand those fundamentals, Juice,
Speaker 1: and that they stay disciplined. Cumulatively, in three games for
Speaker 1: the Dolphins this preseason, eleven penalties less than a hundred
Speaker 1: yards of penalty yards. So with with ninety guys, eighty
Speaker 1: guys in the roster, you think you'd have more procedural
Speaker 1: penalties or just things things that you've got to iron out.
Speaker 1: Communication kinks I tweeted out this a practice the day
Speaker 1: they had a snap that the Dolphins lined up and
Speaker 1: put the crowd noise on for the first rep of
Speaker 1: practice and the snap would flying over to his head.
Speaker 1: And I tweeted about it, and fans were telling me
Speaker 1: terrible sign. I said, no, it's not terrible sign. Get
Speaker 1: it out right now, it's just to right, not right, juice,
Speaker 1: Like this is the time of the year where you
Speaker 1: kind of iron some of these things out. Yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: you know. And I remember when when coach Flow first
Speaker 1: got here. I remember that wall, the T N T wall.
Speaker 1: It takes no talent. That's one of those things that
Speaker 1: takes no talent to stay on side. You know. Notice
Speaker 1: snap count you know, um, you know, just things like that,
Speaker 1: the little penalties that kill you, put you behind the sticks.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you're right, man, crowd noises. I used to
Speaker 1: love the crowd noise part of everything. Man, that was
Speaker 1: so much fun that even you know, see what they're
Speaker 1: pumping it. It made no sense, didn't sign get any
Speaker 1: crowd I ever played against, they're playing that, you know.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, though, you know, when you're
Speaker 1: looking at going on the road for that first game
Speaker 1: and it's going to be loud, especially in the third
Speaker 1: down or tough tough down situations, get that out of
Speaker 1: the way, is right. Get all that stuff out of
Speaker 1: the way and work it. You're not gonna just show
Speaker 1: up on Sunday and be able to handle that sort
Speaker 1: of thing. So get it out of the way and
Speaker 1: practice right now. No matter how many veterans you have
Speaker 1: or guys have done it before, you know, you still
Speaker 1: have to work all those different situations. I'm starting to
Speaker 1: help coach like high school football team right now, and
Speaker 1: I'm amazed at how little they do in terms of
Speaker 1: those little things. But I said, look, I watched the
Speaker 1: pros practice. They do so many of the little things
Speaker 1: over and over and over again, so it's like second nature.
Speaker 1: And I said, at this level, we have to do
Speaker 1: it in high school for sure, but to see the
Speaker 1: pros doing practice that stuff over and over again, because
Speaker 1: it becomes second nature and you don't have to worry
Speaker 1: about those things moving forward. If you you're a big body,
Speaker 1: language guy, for for coach and anybody that does press
Speaker 1: conference as you like to pick up on that stuff.
Speaker 1: I had a question for him once, and anytime you
Speaker 1: ask coach a question for me personally, I'm always hoping
Speaker 1: I get that like that twinkling his eye where he
Speaker 1: realizes that's a good question and it gives me a
Speaker 1: good answer. Do you think you're batting averages on that?
Speaker 1: I hope. I'm hoping half and half would be good.
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm about in that range. But this one,
Speaker 1: we're for Chicago and it's a makeshift press room for
Speaker 1: for me and a couple other of the beat guys.
Speaker 1: And I asked him a question about what do you
Speaker 1: change up on these joint practices? And I could see
Speaker 1: hit the look in his eye when I said what
Speaker 1: do you change up? And he was like, Travis, we
Speaker 1: do fundamentals, we do techniques, we do alignment, assignment, we execute. Now.
Speaker 1: I was just like, all right, yeah, I learned my
Speaker 1: lesson there from Coach. So they, like you said, they
Speaker 1: practice it and they executed us. Yeah. I mean, and
Speaker 1: it shows it shows in the results. I mean that
Speaker 1: that's really what it is. And if we've seen nothing
Speaker 1: from Brian Flores in two seasons plus one preseason. It's
Speaker 1: he is a consistent individual who has he has his process.
Speaker 1: You know, we hear trust the process. Trust the process.
Speaker 1: I think at this point we have to. You know,
Speaker 1: he's done nothing but improved this team, this roster. Uh,
Speaker 1: every year, every day that's been you know that that's
Speaker 1: been his mantra. And in all those little things that's
Speaker 1: that could be what one, two, three wins a season, juice,
Speaker 1: that could be you know, a few points of game.
Speaker 1: All those little pieces matter. Yes, you need to have
Speaker 1: the best players. Yes, you need to hit the home
Speaker 1: runs we tell talk about all the time, you know,
Speaker 1: and the things you need to do and improve the roster.
Speaker 1: Have a great game plan, but you can't give away yards,
Speaker 1: points and ultimately games because you're not fundamentally sound or
Speaker 1: you're undisciplined. And there you have it. Our segment from
Speaker 1: the postgame show on five sixty w q A M.
Speaker 1: I highly encourage all of you other to go check
Speaker 1: it out after the game. We're gonna be back with
Speaker 1: you after the Patriots game up in New England. Seth
Speaker 1: O j M myself from the fish Tank podcast. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, that's gonna be my time, Caroline. Daddy is
Speaker 1: coming home you all. Please be sure to subscribe to
Speaker 1: the podcast on Apple Podcasts. Leave us a rating, leave
Speaker 1: us a review. You can follow me on Twitter at
Speaker 1: Wink NFL team at Myamia Dolphins, and of course do
Speaker 1: not get to check out the fish Tank Podcast Jeff
Speaker 1: Darlington their latest guest. You do not want to miss that.
Speaker 1: Ed Corse my Handy dolphins dot com until next time
Speaker 1: finds up