Dolphins Bills Week 2 Preview

preview Thursday. We're gonna go position by position and break down this matchup Dolphins versus the Bills at hard Rock Stadium, give you the keys to the game and tell you what the Dolphins and Bills must do to claim victory. Plus we'll hear sound from quarterback to a Tongue by Loa and receiver Will Fuller, who makes his return to the lat up this week. And we'll break down coaches Wednesday press conference and will also pick the Thursday night game.

A busy, busy show from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Drive Time Podcast. Before we get into this lengthy preview we have planned on the podcast, let's go ahead and start here with coach flores Is Wednesday morning press conference. At first, he was asked about Ray Kuan Davis, and he just detailed that he's not going to really go into detail on a player's medical situation, so we're taking a day by day.

And then coach kind of elaborated on why he feels that way, and he just said, back when I played, I had injuries and we'd say, hey, it's a three week timeline, we'd have setbacks, and then you just kind of wind up not delivering on that particular expectation or timeline. So some insight there as to why coach believes that's

the best method to take. He also talked about Josh Allen and this Buffalo Bill's team, saying you have to give Josh Allen different looks, but you also want to do what you do well and stick with that as well. So I thought that was a very interesting I mean from coach, because we know about variety in this defense, but also they have certain things they do better than other things, like any other team, any other defense across

the league. He also was asked our corrections easier to make after wins, and he just said, corrections are corrections, and the best thing about it here is that guys in this room, in this building are open to the corrections. They are open to the critiques to get better and improve, and they want to improve. Coach also said we'll know what to expect from Will four this week after a

full week of practice. He of course returned to the practice field after he was not here at practice last week as part of his suspension for one week from last season's p E D popping And we also, coach said, want to be aggressive. They talked about the first and fourteen pass play from Tuah to Davante Parker, which actually we learned later on in the day that to check to that on his own accord, and we'll come back

to that here on the podcast later on. But coach that we always want to be aggressive, especially in that situation, didn't want them to have the football back, and he also said we'll have to be aggressive against flow as well. Finally, Adam Shaheen was back on the practice field on Wednesday after missing week one on the covid I R list.

The entire injury report is actually out and the Dolphins had three players limited at Wednesday's practice, Adam Shaheen, Andrew Van Ginkel, and Preston Williams, with four players as full participants in practice. Clayton Federalum, John Jenkins, DeVante Parker, and e Land and Roberts. For Buffalo, three players did not practice, two of them veteran rest days for Mario Addison and Cole Beasley. Gabe Davis has an ankle and did not

participate in practice on Wednesday. Buffalo had three players limited at Wednesday's practice, star La Tulay, Isaiah Mackenzie, and Matt Mlano, and Emmanuel Sanders was listed on the injury report as a full participant in Buffalo's Wednesday practice. Speaking of the Buffalo Bills, they say nobody's circles the wagons, but we'll see about that comes Sunday. Hopefully they do have no wagons to circle. What the hell am I talking about? But this week was different. Prep for this week, having

an actual tape on the team made it different. But one game is obviously never enough, so we go back and look at last season as well, specifically, the second most recent game this Miami Dolphins team played against the same Buffalo Bills team in the finale of Week seventeen, and defensive coordinator Josh Bowyer talked about having seen that tape several times. Bless his heart. What a tough task. That is that there's a takeaway every time you watch

film every session. You want to maximize what you can take away from each tape. And I'm definitely with coach on that thought, because you know, we do the Tuesday Omissions podcast because you just cannot possibly gather a full fifty three man roster evaluation. In addition to what schematically teams were trying to accomplish, there is so much that

goes into one single football game. To think you can come away from one broadcast copy watch maybe you're having a couple of beers and some wings and you're going to the bathroom between certain plays. To think you can come out of that game with a full evaluation and not have like several several questions, to me, is crazy. So I thought it was cool to hear from Coach there about how you want to watch the same tape a couple of times trying to maximize your ability to

get information from that tape. But it just made me think about you can't really have a nuanced opinion or a really informed opinion on the game until you at least know what you're watching, but also watch that tape several times. So That's kind of what I did here this week with both the Buffalo Bills versus the Pittsburgh Steelers as well as the Miami Dolphins at the New

England Patriots. And before we get into the matchups, I want to just go ahead and talk a little bit about the Bills and their current position or status, status

or standing in the NFL hierarchy. This is something I want to do a little bit more of this year compared to last season with regards to these season previews, because I think on top of the matchups and the actual xs and ohs, which is, you know, my favorite part of the sport we all love if you can't tell from the podcast already, but a very close second is the drama and the storylines that go into each game, Like there is no better drama than the National Football League.

And I'm not talking about made up narratives or the types of things that can be really overplayed or drawn out. Maybe just played up is the word I'm looking for here, the phrase I'm looking for. But what I mean by this, I like to look at the arc of the team and despite the fact that they're a divisional foe and a real thorn in our side the last couple of years. Man, I respect the hell out of Sean McDermott and what

he's done up in Buffalo. He came in back in seventeen and quickly started to make the roster to his vision. And it's not all that different from the types of characters that Brian Flores and Chris Career are looking forward down here in Miami. Tough team first, guys who love

and prioritize football. McDermott and Brandon Bean worked to get assets back for the talent they had in the roster with guys like Sammy Watkins and Marcel Darius and Ronald Darby trading all those guys a way ahead of that seventeen season, which was greeted with backlash at the time, but you look at it now. I mean, shoot, even in that seventeen season, they went to the playoffs that year with Tyrod Taylor, and they struggled in that game at ten of three loss in Jacksonville in that playoff run.

But then they made their play for the quarterback next season with Josh Allen, and they went up the draft board to get this uber talented quarterback out of Wyoming a much you know, not much maligned, but there was a lot of critics of Josh Allen's game. And for those of you that were with me back with the lockdown Dolphins days, remember that I was a big, big Josh Allen fan. I even wrote a story on l o D dot com that he was the only quarterback in that class that made sense for Miami to draft

because he could develop behind Ryan Tannehill. While you gave Tannehill eighteen season to see if he could recapture form that he had before that knee injury. But the Bills make the play for Allen and he continues this path

too unique path, I should say, to superstart him. He showed you the flashes of the physical brilliance, but ultimately struggle with accuracy and just showing a little bit of chaotic nature in the pocket to his game or at the top of the drop to not really have a plan when he saw pressure and when he had to

get off that spot. But I still thought you could see that in twenty nine, his first playoff year, that he was working with something that could eventually become great, which we saw last year and it did, but before they had built a damn good defense at all three levels, especially that secondary, which was essentially remade in one off season with Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde and Trey White who were all still there. And last year was a bit of a step back from a production standpoint, and

they had issues keeping some guys healthy. They contributed to that, but I think their improvement could make this truly one of the contenders to represent the a f C in the Super Bowl this season's let's go ahead and dive into this crucial matchup on Sunday at hard Rock Stadium, one of old Dolphins oh and one Buffalo Bills at one o'clock kick under eighty eight degree temperatures, partly cloudy skies and about sixty humidity, and there is some possible

moisture in the forecast, as there always is this time of year in South Florida. But we take a look at the Pittsburgh game ask week to help us inform ourselves of the Buffalo Bills, and we start here at the Bills quarterbacks versus the Dolphins safeties. And I alluded to Josh Allen's early career scouting and his ability to break this habit in year three and what it was

was at the top of the drop. When pressure arrived, the hands would separate from the football, so the footballs in one hand all of a sudden, and he would get off the spot seemingly without a plan for where he was going to go or where the next read

or decision came from. And what I mean by this is that he would get himself into a position where he's not a threat to throw the football, which is ironic because this is a guy that can drive the ball from quiet literally every single arm angle and every single platform known to man on a football field. But you kind of saw it again against the Steelers, and

that's where they did a good job. I thought of having sound gap integrity on their rushes and getting in Josh Allen's face and here's the key without letting him escape that initial wave. Once that happens, you're so toast. You're so so toast. So it's an interesting dynamic. Do you try to heat him up the blitz or do you play coverage and force him to scan and make plays.

Either way, you probably have to spy or have some type of plan for him when he tries to get loose with the legs and just looking back at his rushing numbers against Miami over the course of his career in six games, three hundred and forty yards in the ground, three touchdowns. Now, to be fair, two hundred and thirty of those yards and two of those touchdowns as well were before the current regime arrived here, back in before the current structure or defensive philosophy we have now was

originally in place. So it's really more like a hundred and ten yards and four games, which is a way better production against the running quarterback like himself, and it's far more sustainable if you want to beat this Buffalo offense. But he has gotten us through the air, So how do we stop that? Well, the way Pittsburgh did it was this. They blitzed him seven times on fifties six dropbacks,

basically not at all. They pressured with four and we saw t. J. Watt and Melvin Ingram have success doing that. And we'll save that for the offensive line versus defensive line portion. But when they did blitz, Alan was two for six with nine yards, also took a sack, so maybe there's something to that, especially with reguards to mixing up how you do it. I remember the first game against US back in with the Buffalo Bills, Bobby McCain

got him on a cat blitz. Remember he was a corner before a safety, and we saw some really clever blitzes like that. Against New England, Byron Jones got home on a kind of a sort of a sack and eventually a fumble from mac Jones. So it's in the bag of tricks. But you always wonder exactly what Flow and Boyer and the staff wants to do. We heard Brian Baldinger does great video work breaking down the game

every single Monday, Tuesday, really really every day. But he had a comment in his post week one breakdown saying the Dolphins defense is tough to get ready for. They're tough, they're multiple, they're talented, they scheme it up well, they have talented players, and they do as much as any defense in the National Football League with all the variety

they have. So giving Alan different blitzes or rushers that can cross the wires with his pre snap, I d compared to his post snap that's going to be crucial. And on the top of you know Dolphins safety's is this kind of the position group we look at with the quarterbacks. Interesting usage with those guys in Week one, and we'll see how that changes. This week. I talked about the dichotomy of the Bills and Patriots offense, so

you could always see something completely different. But mccorty seventy four snaps, Eric Roe sixty five snaps, Javon Holland twenty four snaps, and we saw some Holland in the deep post, and on some of those reps you'd see both mccordy and row down in the hole, down close to the box and by the line of scrimmage, And I mean I knew what we also saw with Holland's versatility and

some work down in the muck. But with regards to the safety deployment, Brandon Jones played eleven snaps that were mostly in place of the injured Eric Rowe, who came off but went back in. But yeah, man, mccorty's versatility makes this defense even tougher than I thought. I love it.

His range, the instincts, the cover skills. He creates a whole other level of versatility because he can really play every single position in your defensive secondary And speaking of blitzing defensive backs and getting Josh Allen to the ground, man Javon hollandkin hit you, and he does it in a controlled nature where you just haven't really seen those big whiffs from him. He can come in under control and get the big dudes down to the ground. Just go back and look at the John H. Smith poppel

and forced fumble in the second quarter of that Patriots game. Now, last note here, and this involves our corners too, so we'll go ahead and pivot to that breakdown next our cornerbacks versus their skill players. But Miami still had six defensive backs eclipse at least twenty four snaps in the game against the Patriots team who hardly ran any three

wide sets in that game. And with the Bills and all the ten personnel they can run and how much they can challenge your defensive back depth, we could see a bit more of Brandon Jones or Justin Coleman and guys that were up and active but only played sparingly in that game on Sunday. So so more blitz numbers here for you. The Dolphins last year, in the Week two game on thirty seven, Josh Allen dropback splits him

sixteen times. He was nine for sixteen with a hundred and sixty seven yards and two touchdowns, and all four of his touchdown passes in that game camp came when he was under pressure. Are just a great game for him, despite the fact that he had two possible I n t s. Not go the Dolphins way. Then in weeks seventeen, kind of a similar script, only twenty seven drop backs this time, but twelve blitzes and once again ten for eleven, a hundred and thirty five yards and two touchdowns with

no picks. So basically over ten yards per attempt and a couple of t D tosses against the blitz and really a small amount of incompletion. So what does this tell you? Well, I think you have to try to find a way to generate pressure with him with four guys and then be selective with the blitz. Is not dialing up the blitz would be negligent because, like coach Flora said, it's something you're good at, so you do it.

But I think you picked your spots because we mentioned the blitz numbers against the Steelers and his throwing against pressure numbers. He was eight for nineteen with a hundred and nine yards and touchdown and no picks. That's five point seven yards per attempt and less than fifty complete.

You do that, you're gonna have a great chance to beat Buffalo and get out to that two no start here in the a f C. East on the day, Alan was thirty two and seventy yards and a touchdown pass just five point three yards per ten But watching the game in general, you know they were playing cover Ridge. They were flooding to the second level, getting bodies in that hooks or the hook zone, the curl zone, make life difficult on Alan in that area of the field.

May can be really proficient going down the football field, and they were moving Alan with power rushes and bull rushes, and they were willing to let Devin Singletary have some space. He had eleven carries for seventy two yards in the game. And Emmanuel standards with the guy. They seem to say, let's let him beat us because he got vertical a couple of times. And also Cole Beasley, you know Beasley, the guy that he's just not gonna get vertical very often. He had one of the lowest A dots in the

league year after year. But Emmanuel Sanders had his chances and they just couldn't quite connect. I'm sure we'll get better as the year goes along. In his first game with Josh Allen, but up front on that Bill's offensive line versus the Dolphins defensive line as we pivot now in our preview here pressure numbers allowed in Week one

for Buffalo. Dion Dawkins had five, John Feliciano had eight, Mitch Morris had three, uh Cody Ford almost had, Kobe Cody Ford had two, and Darryl Williams had five, so a total of ten twenty three pressures from the offensive line. And Ike Bodeger came in and allowed the pressure as well. But power rush moves, bowl rushing guys. Melvin Ingram really

gave some challenges of Dion Dawkins. I also saw him Cam hayk saw Cam Hayward due the exact same thing to both Mitch Morse and John Feliciano up in the interior. So guys that get a lot of push with length and power on the inside. Sure sucks that Rake Wan's down. That was his game. But this is why you build out the depth and why you get a John Jenkins

into your building. I'm not saying he plugs in plays for Ray Kwon Davis, but he still gives you the opportunity to keep Christian Zach and Adam Butler all fresh. So with that mind, I really think that this is Zack Seler's chance to make a big impact. You know, the Week two game last year, he only played sixteen snaps.

Then he had twenty two snaps in the Week seventeen game, and nine of those were in run defense and thirteen is a pass rusher, and he had two pressures including a quarterback hit and a parent run stop, so effective in that week's seventeen game. I think his length can give those guys all they can handle at the other

interior spot. I like Wilkins and Butler's matchup with Cody Ford for their wickness and ability to keep their frames clean, change direction, and really put the impetus on four to make his decisions and be stout with his technique and and and his urgency to get to those past sets now off the edge. Emmanuel Ogba had seven pressures in the two games last year, but only two of those

came against Darryl Williams. Now. Williams had his handful on Sunday against Watt with five pressures allowed in that Week one game, but Ogba worked inside two and that kind of goes back to our point about the interior. I think that's where you can attack. Plus you want Alan going side to side. Once he steps up in the middle and escapes through the middle of the pocket, that's

tough to defend. Also on the edge, Andrew van Ginko had a nice game last year in the Week's seventeen finale, including a sack that got the Bills off the field. More of those drives also had two total pressures and four run stops, and that was working against Dion Dawkins, so he has some success against the Bills left tackle.

Dawkins goes six ft five three twenty and gain has showing the propensity to get under the blockers with his side with that have that size and length and dip under those guys and corner and flat into the quarterback. Hopefully he can do that again. Last point here, and this is purely my opinion and we'll see how it plays out. I think this is the opponent for why you draft Jalen Phillips. His ability to win as a one on one pass rusher, at least in college and

as a prospect. Some of the things that t. J. Watt did with the swipes, the flash move to throw the hands to draw out the hands of the tackle. That's some of I think Phillips's best traits and something he can have success with he puts it together in this game. We kind of saw a waddle in Holland have their arrival moments last week with the big catches and the big force fumble. I think we could do the same this week from Jalen Phillips onto our next group.

And this is a star Power on star Power group here man Buffalo receivers and tight ends versus the Miami DBS. And going back to the Brian Baldinger video, you guys all saw that, right, He said you couldn't even fit in an American Express car between these guys. Talking about how good Byron Jones and Exaviing Howard are in coverage,

he said, they're as good as anybody, those two guys. Now, we didn't have Jones after the third snap of the Week two game last year, but we did have him in Week seventeen and he got that big pick on the first drive, but the rest of the game obviously didn't work out that way. Now, We've covered this at length, but the Bills are going to operate almost exclusively in eleven personnel and ten personnel Sunday versus Steelers, they gained only five yards on packages other than those two packages.

Ten personnel provided a hundred and fourteen yards and eleven personnel provided two hundred and fifty two yards. And actually they do go five wide more than most, but they actually lost yardage out of that package on Sunday negative nine yards, because two of the three sacks came when the Bills were in empty packages. So something to think

about there as well. But from ten personnel twenty four plays, eleven personnel forty one plays, and then oh personnel where you have five receivers, that's nine plays and the rest was just eleven place. So they basically go three wide every play, if not four wide or five wide. So what does that mean, Well, it means this. Stefon digs seventy nine snaps in the game, Emmanuel Sanders seventy nine snaps in the game. Cole Beasley seventies seven snaps in

the game. Gabe Davis had forty three, and Isaiah McKenzie had fifteen. He left with the shoulder injury and came back all within that game. Dawson Knox also played forty eight snaps the Buffalo tight end. And let's get to Eric Rowe here, because Knox had zero catches on Eric Rowe last year in the first game they went elsewhere, just one target, no catches. Week seven team, well they try him this time. Seven targets against Eric row one catch.

But you know they obviously had offensive success elsewhere, So we go to the other matchups. They moved their receivers around to alter the matchups. So X and Byron both had five targets in that week's seven team game against Gabe Davis, Stefon Diggs, Cole Beasley. Now they add Emmanuel Sanders basically in place of John Smoke Brown. But you look at the styles of these players going up against each other. Byron Jones matches Stefon Diggs's profile more than

anybody else. And I think xaviing Howard matches up well with the Gabe Davis. And of course you're gonna have your doubles, your brackets, your different plans. But again, those guys don't really travel. They stand on one side of the fields. By Aroon Jones told us earlier, So the Buffalo Bills can then kind of create their matchups as they did last year in both those games, moving both those guys or all those guys I should say, all across the formation. But this is the real premier matchup

of the game. Can Miami prevent those big crossing routes slasher that killed them? Can they stay in man coverage and prevent the rub routes and the pick routes and Josh Allen's ability to buy time to create more time for those man cover routes to uncover. That's gonna be the key. Mixing up some zone here and there as well to get Josh Allen uncomfortable office spot. Man. I

can't wait to watch that matchup. Moving to the beef of the field, the middle of the field, the Bills running backs versus Dolphins linebackers now running the football just really isn't their preference. I mean, at least it wasn't in the Week one game. Devin Singletary had eleven rushes but did go for seventy two yards to have two fumbles too, and the Steelers very rarely crowded the line of scrimmage. We mentioned the blitz numbers but there really

wasn't even simulated pressure. They would show guys in the gaps or in the a gas rather or coming off the edge, or safeties down in the box back out. They put bodies in the hook zone and they kept him there in that second level to help protect against the Bills spread and quit game. Put more pieces in that line of sight of the quarterback and get yourself

between the man and the football. And then also they were hanging out largely in split safety looks throughout the course of the game, which I thought really helped them keep the football in front of them and not let Buffal look at those biggest posts of plays that they have just really torn teams apart with the last year or so. Now, a split safety look will often call

for the running game. But even in a game where they were leading through three quarters and within one score all the way till late in the fourth, they went to or with a fifty six past a run ratio, and Alan did have nine runs in there as well, but only a few of those were designed largely scrambles.

With his runs. As for the personnel, Zack Moss was a healthy scratch and all of Singletary's runs came from the shotgun, and he likes to press the line and change direction quickly at the line when he finds his gap.

So being gaps dound not just in your past rush, but in the running game is going to be so critical in this game, because if you can get him to bubble or change directions before he hits the line, then you can really limit that run game, get into those third down the longs, and that's when you hope you can get Josh Allen to press and make some mistakes.

Now in this way, I liked Jerome Baker in this game a lot because he's built to play a game plan that can rely on speed and spacing and do some blitzing and covering the backs and some tight ends dissecting the run game. It's more about box count than just straight up winning hat on a hat and getting

physical and climbing your guard to that second level. I think Bakes do for a big game in this one, and I'll be curious to see how it Land and Roberts has used because this offense typically requires a lot of sub packages and plenty of nickel and dime and even quarter defenses, and when you add defensive backs somebody

has to come off from the front seven. I'll be curious to see how much we see from the land and Roberts and Brendan Scarlett in this game, who had serious, serious roles and snap counts last week in New England. Overall offensive thoughts. Here, they can go tempo, they can go quick counts on on second down and short if they if they get a second and two, they'll come to the line and snap that thing, run and get a first down and start all over. So you have

to get lined up and get ready. They're quick passing game. Win behind the chains. They like to go if it's like a first and twenty, get a quick hitter for six or seven yards and give themselves back, you know, in amageable down distance. And then also one of the players of the game, I thought Alan had standers deep down the field and overshot him. If he hits those,

they're gonna be tough to beat. But if he misses those, and you can maybe hope to take your gamble that he does miss a couple of those, that's when you have a real chance to beat this Bill's offense. Uh. There was a fifty two point three percent blitz rate week one from Miami that was number two behind just Tampa Bay. And interestingly enough, Pittsburgh's was one eight percent dead last in the NFL and blitz right, but they also got plenty of pressure on Alan. So different opposing

attacks there with the Steelers and Dolphins. Will see how Miami wants to attack them on Sunday. On the other side of the football, how about this Dolphins offense, you know rewatching that we're going with the quarterbacks versus safety. Here are two a tongue of Byla Michael Hide Jordan Poyer rewatching the tape a couple of times. I really only saw three or four plays. I think too it

would like to have back. But I thought he really changed a lot of the misnomer's out there, like his a dot over ten yards, he threw the ball to the perimeter law and effectively, he threw the ball deep and effectively. Now the Steelers got the ball out quickly against Buffalo two point three seconds on average was actually the fastest in the NFL this week for Big Ben too was at two point five nine seconds, which was ninth most or ninth quickest per Next Gen Stats, and

Ben had a similar aggressive rating. In fact, this combo both of those guys put together is what you want. A quick ball out time and a good aggressiveness percentage without sacrifice and aggressiveness. Ben's was thirty one point three percent and two US was twenty five point nine percent. Ben had the second highest aggressive rate and two of the fourth this week in the National Football League. But

tous eyes are going to be critical this week. And the thing about this defense with Hide and Poyer is that they are interchangeable in terms of what they can do. And to talked about this. We'll get to the sound here and just a little bit. They can both kill you with showing up in places you will expect, like the robber roll for instance. So to A needs to be able to move those two guys and account for them at all times. And you know I wrote this part of the script before I talked to Toa today.

Say that five times fast, and then to gave me a great quote kind of confirming what I had put here on tape and on my my notes. Let's go ahead and go to Dolphins quarterback to A Tonga Byla on the Bills. Safeties and defense in general. Have a couple of safeties have been together for a long time

there with Mica Hyde and Jordan. I just wondering what kind of challenge they present for you and your your pre snappers and your post nap kind of going through your checks, like what what kind of challenge do they provide to your your games? Yeah, they they provide a good amount of problems for us. Um, it's a veteran defense, you know. So with Jordan's on one side and Johnson on the other side, Milano in inside Edwards on the other side, I mean, you never know what's gonna happen.

They could spin the coverage they could they could bring you know, forty or fifty eight or forty nine. I mean, you never know what's gonna happen. But um, you know, for us offensively, you know, if you don't know, you just gotta stick to your routs. Just always revert back to your rules and uh, you'll be fine. I love hearing them talking about how they can spin into different coverages because that was my takeaway to these guys are

interchangeable in the skill sets they have. Now against Pittsburgh, here was their high safety look counts zero safeties, which we all know cover zero five of those reps with one safety single high in the post, thirty six of those reps, split safeties, two up high. They had fourteen of those reps, and then three safeties, which is typically sub sometimes big nickel, but usually means off zero of

those reps. So primarily a single high, a lot of two high safeties as well, and then five snaps and cover zero and hide is usually the one camping down around the line of scrimmage. So I'll be curious to see how you might want to try to influence his role in this game. When the Steelers would go nasty splits, and that just means you're gonna be tight and bunched in close to the offensive line with the receivers and

tight ends, he'd come. He'd come down right there and match up whether it was Juju or Friar Muth or even Naji Harris. He's kind of the chest piece of that defense, so keeping an eye on him is going

to be key. And I actually thought two. I did a good job with this in the game later on and again in Week one, finding ways to discount the safeties from the equation and attacking the open space by moving them off with your eyes and hitting a couple of long balls like he did against the Patriots will go a long way towards this defense, kind of you know, keeping Micah hide away from what he loves to do and to create more opportunities for this passing offense to

find space in the middle of that defense. But I also think using Mike gets Sicky to kind of bust that scene. And then also utilizing a second tight end, whether it's Shaheen or Long or Smith, just to simply get him to come down off of that to safety look or the robber position. I think that could have some value as well. Now, however, our next position group match up Dolphins receivers and tight ends versus the Bills DBS. This is maybe why you don't call on two tight

end sets. It will be interesting to see which direction they go with. Levi Wallace was targeted ten times and that was by far the most of the Buffalo defense on Sunday, allowed just six catches for thirty five yards or so. A great day for Wallace, but that's kind of been how teams have attacked this Buffalo defense over the last couple of years. You know, it's not a knock on Levi Wallace at all. He's had a very nice career at this point and done it as an

undrafted free agent, no less. But it's kind of like my man Channing used to always say when you're on defense, was Zach Thomas Jr. Say, Oh, Sam Madison Patts or tam Brock, Marion and Jason Taylor up front, they're gonna go out for Channing Crowder. So both to Ron Johnson, as you heard two A mentioned there in Trey White, both those guys were targeted six times. So the Steelers went to work on those guys with the receiving core that it's just damn good. Chase Claypool, Deante Johnson, Juju

Smith Schuster. Can Miami do the exact same with their depth, because I think Miami is is equipped to do the exact same thing. And you look at the comparisons or I guess call them analogs to those guys. You know, Parker can be your Claypool. Claypool had an absolute mossing of Trey White in that game. Juju. Maybe some Will Fuller there. I don't know. It's tough to say because both Will and Jalen are faster, but he's very versa in what he can do and vertical and short game.

But that's kind of a good comparison. Deonte Johnson has great speed as well, so maybe he's your Jalen Waddle analog. It's not tip for tap, but it's close. But now if they play that split safety look, I think you look to attack with tight ends or maybe some more of those inside fades or slot fades that gods he was talking about. Now Trey White, he's as good as there is out of his back pedal and in transitions. You know, if you make a mistake on Trey, why

do you let him bait you? He can get picks. He's very good at that. He's got to be careful throwing his direction. But Devantae Parker on in breaking routes, make him physical up, make him challenge Devantae on those physical stuff when he gets that matchup. Now, trying Levi Wallace vertically, I think that's the move. Anytime you can get one of your speechers on him, his length and aggressiveness or his calling card. So when you see him follow seventeen or three or two or nineteen, think about

a deep shot there to Ron Johnson slot receiver. He's really good in the slot and his testing numbers though, three cone seven oh three, forty six percentile, shuttle time four to eight that's forty second percentile, nine ft in on the broad jump that's thirty nine percentile. And the film kind of backs up the thing we talked about Wallace. He's not going to show you the twitchiness in a phone booth. He wants to get hands on you and be aggressive. So again, slot fade or jerk whip pivot

routes challenge that athletic profile. And maybe you don't. Maybe you don't get some of your four wide sets to test that depth. Maybe you do. I don't know, do they have the fourth corner who can cover them, because

it's to me it's worth finding out. Stats say, well, there's not much stats to go on because the Steelers only targeted five defensive backs in this game, and Buffalo's defense played pretty much all the same guys, like there was not a lot of disparity except for a few guys up front, but the linebackers and defensive backs pretty much all play the entire game all game. And you know, Dane Jackson is the other cornerback on the roster. That's it.

Then they have some safety Siren Neil, Damar Hamlin and Jokuan Johnson. I might try to find a way to get any of those guys in the field and go after them force the Bills out of what they want to do. Then I'd also just challenged their ability slash willingness to come up and tackle. This offense is tough to tackle, tons of guys that can break tackles. See if those guys can can pete and that arena for sixty minutes. Now, if you do that, that means you have to get your front five and the back in

pass protection to be very good in this game. And that takes us to the Miami offensive line versus the Buffalo Bill's defensive line. This will be a bigger test this week, and not just because I think they're better or anything. But the Patriots opted for more coverage in that game, and I'll be curiously what the Buffalo Bills do.

I actually think they'll be more inclined to do the same thing and rely on pure pass rush wins because I think they're better at doing that and you can really impact the passing game with Milano and Edmonds dropping into coverage. Now, Jerry Hughes is the best guy they got power, redirect, veteran pass rush. Arsenal just knows how to win with the hands. I would focus on him, Identify that guy, chip him, get a backup to help on him. He's a good player. Take care of Jerry Hughes.

F a Obada comes in, and I thought Carlos Bashan would get some run. He didn't play at all in the game. F a Obada is huge, heavy handed, long, not crazy athletic lateral side to side movement, but he might be a guy you think about slatting your protection away and try to beat him one on one because not having the athletic or lateral agility, that's the kind of guy you want to put on an island. But

he can win those. But if you can neutralize that, that would be a great way to help on other guys like a Gregory Russo who's similar, big but also very athletic, one of the effective pass rushers of this draft class already. And then a j Epinessa another same deal, big guy, not overly athletic, but in terms of like his burst and the hips and the little lateral agility. Austin Jackson saw him in a bullgame A couple of years ago, and they traded off some wins and losses

in that game. But this entire edge group, it's they're kind of like Zack Seiler s. There's not like a true, like dear type of pass rusher. They're just all big guys that can put hands on you and beat you up that way. Now, they only had a few pressures, but again Pittsburgh got it out so quick. But you can really see the traits we talked about above in this game and in their past tape. They use hues on both sides of the football. He was working on the Steelers left tackle a lot in this game, so

that could be Austin Jackson. Let's go ahead and talk about the interior here with Michael Dieter. He had himself a pretty good game on Sunday, and he'll have his work cut out for him out there with Ed Oliver, who can present lots of problems. But again I go back to what we talked about with a Chem Hicks and the joint practices, Great Jarrett and the joint practices Ray Kwon Davis and our own internal practices. Deeter showed

the ability to anchor. He's dealt with length and he's been good at that second level get into that climb both in the preseason and the regular seasons. Those are two matchups I'm looking at the most because the next level of the Bills defense is the one where I

think they really shine. Dolphins running backs at Bills linebackers versus Bills linebackers, and Matt Mlana was so instinctive and consistent at beating blocks with quickness and instincts to shut down the primary run lane that the running back aims for. But he can also go forward cover the flats where I would try to exploit his game. He's an absolute stud, but going backwards that's where I try to get him if he can. He played twenty nine snaps in coverage,

was targeted just three times. But I think between Miles and Savan, you might be able to challenge him a little bit more than Pittsburgh could with their bringing backs. Now, Jermaine Edmonds is a freak, a certified freak, going forwards or backwards, side to side tackling. He's just not quite added the splash play to his arsenal yet, but his ability to infl it's the passing lanes in the middle, it's an absolute key the ability that influenced him with

r p O. I think that will be crucial. And let's go off topic here and here from Will Fuller who spoke to the media on Wednesday talking about a lot of things, and check out the media availabilities on YouTube. Very good stuff there from the Dolphins and Will Fuller on the Dolphins YouTube channel. But I want to play this response from Will with reguards to the r p O game. Yeah, it really tough on the defense. You know you're putting you putting someone in the bond. You

know he has to make the right decisions. So um, you know if we if we, you know, play it right that the defense is never right. So um, I love r p os. You know, like like I said, you put a linebacker in a bond and safety and a bond, so um, if they make that wrong decision, we can go seventy or like like last week, we're hitting big runs, so it's fun. The RPO influences both the run game but also gives you a chance to

break tackles after the catch. And there was some instances on the All twenty two or man, they were close to springing one of those things for a big, big game. Keep an eye on that as we go forward. I want to go back to two a toungo by Lowa here and get his take on the Dolphins throwing out of the shadow of their own goal post there with a game kind of on the line at the end of that game after the Exhabian Howard forced and recovered fumble. Let's go ahead and go to to a talking about

aggressiveness down there around the goal line. It wasn't necessarily a pass play um it was. It was really a run play. But you know, there's there's force in the box and we can't take care of it. We don't have enough guys unless you guys want me to block,

but I'm not going to do that. So by taking care of that, you know, that's how we do that is by taking well, we we had that in so that's that's what that's They had the past play option in there, and that's what we later confirmed an oppressor with a TA did in fact check to the past there on an original run call. And it's actually a fake RPO because I think people get confused between what RPO and play action are the differences between the two RPOs When you actually have a running play you can

go to play action. You do not have that because you're gonna get ineligible guys downfield, or you might not have the ability to run what you want to run. But in fake RP you see two have put the ball out there and the linebacker sucks up and then he comes right off of that, doesn't even finish the mesh point, gets the ball up and out to fake the r P O, look to draw that defender up on the r P O and then pop it in

right behind him. That was high level stuff, great stuff there from two, a tonga Byloa and a great check to go to that and get themselves off the goal line there a first down and to basically put that game on ice. So I think that's a crucial element of this game. Holding the linebacker's eyes, and I think Miles and Savan's horizontal speed at that running back position

can play a big part in that. Whether it's catching passes out, why pressing outside on stretch runs, or even just motion from the backfield, you know, across the formation going empty. There are different ways to do that. Final defensive thoughts on the Bills. Their boots rate was twenty eight point six in Week one. That was fourteen most in the National Football League. They were top half the league in terms of not missing tackles just four in

the game. They allowed seventy two yacht yards. Remember Miami had one ten out of their two passing yards, so finding guys in space could spark some big plays and then final special teams in Miami or eighth right now on d v O A on Football Outsiders Buffalo, Isaiah McKinzie is a dangerous, dangerous return man. You gotta get that guy contained kick away from him. Tyler Bass is a damn good kicker. Three for three last week forty two the longest he was twenty eight for thirty four.

Is a rookie. Last year he missed only one kick in the of nine in the forty forty nine yard range. He was four for six from fifty plus, but he did miss three thirty nine yards and under. We know about Matt Hawk three points on Sunday for an average of forty five point seven, two points into the twenty

yard line, one touchback and a blocked punt. You gotta tackle well, you need to maximize the hidden yards because there's always you always need to do that stuff against a good team, to find those small advantages to get your w three keys of the game maintained, pass, rush, gap, integrity. The worst place to be in football is behind the quarterback, and Josh Allen can make this happen to a lot of teams. Number two, keep everything in front of you.

On defense, more Bills plays equals more opportunities for them to make bad plays and more chances at picks like the ones we did not corral last year in the Week two game. And finally, number three finished drives phil goals are not gonna be enough to beat this team. Score touchdowns against this Buffalo Bills team. Dolphins will win if they can get pressure with four and tackle Josh Allen when they get to him on blitz Is. Bills will win if they establish a consistent running game that

makes Miami think about both dimensions of the offense. All Right, NFL picks last week not great, not in seven, Week one terrible. Gotta be better even though Week one is full of craziness. That's still so bad. But I'm taking Washington football team over the New York Giants on Thursday night, even without Ryan Fitzpatrick. That defense against the Giants Front. I like that matchup for the football team and they have enough playmakers offensively to allow Heinik to manage the

game and drive them into the winner circle. Will pick the rest of the league games tomorrow and have the College three pack for you as well the washed up version of the six pack on tomorrow. Show plus your Mail, Bad Questions, John kN Jemmy and all kinds of fun. Plus will have something a little extra plan for you guys that involves the Dolphins podcast network with yours truly, seth of it and o J mcduffee at the end of the week that I think you guys will all enjoy.

We'll keep that a teaser for now and get the heck out of here, Caroline, Daddy is coming home you all. Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts. 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 the fish Tank Pod, What's set in o J, and of course the media availabilities up on the Miami Dolphins YouTube channel and Miami Dolphins

dot com. I have a few written pieces going me up every single week on the website Until next time, Vinza