Speaker 1: That's looking down field, touchdown, Miami que drawn. What is up? Dolphins?
Speaker 1: And welcome to the Drivetime Podcast, part of the Miami
Speaker 1: Dolphins podcast network, covering your team, your Miami Dolphins. How's
Speaker 1: it going everybody? I am your host, Travis Wingfield, and
Speaker 1: I'm here to bring you your daily dose of Miami
Speaker 1: Dolphins football. And on today's show, it's a deep dive Wednesday.
Speaker 1: We're gonna look at the money down, third down and
Speaker 1: also resilience in the face of adversity and will quantify
Speaker 1: Christian Wilkins third season production. Plus we'll play a segment
Speaker 1: from the post game show if we have time, and
Speaker 1: we'll hear from the coordinators and their Tuesday media availability
Speaker 1: from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
Speaker 1: This is the Drivetime podcastamipice. We are presented by Auto
Speaker 1: Nation and we're gonna dive right into this story that
Speaker 1: I wrote from Miami Dolphins dot Com on the top
Speaker 1: news story on Tuesday. We do top News every Tuesday
Speaker 1: and Friday here on Miami Dolphins dot Com, and usually
Speaker 1: the Tuesday piece kind of coincides with the podcast and
Speaker 1: gives us a chance to look at something outside the
Speaker 1: framework of what happened in the previous game or the
Speaker 1: upcoming game and just kind of give us a general
Speaker 1: bird's eye view of something that I personally find interesting.
Speaker 1: If you ever have any ideas for the deep Dive
Speaker 1: Wednesday that you want me to look into, send me
Speaker 1: your ideas on Twitter at Wingfield NFL and I'll see
Speaker 1: what you guys got and see if it jives with
Speaker 1: what I want to do for the podcast. But you
Speaker 1: guys are the podcast as well, so I want to
Speaker 1: hear from you and get your input on this. But
Speaker 1: today we're talking about third down and it's called the
Speaker 1: money down for a reason. The outcomes of third downs
Speaker 1: have the third biggest swing and win probability than any
Speaker 1: play in football. The other two, of course turnovers and
Speaker 1: scoring plays. But turnovers and scoring plays makeup for eight
Speaker 1: nine ten plays a game, where third down snaps are
Speaker 1: roughly thirty place per game on average. It's a sixty
Speaker 1: minute collection on those third down plays of these mini
Speaker 1: battles within the game to determine the ultimate victor of
Speaker 1: the quote unquote war. And I hate using war as
Speaker 1: an analogy and football, but you get what I'm saying. Thus,
Speaker 1: the money down where players and coaches really earned their salt,
Speaker 1: where complementary football is magnified. You convert on third down.
Speaker 1: That helps keep the defense fresh, It helps keep your
Speaker 1: special teams kind of gearing up, ready to go. It
Speaker 1: just helps everything. And defensively, it gets your punt return
Speaker 1: team on the field, It gets your offense ready and
Speaker 1: back on the field for the ensuing drive. So it's
Speaker 1: very complimentary when you can execute on third down, both
Speaker 1: offensively and defensively. Now, not been our year defensively in
Speaker 1: this regard. Last year certainly was, and you saw the
Speaker 1: impact that had and how Miami was able to become
Speaker 1: victorious and ten of their sixteen football games due large
Speaker 1: part to the defense finding a way to get so
Speaker 1: many stops on the third down. We we had games
Speaker 1: last year where the opposed the opposition had like one
Speaker 1: or two conversions. I'm thinking about the Jets game for instance.
Speaker 1: I think it took him to the fourth quarter to
Speaker 1: convert a third down, and a couple of those games
Speaker 1: against the Jets last year. But back to the offense,
Speaker 1: Miami's third down production this year has increased exponentially over
Speaker 1: the last two weeks, from thirty five point four percent
Speaker 1: in weeks one through five, up to sixty four point
Speaker 1: three percent in weeks six and seven. So I asked
Speaker 1: coach Eric Studisville, the co offensive coordinator here in Miami,
Speaker 1: about the uptick. And no, this is not erlick Bachman
Speaker 1: taking the uptick from Jared's indiscretions, going behind Richard's back
Speaker 1: to pay for a click farm to give them the uptick.
Speaker 1: We're talking about real substantial production here. So I asked
Speaker 1: coach about the uptick and what they can attribute to
Speaker 1: that production. Here is Coach Studisville on Miami's increased third
Speaker 1: down performance the last couple of weeks. Well, I hope
Speaker 1: it's an increased emphasis in it, you know, which we're
Speaker 1: talking about all the time. You know, coach talks about
Speaker 1: that with the team, that that's an important situational football
Speaker 1: um parameter for us to address. So we constantly talk
Speaker 1: about that, He talks about it, he addresses it. We
Speaker 1: spend a lot of time on third down talking about
Speaker 1: what we want to execute, how we want to do
Speaker 1: things on third down. And I think then it goes
Speaker 1: it becomes a credit to the players where they're studying
Speaker 1: and buying in and they're executing then when we call
Speaker 1: those things. So I think it's a it's a whole
Speaker 1: philosophy that starts with flow all the way down to
Speaker 1: everybody that, hey, we understand the importance of that third
Speaker 1: down situation and we have to be better to be
Speaker 1: able to stay on the field to get more plays
Speaker 1: to continue drives. So there you go. You have them
Speaker 1: talking about the complementary aspect. They're staying on the field,
Speaker 1: helps your defense, helps your special teams. When you can
Speaker 1: do that as an offense, if you have the football,
Speaker 1: they're not going to put points in the board, right
Speaker 1: unless they pick six or scoop and score you. But
Speaker 1: how often does that happen? So, and just a quick
Speaker 1: aside here on that coach Studentsville commentary. He also was
Speaker 1: asked about the running game, and he talks about how
Speaker 1: they want to be efficient and effective, and he complimented
Speaker 1: the offensive line and the tight ends. But where I
Speaker 1: found coaches comments interesting as he talked about the running
Speaker 1: back position, how at times he thought they ran it well,
Speaker 1: but he thought it was too inconsistent and guys missing cuts,
Speaker 1: are missing gaps and leaving me on the bone. In
Speaker 1: the running game, we talked about the four Smiths tackles
Speaker 1: in the yards after contact average here on the podcast
Speaker 1: every single Tuesday when we do the PFF and next
Speaker 1: Gen stats rundown and yeah, I mean the numbers, back
Speaker 1: up the film and back up what coach says. They're
Speaker 1: about how I do believe there are more yards to
Speaker 1: be had in the running game from the running back.
Speaker 1: So interesting comment there. But back to the third down
Speaker 1: conversion stuff. That third down conversion rate in weeks six
Speaker 1: and seven ranks second in the National Football League over
Speaker 1: that span among teams who played two games. There's a
Speaker 1: couple of teams. I think the Jets and the Bills
Speaker 1: are ahead of Miami, but they both played one game
Speaker 1: over that stretch of time. In terms of the two
Speaker 1: weeks span, Arizona is the only team that has a
Speaker 1: better third down conversion rate among teams that played both
Speaker 1: weeks then Miami and quarterback to a Tonga, Bloa has
Speaker 1: been especially sharp on the money down. He's completed sixteen
Speaker 1: of twenty three third down passes for one hundred and
Speaker 1: seventy three yards, a touchdown pass and thirteen total conversions,
Speaker 1: two of those with his legs. Since he came back
Speaker 1: off the injured reserve, and the average distance to gain
Speaker 1: on those third downs it's not cheap seven point two yards.
Speaker 1: So thirteen conversions out of twenty three from the quarterback
Speaker 1: position with an average of seven point two yards. That
Speaker 1: takes away your third and one conversion from Jacobe Brissette.
Speaker 1: I think there was a third and one conversion from
Speaker 1: Malcolm Brown two weeks ago. There was a third and
Speaker 1: two conversion from Savan Akhmed this week. So strictly in
Speaker 1: the passing numbers, that's what you get. Seven point two
Speaker 1: yards to go and you're over fifty percent. If you
Speaker 1: look at league averages, third and seven or longer is
Speaker 1: well below So to A playing about fifteen percent above
Speaker 1: board with third down conversions over the last two weeks
Speaker 1: compared to the average across the league based upon distance
Speaker 1: to gain, was that way too much info? I hope
Speaker 1: it made sense. Other teams convert third and seven plus
Speaker 1: or the average in the NFL, and third seven plus
Speaker 1: is about the last two weeks from Miami. The passing game,
Speaker 1: third and seven plus about fifty five, So not a
Speaker 1: bad place to be. And so I wanted to go
Speaker 1: through and chart all those dropbacks from two A Toungo
Speaker 1: Byaloa twenty three in total here, and I charted the
Speaker 1: result of all of them when there was a pressure,
Speaker 1: a hurry, or a hit, whether the pass was completed,
Speaker 1: whether or not they converted the first down, and how
Speaker 1: many yards they had to gain. I'm not going to
Speaker 1: go through the results of all twenty three individual plays there,
Speaker 1: but I'll give you the cumulative results here. Fifteen total
Speaker 1: pressures on those twenty three dropbacks. No sacks, so that's great,
Speaker 1: No third down sacks. Six QB hits on the twenty
Speaker 1: three drop backs, so one of every four he gets hit,
Speaker 1: and about oh gosh, math um a little over half
Speaker 1: the time he's pressured. So when he's pressured, he's nine
Speaker 1: for twelve on these third down looks and eight for
Speaker 1: fifteen conversion because the three rush attempts two of them
Speaker 1: were converted, one of them was not. But eight for
Speaker 1: fifteen with an average distance of six point to two yards.
Speaker 1: That's right about in that four conversion range right across
Speaker 1: the league, and the Dolphins are over once again in
Speaker 1: that regard. When he's not pressured, five for eight completion,
Speaker 1: four for eight conversions. Now that's only fifty percent obviously,
Speaker 1: but the average distance seven point five yards, so once
Speaker 1: again well above board as far as average conversion right
Speaker 1: across the National Football League. And then when the uh
Speaker 1: when when he's hit when he's hit back there, Sorry,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to read some stuff here in numbers, and
Speaker 1: it doesn't go very well for your boy when I
Speaker 1: do both those things together. But four for seven converting
Speaker 1: when he's hit on third downs with an average distance
Speaker 1: of six point one four yards, So it's been good
Speaker 1: regardless of distance to gain. If the early down success
Speaker 1: is not there, they still have a fighting chance to convert.
Speaker 1: And this goes back to what we talked about all
Speaker 1: the time right on this podcast locked on Dolphins and
Speaker 1: everything I've done in my football career so far, or
Speaker 1: I guess media football analysts career. Every time you watch
Speaker 1: a quarterback the most, if you're trying to evaluate the
Speaker 1: town on the tape, you look at the real you
Speaker 1: look at his third and six plus And what I
Speaker 1: just told you is that third and six pluses went
Speaker 1: two has kind of been at his best. On top
Speaker 1: of the fact that we don't really talk about him
Speaker 1: ever missing layups. So those two things working together, to
Speaker 1: me paint a very positive picture, and to kind of
Speaker 1: piggyback off that point, what is third and long. It's adversity, right,
Speaker 1: It's a tough situation. The team has to put their
Speaker 1: best forward for their best foot forward to get a completion,
Speaker 1: to get a conversion, and keep their offense on the field.
Speaker 1: It's the big moment in the game that requires your
Speaker 1: focus and execution in a difficult spot. And so I
Speaker 1: wanted to look at some of the factors that contribute
Speaker 1: to being a resilient player or team and the I
Speaker 1: was looking at the volatility of third down production as
Speaker 1: one of the key factors for teams across the league
Speaker 1: that contributes to the ups and downs of an NFL season,
Speaker 1: because every team has them for the most part, right
Speaker 1: like even the Chiefs right now. Personally, I would never
Speaker 1: worry if I was the Chiefs with Patrick Mahomes and
Speaker 1: the skill players they have on offense, regardless of how
Speaker 1: the defense is playing, regardless of how you know protection
Speaker 1: can have breakdowns, whatever the case may be. I just
Speaker 1: wouldn't worry about it because I think I know they're
Speaker 1: gonna be okay come January. But look at the value
Speaker 1: there and right now compared to the peaks they've been
Speaker 1: enjoying all the Patrick Mahomes era. It's true for every team.
Speaker 1: Every Super Bowl champion can look back to a certain
Speaker 1: stretch of the season where they were not thought of
Speaker 1: as a Super Bowl team at that time. Go back
Speaker 1: to the Bucks last year a perfect example of that.
Speaker 1: Or a lot of the Patriots rings, even I mean
Speaker 1: some of them were dominant throughout, but some of the
Speaker 1: Patriots rings you look back and it's like they had
Speaker 1: some struggles there at certain moments of the season. Like there,
Speaker 1: I think their second ring in two thousand three was
Speaker 1: the famous Lawyer Malloy release, and then he goes to
Speaker 1: Buffalo and they beat him by the thirty four points
Speaker 1: on opening Day, and then New England lost like one
Speaker 1: more game the rest of the way. The point is
Speaker 1: you're gonna have peaks and valleys in the season, and
Speaker 1: one of the biggest contributing factors to that is your
Speaker 1: third down conversion rate. So I looked at a team
Speaker 1: who has the most unique four week experience in the
Speaker 1: National Football League right now, the Tennessee Titans, who over
Speaker 1: that four weeks span they've had a buyer. They beat
Speaker 1: the Jacksonville Jaguars in there, but they beat the Chiefs
Speaker 1: and the Bills and lost to the New York Jets,
Speaker 1: who are one in six but taking out both of
Speaker 1: last year's AFC Championship contender or representatives. And the biggest
Speaker 1: difference their third down production. They were twelve for twenty
Speaker 1: five on third downs and the two victories and just
Speaker 1: five for nineteen and the loss to the Jets, so
Speaker 1: more than double their production there on third downs. So
Speaker 1: you consider the perception of the Titans in the eyes
Speaker 1: of fans and media and public and you know, national
Speaker 1: perception after that Week five loss that this team can't
Speaker 1: go anywhere, right because they lost to a bad football team.
Speaker 1: But the only way to flip that script was to
Speaker 1: perform against that adversity and just basically say, we don't
Speaker 1: care what your power rankings, what you're talking points on
Speaker 1: talk shows are. We have to go out and accomplish
Speaker 1: on the football field what we think is true that
Speaker 1: we are a contender. And they did beat Kansas City
Speaker 1: and Buffalo, And that brings us back to the where
Speaker 1: the tangent takes us back to Miami, who have endured
Speaker 1: plenty of in game affliction this season, but have responded
Speaker 1: to give the team an opportunity to snatch victory, even
Speaker 1: though they did not snatch said victory. The roadblock from
Speaker 1: Miami these last two weeks has been the turnover and
Speaker 1: to stretch it further, including the Week one interception to
Speaker 1: a tongue of Blowa has been picked off three times
Speaker 1: in the second half this season. Three of his four
Speaker 1: picks have been in the second half of games, and
Speaker 1: head coach Brian Flores said he likes the way his
Speaker 1: quarterback in this particular question. Durham Smyth as well responded
Speaker 1: to the turnover on Sunday against Atlanta, and we played
Speaker 1: it on the show for you yesterday, so I won't
Speaker 1: play it again, but I'll tell you what he said.
Speaker 1: He says he thinks two of wishes he had that
Speaker 1: one back, and Durham does as well. But when you
Speaker 1: look at it that way, there are some other places
Speaker 1: we could have gone with the football. What I like
Speaker 1: most about that was Towah's response, Durham's response and being
Speaker 1: able to turn it around and create some positive plays
Speaker 1: after that mishap. End quote following the three second half
Speaker 1: interceptions this season, and this came from at vbs uh
Speaker 1: Sports on Twitter I believe was his name. Tongue of
Speaker 1: Vloa has completed twenty one of twenty four passes for
Speaker 1: two forty six yards, three touchdowns and a passer rating
Speaker 1: of one after the pick in the second half in
Speaker 1: three games, and the three passes that were incomplete were
Speaker 1: drops from Pro Football Focus what I mean. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: while the turnaround hasn't impacted the wind column, it's a
Speaker 1: positive sign moving forward. And one more stat before I
Speaker 1: flipped over to the other side of the football and
Speaker 1: talk some defense here, I saw Chris Kaufman. You guys
Speaker 1: know who he is. Pulled us up. He's at C
Speaker 1: K Parrott on Twitter. He did a stat head search,
Speaker 1: which is what I used also, so good company there
Speaker 1: to find out the Tongue of Bola was the highest
Speaker 1: rated passer in the fourth quarter in the NFL from
Speaker 1: two thousand twenty one current date minimum nine attempts. So
Speaker 1: any quarterback that has a decent chunk of sample size
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter over the last how many years
Speaker 1: is that? Oh? For fourteen twenty seven years two as
Speaker 1: the highest passer rating of any ever other quarterbacks ever
Speaker 1: played in that stretch in the fourth quarter with minimum
Speaker 1: ninety attempts, it's one eleven point six. It's an eight
Speaker 1: yards per attempt average, and his a n y average,
Speaker 1: which is any play that includes sacks and passes seven
Speaker 1: point nine yards per play in the fourth quarter when
Speaker 1: two was under center and taking snaps to throw the
Speaker 1: football or to scramble, seventy eight point five percent completion,
Speaker 1: seven touchdowns, three picks, and just three sacks on a
Speaker 1: dred and eight team plays for negative twenty yards. So
Speaker 1: that's why you're You're any average play yards per play
Speaker 1: comes up like that, not a bad stat to hang
Speaker 1: your hat on their fourth quarter production. It's where games
Speaker 1: are one and lost. On the other side of the ball.
Speaker 1: There are some signs of progress as well, like the
Speaker 1: trajectory of Christian Wilkins career, durable, dependable, versatile defensive lineman
Speaker 1: who play as hard as anybody in the league and
Speaker 1: creates chances for his teammates. Now the counting stats, which
Speaker 1: I'm not crazy about using those without context, but contextually
Speaker 1: it matches the film. The counting stats are now there
Speaker 1: too to match up what he's been doing for this
Speaker 1: team for three years now. So I asked Josh Boyer
Speaker 1: what difference in his game. Do you see that has
Speaker 1: caused the uptick in the statistical production for Christian Wilkins.
Speaker 1: Here's coach, Well, I think Christians always played with great effort.
Speaker 1: I think it it starts with that. And uh, I
Speaker 1: think he's doing, uh, you know, a good job of
Speaker 1: working on his fundamentals and his techniques to put himself
Speaker 1: in position to make plays. And then when he does
Speaker 1: and when he has opportunities, he's been able to make
Speaker 1: those plays. So I think that's kind of a byproduct
Speaker 1: of him knowing and understanding the system a little bit
Speaker 1: better him No. One and understanding his techniques and fundamentals
Speaker 1: a little bit better. And you know, and also when
Speaker 1: when you know those things, you know when you can
Speaker 1: take chances that are probably going to be in your favor.
Speaker 1: And I think he's done it very well. I have
Speaker 1: so many takes off of that answer from coach, which
Speaker 1: was great, by the way, I thought from Coach Boyer there.
Speaker 1: But we talked on the podcast yesterday about the scanning
Speaker 1: the social segment about players kind of hitting that second,
Speaker 1: third and fourth year and that's when their play begins
Speaker 1: to really start to take off after you know X
Speaker 1: amount of games, Mike Kasiki, you know, twenty four games
Speaker 1: in his career, has a ninety four yard game and
Speaker 1: then starts scoring touchdowns or having eight yards or like
Speaker 1: every other week. He's doing this after twenty four games
Speaker 1: of you know, three and four catches for forty yards
Speaker 1: on average throughout the course of his career. Xavian Howard
Speaker 1: midway through his second year as a pro, just starts
Speaker 1: picking off everybody and then turns into that for the
Speaker 1: rest of his career. I don't have to go over
Speaker 1: them all again. You heard it on yesterday's podcast. You've
Speaker 1: heard it several times from me. But what does that
Speaker 1: tell you? I mean, what is Peyton Manning on the
Speaker 1: paint and Eli broadcast telling you how much he hates
Speaker 1: learning a new system because you just don't have that
Speaker 1: natural reactionary feel to the system to know. If I'm
Speaker 1: looking front side here and I don't have that, the
Speaker 1: picture I see tells me what I have on the
Speaker 1: back side, and I can get to it without thinking.
Speaker 1: I can just feel it, let that thing rip. So
Speaker 1: it works for quarterbacks. You heard coach with the telling
Speaker 1: tell you about how it works for defensive tackles, Like
Speaker 1: when I watch the tape on defensive line, and I'm
Speaker 1: always kind of intrigued, like, how do you like when
Speaker 1: they fire off the snap? You have to like shock
Speaker 1: the guy, you have to be able to peak the
Speaker 1: running back. Like there's so much going on that if
Speaker 1: you don't play reactionary style football, you have no chance
Speaker 1: to succeed. And so when you hear him talk about
Speaker 1: Christian really developing those fundamentals and technique and really trusting
Speaker 1: in them and them kind of becoming second nature, then
Speaker 1: he can maybe take a chance on, you know, jumping
Speaker 1: a gap or whatever the case may be. And I
Speaker 1: think you're seeing that that play out. I think there's
Speaker 1: so much to learn from that with regards to how
Speaker 1: guys can progress in their career. And it's evident to me.
Speaker 1: It's it's evident that you just need to give guys
Speaker 1: time sometimes to develop. It's not gonna happen overnight. When
Speaker 1: it does, great, it's fantastic. A couple of guys do
Speaker 1: it every single year, but it's an only a couple
Speaker 1: of guys. But what I'm most concerned about is how
Speaker 1: their longevity and sustainability and consistency can be not just
Speaker 1: throughout the rookie contract, but into that second contract, which
Speaker 1: if they perform and produce and develop the way you
Speaker 1: want them to, they then earn that. And I think
Speaker 1: you've seen that with so many players here that it
Speaker 1: makes me ask the question, why are you so impatient
Speaker 1: with others? And I'm just talking, you know, kind of
Speaker 1: little pining to the masses out there. Why would you
Speaker 1: question the development of others when you've seen it works
Speaker 1: so many times with other guys on the roster here.
Speaker 1: So that's kind of my thought. And back to the
Speaker 1: effort of Christian Wilkins. It was evident on the first quarter,
Speaker 1: or on a first quarter play in the game on Sunday.
Speaker 1: Screen passes in the NFL or football in general are
Speaker 1: said to be defensive ends plays. It measures their motors
Speaker 1: to get up the field, chase the quarterback, only to
Speaker 1: retrace back outside and then flag down the receiver. Now
Speaker 1: on this um, wasn't Calvin Ridley, was Russell gauge reception.
Speaker 1: Wilkins retraces outside, then retraces back inside and helps finish
Speaker 1: off the ball carrier by landing on the pile there
Speaker 1: after the fact or you know, as he's going down
Speaker 1: he puts the last hit there on Russell gauge, and
Speaker 1: I say defense events to make a point that it's
Speaker 1: even more impressive when a defensive tackle does it. So
Speaker 1: Christian to get out there and do that. I put
Speaker 1: the video up on Twitter, so go check it out
Speaker 1: if you haven't seen it already. But just fantastic hustle, effort,
Speaker 1: effort play there from Christian Wilkins, which has always been there,
Speaker 1: but so too. Now are the counting stats. He has
Speaker 1: two secs, He has six QB hits, He has four
Speaker 1: tackles for loss and thirty three total tackles, which pro
Speaker 1: rates over a seventeen game schedule to five sacks, fifteen
Speaker 1: quarterback hits, ten tackles for loss, eighty eighty total tackles,
Speaker 1: and all of those numbers would obliterate wilkins previous career
Speaker 1: best marks. All right, those are my deep dives. We
Speaker 1: heard from the Dolphins coordinators today as well. So I
Speaker 1: want to go ahead and play a few of those
Speaker 1: highlights before we get out of here, and we'll see
Speaker 1: if we have time for a post game show segment
Speaker 1: for you guys on the backside. Let's go ahead and
Speaker 1: start here with Josh Boyer, and you guys know I've
Speaker 1: been impressed with Javon Hollands play, and he's been playing
Speaker 1: a lot of ball the last couple of weekscent of
Speaker 1: the snaps. The last two weeks, I asked coach, what's
Speaker 1: your take on on rookie Javon Hall And here's coach. Yeah. Again,
Speaker 1: I think it starts with Javon from day one. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's come in, he's worked extremely hard, he loves football. Uh,
Speaker 1: he loves the process he's working at, Uh you know,
Speaker 1: better understanding, um you know, how he fits in the
Speaker 1: scheme and the multiple things that he can do. And
Speaker 1: I think, uh, you know, we're seeing that that growth
Speaker 1: and um you know, hopefully that that will continue for us.
Speaker 1: Um you know, and uh, he definitely has some playmaking
Speaker 1: ability and um you know, and again it's our job
Speaker 1: to try to put him in spots where where where
Speaker 1: he can make those plays. So one more question here
Speaker 1: for coach Boyer from yours. Truly, I wanted to ask
Speaker 1: him about how you dictate matchups and how you adjust
Speaker 1: to matchups throughout the course of the game, because we
Speaker 1: saw Kyle Pitts draw multiple different defenders in this game
Speaker 1: and obviously was the guy that you kind of want
Speaker 1: to focus on on the Falcon's office is to try
Speaker 1: to minimize what he can do. So I asked coach
Speaker 1: about the process of pre game matchup determining and then
Speaker 1: in game adjustments and how you make those terminations in
Speaker 1: the process for getting to those determinations. So I asked coach,
Speaker 1: Here's coach. Well, yeah, I mean, I think we're very
Speaker 1: aware of matchups going in and uh, you know, we
Speaker 1: always have contingency plans if if it doesn't go the way, um,
Speaker 1: you know, if it's not going in our favor, and um,
Speaker 1: you know again Atlanta, you know, like Arthur Smith does
Speaker 1: a great job with his scheme and has you know,
Speaker 1: you know, tend to twelve different personnel groupings where they
Speaker 1: can move guys all around. So it makes it a
Speaker 1: little bit hard saying Okay, we're gonna put this guy
Speaker 1: here in this set or this guy in here, because
Speaker 1: then it could give you a bad matchup somewhere else
Speaker 1: that you're not really um, you know, fired up about.
Speaker 1: But uh, you know, obviously, um, you know, Pitts is
Speaker 1: a good player. He's improven, and you know, I think
Speaker 1: I think he is a bright future in this league.
Speaker 1: Definitely has a bright future. One more question here for
Speaker 1: Coach Crossman, the Dolphins special teams coordinator, who I asked
Speaker 1: about the block field goal. Just said, you know, you
Speaker 1: run this formation all the time and you don't see
Speaker 1: a lot of blocks when they have. And I'm just
Speaker 1: curious from your expertise, because again, special team is not
Speaker 1: my area of expertise, not that any of this is,
Speaker 1: but definitely less so than offense and defense. Just wanted
Speaker 1: to ask coach educate me what happened on that play,
Speaker 1: and just real quick before I play it. I kind
Speaker 1: of stumbled over the question to him, so I asked
Speaker 1: him about what you wanted to get accomplished. You didn't
Speaker 1: get accomplished. You're gonna hear him talk about scoring points.
Speaker 1: So that's my bad for asking the question that way.
Speaker 1: But here's Coach Crossman. I'll answer it in two parts.
Speaker 1: Number one, the goal is to score, you know, and
Speaker 1: the way we teach it, you know, that's the one
Speaker 1: playing football where it's sole purpose is to score points.
Speaker 1: Every other play has whether it's you know one offensive
Speaker 1: defense ors or strengths weaknesses to it, or that play
Speaker 1: is to score points. And we didn't get that done.
Speaker 1: And it was strictly a matter of about poor technique.
Speaker 1: We've got to make sure we're sound with our technique
Speaker 1: and fundamentals in every play, and we didn't get it
Speaker 1: done there and we paid the consequence. Yep, you gotta
Speaker 1: go ahead and make those blocks. We're gonna kick those
Speaker 1: field goals and be successful on those particular plays. So
Speaker 1: good stuff there from the Dolphins coaches. Very educational and
Speaker 1: always will take advantage of the opportunity to talk to
Speaker 1: those guys trying to learn more football and relay it
Speaker 1: to you guys here on the Drive Time Podcast. Let's
Speaker 1: go ahead and get out of here on this Wednesday
Speaker 1: edition of the Drive Time Podcast. You all please be
Speaker 1: sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcast, Spotify, Stitcher,
Speaker 1: tuned in. We're eevery to get your podcast from Go
Speaker 1: ahead and leave us a rating, leave us a review.
Speaker 1: It's all I ask of you on this free podcast
Speaker 1: to help us grow up those charts and get more
Speaker 1: exposure to more Dolphins fans out there. Follow me on
Speaker 1: Twitter at Wingfield NFL. Follow the team at Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 1: Check out the Fish Tank podcast. Jay Williams episode is
Speaker 1: out right now. You can check out the media availabilities
Speaker 1: on YouTube, the Mimi Dolphins channel and of course Miami
Speaker 1: Dolphins dot Com, my written content and all the other
Speaker 1: content on a football team until next time. Fins up, Caroline,
Speaker 1: He's coming out, and guys, I want to pick it
Speaker 1: right back up. Or We left off the end of
Speaker 1: that last segment there because we were starting to get
Speaker 1: cranking there and we had to go to the break.
Speaker 1: But I want to go back into two as press
Speaker 1: conference here because there was so much meat on the
Speaker 1: bone that we didn't quite cover yet. Jews talked about
Speaker 1: the Big Boy League and the idea of all these
Speaker 1: trade rumors. I mean, here we are, Seth, you talked
Speaker 1: about a game thirteen, and he's at the press conference
Speaker 1: post game after a gut gut wrenching loss and a
Speaker 1: great performance, and he's talking about outside noise and juice.
Speaker 1: I don't want to, you know, go into the rumors
Speaker 1: or anything like that, but I want to ask you about,
Speaker 1: as a player in the Big Boy League, mentality distractions,
Speaker 1: like where do they actually come into play, where do
Speaker 1: they actually start to impact a team or a player,
Speaker 1: Just from your perspective, can you give us some insight
Speaker 1: on that? Well, you know, think about it. Man, it's
Speaker 1: it's I played in a different world when it comes
Speaker 1: to the outside distractions, you know, when it comes to
Speaker 1: social media and Twitter and all that stuff. You know,
Speaker 1: it wasn't as prevalent when when I was playing in
Speaker 1: big you know, that's a big word like, man, that's
Speaker 1: prevalent um. It's it's tough. It really is tough. But
Speaker 1: these guys have to have but you know, thick skin,
Speaker 1: because think about it, to a play at the highest
Speaker 1: level football. I can't imagine the pressure he had playing,
Speaker 1: you know, at Bama, playing for Nick Saban and all
Speaker 1: the big games he had to play in, and all
Speaker 1: the different situations of guys coming in the Jalen hurts
Speaker 1: being there at one point, you know, and then taking
Speaker 1: this place. It's all kinds of opper all kinds of
Speaker 1: times when there's a lot of outside noise and a
Speaker 1: lot of outside pressure. And so when you get to
Speaker 1: this level, it doesn't change. It's just it's just ramped
Speaker 1: up a little bit. But they've been in those situations before.
Speaker 1: He didn't go to some small college you know that's
Speaker 1: in you know, central Ohio somewhere, you know, So I
Speaker 1: get it, and I think what what most players should
Speaker 1: do when they hear the outside noise and it's about them,
Speaker 1: is ramp up their preparation. Ramp up there, you know,
Speaker 1: their their week of getting ready for a game, and
Speaker 1: then ramp up their game play. And I think that
Speaker 1: too has done that. The two picks, yeah, they're terrible
Speaker 1: pick last week whatever or whatever happened last week, you know,
Speaker 1: not good stuff. But at the same time, though, we
Speaker 1: I see I'm seeing an impressive tool myself. I've seen
Speaker 1: some really good things. But when you make big mistakes,
Speaker 1: all the other stuff you did does not mad. It
Speaker 1: really doesn't matter, man, So be a big boy. You
Speaker 1: know I'm reading stuff right now. Quarterback is not our
Speaker 1: problem right now. I'm gonna tell you that right now.
Speaker 1: Repeat myself. Quarterback is not the Dolphins problem right now.
Speaker 1: Up front. We're having some trouble defense having told making
Speaker 1: some stops, and wide receivers are not being on the
Speaker 1: field or not making plays in the good opportunity. Quarterbacks
Speaker 1: not our issue right now. So it is today and
Speaker 1: set this question post to you as well. We gonna
Speaker 1: want you because to both way and is today what
Speaker 1: you saw last week, what you've seen over the culmination
Speaker 1: of his thirteen starts and where he's grown. And I mean,
Speaker 1: I really think the last couple of games we've seen
Speaker 1: a better version of what to it was last season,
Speaker 1: even coming off that hip injury. Is what you're seeing
Speaker 1: and the growth and the trajectory and that you know,
Speaker 1: you talk about big, big boy football, that fourth quarter
Speaker 1: is about as big it gets. Is that enough for
Speaker 1: you to say, all right, let's build around this guy
Speaker 1: and make it better. Because there have been breakdowns on
Speaker 1: the offensive line, there's been drop passes on the receiving core,
Speaker 1: the lowest rushing toll in the league. Is this the
Speaker 1: guy that you look at and say, with what he's
Speaker 1: doing right now, if I put better pieces around him
Speaker 1: and really give him a chance, we can go in
Speaker 1: a bunch of football games. You're asking me, or you're
Speaker 1: asking anybody that wants to jump in. I mean, that's like,
Speaker 1: that's what that is, the magic question. And I feel
Speaker 1: like that's what they attempted to do coming into this season.
Speaker 1: But if guys are not on the field, or guys
Speaker 1: are under performing or regressing, then it's hard to truly
Speaker 1: know what you have. I couldn't agree more. And that's
Speaker 1: that's where will Fuller having four catches for twenty six
Speaker 1: yards comes big into play ten million dollar receiver in
Speaker 1: the off season, and this was a free agent cropt
Speaker 1: we looked at, you know, Kenny Golladay's name was in
Speaker 1: the mix, that Curtis Samuel was a possible option. You
Speaker 1: wind up with Will Fuller, who when he's healthy, when
Speaker 1: he's played in his career, has been one of the
Speaker 1: best big play receivers and just pure best one on
Speaker 1: one match winners in the league. He's not been out there.
Speaker 1: So I just wondered, Juice, like, because what is the
Speaker 1: rest of this? He's gonna be about it one and six.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're still alive technically, but you know, it's
Speaker 1: tough for fans to get behind the idea of a
Speaker 1: playoff push. I just want to know what should you
Speaker 1: be looking at because right now, with a quarterback playing
Speaker 1: the way he did today and last week, minus you know,
Speaker 1: the mistakes and everything, I guess you can't say that
Speaker 1: I know, so it has to be factored into the equation. Definitely,
Speaker 1: You're right, it does, but it just is that is
Speaker 1: that something that kind of gives you like, Okay, this
Speaker 1: is what I want to see the rest of the
Speaker 1: way is because if at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: if all this season gives you is the answer a quarterback,
Speaker 1: it's not the worst thing in the world. Right, Yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: I think is doing he's making a young quarterback. He's
Speaker 1: making young a quarterback at that's his age, that hasn't
Speaker 1: played a full season yet technically in terms of you know,
Speaker 1: the number of games he started. Is making those type
Speaker 1: of mistakes, he's making them late, um, like even last
Speaker 1: week in Jacksonville. You know, big mistake that he made.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, you know, I feel and
Speaker 1: to answer the question that you'd ask Seth, I think
Speaker 1: we do have something we can build from here. We
Speaker 1: we do have something we can build on here. And
Speaker 1: you do have to always, always, always, if you get
Speaker 1: you a quarterback, you black, you gotta start surrounding with
Speaker 1: players and guys that can make him better. You know,
Speaker 1: he's gonna make some guys better. And you see some
Speaker 1: quarterbacks that made guys better. But you have to put
Speaker 1: the pieces around him that, you know, to take advantage
Speaker 1: of his skill set. And I think we're starting to
Speaker 1: do that. But absent anybody that can get down the
Speaker 1: field for him, everything the field is condensed. It's almost
Speaker 1: like we're playing in the in the red zone all
Speaker 1: the time, you know, the way defensive players because they're
Speaker 1: not worried about the deep threat because we don't have
Speaker 1: anybody there. But two is better served. And we've talked
Speaker 1: about it before on the short passes here and there,
Speaker 1: Deacon Dunc. That has happened. And then maybe hopefully take
Speaker 1: a shot, but who we have to take a shot with?
Speaker 1: Well wat right in theory, they and you think that,
Speaker 1: but we don't. We don't see it in the play
Speaker 1: and it's but so that's what's gonna ask is that
Speaker 1: scheme is that skill set of the guys that are
Speaker 1: out there, is that the Travis saw him in training
Speaker 1: camp was wild getting deep training camp, there wasn't much
Speaker 1: of it. It was it was more jachem even I
Speaker 1: say Ford was going deep and Robert Wilson was. It
Speaker 1: was more intermediate. And I thought my thought was they're
Speaker 1: just not showing this year. They're gonna build that into
Speaker 1: the rookies repertoire, right, but it has been the case
Speaker 1: so far. And you also need time, don't you, juice,
Speaker 1: You need a little extra time to get down field
Speaker 1: like that. We saw that Ryan's long touchdown past he
Speaker 1: had all data survey that thing. Yeah, you do, and
Speaker 1: a lot of times you go some type of max protection,
Speaker 1: but we're so worried about, you know, for one, protecting too.
Speaker 1: Of two, we haven't been to protect anybody. So three
Speaker 1: you have to keep it kind of short and sweet
Speaker 1: oft times. And I think that's why you know, you
Speaker 1: don't have to. We don't have time for any double
Speaker 1: moves whatever. All even our takeoffs, even the one that
Speaker 1: Kasiki was pretty quick, it wasn't even like getting time
Speaker 1: to run down the field. So you're right about that.
Speaker 1: We're our m O though, and it's probably gonna be
Speaker 1: this way for a while until we get some guys
Speaker 1: up there that can protect. It's gonna be quick game
Speaker 1: when it comes to passing, you know, or play action
Speaker 1: or some way of tricking somebody into thinking that is
Speaker 1: something else. We're not gonna just drop back five seventh
Speaker 1: step drop or from you know, from shotgun and two
Speaker 1: or three more steps back and launch its. Yeah. Let
Speaker 1: me also say this though, four or thirteen yards total
Speaker 1: yards of net offense right, four thirteen total yards and
Speaker 1: he scored twenty eight points. So at some point you
Speaker 1: gotta stop somebody too, right, I mean this particularly that
Speaker 1: team that is that that the defense was supposed to
Speaker 1: be their bread and butter, and you can't give up
Speaker 1: thirty points a game and expect to win. Bunch how
Speaker 1: many yards? Right, fourth thirteen total net yards? So last
Speaker 1: week was four thirty one, and that was the fifth
Speaker 1: most over the last five years, and they almost match
Speaker 1: that again. I would love to know when the last
Speaker 1: time this team had back to back four Somebody get
Speaker 1: Brad on the phone. So that's that's something to think
Speaker 1: about and juiced kind of to your point that you
Speaker 1: talked about like building around this guy, I think you
Speaker 1: have to recognize what he is. You have to appreciate
Speaker 1: him for what he is, right, you talk about the
Speaker 1: big moments in the fourth quarter, the quick release, the accuracy,
Speaker 1: the things that he does well. He showed you can
Speaker 1: go off script and run the football today. I thought
Speaker 1: he showed that to you his entire career. But I
Speaker 1: think you have to recognize that in the current NFL landscape,
Speaker 1: there are going to be quarterbacks like a Josh Allen,
Speaker 1: like a Patrick Mahomes who can whip that thing regardless
Speaker 1: of how they're standing or where their feet are and
Speaker 1: what kind of platform they throw from, and they can
Speaker 1: make impressive highlight throws that wind up on ESPN, on
Speaker 1: social media and gets everybody excited, right, But those plays
Speaker 1: are like three or four plays a game tops. The
Speaker 1: real quarterbacks that win in this sleep, like a Drew
Speaker 1: Brees or Matt Ryan for a long time, are guys
Speaker 1: that can sit back there and recognize the defense, tell
Speaker 1: you the priest the post nap rotation based upon the
Speaker 1: priest nap read and make it go. And I think
Speaker 1: two was very good in that area. So maybe you
Speaker 1: have to build around him just to smidge more than
Speaker 1: those physically slightly more talented quarterbacks. But every quarterback in
Speaker 1: this league has to be supported. Look at Patrick Mahomes
Speaker 1: in the Super Bowl last year. He had his offensive
Speaker 1: line was wiped out and he couldn't do a dang
Speaker 1: thing just right, right. I mean, it's all about that.
Speaker 1: I mean it's obviously a cliche, but it's the ultimate
Speaker 1: team sport, you know. So if you've got a guy
Speaker 1: that does some things well, you have to surround it
Speaker 1: with guys that accent what he does and you know,
Speaker 1: and and protect him as well. And I think toa
Speaker 1: is coming along. He really is man, and you know,
Speaker 1: unfortunately he's gonna be compared to some other guys and
Speaker 1: the numbers. It's always the way it is. Like we
Speaker 1: saw some people comparing Wattles numbers to Jamar Chase and
Speaker 1: Pits numbers. You know, it's it's unfair comparison. It really is.
Speaker 1: It really is. And it depends on you know the
Speaker 1: systems you're in and you know your quarterback and things
Speaker 1: like that. But for the most part, too is too,
Speaker 1: Too is, And I think he's going to get better.
Speaker 1: And if he continues to all right, we talked about
Speaker 1: the intersepts. If you continue to be as consistent with
Speaker 1: his throwing and accurate with his throwing and getting the
Speaker 1: ball to the guys like he's supposed to, it's going
Speaker 1: to turn into success to turnovers and what killed us. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and maybe we, you know, if we can start to
Speaker 1: protect him a little bit better where he's not under
Speaker 1: the rest and you can sit back there in a
Speaker 1: clean pocket and make those throws, maybe you see less
Speaker 1: of those mistakes. And I'll tell you what. As I'm
Speaker 1: sitting here looking at the final team book, guys, I
Speaker 1: have my little pity party early on, and we focused
Speaker 1: a lot on that second quarter in Galilee. That second
Speaker 1: quarter I'm gonna's gonna haunt me for a long time.
Speaker 1: And the turnovers. But the reality is, like I said,
Speaker 1: four thirteen yards of offense, two throws for four touchdowns,
Speaker 1: almost three hundred yards. He has over a one quarterback
Speaker 1: rating even with the two the two turnovers. You can't
Speaker 1: give up thirty points. You can't do it. So so
Speaker 1: I mean, what more can you get? A hundred thirty
Speaker 1: two yards rushing? Right? We the running offense got killed
Speaker 1: last week because whatever they had thirty something yards and
Speaker 1: I und thirty two yards rushing almost pre hire yards passing.
Speaker 1: Maybe it stop somebody when you need to stop him.
Speaker 1: I'm totally changing my tomb. Let's throw that. You know
Speaker 1: what I want to do. Can we throw the whole
Speaker 1: first hour out? Because the more I'm looking at you
Speaker 1: did it, but it was a good hour. But the
Speaker 1: reality is, if you're a young quarterback, can overcome those mistakes,
Speaker 1: can overcome all that nonsense all week and still stand
Speaker 1: tall in there and drive you down the field to
Speaker 1: score twice in the fourth quarter. If you're getting what
Speaker 1: you need there, like I said, is not the problem
Speaker 1: right now? Yes, I think he's the problem. And right
Speaker 1: you guys talk about you know, I'm standing up like that.
Speaker 1: You talked about need to score points. Next week is
Speaker 1: gonna be a huge test because in a place where
Speaker 1: we don't win games very often. It's in a place
Speaker 1: where we get blown out a lot and a lot
Speaker 1: of difficult buffalo bills on the horizon. I got one
Speaker 1: more point. Wherefore we go to break and juice. You
Speaker 1: mentioned this earlier about two of being used to this
Speaker 1: moment in the spotlight and the big stage. I I
Speaker 1: can weigh in on this because I once interviewed a
Speaker 1: former g A at Bama who was there with two
Speaker 1: and Nick Saban leading up the draft, and he said,
Speaker 1: going into that season, after two, I came off the
Speaker 1: bench and rescued the national championship game, it was a
Speaker 1: competition quarterback competition with he and Jalen Hurts, right, and
Speaker 1: Nick Saban the famous I'm not gonna tell you so
Speaker 1: quit asking during that time. He said every practice, every rep,
Speaker 1: every meeting, everybody out there new too was the better quarterback.
Speaker 1: But because of Jalen Hurts his history with the Bama program,
Speaker 1: that they were going to give him every chance they had,
Speaker 1: and to a just answered every every call, every you
Speaker 1: know bell that he needed to answer. He was there
Speaker 1: and up for it. So I'm glad you might. I'm
Speaker 1: glad you mentioned that, and I felt like it gives
Speaker 1: some insight to that as well as far as how
Speaker 1: he kind of approaches and deals with some of the
Speaker 1: adversity and just things that come with a football game.
Speaker 1: So we'll talk more about that on the other side
Speaker 1: of the of the show here