Deep Dive on Miami's Takeaways, Vertical Passing Game and How it Started vs. How it's Going

through their words. We're gonna discuss the vertical game with George Godzi, the takeaway oriented mindset with Josh Boyer, and the expectation of the teams from Special Teams Coordinator Danny Crossman. Plus the drive of the week and a look at how it started versus how it's going with the guys who arrived here in twenty nineteen and been here through all thirty three games of the Brian Flora's era and

talk about their progress and contributions to the team. Will get us some additional data and stats from this week's game plenty to come here from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Drive Time Podcast. Far more notes and numbers that I found interesting from this past week that I want to go

ahead and talk about here on the podcast. This is the third time that somebody beat the Patriots under Bill Belichick in a season opening game since the Chiefs did it in seventeen we did it ineen, So just the third time over those last what is that fifteen sixteen years? Impressive feet Also impressive is Miami's new road streak going

on here. The Dolphins have won three of their last four road games going back to last season, and this was the first back to back victories over the Patriots going back to Week fifteen last year in Week one this year since the nine and two thousand seasons, first time beating New England and back to at games in two decades, and the takeaway streak is now up to twenty three games for your Miami Dolphins, the longest active streak in the NFL, and the last time a team

had a streak it was that long was thirty six games from the Patriots. In impressive streak there from Miami getting the football back on their side. Also, three of two a ton of VALA's four rushing touchdowns in his career in ten games have come against the Patriots. And the thought on this was tough man coverage from the Patriots defense, they will lock you up on the back end and that's when it's the best time to run.

If you guys watched the fantastic, highly highly recommended Peyton and Eli broadcast from the Monday night football game with the Ravens and the Raiders this past Monday, and what a game. That was a crazy, crazy finish. But those guys talked a lot about Weink Martindale's aggressiveness playing that cover zero and how they want to play more man coverage, and Peyton kept saying like they got to get back to man because it's so much better than when they

run zone. And they talked about this with the other side of the formation and the Raiders, and if you play man coverage, you really free up Lamar Jackson to beat you because with guys in man coverage, your back is turned to the quarterback and that creates spaces and gaps for him to run through once he breaks the

initial pressure of the defensive line. So for the Dolphins to adjust to what the Patriots do in terms of their defensive plan and coverage, thought it was very, very impressive for two of to get three of his four rushing touchdowns in his career and just ten games so far against a man heavy type of defense and the Patriots who last season in that Week fifteen game, nineteen of the twenty nine dropbacks this, according to Sports Info

solutions came out of man coverage looks. And then this season a little bit more of the same twenty nine dropbacks once again, and sixteen of those were in man coverage. So a good job of finding vulnerabilities and creating in that way. And real quick back to the Peyton Eli broadcast. I remember a couple of years ago, I was watching a Marriner's game, you know, big Seattle Marriers fan for baseball fans out there, and they had a special broadcast

where it was players only. They didn't have a play by play guy which I could use that I would like to have that. But I was thinking to myself, man, maybe this is the future of broadcasting for for sports, sporting events, for games of any type baseball, football, basketball, whatever the case might be, where it's almost like a

podcast setting. And I thought to myself back then, that's kind of a cool idea, especially in a baseball game where there's so much downtime and not a whole lot to really break down until something actually happens in the game of baseball. And here I turned on Peyton and Eli and that's basically what it was, man Like. I think that might be the future of broadcasting right there,

a podcast type setting in a live sporting event. It was so very good, and I hope they do it every single week, and I hope they have it for Week sixteen when the Dolphins take on the Saints. No weeks seventeen when the Dolphins take on the Saints later on this season. Back to some of the numbers here, Jalen Waddles sixty one receiving yards with the third most by a Dolphins player in his rookie debut, and then also Davante Parker went over three hundred catches in this game.

His three hundred and two receptions are ninth most in team history and his four thousand, two hundred forty three receiving yards are seventh most in team history. How about Miami's number record in the last x number of games. Over the last thirteen games, Miami are ten and three. Over the last nineteen games, Dolphins are thirteen and six and over the last twenty six games. Now Miami is

sixteen and ten, so some fun data points there. Let's go ahead and pivot now and here from the Miami coaches in this segment as we get into our first of a couple of deep dives here into a couple of topics. But first the takeaways, and this bears repeating because Miami again extended its league leading streak to twenty three straight games with a takeaway on defense. And what might be most impressive about this is that nobody has a lower fumble rate over the last decade than the

New England Patriots, and it's not even close. For a half decade run there, the Patriots where the only team with a fumble per play rate of greater than one hundred plays, so every one hundred and five plays they would have a fumble to be exact. Then over the next five years it was actually much of the same.

They had one year where it peaked up like twenty six fumbles, but over the last five seasons just that one year with a considerable fumble number nineteen, last year, thirteen, in nineteen just eleven, they had twenty six and seventeen and then fourteen back in twenty sixteen. So this team does not put the ball on the turft very frequently, but the Dolphins got it out four times and they

forced three of them. But the Mac Jones backwards passed is a fourth caused by well pressure from a blitzer that Jones just could not quite get away from in time. Then he threw the ball backwards and the dolphins propensity to create takeaway opportunities is neither a coincidence nor a fluke. It's the result of meticulous training on that very critical element of the game. You practice third downs, red zone takeaways.

These biggest, the players that have the biggest e p A swings, the biggest simate a probability of of of winning the game. That's what you got to focus on the most. I mean, every detail matters with these players ultimately decide the game. And you know, as Josh Bowyer says, and to further that point, it's not a position specific thing. It's one group of coaches' or it's not. Rather one group of coaches working with a group of players. It's

all about that collaboration. Baby, Let's go ahead and go to Josh Bowyer. Weren't good to see you. I wanted to ask me about the fumble production you guys got in the game, and particularly the defensive backs. You know, three of the four force fumbles came from defensive backs. I was just wondering if there's a coaching point or something you can tell us about how Coach Alexander and Coach Brooks can I get those guys coached up to

get so many balls on the turf? Well, I would I would say it's one of those things that we work with all of our guys as a group. We start practice every day with tackling turnover circuit. Um. So, and uh, the unique thing about that is we have all of our coaches coach all of our players. So as we go through the circuit, which I'm sure you guys have seen out of practice. Um, you know, it could be a number of guys that are that are

coaching different techniques. Um. Obviously, it's something that we believe in very strongly. Our players believe in. They work at it, uh tremendously hard and uh, you know, we were able to see some production from that on Sunday Tackling Turnover circuit and we do see it every day of practice. I've covered it in training camp and we kind of give you guys the full scope of those practices. But it doesn't mean because we don't talk about it that

it's stopped or anything. They definitely go through it every single day, like Coach mentioned there, and you're seeing the fruits of that labor on this takeaway streak. And something else we talk about all the time is the Dolphins emphasizing the takeaways. They play complimentary football and we've covered

this on the podcast every week last year. The play before the play that contributes to the overall success of the team, and in this case, the play before the play in the case of the fumbles to a finding DeVante Parker with a nice job of attacking the off coverage of Jalen Mills when the Dolphins got the football after the exaviing Howard forced and recovered fumble when Mills on Davante Parker, they did a good job of attacking

that off coverage of Jalen Mills. And on the tape you see Mills open up too early and what that means not too early, but he opens up early, and what that means is you're gonna see his basically his butt go to the sideline to open the hips to the inside of the formation and that creates inside access for Devanta Parker, a great time to throw an inbreaking route.

He did it, and it was right on the mark as Davante ran through the catch and put the Dolphins and literally the best position they could have been in that spot, like a ninety whatever you are touchdown gives the ball back to the Patriots, down by only eight if you kick the p a T. So getting themselves in a position where they can run the clock and take the air out of the football and prevent the

Patriots from touching it again, that's very much ideal. So you force that time out and you're in second down and one where a first down is greater than like to happen within those next two downs to gain one yard on two downs. But that was the play after the play. The play before the play, Well, it probably seems innocuous because it was actually a first down completion to John Yu Smith, but Jerome Baker got him to the ground quickly, and you just never know what could

have happened if he didn't get that tackle. And maybe Smith gains three or four extra yards on that play by slipping the tackle. Maybe the run goes the opposite direction, Maybe it's a past play, maybe something changes to where Xaving Howard can't get his hands on the football and force the fumble and get the ball back to the Dolphins. So every single thing that happens really correlates to what happens later on in the game. I thought we saw

that once again here with your Miami Dolphins. And how about the flip and probability or win probability from those couple of plays. Prior to the fumble, the Patriots had a seventy point seven percent chance or probability i should say, of winning the football game, and the fumble obviously changes

that dramatically. Now after to get the fumble back, Miami's advantage spikes up to sixty four point four percent chance of victory, a very nice thirty five point three percent swing their significant But you might see that sixty four point four percent figure and say, how the heck is it not more than that one first down? Two first downs?

This game is over? Well, because four minute offense is one of the toughest things to execute on a football field, and especially in the National Football League, and especially when the opposition has all three of their time outs, as New England did, and so after the holding call on two was nine yard run, which I thought was a

brilliant design and call. Right there, the win probability took a nearly five percent hit because you go from first and ten to first and fourteen, which means you didn't have to average again no mathematician, but five yards per rush to move the chains in the next three carries. So it's damn near a coin flip at this point of the game that Miami's win according to win probability.

If Miami can't get off their own goal line and have to punt from that spot, the Patriots are now just a couple of first downs away from having a shot at a game winning field goal. So the past to Parker to set up that two yard first down plunge by Malcolm Brown, and you love his effort to close out the game, by the way, you talk about all fifty three guys in the roster contributing, what a

great example this is. And after his first down run, the win probability spikes again, going from fifty nine eight percent up to seventy four percent from before the past to Parker. And so while the passing game with Tow

and Parker kind of stoked the flame. The offensive line and backs had the you know, proverbial lighter fluid nearby to keep that thing rolling, and the Patriots took a time out with toe takes him down to two time outs in the game plus the two minute warning, so they still have a chance to get the ball back with plenty of time. So you need another first down to put the game on ice, and it has to be a run, right There's no way you can throw the ball right here. I mean you could, but the

run makes way more sense. And with that knowledge, Malcolm Brown still finds five yards a big, big, important run there, and boy, he got some great push play side from Miami's front offensive lineman there. Liam Eichenberg has a tough reach block on the backside, so he does enough to cut off Lawrence Guy to create a gap, and a nice block from Solomon Kindley helps spring a gap there.

You've got good push from Michael Dieter and Robert Hunt who takes his man over a gap, and Jesse Davis does the same thing to help give Malcolm that crease for five yards. So Patriots time out. Then it's Malcolm Brown's effort. On the next play, he stood up on the second and five play, after about one yard looking like a third and four, he then pushes the pile three more yards to give you a third and one,

and the Dolphins get third. They get that conversion obviously, and get thirteen yards on four carries when everybody in the building knew what was coming. That's impressive. And speaking of the fifty three man roster coming through in the clutch, here comes Jacoby Brisett on that third and one to move the chains again too, for two in the game on those sneaks the dial up victory formation. Let's go home, And what did Brian Flores have to say about that

close out drive. Let's go to the head coach specifically, at the end of the game, we needed some first downs running the football to run the clock out. That was good to see us finished the game with the ball. They knew were gonna run it. We knew we were gonna run it, and we're able to pick up a

couple of first downs there. So that's that's always good. Um, I thought Myles ran Hard, I thought Savan ran Hard at the Malcolm ran Hard, I think it's there's a lot to build on there, but we can block it better. We can run, you know a little bit better. We're making those uh, making those corrections now, and I'm gonna put it into action in the field again. You love to see that there is Brian Flores covers the Dolphins ability to execute the formative offense and get that victory.

So I considered using that for our Wednesday Drive of the week here on the Drivetime podcast. But we have to go back to the drive to open up the third quarter for our drive of the week, a drive that featured a deep shot to Davante Parker for thirty yards. But before we get into that, Coach Gotzy on Tuesday had some great insight when I asked me about the philosophy on downfield shots versus certain looks and landmarks and

ball location. I'll just go ahead and play the question and answer for you guys here with myself and Dolphin's co offensive coordinator George Gotzi. Hey, good morning, coach. I had a question for your regarding just vertical passes in general, and particularly the thirty six yard pass from Twa to Waddle. You know, it's kind of he came back on a back shoulder type of throw and it looked like you

maybe had a step on top of the defender. I was just kind of curious what the rules of the teaching points are on that particular type of look where you get the step and they try to make an adjustment for back shoulder to go vertical over the top, like how do heal? And he and Jalen kind of communicate what to do on that particular look, and that's it really comes from practice quite a bit. Um in that look and Accordy was a little bit tilted over

to where he gets sick. He was on the single receiver side, so that put the three receivers in a one on one situation where you know, the ball the more the longer travels, uh, you know, the more accurate we've gotta be because that ball hangs up in the air for everybody to see what angle it's coming down. Jalen did a good job of adjusting to it. Um,

you know, it was a big play. It was. It was a play that got us you know eventually, uh first points so changed the field position and um, you know that's a tough throw and inside it was an inside fade is really what we call it. So Um, it was good to see that that ball get connected the slot fade, one of the plays that I've always thought was one of the more prevalent ones when you have a speed merchant like a Geland waddle, and Dolphins certainly putting that to work in this game. And there

you hear from Coach Godzi himself. I mean, that's a pretty good explanation of what they're looking for on that play. So you can debate it all you want, but there is from the man himself, Coach Godzi. And let's go ahead and get back on the road here after that, quick detour for our drive of the week. So a ten ten ball game, Dolphins get the kick to open the second half, and this is where our drive of the week starts. So first two plays are wins by

the Patriots defense. A two yard miles gas can run and then an incomplete pass from two to smythe as TWA gets off of his spot, attacks line scrimmage and throws a nice ball a little bit off the frame of Duran Smith, but it looked intentional away from the coverage inside ball goes outside, but it was very close quarters, lots of zip, tough play to make goes incomplete, and then we get rolling and where we broke down the long pass to Waddle on yesterday's podcast and the Patriots

as coach Gods he told us earlier the Pats had a post safety over the top of the boundary side, giving Wattle all that space to work with. And what I like on this play is the Patriots have a split safety and it looks like two men at the snap. It's basically two defenders over the top of man coverage underneath. But the boundary side safety and the boundary side again short side of the field, the near hash mark to the short side of the field. The field side is

the wider side. The boundary side safety winds up acting as a robber, and what that means is the robber will often come down and try to close on a backside crossing route and try to rob any past. The quarterback throws in that area and they want to rob that front side cross or which again to the field side of the formation. On this particular instance was Mike

get sicky. So you play the backside, you look over to the front side if that crossing route comes over, and the quarterback thinks, all I have to do is beat the man coverage across from him. All of a sudden, here comes the backside robber, and you've got all kinds of problems. So what that does with his eyes on the front side of the formation is creates a chance on the back side for a one on one opportunity

for Davante Parker on J. C. Jackson. And that's probably what the Patriots want, right, I mean, their best cover guy on the most accomplished dolphin receiver. Plus you see Jones drawing Wattle from a matchup perspective. I happen to think that four to eight speed has a lot to do with that. We will never know because we're not gonna, you know, get that intel. But that's my thinking there, and we'll get back to that later on this tribe.

It's very crucial, important part of the drive. But Wattle goes in motion and you see that safety who plays the robber role on the opposite side of the formation. It looks like he's gonna come down and match up with Wattle when he goes in motion. So your pre snap indicators for information gathering and the application of that information.

It's a nice little nod there from two a tongue of viola, your second year quarterback just making his tent start, so Wattle goes back in return motion back to where he came, and the boundary side safety reacts and goes right back to where he was in that split safety look. Then he closes down on that front side, crossing from Giziki, who is running that crossing route from the field side

three position. Remember yesterday one is the furthest outside receiver to the next inside and then three year closest in side, so Ghasiki from the closest inside position to the wide side of the field runs that crossing route, and that split safety on that side of the on the other side of the formation closes down and creates the long ball opportunity for Parker. So once that happens, Parker versus

Jackson and he's not open. Jackson's in great position, which means you're gonna need a pretty much perfect ball, and you got it. Go watch the all twenty two on that. It's it's very evident that ball had to be in

that location where it was. He puts it to the white on the perimeter the sideline there, up and away from danger, and then DeVante does what he always does best, and you can't have a perfect ball completed in the situation without a great catch as well, but he shields Jackson away from him with that big frame and high points the football, then has the awareness to get the feet down inbounds. A great, great play by both one and eleven and exactly the kind of completion I talked

about in the preview last Thursday. You have to hit those throws against that Patriots defense if you're going to beat them, because they will drop seven or eight and force you to hit those tight window throws down the field to climbs the pocket and throws as he approaches the line of scrimmage. Everything else in the fields bracketed. Every single receiver out there has underneath and over the top coverage because of all the defensive backs on the

play that are dropping into coverage. And it's such a tough ask to make that play on third and eight, and he hits it in a tie game with field position and a possible lead going back the other way at risk if you punt and give the Patriots good field position. So that's how it starts to drive. Then we get another Patriots win, a one yard run up the gut, So second down and nine, and now it's second uh it's it's second nine, and we utilize another

one of our guy's strengths and Miles Gaskin. Dolphins motion Gaskin from the backfield out wide to the boundary again short side of the field, and he lines up in the one position the furthest wide position to the short side of the field and Miami goes empty. Nobody in the backfield beside your quarterback and another indicator of man coverage here, Linebacker Jowan Bentley follows Gaskin all the way out wide and there's a single high look and a post a post snap. It looks like the Dolphins are

getting cover one based upon what I saw. Again, I cannot confirm without knowing the call, but that's what it looked like to me. And the safety is rolled up to the field side of the formation. So Parker takes an outside release to get his man the two to Miles gaskin side of the field. He gets him to flip his corners or his his hips rather to the corner route or the possible out route, which creates inside

space for Miles Gaskin. Does that make sense? So Parker wants that outside release so that inside cornerback gets out of that area for Gaskin to run in off of that in behind that route on the slant, and because Jawan Bentley is has no safety help over the top, he has to play off because you cannot afford to lose at the line and let Myles Gaskin run right by you. But he runs that quick slap and two

has that thing up and out immediately. Good recognition of that coverage, of that leverage and the quick release on display, and then it's a catch and run of thirteen yards to set up another first intent at the plus thirty. Then we go back to the run game for some success.

We get Jesse Davis hits a fantastic seal block off the right edge, and you see gaskins feel and vision on this run because he takes an inside run going left and winds it back to the right outside with great backside vision to anticipate what's there, having your priest nap indicators tell you what how this how this defense might move and shift, and he gets all the way back there, turns the corner for fifteen yards and another first down. Then it's wildcat from the plus fifteen yard

line in the red zone. Robert Hunt hits a key block, Michael Dieter has a catch and climb and Hunter Long digs out a man off the edge and Savon Akhmed burrows ahead for an eight yard run. Stay in Wildcats second and two, Malcolm Brown takes this one for four yards off the right side once again, this time Hunter Long Dirham Smith and there again on the lead blocks. Then the touchdown pass and once again waddle, like we talked about on the Davante Parker deep Shop, is going

to go and return motion. He starts to come across the formation and you see Jonathan Jones get on his horse trying to match the speed to get over to the side of the formation because so often teams can run that motion and if you don't get over there in time, you get outflanked. It's an easy catch, rock throw and just throw it to the guy already in full speed motion, easy touchdown to that pylon. But that's what Jonathan Jones wants to prevent, so he runs over there.

You get Wattle going back over and return motion and because of that, because he has to react to Waddles change of direction, he gets out flanked pre snap. And this was after Durham Smith had already shifted from the back side to the play sides. You have a pre snap shift, a return motion before the snap, giving to all the information he needs to make decisions, and then from that point after Smith comes over has a very

important role. We talked about this in the podcast yesterday, where he's not allowed to make a block down field because that would be an eligible man down field. But he basically runs a route where he just walls off two guys and gives Wattle a chance at the pylon. You also get a clutch key block from Mike Gasicki right at the point of attack the balls on the outside shoulder. Waddle catches it and bubbles to give himself a chance to process. He has to make his move.

He makes it, he wins it, wins the race, touchdown Dolphins, And that was your drive of the week. Nine plays, seventy four yards, four minutes and nine seconds off the clock, and essentially the game winning touchdown. The Dolphins never gave the lead back after that play. That's your drive time drive of the week. Who wants to do another deep dive? You got it, Let's do another one here. I couldn't narrow it down this week, so we're gonna do a bit of a grab bag here with two deep dives.

And I was thinking about, should I look at someone something on tape? Should I break down some numbers? Should I break down something? And I thought to myself, why don't go back to some of the o g s of the Brian Flores regime, some guys who arrived in twenty nineteen and have earned significant roles on this team. In and we start with Eric Rowe. You talk about

his ability to match up on tight ends. I mean neither John H. Smith or Hunter Henry really went off in this game forty two yards for one, thirty for the other. And the work against the run. I mean he's consistently putting his face into the fan, coming down and playing even inside sometimes the outside linebacker at a point where he has to go jam a tight end or get involved in the hand fight, and really hold that point and hold his gap and and fit a run.

And he returns to the game after getting nicked up. He's tough as hell. He's played in all thirty three games under Brian Flora's here, and that includes a position change as well. One of the league's top tight ending racers. In fact, number two a year ago and yards per target allowed when matched up on tight ends as far as safeties go. That from Pro Football Focus, and I continue to be more and more impressed every time we

get a tape with Eric row out there. I mean, he's such a crucial part of this defense and this team. He earned an extension after signing a one year deal in twenty nineteen that was basically a prove it deal to say, can you come back from the injury history you've had in your career, and especially by cornerback standards like one year three million dollars I think it was

with three and a half million dollars. That's a guy that I think you point to and say, look, this is what can happen if you do it right and you buy into the Miami Dolphins principles, if you put in the work, you take your coaching, you trust that they have the best interests of the team in my mind, and you're a team guy yourself. I just can't say

enough about Eric Rowe and his in this game. You know, he was doing everything playing the hook, curl zone, point on bunches or trips or different types of stacks in there against the run, playing man coverage, zone coverage. Just another complete game from number twenty one. How about Nick met him third most tackles in the game from Miami despite playing just thirty five snaps. He was targeted three

times in coverage for just nine yards. Gets on the outside shoulder so frequently on outside runs and funnels that thing back to the teeth of the defense. Very much a team oriented player in that way too, And he detailed this himself back when he got to camp in twenty nineteens a rookie that he was out of shape, didn't know how to properly nutrition or eat, or didn't know how to nutrition himself. I don't know, but he

had he had. You know, the fans will recall a rough preseason that year, goes to the practice squad, gets the end season call up. He had some flash moments, but like most rookies, it was an up and down season for him. Then he comes in last year and moves inside and has a great season success against the likes of Tyler Boyd, Jamison Crowder, h Cooper Cup some

of the game's top slot guys. And now he's playing everywhere for this defense, corners, you know, inside, outside, I should say from undrafted free agent to key cog in the defense. Another feather in the cap here of Flores Boyer and anyone that had a hand of bringing this kid in from you tip tip of the cap there, and then from the actual draft class. I mean Michael Dieter looked the part to me. I mentioned the cut blocks,

the catching climb to the second level. I thought his communication upfront was largely good in terms of, you know, you didn't have free rushers flashing with Lineman looking around like, hey, what the hell happened there? Just didn't happen in this game. And he's got good length for a center, and I think you saw that play to his advantage in this game a bit, as he was able to reach and seal on a couple of occasions. And his pass pro has been solid from from the start of camp really

onto this game. I talked about him anchoring at times against ray Kwon Davis Uh in practice and then into the joint practices with the chem Hicks and Grady Jarrett. I think you could look at deep is another one of those poster boys for development here and how it's a process. It's a process. It's a process. From twenty two snaps last year to day. One starter at center of this camp and a strong debut. Definitely something will

keep an eye on going forward. Long season to go, but that's one of the toughest fronts in football, and I thought Deets acquitted himself quite well in this game. Then quickly there was a couple of in season additions that season. Mac Collins was one of them. He played the seven snaps in the game on Sunday offensively, but you see his presence on every dang punter and not really every dang special teams player. They have out their first guy down there most of the time, Number eighty six.

We've talked about his leadership, the spirit, the example he sets, what he brings to the club that way in the locker room, a team captain, a player that guys gravitate towards a true Miami Dolphin and Mac Collins. And then also an in season acquisition that year, Zach Seeler comes over off waivers from the Baltimore Ravens and he made a splash in that first game in Week fifteen against the Giants. Only played like fourteen snaps and had a couple of pressures and was in face of Eli manning

that game. Then the next game was an absolute force. One and a half sacks, two batted passes, four run stops, five pressures in that win over the Bengals right around Christmas time. Just unblockable in that game, and both he and Hollins would go on to earn contract extensions the

next year with the Miami Dolphins. I just think that history is instructive, and you can look back at that kind of foundation laying season, and you know, it was tough at times, it was difficult at times, but those bricks that were laid continue to pop up just about every game with something you can look back at and say, man, there was value to that and how they did it, and you can see it today with how it plays

out on the field on Sundays. Let's do a quick sneak peek of the Buffalo Bills here before we get out of here for the podcast. Let's go ahead and start with Josh Bowyer's early evaluation of this Buffalo Bills offense. Well, I think I think one thing to take into consideration when you're looking at Buffalo, they're very much a game plan oriented offense. So one week week they could look

different from the next. Uh, they're gonna attack what the what they perceive, um, you know, to be your weaknesses. Um So, I mean in a given week, their their game plans can look different and very um you know, obviously, um they're they're very talented group, they're very well coached. Uh you know, Brian Dable is one of the best coordinators in the league. Um So I would expect, you know that we'll see some different stuff than they showed

in the Pittsburgh game. Obviously Pittsburgh, those guys defensively, they played well, they tackled well, they made plays when they needed to. But again, I would say each game with Buffalo is a very unique thing in and of itself, and of course we know that's the mantra down here as well. It's it's a fascinating dichotomy to get New England and Buffalo and back to back weeks, because you really could not have two more diametrically opposed teams. In

terms of their approach. Buffalo was damn near a primary ten personal team that means one back, no tight ends for whiteouts, and nobody else was even close. Like even the Cardinals, who ran that package a lot, they had a significant gap between the Cardinals and the third team with the most ten personnel calls, and even they were a far cry from how often Buffalo ran that package.

So you go from a game where a guy like you know, for instance, Justin Coleman plays two snaps and the Patriots essentially replaced their slot receiver with tight ends. You you have kind of adjusted that, But thirty five of their seventy plays in this game for the Patriots came from twelve personnel, one back, two tight ends, two receivers, and then you had another handful of plays out of twenty one personnel or third team personnel or even heavy

offensive line packages. Essentially eleven personnel, which is most teams based in the NFL, is a sub package and ten personnel packages are basically non existent. And now you go to the complete opposite of that here with Buffalo Bills, based upon one week of data and evidence. So we'll get into it tomorrow, but expect the Bills to do their thing and we'll see if this very good, very

deep secondary can match it. Though they did well throughout the game last season in Miami and Week two, and that was without Byron Jones Beyond the third snap of that game, so we'll have that on tomorrow's podcast. A couple of quick notes for you guys here real quick. We got the news across the desk on Tuesday night recording this podcast. Ray Kwon Davis has gone to the injured reserve, so he'll be out for a minimum of three games with that knee injury he suffered in the

win over the Patriots. The Dolphins also brought back Will Fuller to the active roster and Jamal Perry goes to the practice squad as a result. I have a show recommendation before we get out of here if you have not seen it yet. The next the Netflix documentary called Untold Crime and Penalties. It's about a hockey team back in like two thousand four, a minor league hockey team. The father of this hockey player, and the father was called the real life Tony Soprano, like a mob boss.

So his kid gets injured playing hockey. So he goes out and buy some my minor league hockey team and the kid just becomes a GM slash marketing whiz. I promise you you will have fun watching this documentary. Go check it out Netflix. Untold Crime and Penalties. All right, that's gonna be my time, Caroline, Daddy is coming home. Until next time, you go ahead and subscribe to the podcast, leave us a rating, leave us a review. You can follow me on Twitter. It's at Wingfield, NFL. Follow the

team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank podcast with Seth and o J, and of course the YouTube channel for all the media availabilities. And last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot com. I have a top news story up on the website right now. Check that out until next time finds up