Dolphins Buccaneers Week 5 Recap

world champion Buccaneers. Will unpack it in its entirety with the takeaways, the individual performances, and we're gonna play some audio from the post game show with me, Seth Levitt and O J. McDuffie of the Fish Tank Podcast. I thought we had one of our best shows on Sunday after this game from the Baptist Health Studios inside the

Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Drivetime Podcast. We're gonna do the five takeaways here real quick, but first I want to focus on a couple of storylines I was looking at heading into this game. Number one, would

there be a shake up along the offensive line? And the answer to that was yes, And I'm very excited to get to the all twenty two and break down the performance of the offensive line in this game, because initially I thought it was one of their better games as a unit as a whole, while at the tape speak for itself on that with Austin Jackson moving from left tackle to left guard, Liam Eikenberg going back to left tackle where he played in the season opener, and

then Jesse Davis over right tackle, with Greg Mant and Robert Hunt at their same positions as last week at center and right guard, respectively. Was also curious to get a look at the past rush with the dolphinsive team, especially when they went to a four man rush. Can you turn over Brady, can you hit Brady? Can you move Brady? I don't believe that went the way any

of us hoped it would in this game. And then also would you find a big play on teams on special teams in that regard that also did not happen. So just a couple of things to point out there that I thought Miami had a chance to kind of makes some head weight in those departments and didn't go that way. And we lead this off with the takeaways from this game. The Dolphins fall forty seven team to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And the first takeaway is what

the heck is wrong with the defense. And let's actually play some audio here from Brian Flores and let him take us there first before I talk about it. No, I'm concerned. I mean, like we're out of sink, you know, in a lot of a lot of ways, um on defense, pass defense, pass rush. Um, you know, we're just we're just, you know, a little bit step behind. I would say, so, Uh, you know, we gotta make a lot of corrections, you know a lot of things we've gotta address, and you

know we'll do that, and we've been doing that. Um, We've addressed some things, but we're not we're not seeing a production on on Sundays and really that's all that matters. So um, yeah, I would say we're we're a little bit out of sink, out of sink and a step behind there, says coach Flores. And the Dolphins are being outscored this season one fifty four to seventy nine opposing

off senses. They're averaging around four hundred and forty two yards per game in our offense just five to forty five per game, almost double the output when you look at the last four games of the season when things kind of went off the rails four hundred forty two yards to Miami's two hundred forty five yards per game last and third down defense. The takeaway streak is no more, no turnovers. In this game, Miami lost the turnover battle

two to zero to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And then you hear Brian Flores talk about his concern there with the fact that the defense is out of sync and a step behind, and the practice work all the week long is not translating to Sundays just thinking about this out loud. Here is Xavian Howard and Byron Jones, who both were on the injury report this week and suited up and played, and good on them for getting themselves out there and ready to play. But it wasn't good

for either of those guys in this game. And this Tampa Bay receiving corps is absolutely loaded. And that's another point we're gonna get to here later on the takeaways.

But those guys didn't have their best game. The linebackers getting stuck on blocks, getting beaten coverage on running backs or tight ends or whoever the heck it was the inability to get pressure on Brady, whatever the reason was, where we aren't seeing the Amiba defense or as much zero blitz or all the stuff that really helped this

defense produce at a high level last year. Players, coaches, guys that you relied upon in the past, like an Eric Rowe, who had such a good two year run here with the Miami Dolphins, has now hit a speed bump here in a couple of games this year where he hasn't been the exact saying that he was a season ago. And that kind of brings me in to the point about the defensive backs in general. Not to pick on Eric Row, but that's where your biggest resource

allocation is. And look at what the Bucks were able to do to you in the passing game, I mean, xaviing Howard gets a pay raise after an all Pro season. Byron Jones is one of the highest paid cornerbacks in the league, cutting over in free agency after a five year run with the Dallas Cowboys where he's fantastic for the Dallas Cowboys. You have Eric Rowe on a contract extension, Brandon Jones, a third round draft pick, Javon Hall in

the second round draft pick No. Begny a first round draft pick, Justin Coleman a free agent, Jason mccordy a free agent. Like that's where a lot of the resources have been allocated to. And if that's the class of your roster and the way this thing is designed, and this is what happens, I mean, where do you go

from there with it? They're gonna have to do some real soul searching and find out what the identity of this football team is because last year it was pressure defense, take the football away and put your foot on the throat of the opponent defensively, and that by in part helps both the special teams and the offense. But what is the thing you're doing well right now? Because you're you know, perceived air quotes, best unit on the football team giving up forty five points of this offense, which

is a great one. It's just not the way to go when you look at the last three times this defense. And I know last year wasn't this year's defense, but Buffalo this year thirty five nothing, Buffalo last year fifties, now Tampa Bay seventeen. It's just not a good look

for that defensive secondary. And they're gonna have to find a way to play better and be competitive against these top level teams and organizations because under Brian Flores through two years that this just didn't happen to the Miami Dolphins. We were used to it before he got here, with big time opponents on prime time games or otherwise putting up a lobsize score on the Miami Dolphins, and that

just wasn't the case. And I don't think any of us expected that this season, and right now it's happening. So you've got to figure it out and get the solution quick because this just cannot continue. Take Away number two, I mean, just shoot this moon to the season, and this shoot this season into the sun as far as you possibly can, because the first five games have been about as bad as you could have drawn it up. If the Dolphins don't get that win into England, that

of course would be worse. But the general takeaways a continuation here of the first takeaway. Your two games this season against what I would consider to be the class

of the league. I think Tampa Bay is the best team in the NFC, and I think Buffalo is the best team in the a f C. And of course you didn't have your quarterback for all but two possessions of that to contest, you know, continuation of those two games, the aggregate of those two games, and you lost those games by a combined I mean, that's just that's a tough pill to swallow. Oh and you know, four forty two yards per game to two forty five yards per game.

We saw some not great body language in that second half. We saw Jalen Waddle drop a pass that led to a pick. Joe Kobe Brissette had some more mrs after what was a very strong start for him in this game. Talk about the secondary having their struggles. Nick Needham fell down on a route and didn't see the ball going right behind him and kind of jogged after the play.

That's after exhabing Howard got beat in the slot where the Bucks were able to dictate their matchup by moving Antonio Brown who X was traveling on across the formation and create favorable matchups for themselves, and that just hasn't happening on the other side of the ball. Jerome Baker having you know, not his best game in coverage against Geo Bernard or out wide on some stretch runs in the areas of the game where speed and reactiveness and

and quickness, the hallmarks to his game. It's not there for him right now either. So I just look at so many things, like Brian Flora has mentioned, out of seeing, out of sorts, It's just so many things that are contributing to this this effort that's just not good enough right now. And it's why you you fall behind five hundred fifty eight yards to three hundred one yards in the offense. That's why your third downs or eight for

eleven for Tampa Bay two for seven from Miami. It's why your time of possessions thirty seven oh seven to three. That's why your offense has three hundred ten yards, two hundred three yards two three hundred and thirty yards two dred and sixteen yards two hundred and fifty nine yards. How do they pull us together? That's the question, and

that takeaway takes us into our third takeaway. And Jacoby Brissett alluded to this in his postgame press conference that he believes that they are building offensively, and Brian Flores mentioned in his press conference as well. I won't play the audio for you, guys, but they both said they're showing, you know, some progress in terms of building offensively, I

thought we all we all can agree. We saw that. Shoot, this was the second highest yard and output for the Dolphins this season, and the majority of that came early in the game when they were competitive, including an eight seven yard drive to pull within one score and you get a third and tent from the defense to possibly get a stop and get the ball back and get the ball back to your offense. That would have been fun to see how the offense responded and build momentum.

But again, complimentary football is just not there with the third takeaway as signs of life for the offense, but they and the entire team need a complementary effort because it just has not happened one single time this year hasn't happened one time. But back to the signs of life offensive line shuffle. I thought Austin Jackson and I talked about this. I thought he had traits that could

excel at the left guard position. There were certain traits that you might worry about, and one of those is the sand in the pants, especially against a pass rusher like a Vita Vea. But Vita Vea didn't wreck this game. I thought Austin Jackson played well in the area. In that area also saw him put some bodies on the ground and Leam Eichenberg I thought was better at left tackle and just the offensive line in general. I agree

with Brian Flores's assessment. Initially I thought it was okay, but I have to go back and look at the tape to get a better idea of it. But if that offensive line can continue to build off of that, and this is maybe you know, if they get better every week, If this is the worst we see them, that could be a good sign of life going forward. How about the I mean just real quick to finish

that point. The Bucks got after them in the second half, And that's where the complimentary component comes into this, right, because these units have to help each other out because one side is just carrying way too much of the load all season long. Because the Bucks can now pin their ears back and rush the passer and play against a one dimensional offense, which their run defense kind of

does that for them. But if you can stay more you know, balanced, and not have to be so aggressive when the scoreboards more in your favor, then the offense can get to their full compliment that way and just be more creative and more flexible, and the Dolphins just have killed themselves this year with not being able to stay complimentary, whether it's the offense not helping the defense vice versa, and how special teams makes into that all those things are not coming together. But back to the

things I liked. I liked early on some of the play calls and really the course of the game for the sequencing of the offense. They ran the Bucks out of some zones and took some of the short stuff to get themselves into manageable situations to create shot plays, to stay on schedule, to give yourself the opportunity to get those shot plays. I like the way they involved

the backs in the passing game. Myles Gaskin had a game high for Miami here ten targets and it was the most catches ever by a Dolphins running back because he caught a ton of them for seventy four yards and two touchdowns. So good on them for a team that loves to blitz so aggressively and come after the quarterback and really at times, you know, blitz the running back in a way that forces him to stay in

pass protection for Miami to go after that. You know, there's always a vulnerability when you commit guys in the blitz. That was the vulnerability. And they found Miles Gaskins successfully throughout the course of this game, especially on that second touchdown pass against that Bucks blitz where they just sent

him to where the blitzer is vacated. Took advantage of that vacated space and he has choose taking the blitz pick up and gets out into the route and the ball almost missed him short, but he catches it gets

into the end zone. I liked that with a sequence of the other Gaskin touchdown pass, the wheel route that goes based upon what we talked about earlier with chasing the Bucks out of some of that zone coverage, and you see Richard Sherman's gonna play that zone turn get his butt to the sideline, and I the quarterback, and

play it the entire way. You take enough underneath stuff and maybe you push him off with a takeoff route or a post route or a corner route, and then you run the running back wheel route in behind that, and if that linebacker jumps the flat route, then you have a wide open pass down the field. And that's exactly what happened with Miles Gaskin. On that big touchdown in the vacated zones. So I thought that was a

good design and some good sequencing there. And then finally just the fact that we saw guys catching the ball on the move on the miles gas can touchdown, run some of the crossing routes to these guys that made big plays after the catch. We saw a Wattle do it once again in this game. We saw a Wattle drop a pass interference call because what does he do.

He creates conflict for the defense, and conflict can create panic, and panic can create grabbing and we saw plenty of that, especially on a third and one play later in the game where you get the defense into an aggressive look that wants to come after your offense on that third and short because they want to sell out and stop the run, right, They want to sell out and stop the possible under route or the flat route or the quick hook up or the stuff that they think you're

gonna run to just move the chains. That sometimes creates an opportunity for your best shot plays in the entire game because their vote r bole in that area, because they don't believe you're gonna accept the risk that goes with going deep down the field. That could put you in a fourth down situation if you don't execute, but that can oftentimes be the best opportunity to get some big plays. In Miami throws a third and one pass into the end zone from the seventeen yard line past interference.

A couple of plays later, you're in the end zone for a touchdown. So I like that look there, And I also found it interesting to finish this point here in the third takeaway when Jacoby was asked postgame about the UH comment mentioned on the CBS broadcast from Tony Romo about how he said they streamlined the play calling this week with George Godzi relaying the play into Jacoby Brissette's helmet, which would of course bypassed Charlie Fry, who used to get the call and then take it into

the quarterback. And Brissette confirmed that and said that it was because they were hoping or wanted to get some more priest snap motion, which took some more time and gave them less time to make that relaying communication. So the positives of that, to me, motion is great because it gives you pre snap indicators. It gives you a brochure of what the de fence might be doing, or

how they might adjust to your movement. It gives you an opportunity to see how they react, whether a certain guys blitzing, whether a safety rolls to show you the coverage or he caps a defensive back to show that defensive back is gonna come on the blitz. And it creates more chances for BUS because the more motion can create more communication to pass off. Okay, you're going with him over there, I got this guy. We're gonna you're gonna take first man to the point you're taking the

inside man like we're gonna go. We're gonna Banjoe this thing. Whatever the case may be, they have to communicate motion, so creates more chances for BUS. Now the con I like the fact that Charlie Fry can take things that he sees or perceives and gives it to the quarterback there at the last minute before the play call. That's certainly a pro And both items do have their pros

to them. I'll be curious see if Miami goes back to that way or continues it this way, or if it's a combination of the two based upon their opponent. But I thought that was very interesting and the more motion we saw, I thought the Dolphins best offensive production this season is at a direct correlation. Probably not, but there's probably something there as well. Our next takeaway and these are gonna be quick here. Number four the punting game, Like, what the hell was that eight and a half yards

average punt? That's lower than some teams gross average. Right now, I mean small potatoes in a game and a season that's been full of despair so far, but that's on my radar. Those punts were going straight up in the air and not covering much distance, and special teams just was a calling card. And right now it hasn't been. Number five, And I know you don't want to hear this, but there is still time left in this season, and nothing has changed that was out there before this game.

This was always gonna be a tough team to be on the road in their house. But now you're in the position that you're in, it's time to figure out how to crawl the hell out of this thing. Because Jags, Falcons, Bills, Texans, Ravens, Jets, Panthers, Giants, Saints, Titans, Patriots, that's what's ahead of you before another long off season, which we all despise as football fans, right, I want football here all the time, even when the Dolphins aren't

playing well. I love this time of year way more than any other time of year because you basically have entertainment every single night. It's the best. And it starts next week for the Miami Dolphins in London against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Get that, damn win man, get that, am win. And I only noted two individuals here in the individual portion of the podcast, and we'll get to more of that in the All twenty two podcast tomorrow for you guys. But I just put down Miles Gaskin and Mike get Sicky,

and also Jacoby Brissette. But Gaskin for the way he caught the ball and ran with it afterwards. I continue to believe that's his best trade almost that James White, Mold and Mike get Sicky just finding ways to create space off leverage and catching passes and generating mismatches. He caught a third down pass against Joe try on Shioika. The defensive event out of you, dub that's having a fantastic year. Defense event slash outside linebacker if you find

him in coverage on Mike Gasicky. That's a matchup you like nothing against Joe because I think he's gonna be a possible deep defensive rookie of the year, but that's just not a good matchup for him. And I like the way that Gaskin, or rather Mike Asicki was able to approach that. And then Jacoby had some good moments as well in this game. I would like to see him hit the past to waddle, even though it was a pick play called on Mike. I just you gotta hit those types of throws. And good on him for

fighting through the hamstring. That was a real, real veteran, real you know, professional move there from Jacoby to fight through a hamstring injury and be out there for his teammates. All Right, I loved our first two postgame show segments today, so I'm gonna go ahead and play those for you guys on the other side. A reminder tomorrow's podcast All Review. It's my favorite one that I do every single week.

Come back here and check it out with us. We'll have more for you guys on this game, and we'll begin to turn the page and look forward to Jacksonville and maybe the return of quarterback to a tongue BYLOA. We'll have that covered for you guys all week longer on the Drivetime Podcast. In the meantime, Caroline Daddy is coming home. 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. You can follow the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank podcast with Seth and o J. Who you're gonna hear from here in just one second. Check out our YouTube channel for all the media availabilities, video content and Dolphins Today with yours truly as well as Joanna Torres and of course Miami Dolphins dot com. We'll have the three Keys ripping peace up there, and we'll go ahead and spin up Foard this week and

get top news. But flits all that good stuff up on Miami Dolphins dot com to post games for a post show. Here for the postgame show until next time. Fens up you want tough Dolph fans and welcome to the Miami Dolphins fIF for the show here on the Miami Dolphins Radio Network. I am Travis Wingfield. I am joined by Seth Levitt and o J. McDuffie, and it's four straight losses now for your Miami Dolphins and juice that season opening wins. Shure, it feels like a decade ago,

doesn't it worth a decade ago, wasn't it. I mean it seemed like, uh mean, you had a good feeling, man, coming off of that one with a win, no matter how ugly it was, you know. But at the same time, though, man, you it was it was a long time ago. And then when you know, when you start compiling losses, you know,

it seems like it's even further away. Man. So I'll just you know, another tough one today, man, another tough one as we experienced last week in the last four weeks, you know, as Dolphins and as you know, as were coming studio to try to do a show. Um, but you know that that that one win was it this year? It wasn't this year. I'm not even sure it was about a month ago. As we move into mid October here in the Dolphins will head to London next week

at one and four to face the Jacksonville Jaguars. And I know last week Stathew joked a little bit about maybe turning the pay We talked about London already. We have to wait for where you come on, je What do you think when I'm on London already? Man? Wait, wait, hold on. You were not happy about me doing that.

I had Joe Rose and j T told me they were going to call into the show last week because I was ready to move on, and now you're you're ready to turn You know, if I talk about this game, seth, I think I was this close as you can, you know, to get fired last week and I started talking about this game like I started talking about will not be walking in the studio this time? Man? Yeah he's still on Tampa. Yeah goodness, But yeah, man, you know we have to talk about this obviously. Man. But I don't

know where to even start. Travis, I'm glad you're driving this show because you know the I know where I will start, the bad start, the bad game that mean great starting. And the rest of this game was just so frustrating, man, you know, And as a fan, I sat here and look, I have zero notes, had really nothing really right now, you know what I mean. I just I was trying to watch and absorb and listen. But I'm gonna tell you, man, it each week is

getting more and more frustrating. It does take a toll on you at some point, just as as radio host and as fans of this team and people that care about this team. And I'll come back to you, Juice here a little bit talk about how that might be for the players in terms of you know, they talked about on the on the post game show there a little bit right afterwards there with with JT and the boys, just about the conference of the team after four straight

losses and where you go from here. But I'll get to that second, because Seth, you had a point. I want to go to you here real quick, my man, Well, what I'm most disappointed by? And that was the word they used, right, Joe, Jimmy and JT. They talked. They talked about being disappointed because I think the expectations were a lot higher for this team. We knew it was a tough schedule to start. I don't think one in four or is what anybody expected. Certainly what isn't what

anybody wanted. But the defense fellas the defense is what that that's our money maker was supposed to be. We just talked about this. If you look at the last four games, let's talk about the losing street. Four straight losses. They're giving up thirty four point five points a game. It's crazy. You can't if your offense is fired, you're

gonna struggle. Given up thirty four and a half points a game, How in the world are you gonna survive with this offense, with the with an offensive line that had been struggling, which I did think stepped up their game today. And we'll talk about that with the number two quarterback. Regardless of what Jacoby wants to say. Who again, valiant effort by Jacoby fought through injury. I thought he kept fighting to the bitter end there. But how in the world can you give up thirty four and a

half points per game. I don't care who's on the other side, right And I'll tell you what you look at, saith is you know the amazziness. You know, we're up ten to seven in the first then we give up seventeen unanswered in the second quarter. We have been a what do you do to fix that? That's a that's a question, man, because you know, usually it's a halftime adjustment that you make. But look at these great teams. When you got a great team with Tom Brady Bruce

Arians Byron Leftwich. You know, they see what we're doing in that first quarter, you know, and make you know their adjustments, but we don't seem to be doing the same thing. And it's it's pretty it's pretty sad considering the offense played pretty well in that first quarter and then the defense we're out there, you know, and just continue to lay an egg um dropping, giving up forty five points in this in this league over almost five sixty yards total offense. Son heard of that supposed to

happen so heard of in this league? Do you I mean, I'm not gonna spending spend a positive here, but do you give them any credit for starting games that fast? What happens? What changes in the first part the first quarter of the game, when Miami comes out like a house on fire and goes up four teens up on the Raiders comes out here and gets on top of the defending world champion Buccaneers, and you know earlier in the season as well, and now you come around the

second quarter and things just start to avalanche. Is it is a good coaching early on with bad adjustments? Is what's what plays into that juice? Well, you know, most teams don't know what you're gonna come with at the beginning, which is normal, and so you might get some Each team probably scored in the first drive or at least, you know, within the first couple of drives, because then you know, great teams make adjustments. All right, here's what

they're doing. Now, Now we just make the adjustment. They're trying to get the ball to water, trying to run miles, whatever we're trying to do. And so both teams should have that. But we look at a team, I mean, honestly, let's look at Tampa and break them down. And when you look at a team that has that many weapons, that many playmakers, how do you game plan that? Who do you take away? I heard in the pregame show, heard uh Dono and Um Channing talking about it. You know,

we've got two great cover corners. But by the way, one of them did not did not have the best game today, Neither one of them. Then, really, I mean, all the all the receivers had a had a hell of a day, seemed like. But when you got you know, when you got Antonio Brown and Mike Evans and Chris God went out there, pick your poison on who you're gonna try to take away you know, I think we're I think, well, I think we're in manage first, and then I think towards the we even tried zone that.

You know, you can't play Tim Brady with those guys in zone no, you know, no grounk today. And they didn't they didn't care that. I don't think they even targeted the tight end. The whole game with the hour had a couple maybe, you know. So it just tells you for Net was a grown man, you know, dragging us down. So there's a lot of things that you know when you look at that Tampa offense. I mean they're back in stride like they were, you know when they went on that run towards the end of last year.

I would just like to see us And you said it best and you're talking about with j T. Now we're talking about step. You said it in the middle of I think the third quarter. Maybe the body language is just awful. They were defeated way early, you know, and that that's that's tough when you got your leaders

being that way. But on both sides of the ball, there's there's not a hull lot to take away from this that you look at positively going forward until next week, and I guess the idea that too could be back

in return for that game. But there's a whole other myriad of issues that has to get ironed out by that point because O J. You talked about the fact that pick your poison with these receivers, But isn't that almost an indictment of the entire program because all your money and your draft picks, at least the majority of

them have gone into that defensive secondary. So if you want to build a defense and a team for the modern era of the National Football League, that has to slow down these thirty point per game juggernauts like a Kansas City or a Buffalo or a Tampa Bay. You're gonna have to compete with those kind of guys if you want to get to where you ultimately want to go.

And what more can you do besides extending your all pro cornerback, giving a big free agent contract to Byron Jones who was all pro level his first five years in Dallas, spending two draft picks on safeties and Javon halland and Brandon Jones. I mean, the list goes on and on and on. First round draft pick on no egonogamy and you drop this out there against Buffalo and Tampa Bay this year, which I think to me is the class of the Dolphins schedule this year and really

the class with both those squads. You're talking about an eighty to seventeen point eight to seventeen deficit for Miami. I mean, you're nowhere close to these top level teams, and I just it makes me question, where do you go from here? Because where's the upside? Where's the tournament? Right? You know, and that's all you messu you you really start, you mess yourself first of all, first against Buffalo with within your within your division, you know, that's what you

usually draft against. You know, you go get the dvs. You need to have a nice running attack, I mean past attack, you know, guys up front to stop to run, guys that can actually spy, a guy like Josh Allen, you know, and then you figure out, you know, how to beat the Tampa Bays later. But the way we match up, which we don't very well, it seems like what people is, it's it's it's frustrating. So going from here, I think a lot of guys, you know, I think a lot of guys. It's weird when the team's not

playing well. Some guys look at in the mirrors. I played well today and other guys will not. I think, once again, like we talked about last week, everybody's look in the mirror and said we didn't. None of us play well again. Even Miles Gaskin, who's gonna be out there working hard again, had a heck of a game, you know, and he might he could probably sit there

and toot his own horn a little bit. But as a team, as a whole, you know, there's there was nothing impressive again today, you know, I mean it was. I mean, it's it's almost like groundholl Day from last week. Definitely for the Buffalo game, it certainly was. And it's I mean not for lack of try and we just

see an offensive line shake up. I thought early on Juice, there was something to the fact that we talked about this last couple of weeks, right, we wanted to see more vertical outs out of the offense in terms of getting guys running upfield around crossing routes supposed to always coming back to the quarterback, and that was how the offense was successful there early on the Wheel route to Miles Gascon. I thought was a brilliant call to get a big touchdown there and one of two touchdown passes

to Miles Gascon. But just other than that seth, I mean, we talked about the offensive line shake up. I guess it got a little bit better and the offense had more success, and I want to say it got a lot better. I really am gonna say that. And I know that maybe it's not reflected in seventeen points or what have you, but for the last two weeks, I did not think they lined up and looked like an

NFL football team on that offensive front. Okay, I mean, you know how Jacobe said made made it through the three weeks that he did unscathed, and really, you know, just to pulled hamstring. You can think about what happened today. Those guys got up there and they held their own against all I heard. I listened to Drive Time, I listened to every other mediu member down here. All you heard about was how the Bucks had one of the best front seven's in the entire National Football League and

that they were beat up in the secondary. The offensive line held up. Okay, they there there was some pressure they gave up a few sacks. Really interesting that you flip flop Bikenberg and Jackson and they look like different players. Yes, there were some missus. It's gonna be real easy for the guys on Twitter to go ahead and throw up the one you know somebody with. That's gonna happen when

you're playing guys who are really good football players. But I think overall, they did enough to give this offensive opportunity to be effective, and we saw that early on. I don't know what happened later in the game. Maybe

the hamstrings started catching up to him. Drew some of those throws were getting more and more off target, and the biggest thing that we all talked about, we thought we were gonna see more of it today, although DeVante Parker being down very disappointing does not help at all. I don't even want to get into that yet. But with the guys that were there, I just didn't see them go down the field enough, and when they did,

they didn't seem to hit him. Yes, there were more explosive plays, Yes we had some ten fifty yarders, but when you see a team throwing yard passes over and over and over again, I'm not saying we have Tom Brady back there, but you've got to take more shots down the field, don't you. You talk about the well, let's come back and talk about that here in just a second. Because you talk about the offensive line, you know, having kind of a a worst second part of the game.

You wonder how much of that comes into you know, the defense pinning their ears back when they get that big lead, because you can't be one dimensional. It gets a defense like that, and Brian Flores talks about playing complinary football all the time. Defense has to help the offense out. Offense hasn't been helping the defense out today. They flipped that script. So just cannot find a way to get all three phases going at the same time. Forty five seven teams, you're five and now back with

you guys again. We move on to segment number two, and so we kind of come off the end of that first segment. They're talking about this the conclusion of this game and the defense, and I think it's worth kind of going back in on that side of the football because there was so much that popped up in this game and that has really kind of become a trend.

At this point. We can talk about the class of the National Football League and Tampa Bay Buccaneers all we want, but over the last four we weeks, it's just not been good enough in that area, or really any area for that matter. But over the last over this this season, Dolphins are pushing up to thirty five points allowed per game, and if you include the sixteenth game of the season

last year. You know, Seth kind of mentioned it in the last segment, how they were at that number thirty five points this year, but going into the last game of the season last year, they were at eighteen point three points per game allowed, so almost double the points allowed. When you include the Buffalo game last season and the first five games of this season, the defense has just

come apart at the seams. And I kind of want to ask you, o J what happened there, because I mean, I've got so many notes here just talking about You've got veterans that and I know one game is is maybe too much to go over your knee jerk reaction on this stuff. But a really rough game for Jerome Baker, a really difficult game for Xavian Howard. Eric Rose had

a couple of rough games in a row. These are guys that were big time playmakers a year ago that you counted on and you knew what you were going to get out of them. When those guys start to regress, like how do you overcome that? Yeah, that's a tough deal. And you know when it's what's crazy is how when the young guys see your veterans, you know, not having much success, it kind of trickles down a little bit. Man. They're like, oh, damn, you know, we're in for one

to day. You know what I mean. It's not what they're saying, but that's you know, I saw kind of you know, translate what they're what they're thinking about. You know, those guys are the ones, especially to that you expect not only to go out there and play well, but to prepare the best. You know. The veteran guys are the ones that look at more film a lot of times. They're the ones that you know, anticipate things happening before they happen, and then you expected to go out there

and make plays when they're not making plays. When I see him hesitant time, I saw Big hesitated a few times, which is unlike him. You know, I'm listening a little bit on the radio. Well, Channing, and he talked about how prepared guy like Zack Thomas was all the time. I never really saw Zack hesitate because he knew exactly what was gonna happen all the time, so he wondered a lot of times with preparation. You know, whether guys are getting surprised by certain plays or certain things, certain

things happening. But for our veteran guys, that's shocking. That's really shocking for me to see our veteran guys go out there and get beat our you know, our our top paid corners getting beat regularly today, you know, big in one on one of the linebackers. I mean with the running backs getting beat, you know, I mean that was that was that was tough to watch. So I don't know how you how you get back to the

basics hopefully, you know. I was joking about, you know, we talked about earlier in the week, whether these guys are flying to Tampa or busting up there. I made a joke coming in and said they should walk back and you know, and maybe watch film the whole way back, you know, and let's see if that will help him a little bit. But I'm gonna tell you man, it has to start with our veteran group or somebody. Have we heard of any not nothing. I don't want you

to bring anything out of building, Travis. Has there been any player only meetings and the players actually gotten up there and said anything or talk to these guys or because honestly, if it's if it's not in within coaching, it's gotta be within the players. But sometimes it seems like a lot of both, because don't you feel like there's enough talent on this team, at least from an outside perspective that you should be able to get at least as semblance of the production you had a season ago.

And we thought we had that in the first game over the Patriots with the seventeen sixteen. To be aware, in New England, sure they ate up from yardage there, but Miami is going to clamp down and and get off the field in the red zone in those key areas. But you just feel like that's kind of the strength of the football team. And that's kind of where Brian Floor started building this thing. And I just kind of keep coming back to the question, Seth, like where do

you go from here? Because I think you gave me the number was it was it four hundred forty two yards allowed per game was over the four game losing streak. That's since day one, okay that that's since the beginning of the season. The thirty four and a half points was within the losing streak. But you can't give up four hundred yards a game and expect to win, and especially not again you're you know what are you scoring?

This is not a team that has this this firepower on offense, and this is this is a team that's built from the defense first. And it's problematic. You know again, thirty four and a half points per game, four hundred plus, I didn't even look at what it what it was. We can do the mathew really quickly. But the amount of yards that they're giving up, juice. And here's the thing.

Early on I even heard it on Drivetime with you and John con Jemmy Travis, where you said, is this a situation where the offense is not getting you know, not converting third downs, having too many three and ounces, the defense on the field too much. The defense was on the field too much today because the defense couldn't stop anybody eight for eleven on third downs. Juice a lot of points and you know that this cannot be blamed on you gotta score more than seventeen points against

Tom Brady. I get that, but this cannot be blamed The defensive performance cannot be blamed on the offense. Today those guys did not step up. I am a huge Xavien Howard fan, and he has been, you know, elite at the beginning of this season. But today that was not what we're used to seeing from Xavian Howard. Granted, the guy he was playing against is pretty good, Juice, you said it was kind of interesting that he was on a b the entire game, but you just need more.

I know that Byron Jones was was banged up this week, right, and there was a question as to whether or not he would even go. But man, you you just can't. You can't get up there and let forty five get hung on you. Juice. I want to. I want to kind of fall up on that point. The heath next about Xaviing Howard on Antonio Brown because last year I actually had a chance to ask Byron Jones at the

press conference. You know, in terms of matching up with certain guys, how do you feel your your trades match up with this guy or you know, so on and so forth, and he kind of like put me in my place in a way where he said, like, I play the right side, exploys the left side. And I didn't know about that until obviously he told me that. And that was you know, we talked about intent ontent all the time with Sam Madison and Pat Curtain and all those guys that were you know, did a good

job back for those defense you know, decades ago. But um, Xavian Howard gets gets kicked inside. Go again, Xavian Howard gets kicked inside on the slot because he's traveling with Antonio Brown, And I just I've never thought that was

where X's strength fled. So when you're looking at matchups from receiver standpoint, you you've got a guy that you know is going to travel with you, do you start to say, Hey, here's where I can get him and and go after him that way even when it's an all proloct Xavian Howard, does a guy like that have weaknesses where you can attack it that way? Oh yeah, just because you can play on the outside doesn't mean you can play in the slot lot as a whole

different animal man. And you know, especially guys. You know, you got a guy with that quick quick twitch like Antonio Brown. You need guys that have the same type of quick twitch. And you look, you notice about about x X can run with you. He can, he can, he can you know, he can put his hands on you when it comes to in short space where you got we have to work with some of these guys

that are slot receivers. Man, It's it's like right now, and Antonio Brown doesn't get much faster and quicker and slot than that, you know, And so when you got the other guys on the outside with guy Win and Evans, and you got him in the slot and Brady loves him, you know, that's that's a problem. So what I would have done, I'm gonna go there. What what they should

have done? In my opinion, No, it was maybe use two guys, you know, on inside with with Antonio Brown and keep your your main guys that are used to

playing on the edge outside. And there was a rap where they did that and the end zone, I think on the first field goal drive they allowed to I think when the Bucks made it ten ten, I believe at one point and they had halland kind of closed down on God win in the end zone on uh they capt him and from the slot, and I wonder if the Bucks that kind of goes on what we talked about the adjustments, right, Maybe the Bucks see that and they say, well, let's let's not mess with that anymore.

Let's let's get their single man coverage. Because we know the X is traveling with Antonio Brown, Let's go ahead and move him inside and take that double team outside. Is that something that happens, Yeah, I mean absolutely, and you know, and unfortunately, you know, it didn't look like anything was gonna work coverage wise. I think they were just running routes. It's like seven on seven. And you know what else traveling we don't talk a lot about

is lack of pressure. You can't guard anybody as long as we have to and you don't get anything exactly right. Definitely, can't let him sit there and pat the rock man and let these guys just run whatever routes they want to run, you know, and expect our guys to be able to hang in there. And that that's a big problem and it's going to continue to be a big problem. I think we've got a couple of sacks today, But

at the same time and a few hits. But you know, when it was important, when we really needed we couldn't get there, couldn't get off the field. You talk about the third down stats, and that's usually when you gotta have guys that you know, pinting their ears back and get to quarterback is getting their face making uncomfortable. Tom Braid was way too cold. I don't even know if his jersey, I mean, his uniform, his hands a little banged up he was at the end. But you know, yeah,

I think it's right. Look at the drive chart. Here Phillas touchdown. This is Tampa Bay's drive chart. Touchdown, field goal, touchdown, touchdown, missfield goal, punt. There was one punt. Everybody want to know how Waddle was gonna return punts. There was one touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, end of game. You can't win that way. It wasn't even competitive. If you look at that and you don't let me take a step back. It was competitive for

a minute there. You know, at the end of the second half, we were the Dolphins were down two scores and they're driving and there what I think they got to the thirty yard line with about a minute or forty five seconds left that when you got hot in here. Yeah, you know what, we started to feel like maybe that that that the team was moving, that that they were ready to play, that they did what you expected. That

you right up. You step up when you're playing the defending Super Bowl champions and when you're I don't think your seasons on the line. I hate all that all the season's over. Well it's not mathematically over, but man, dropping on one and four is tough pill to swallow, and so you need to bring it from start to finish. And they were driving, had an opportunity to make it

a one score game going into the half. The strip sack doesn't do you any favors, but but they still close it, I think, to a one score game at one point. But the defense never, never, never answered. There's been moments like that all season long. It feels like where you start to feel like they're crawling back into the game. Obviously, Las Vegas those couple of drives late, we still the three of us are still upset about the no call on Will Fuller in the end zone.

You know that feels like even more it does, but two and three would feel a lot different than it would feel. Love there with QB one and possibly ready to come back off the injury reserve list as well. And you get ray Kuan Davis back today and maybe DeVante Parker's back next week. Who knows about that. You know, maybe you have some some optimism and going into that game overseason to London, maybe they'll find their rhythm over there.

We'll see if that happens. But just two quick points that you touched on their Seth, I want to talk about you talked about punt returns. Can we talk about punts for a second. Was it thirty eight and a half yard average on four punts? I don't think I've ever seen that before. That's like a gross number, isn't it isn't that you're differential off the return usually thirty eight something yards. I mean, you gotta do better than

that there. And then also, Seth, you talked about pass brush and we can come back and talk about this because we're almost out of time here on this segment. But just the court, the types of quarterbacks of Dolphins were not just beating last year, but making look like they didn't belong on the field. Were these quarterbacks that don't run particularly well? And I know Tom Brady's mobile

within the pocket. But I mean even the defense back in twenty nineteen, it's not, you know, comparable to this season, but that defense had far less high draft picks and free agents and overall technical quote unquote talent, and they stomped out that Tom Brady led Patriots offense. I just, I've got so many questions about where to go from here, but we're gonna come back and get to more of those. Hopefully coach Flores has some answers for him here on the other side.