Dolphins Bengals Week 4 Preview

check your pulse. What ends up? Dolphins? And welcome to the Drive Time Podcast, part of the Miami Dolphins podcast Network, covering your team, your Miami Dolphins. How's it going everybody? I am your host, Travis Winkfield, And on today's show,

it's Game Day. Preview Day. Will break down all the matchups position by position, tell you the current state of the Bengals, give you some key stats, ask the question what's at stake this week, and finish up with our three keys to victory as well as our Week four picks from somewhere in South Florida sheltering from Hurricane Ian. This is the Drivetime Podcast I hope everybody out there is staying as safe as you possibly can away from Hurricane Ian, which is picking up speed at a category

four here on a Wednesday afternoon. Everybody on Southwest Florida in the Tampa area, we're thinking about you. Hope you stay safe and hope you find shelter, because it's pretty scary out there right now. We had a tornado come by the house only a few miles from our house. Last night. We saw some pretty severe winds and rains. I saw the publics on Sheridan and Pembroke Pines had broken glass and fallen trees and debris in the parking lots, getting pretty close to home. The outer bands of the

hurricane are definitely affecting us here in South Florida. But our thoughts and are really our entire minds are with with the people of Southwest Florida because it's looking pretty scary over there. Tough to transition off of that. We're gonna do it here and talk about a football game on Thursday night, And it seems like just yesterday we were getting ready for Week three. As we turn the page and we're onto Cincinnati, and how about those Bengals.

I don't think any two teams are an exact reflection of one another. But as we look at the Bengals and their arrival at this current point in time, it's really not that far off from the Dolphins, and really you can kind of balance the two together and say, like, is this how you build a team? Is that how you build a team? And obviously last year Cincinnati went on that magic carpet right through the playoffs and kind of in a lot of ways put the debate to bed.

But that's why in this league, you know the quarterback position, but teams as well. You never want to get two in Trenchant in one view because of one season. Because in the game of football, sample sizes, you know, with one game a week, it's not that large and things can change quickly. I mean, I was a big Jalen Waddle fan for a long time, and you know, he's looking pretty good right now compared to the other options in that draft class. And it's a it's a good

draft class, don't get me wrong. All four guys at the skill spots, Davante Smith, Kyle Pitch, Jamaar Chase and Jalen Waddle are all freaking studs. But man, you know that's why you give things time because the first round draft pick and Waddle, that's pretty damn good. But both these teams picked top five in they both took their quarterbacks of the future. The returns on that looking pretty

damn good for both teams right now. Both teams brought in some free agents to help balance out those draft classes. You know, we had Waddle and Chase and these went the same years. But like Jesse Bates, Javon Holland, you go to free agency. We had Tehran Armstead, they had Lyle Collins, they signed Trey Hendrickson. We sign Emmanuel Ogba.

There's lots of these positional examples of Miami and the Bengals using free agency or the draft to address the same positions, and it's you can compare them because the teams were kind of constructed at the same rate and same pace for a similar uh team cycle. As the Draft Network guys would tell us in our our preseason or our pre draft podcast we do here. It's just

really interesting that way. Lots of examples like that, and the Bengals rode that defense last year that had I think seven of their eleven starters were free agent signings within the previous two years, and they rode that to a playoff run that took them within just a couple

of plays of winning a frigging championship. They turned people over, they ran the ball well, they had timely plays by their quarterback when they needed them over that run, and they also made every damn field goal in the playoffs to win those tight games that they always found themselves in. All three of them came down to the buzzer two of those overtime victories, and then the Super Bowl was

not quite a buzzer beater. But at the very end, there young quarterbacks on rookie deal's young first time head coaches, there's this year five ours is in his rookie season, offenses littered with playmakers across the board. Can started to focus on the offensive lines this offseason, Defenses that put pressure on quarterbacks and take the football away again. Lots

of symmetry here, fun matchup. Let's go ahead and dive right and starting with Dolphins offense first, Bengals defense, and we start as we do every week here on the preview podcast on Drive Time. Go ahead and subscribe, rate and review the podcast. By the way, we're climbing up those boards and that helps us more than you can know. Quarterback and safety position again, pretty distinct match up here in terms of you know what you're gonna get provided

everybody is healthy. The injury reports for both teams are long, but we'll see about Thursday night. Jesse Bates and Von Bell are the starters, and they don't leave the field, and they almost never bring a third safety onto the field. No other safety how to snap in their game on Sunday against the Jets, and they split their looks between

single high and two high. It's nearly even at so you'll get the middle of the field open, middle of the field closed on just about every other play, and they're in nickel of the time with five defensive backs and dime percent of the time once to be five snaps. That's a very high rate for dime defense. In the modern NFL. The remainder is three or fewer dbs, which is basically short yardage and goal line situations when you

bring on all the big guys. So what I'm telling you is that there's not a lot of variation on this Bengals defense, and there's not a lot of variation of the Bengals offense. We'll get to that here in just a minute. Bates and Bell, though, are tremendous players. Jesse Bates is when my all time draft hits. He is a center fielder back there who is almost exclusively in the post. His career splits of his snaps played

in that post, in the single high or not. Yeah, the middle of the field safety, i should say, and then scattered snaps across the box, slot, wide, corner, and down the line of scrimmage. And that should be no surprise because he's among the best middle of the field

safeties and football. He was a great outfielder on the Wake Forest baseball team, and you could see the way he anticipated and compartmentalized route combinations, the way he tracks the football, and the way he anticipates the way everything will play out in front of him. It's why he has eleven your picks and thirty six passes defense, and when they go too high, it will be Von Bell back there with him. Otherwise he's creeping up on the

line of scrimmage. Box player in the slot eight percent on the defensive line, so of his snaps he's up in the vicinity of the box and the rest of those are basically two high looks with the occasional snap out wide at cornerback. This defense mixes really cover three and man with some man free with single high safety up there, which they also play with really big cushions on the perimeter, and I anticipate this will be the look with all the speed the Dolphins can throw at them.

We've seen ten and seventeen, just press those cushion coverages that off coverage with plenty of speed, and then you throttle down to create tons of space in those you know, intermediate portions of the field where to what has been so successful throwing the football this season. It's why I think you could get ten catches from both of these

guys in this game. Like it might not be the biggest blowest as we've come accustomed to, but I think you could have ten catches from both Tyreek and Jalen and then if you break one, then maybe you get your gaudy you know, receiving yard of production on the day. But the offense, I think in this game, because of this matchup, can really sustain drives here, which would be nice because that would be a very big benefit to this defense. That's just four days removed from a nineties

snap game on Sunday. As far as our defensive personnel, they played zero coverage on just four snaps this season, and again nearly a fifty split between single high and two high safeties on that defense. Um they have they blitz on twenty eight percent of their snaps. That's the tenth lowest rate in the NFL, so one of very five snaps, and their pressure rate coincides almost exactly with that twenty two point three percent. That's right in the middle of the pack as well. And the reason I'm

going this route is to get to to AH. So I guess the you know, quarterback verse safety versus defensive structure portion of the podcast. Two is currently hitting sixty of his passes on ball intended over twenty air yards. I've been doing that little like kind of conceded you know, like pretentious laugh on the podcast a lot lately because kind of earned it, right, Like talked about this for a while now, and it's coming to fruition for a few weeks here. Hopefully it keeps going. That's tops in

the NFL twenty plus air yard throws. But the Bengals play a style that keeps things in front. They actually rank six and average cushion allowed on the perimeter, so their cornerbacks will stay patient. There was a great clip of Josh Boyer on inside the NFL against the Bills where he was saying, you know, they're dinking and duncan.

That's okay, that's not how they wanted to play. I thought it was a cool sound bite to have and kind of tells you about the Dolphins defensive plan and performance, which, by the way, was great if if you look at the box score and get upset about that performance, like just watch the damn game. Man. So I don't know what else I gotta tell you, but that same idea

here kind of applies. The Dolphins have to stay patient and just make sure they're not throwing the ball into those downfield windows that the Bengals are gonna try to funnel you into by staying patient and forcing you to

be methodical. And again, if you can do that, I like the way that pairs up with a defense that could potentially be a little bit tired after that game on Sunday to a is completing sixty of his passes versus the Blitz seven point six yards per pass, but he's seventy three point six percent completion with nine eight point uh nine point eight yards per pass when they're not blitzing. Incredibly efficient in that department for Tuah. I

think the patient factor here is a big one. But they also do mix in plenty of man coverage, so keying that man coverage and finding your opportunities and I think that's been one of Twoa's biggest assets this season so far. And Ryan Fitzpatrick talked about this on his Tuesday conference call with local Miami media, saying that he's been so impressed with how Tuah is seeing the field right now, so deciphering the coverage, is being aware of disguise and just what he's been doing. Like if he

keeps this going, we're gonna be just fine. Really, since that Baltimore game sands the two picks, I think he's

been so dang sharp in that area. He was on Sunday, and if he is again tomorrow night, we're gonna get to or No, if he plays that way again and with the man coverage, you know, if you see Tyreek on a certain cornerback and he wants that ball, I want to go after Tyreek because of the confidence that he displays, and I think that that type of stuff, the chip on his shoulder brings out the best version

of the Cheetah. Cheetah hungry, Cheetah gonna eat. We'll get some more carry over in these other positions kind of finding. That's gonna be the case on these preview podcasts because we're always tweaking and improving the show, right, and so

it's not just saying exclusive to that position group. There is carry over like I talked about there with Cheetah as the Dolphins receivers and tight ends versus the Cincinnati corners, and of course Two's weapons have been a massive asset to him this season as well, in addition to the way he sees the field and processes and throws with in my opinion, top five anticipation in the National Football League.

Big surprise, right, I mean, we've been talking about it for four freaking years here about what this kid can do the way he sees the field. But Penguin and Cheetah second and third in receiving yards right now, they draw a really really good Bengal secondary Cheetah Woosey a Is was one of my favorite players coming out. I want to sayeen second round pick. He blossomed mid run with the Cowboys and now he's a damn good corner

here for the Bengals. He broke out last year and he's taking it to another level this year so far through three games. He played one of their snaps on Sunday, So did Eli Apple and Mike Hilton played of their snaps. So yeah, they're almost always in either nickel or more defensive backs like a dime package. So that begs the question, do you try to get them out of that with mixing your personnel or do you just stick to what

you do best. I mean, coach mixes personnel as well as anybody in football, but he was once asked about, you know, running more in terms of balancing the offense and how you know, wouldn't be very smart to just neglect Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle, which makes perfect sense to me. They're both top five receivers. Now the difference Mike can do that while mixing personnel. He's already done it before we broke down that personnel empty set the stick.

Odd passed the Galen Waddle for fifty nine yards against the Baltimore ravens Man. I think that package could cost some matchup issues here. Why because their linebackers are more modern game cover and speed types who allow them to play those deep shells because of their athletic ability and range to extend the hook zone beyond ten yards. But you slam alec ingoled in there a lot, and you either have some success and just keep doing it, or it influences them and they step up and you utilize

that flow against them. Right offense is so tough to plan for, man and why is this in the receiver portion? You might ask? Well about defensive structure? Excuse me? Morety mixed with the player types on either side, with the over routes and slants that we can run, plus that freaking stick nod to jitland Waddle. I think that relationship bodes well for this Dolphin's passing game. Their fourth corner is Trey Flowers, not to be confused with our Trey Flowers.

He played the snaps on Sunday. There's your dime packages, so they don't really bring the safeties on us. About four corners and too defensive or two safeties in their six defensive back looks. Some stats on them. I talked about teams are eleven for twenty seven throwing at him this year. That's that's unbelievable. That's the best completion percentage allowed in football for a cornerback. He's fluid, strong, he'll

challenge you your entire way up the route. So if he gets physical impresses, maybe you can get that release and get on top of him. But a hundred and thirty six coverage snaps this year, a hundred and two yards allowed of superb staff for him, that's great. Great numbers for Cheeto Woozy Eli Apple, hundred and thirty three coverage snaps, one hundred yards allowed, that's also really dang good. And Mike Hilton one seventeen and a hundred yards. Like

these three corners, man, they're really good. It's a good secondary. They mix up man and zone really well, and you can tell they've been playing together for a long time. In fact, there was a great clip with Lou and

Rumo you might remember that name. He had this really good diet tribe and a press conference a couple of weeks ago about the critical aspect of communication in your defensive backfield and he compared it to a shortstop in second base duo on a double play and how it really requires some time together to get that stuff down. And this is a team that is so deep in

that area and really across the board. After they attacked the offensive line in free agency or so, they thought of drafting Daxton Hill and cam Taylor Britt in rounds one and two of safety in a corner from Michigan and Nebraska, respectively. The two of those guys have combined for thirteen snapps on defense. And that's not an indictment at all of those players. It's a testament to the level of play they've gotten from the guys that are playing.

And the numbers are right there. Opposing quarterbacks have an eighty two point eight passer rating against this Bengals defense. You carry the one there that's thirty five points lower than two was one seventeen point eight rating good on good Man and as far as their r a s the relative athletics score cards, a wooz A nine five has elite times across the board. He was a great workout warrior in addition to good tape. In college, Eli Apple has an eight nine score, but a seventh second

three cone is a little below average. Four point five out of ten and on terms of the zero to ten scorecard, and he also checks in with just above average times and ten split and shuttle. We tracked those because of how quick these receivers are from Miami. And then Mike Hilton wasn't very good to three nine out

of ten. That's that's very below average. We don't know math like me, but the rare bad r A s with decent quickness times like he struggled in the other measurements, but his he was average and three cones shuttle and tense splits. So interesting mix there. And I've really kind of harp on this mixture of zone and man. That's really every defense and it doesn't you know it. Look, it doesn't take a bunch of research to know how tough it can be to defend hill and waddle against

man coverage. But I've been so impressed by the synchronicity of those guys with ta on. Some of those digs and in breakers were to anticipates, but settles them down with a throw location a post to running them into a hit, and then too for throttling down their route appropriately. It's a fascinating matchup man. And one more thing I'm looking for this week or just soon in general, is the number three option to emerge. It hasn't really happened yet.

There's been a nice compliment of other guys like Surefield, Craig Craft, Big Mike and the backs getting involved. But it would be so beneficial for this offense if a third guy stepped up and just had like an eight for eighty game where you have to kind of pay attention.

Let's go ahead and take our first break. We'll come back and do the offense and defensive lines, running backs and linebackers, and then pick it up on the other side of the football with Dolphins defense versus the Bengals offense. That's next on the Drivetime podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. It's a Wednesday afternoon. It's rainy, windy, blustery on the outer bands of a

hurricane blowing up the southwest coast of Florida. Hope all of our friends and Tampa and Naples and the surrounding areas are all staying safe. It's pretty scary over there. So I'm thinking about you guys right now, talking to you about some football, hopefully distracting you. If you have lost power if you don't have access to entertainment. Hopefully we can do that for you here for thirty or

forty minutes on the Drivetime podcast. We'll go ahead and pick it back up here with the offensive line of the Dolphin versus the defensive line of the Cincinnati Bengals. And it was announced that DJ Reader's gonna miss sometime, so he left the game on Sunday against the Jets after just eighteen snaps. He's I think he might be their best player, so that's a big loss for the Bengals. He is kind of the straw that stirs a drink and sets their defense up for what they want to do.

I'll talk about that more here in just a minute. B J. Hill is the same way. What a player, he is a sixty percent snap guy. Josh Tupo plays almost exclusively on the nose, a massive, massive people mover and block eater. He was number two and snaps on Sunday, and then Zachary Carter also got a thirty percent workload, essentially filling in for some of the work missed by um by DJ Readers. So they'll have to find a

fourth guy for that rotation. But Hill and Reader. You know, I compared him here in my notes to Tim Bowen's and Larry Chester because that massive size on the interior defensive line helped Zach Thomas stay clean. Right Like, if there's one thing Zach you know, wasn't the best at was if he was a beat slow beating a block

on his way to the ball carrier. But he was so instinctual, and playing behind those two defensive tackles really emphasized those instincts and allowed him to make the plays that his brain took him to as or that his brain led him to get to that point to the play and then to physically make the play once he got there. A little bit an undersized but fast hell fastest Hell linebacker that benefited from those guys to eat up blocks, to just maximize that instinctual nature of his game.

And DJ Reader was also the penetrator of the group. He led the defensive tackles on this team with eight QB pressures. B J Hills right behind him with seven, and that's it for pressures from defensive tackles. So to get b J. Hill block, there's a good opportunity here for two to have lots of time as far as the interior portion of his pocket. Interesting to see how they manufacture Reader's production in the interim with him down b J Hills three fifteen pounds, but he plays even bigger.

But I've been so impressed by Connor Williams this season if you asked me, Connor Williams and Toron Armstead are both in all pro consideration through three games. A long way to go, but that's a good start. Uh. The anchor has has just been so good for him. But also the way he fires off the ball. He's stealing off those a gap runs in the running games so

so effectively. And then you've got big Rob Hunt, who I just think is having an excellent start to the season of his own regard, and they've had a ton of success running in that direction. I think it's over five yards per carry in that center right guard position. Also very curious to see how the Bengals handled that absence there of DJ Reader. Now off the edge to Ron Armstead. Gosh, oh boy, he's been as advertised, hasn't he.

If he's good to go this week, he's a massive draw in Trey Hendricks, who leads the Bengals with eleven quarterback pressures. He's an absolute technician who will work to wear you down throughout the course of a game. So far nobody has had an answer for to Ron Armstead. And if I were given just one word to describe his game, technician would be it. That's another premier matchup here. Hendrickson's played of the snaps uh or he did up

in Jersey against the Jets. Hubbard played seventy three and you might remember Hubbard from that freaking team game that fell apart. He was the one that hit Tannehill to change the course of that game aime. He's an absolute beast, strong as hell, tough against the rune and he can get you with his pass rush too. He's second on the team with nine pressures. And yet again it's an interesting matchup because Greg Little is such a strong stout

right tackle. Do you have strength on strength there? And then Joseph Paca is a guy to keep an eye on number fifty eight. He's got just four pressures this year, but he's a guy that can literally rush any gap, mug up and in the a gaps come off the edge. So if they mix their fronts and go with some type of odd or bear front or three man front locate number fifty eight, because he could well be that extra rusher. Overall, I just really liked the way this

Dolphins offensive lines protecting. They face some of the top pass rushes in the NFL, and the production has been there Dolphins running backs versus Bengals linebackers. I was curious to see their run defense production through three games and got to thinking, have they faced a fullback yet? And they have. It's one of those things where I had the hypothesis and it didn't wind up working out for me.

But Derek Watt of the Steelers was the fullback they face, and they held Pittsburgh to seventy seven rushing yards on twenty attempts. It's a really good defense. I mean, we'll see about Reader being down, but they are stout up front and those guys free up. Logan Wilson who never leaves the field. He's a straw that stirs the drink in that base four to five they run. And a Keem Davis gay here, who some draft gurus thought might be a safety at this level. He's not. He's just

a good linebacker that runs like a safety. He's kind of their sub package. Mix and match guy, but also he's the the two in that base four to five. Can they find a way to stack up the Dolphins offensive line, I'm not so sure if if it's gonna be that easy to replace DJ Reader with, you know, big Rob Hunt and Liam Eikenberg and Connor Williams, Barren Downhill on those guys. We saw the lanes open up

on the two touchdown runs. If we can get those consistently between the twenties, then we can get more explosives we've seen occasionally here in this running game. With that, with the conversion factor, I think we're just on the cusp of getting things going there. This game really is crazy, and I'm typing this as I watch the tape, look at the numbers and concerned to the fact or consider the play styles. But it really is another familiar type of foe when you get to the spot fast running

backs versus fast linebackers. All right, still with us, let's go ahead and pivot now to the Bengals offense versus the Dolphins defense. And uh, let's see if didn't get a chance to check out coach McDaniels Tuesday presser as well as two A tongue Byla. Go ahead and get to the team YouTube channel. You can also find Jalen Waddles miked up from the game on Sunday on their picking it back up here with the Dolphins defense versus Bengals offense, quarterback versus safety, and you know the Bengals

offense personnel wise, they just don't mix a lot. Eleven personnel has been run eight one pent of the times, four or five times, right, twelve personnel seven point five percent of the time. There's one percent each from O two and twenty two, which is no backs, two tight ends and two backs two tight ends. And then they have one play from a four receiver set. And they also have nine percent of their offense with heavy offense or a heavy personnel package with an extra offensive lineman.

So you basically get eleven personnel, one back, one tight end, three receivers, twelve personnel one back, two tight ends, two receivers, or heavy personnel six offensive lineman. That's basically your offense. You get. Defenses have had ton of success when they run cover two against this offense because Joe Burrow loves to hit his drop, hitch up and throw in rhythm on his first read. The Jets did not run like any Cover two last week, and they got vertical on

that Jets defense. They again eleven personnel and they often go four wide with a tight end as kind of one of those extra guys, and it's often two by two with mixing left in the backfield to pick up the extra rusher. So you can get six man in protection,

which you know. To me says you can dial up that five oh look and blitz and get some stimulated pressures on Joe Burrow because if there's one thing that he does, it's drop his eyes against pressure, because maybe it's been kind of built into him over the last couple of years with how they've protected him, which hasn't

been that good. But the Dolphin's ability to kind of confuse the quarterback and the rush scheme to get free runners, that could be a huge difference in this game, because he's really good at kind of ducking him behind the offensive line and picking his spots on where to move when he has really light feet. But if you get free runners right in his face, especially with Javon and Brandon or Jerome Baker or even off the edge of the Van Ginkle, like I don't think he gets away

from those guys the way Josh Allen did. So that five oh look I think is a really good idea for this defense in this game. And you know, Burrow's superpower to me is that ability to get off the spot, but also to stand under fire and deliver accurate football's and the way he manages the pocket. There's a long highlight reel of him sensing immediate pressure where he kind of just ducks him behind the line, searches for escape routes and very Houdini like often finds them. A good

chunk of their offense. Last Sunday came against a blitz look where he gets pelted and throws a dime to Tyler Boyd and then the Jets missed two tackles on the back end and it turns a sixteen yard play into a fifty six yard touchdown with forty yards after the miss tackles. So it's a big part of their offense. And we have to tackle better this week, no question about that. And that's an evergreen thing. But you know, I understand Josh Allen is sort of otherworldly, but he

came into the game. We came into that game with only eight missed tackles. We missed thirteen in that game, So that's got to get better. Um, this offense out of eleven personnel will condense things and the way Sean McVeigh did because Zach Taylor's Sean McVeigh tree guy, I guess. But when they condense that stuff, that only increases the

likelihood of that five. Oh. Look to get those simulated pressures where you have multiple guys across the board, you have all your your fits in the running game, and then you can you know, you can even drop out a guy like Zach Seeler Christian Wilkins because they don't know where it's coming from. That's the idea. I think we're gonna see a very good rush plan from the Dolphins in this game. Javon Holland and Brandon Jones, getting

back to the safety's they're so good. Both have strip sacks that directly or nearly put points on the board for our offense. They are right near the top of the leaderboard and pressures and sacks by safeties once again. And Joe Burrow this year against the Blitz. He's six with eight point seven yards per attempt, three touchdowns and a one thirty four point five passer rating. When he's not blitzed six six yards per attempt, three touchdowns, four picks,

and a seventy two point to pass ranks. You're probably telling yourself, Travis, why would we blit? Why would be blitz Well, the past rushes he's faced have not been anywhere near like this Dolphins defense can get after with that. They played the Jets. The Steelers are very good, so don't get me wrong, and they turn him over four times, So there you go defensively, but their secondary is not Miami secondary. They did have t. J. Watt I'm getting off the rails here, and then Game two against the

Cowboys it's kind of similar idea. They had a good pass rush as well. So the defenses have been okay, but not it's not like anything. They they'll see what the Miami Dolphins in terms of how they can create those pressures and stimulated pressure looks against US Bengals offense under pressure forty seven percent completion, six point two yards

per attempt, four touchdowns, one pick. Again, obviously getting pressure with four is always a winning formula, but really forcing him off the spot and having more than just one flyby is effective, whether it's a blitz or not. So if he makes the first guy miss, get that second guy in there, and you can really, really really shut

on this offense. They love to throw the ball down the field, and the way Javan has been covering back there, you know, yet again, makes this a very interesting matchup because I think that he can sky over the top of those fifty fifty balls they love to take and get a couple of hands on balls, maybe pick one off. This week, teams have just not gotten deep on us.

In fact, Miami has the fifth fewest completions on balls traveling twenty or more air yards down the field, and I think Javan is a big, big part of that. Speaking of those balls down the field, receivers and tight ends of the Bengals verse, the Miami cornerbacks will do that. Next here on the Drivetime podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation back here on a Wednesday afternoon published around noon today, I believe it was,

depending on when you hear this podcast. We are coming up on Dolphins and Bengals. We pick it back up on our preview here taking a look at the Bengals receivers and tight ends versus the Miami corners, and you know again talking about that cover two look that has had a lot of success against the Bengals offense this year. I just like that because of their affinity for attacking vertically.

Like remember that twenty nineteen Dolphins team where they just basically threw fifty fifty balls to Devonte Parker and Preston Williams until Preston got hurt and it was just DeVante Parker. That's basically how those function offenses. Primarily Joe Burrow wants to find that matchup, isolate the one on one opportunity and throw a fifty fifty ball and let those guys go make plays. And last year Tee Higgins had the most contested catches in football and Jamaar Chase Waste. That's

who they were in college, that's who they've been as pros. Conversely, on vertical shots, no receiver had more targets of twenty plus eight yards then Chase and Higgins was twenty in that category forty and three targets respectively. That's sixty three divided by seven. Team was that three per game? Four per game. They're gonna take their deep shots. We mentioned

the personnel rarely changing. It's kind of funny because they will go twelve personnel and they attached two wise into the formation and that's typically when they go max protect, play action, deep shot, two verticals, and if they get a one on one, they take it to either side of the fields. That's why I think Javon Holland in that post and the way he reads things, I think a big game for Javon Holland could be coming. We

saw x shadows to Fawn Diggs on Sunday. Pro Football Focus had Digs catching just three or five targets for forty seven yards in that matchup. That's exceptional against the league's leading receiver. Watching that Jets tape last week, Man Sauce Gardner, you can play huh, but Chase had one target on Sauce and no catches. He had just twenty nine yards on ten total targets. But don't let that lull you into a false sense of security. He's a big time playmaker who can turn the game on his

head with the ability he has to separate downfield. He's got this innate ability to stack and pull away from guys with that physicality, which I'm excited to see X match that, because that's what X brings as well. But again, stop me if you've heard this before. Another Premier matchup with clashing styles X on Chase is an appointment viewing. Then Higgins is show so sure handed and even if you're all over him, he can still pull it down.

I'm curious to see the matchup there. It feels like the first match up what we have where it's not like similar styles because Higgins at six ft five do you go need him? Who goes six ft one? Do you go Cohu or Crossing who are five ten each?

And how about the game Nick had last Sunday Man just too just had to kick his confidence up another level of that showing and the hits keep coming here with the Bengals attack though, because Tyler Boyd inside is one of the shiftiest slots in the game and he's so sure handed and need him had a bunch of success against him back in that matchup in And that's why I'm so curious to see what Bowyer, Madison, Gregory

and certain come up with on that back end? Does ex shadow where does Nick go and what's the rest look like as a result, um, you know, looking forward to getting Byron Jones back because that answers this question pretty pretty fully. But they're tight end group is interesting and like we said, it's almost always eleven personnel, but they had very balanced workloads last week. Mitchell Wilcox thirty nine snaps, Hayden Hurst twenty six snaps, Devin Asiasi twenty

four snaps. The theme across all those guys as they can block, so you have to be careful to not get trapped into thinking eleven personnel equals pass because they will run behind that tight end attached and Mixing is one of the best backs in football. More on that in a moment. Offensive line verse defensive line. This is where you have to win the matchup. If you're the Dolphins to defense, you know they can't protect long enough for Burrow to consistently get to that second read and

thus he drops the eyes. And that's why I think some potential for playmaking here, sacks, big plays, splash plays, takeaways is a big part of this. This equation from Miami's defense, haven't had that the last couple of games. That's what the defense does. I think they face two of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. In fact, the two best current quarterbacks I would say have been Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen. I would say two has been the third best quarterback in the leagas here so far

through the first three games. But there's a there's a little bit of drop off here in this game, at least through the first three games. So hopefully Miami can get back to the takeaways. If they do that, that will be a big way to win this football game. The Bengals address this offensive line very heavily this offseason with three free agent acquisitions. They did draft Jackson Carmen last year, but he got beat out by Ricky Cordelle Wolson, who won a camp battle for that left guard position.

They have not had an offensive line miss a snap this year. All five guys have played a hundred and fifty eight snaps. The lineup and pressure numbers are as follows. Jonah Williams third team pressures allowed, Wolson nine, Ted Carriss six, Alex cap Of five, and Lyle Collins six and Hakim a. Denji has played thirteen snaps this season and it was all heavy personnel. It's all running plays. They bring him

onto the field, he just runs the ball. No mystery in short yards what they want to do, and again mixed intends to convert those. But the Dolphins have the best, in my opinion, short yards defense and NFL two, so more good on good interesting left side options there. Williams was the first round pick, but his arm length is well below the league average for the threshold at left tackle, and this edge group between Agba and Phillips has incredible length.

But then again, it's not been very pretty for Lyle Collins so far in Cincinnati, So which way do you pick your matchups? On the two tapes I watched, he's often been off balance and can get got with some of those push pull type of moves that Ogba really excels with. So if Ogas got enough gas in the tank after playing seventy freaking snaps and playing his butt off on Sunday, I would think he has a chance

to have a good game here as well. The Dolphins find various ways to generate pressure, and we know that Wilkins and Seiler are absolutely wrecking shop right now. They're so freaking good. Wilkins has some snaps in the nose and ray kwon Davis's absence last week, and man, he was in the backfield before you can blink a couple of times. What an elite player. Ted Carriss is having a nice year right now, but I'm curious to see him match up with the power of Wilkins and Seiler

and Davis. That was kind of his bugaboo down here. Has it gotten better? Miami just has so many guys, so many ways they can bring. I'm not gonna pretend to know how they're going to attack, but between you know, Ogba, Jalen Gink, Melvin Ingram, Trey Flowers, Christian Wilkins, Zach Seiler, you know which Jerome in there to boot. I think you have multiple directions you can go, and it's going to be up to Josh Boyer to decide how to push those buttons, which, by the way, he was phenomenal

against the Bills. Tip of the captain coach Boyer. What a plan they had for Josh Allen Men's six potential turn has gone by the boards and seven different times they had him in the grasp and he couldn't get away. That's as good as you can draw it up. Will execute by our next time. But it was a great performance by Dolphins defense. Running backs and linebackers. We finished here by looking at Joe Mixing and some g P Ryan.

P Ryan has been a really nice third down option for them, even had a clutch touchdown grab last week against the Jets, but they don't always go to him. Mixing is a super effective back on third down in his own right, and they like to sneak him up into that A gap. Remember the Rams game a couple of years ago when they just couldn't handle our blitz and they kept putting Mick uh Darryl Henderson up in the A gaps to go pick off the A gap blitzers.

The Bengals do that too, But sometimes he'll he'll bluff a pass pro and just leak into the route against that mugged up linebackers, So you have to either plaster him or knock him down or just go get the quarterback. Keep an eye on that. This week on the Jets tape, they had him running a lot of routes from that position, So if he does it, you know, go get the quarterback or find him. But Jerome versus Joe is a

good one. He'll run routes, he'll scam protect they feed him the football hopefully Jerome could bring the exact same game he brought last week because he was fantastic in that one. Then kind of another one of these situations where we gotta see what Bowyer wants to do because of that eleven personnel grouping often takes linebackers off the field, but they run it really well from that grouping too, so it can be kind of a pick your poison. It's a tough matchup there for Boyer in that regard.

I thought Duke Riley was really good in the game on Sunday. His snaps have increased each week, and that shouldn't be a surprise. Very intrigued by his speed at that position making an impact there. Mixons averaging just one point nine yards after contacts will keep that going. That's

a that's a number that they can't win with. In this game, he has just two runs of ten plus yards, averaging two point eight yards per carry if they do that, And it's a bit of an anomaly because he averages four point one yards per carrying his career and two point eight two yards after contact. But I see those numbers and it sounds to me like a lot of third lungs, which is exactly how the Bengals will get

the trouble in this game. Pro Football Focus has the Bengals averaging over five yards per carry running right and under four yards per carry running left. Kappa and Collins have been big time people movers and that regard special teams. Evan McPherson in the same post season run last year seven of nine this year, but two of two on fifty plus, including a fifty nine yard or so once they get to the forty yard line, they are well

within his range. Kevin Huber is averaging forty eight point seven yards per punt this year, and Jason Sanders hasn't missed yet. Fun fact, this is the fewest amount of field goals he's kicked through three games in his career, just two. He's a weapon, as we've mentioned a few times over the years on here, but a weapon you love when you can keep him in the garage and don't have to use them too often. He's made all eleven extra points. Keep making extra points. I'll take that

all day. Thomas Morristead the free kick last week was an absolute missile and a huge game changing type of play from your punter the boot to Bethel to pin him at the two yard line. Punt team has been doing so dang good this year. Outside the last one on Sunday. He's averaging forty three point nine yards per punt, but consistently putting teams deep d v o A ranks Cincinnati's six nineteenth and special teams Miami's twenty nine. That's

gotta get better. What's at stake? A chance to get to four now is o small thing, especially against the team that won ten games, made the postseason and went all the way to the Super Bowl, a team that was eight and three and the one seed before injuries took their toll. And a team who was arguably the second hottest team in the playoffs last year before they got clipped by the Chiefs in the Divisional round, and

obviously everyone's favorite for the Super Bowl this year. And then a win Thursday would mean beating the defending conference champions. If you get to four and o against that schedule, wow, And frankly, I just think as far as the eye test goes, Buffalo and Baltimore are two of the top five teams in the NFL right now, So through three games,

you know you're not just winning. This is not beating a bad Brown's team, a banged up Colts team, and an overrated Falcons team before going to the Saints and getting blown out. It's not three and oh running where you barely beat the Jets, you barely beat the Titans and you get a miracle finished against the Raiders to win that game, and then week four you get beat by thirty one points against the Patriots. This is different this time, and you could almost have. You just couldn't

devise a more difficult schedule to start the season. And that's before you consider turning around four days after emotionally and physically taxing game to go on the road. We've learned a lot about this team's resolved through three games. They'll need that this week. So what's at stake is keeping distance between us and the rest of the division. To head into that many buy and get ready for

the Jets and the MetLife takeover. If we can win this week and if Buffalo somehow los us to Baltimore two game lead, and after that you have Vikings and Steelers in our building, Lions and Bears on the road, and then back home for two games against the Jacobe Brissette led Browns and the Davis Mills led Texans with a bye sandwich between that. You get to four now, I think you'll feel pretty good about this team's chances

this year. Three keys of the game established the running game, talked about keeping the defense fresh, keeping those guys on the sideline, and kind of flipping the script on the Dolphins plays this week. And plus, you know Cheetah and Penguin just thirty nine snaps last week. They're fresh, they're ready to go. The key number two, that's a weird way to say that. Key number two limit the Bengals deep passing game. They get vertical down the field, those

deep shots. We take away those. I don't think they're gonna have much success against you. And number three pressure Joe Burrow tell those eyes behind the line gets plenty of pressure, sack thirteen times in the first two games, and their offense was not very good as a result. Do that again, they'll have no chance of beating you. The week four picks, since we don't have a podcast for you tomorrow, we're gonna do it right here on

the preview show. I was gonna take the Bengals because of the short week, and there's the what's being asked of this team on this you know hurricane week and injury week, in short week and ninety snaps on defense. But honestly, after watching the tape, I'm going back to the Dolphins. So give me the Dolphins over the Bengals. Give me the Vikings over the Saints in London. Give

me the Lions over the Seahawks. I'll take the Steelers over the Jets, the Giants over the Bears, although I don't want to pick either team, maybe a tie, I don't know. Titans over the Colts, the Chargers over the Texans. The Falcons over the Browns is probably my biggest upset of the week. Give me the Commanders over the Cowboys. NFC Schames are not fun to watch. Philly over Jacksonville, Baltimore over Buffalo. Let's do it, baby, Come on, Arizona

over the cart over the Cardinals over the Panthers. The Raiders get their first win over. Then it goes the Packers against Brian Hoyer. Give me Aaron Rodgers and that one. Chiefs over Bucks on Sunday Night and Rams over Niners on Monday Night. No college preview this week. Gokug's still

heartbroken by that. No guest. We are officially onto Cincinnati, and the next time I talk to you guys will be the Thursday night recap show, or rather Friday morning that would be the recap, and then we'll do the film review over the weekend. Enjoy a Sunday slate without the Finns playing. My wife's on town too, so I getta watch like twelve hours of football. Pretty excited about that.

We'll pick it back up Tuesday at the quarter pool and or what used to be the quarter pool in the sixteen game schedule, same idea, and we'll progress as we normally do to Jets week Twitter Spaces show tonight. Check us out me, Seth and o j eight o'clock talking Dolphins and Bengals. Weill also litigate the Bills game further in the meantime. You all please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcast. Leave us a rating, leave us a review. You can follow me on Twitter

at Wingfield NFL. Follow the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out Seth and Juice on the Fish Tank. Check out our international podcast across the entire network. Check out our YouTube channel for media availabilities, Dolphins Today, Fish Tank and Drive Time content live on that YouTube channel as well, and last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot Com. Until next time finds up Caroline Daddy, he's already home. Stay safe, everybody,