Dolphins Titans Week 17 Preview

I am personally very excited for. We're looking into the big matchup against the Tennessee Titans and a familiar face at the quarterback position. We're gonna tell you how the Dolphins match up at every position, the keys to victory, the stats, the film, what to keep an eye on, the whole heck of a lot more from somewhere in South Florida. This is the Drive Time Podcast. So we begin the podcast here with a little bit of information

or news as far as the COVID nineteen lists. Four Miami five players returned back to the active roster and there's a lot of depth coming back to this team today Seethan Carter, the tight end Justin Coleman, the cornerback Greg Man's, interior offensive line Robert Jones along the offensive line, and linebacker Duke Riley all returned from the COVID nineteen list. And just to reiterate these reports and changes, and thus

the podcast is fluid. I'm talking to you guys on a Wednesday night here on the podcast, So we put the disclaimer in here off the top for Thursday that a lot of names could either come or go by the time you hear this. Just want to make that abundantly clear. As we said last week, it can change on a day by day or even an hour by

hour basis. And the Titans current list on the COVID nineteen list of as of this recording, offensive tackle Kendall Lamb, offensive guard Nate Davis, receivers Julio Jones and Nick Westbrook, it line, outside linebacker Bud Dupree, cornerbackbuster screen linebacker Jayon Brown, defensive lineman to Nico Autry, and then cornerback Caleb Farley is out for the year, but he's on the list.

And then receiver Cody Hollister, a practice squad receiver rounds out the Titans present COVID nineteen list at six oh one Eastern on Wednesday night, December. So with that out of the way, we start here with the intro to the Titans, as we do weekly on the Preview podcast, a team we have not seen since and the longest football game in the history of football games, which, by the way, there was no joy to be had in

that game. Amber that that victory that the tannehill Is Stills deep ball was one of the best moments of the entire year. The Jachem Grant returned touchdown on the kickoff was also phenomenal. But the way football games kind of have that turning feeling in your stomach to experience that first seven and a half hours was not fun

by any stretch. That was the worst game of all time. Anyway, that long stretch of not playing them is why we have not done one of these where you can kind of catch up how they got into their current position, which is ten and five and Mike Rabel's fourth season, and it's been a good run there for him. Looking for their second straight a f C South title, and their magic number to clinch that position is one. A

victory by Tennessee or in Indianapolis. Loss gets them back to the a f C South mountaintop, and their best season over that period of time with Brabel came in a wild card season where they made a run all the way to the a f C Championship game and held a ten point lead over eventual champion Kansas City right before Patrick Mahomes went Mahomes and eventually captured the Lombardy that season and it really started the moment that Ryan Tannehill took the reins there for the Titans, and

that twenty nineteen season, he served as the backup to Mariota for the first six games. The Titans were two and four when they made the switch, and Derrick Henry had rushed for four hundred and sixteen yards and four touchdowns through the first six games and average yards per

carry a three point six eight. Over the final ten games that season with Tannehill under center, the Titans went seven and three, rerushed for one thousand one four yards and twelve touchdowns, and averaged five point nine two yards per carry. And that's basically who the Titans have been ever since. Explosive play offense, efficient in the running game, and the passing game with a defense that makes enough big plays in the past rush department as well as

the takeaways to get to the winner circle. And in his three years with Tennessee, Tannehill has a record of thirteen two playoff victories. His pass rating is one hundred point seven. He's just a hair under eight yards per tenth and he's throwing seventy touchdowns to just twenty seven picks and a handful of rushing touchdowns as well. A very nice second part of his career here once he moved on. Now, Derrick Henry is not there right now,

at least as of this recording. He's eligible to come back off the I R alright, I guess this is the middle window, I should say, of his surgery projection or return projection. So there's that. There was an Instagram post by the Titans with a picture of him, but he hasn't returned to practice yet, so we'll see on that.

But he's not there right now. The offensive line has been banged up, they've been down some weapons, but this defense has kind of risen up and match what the offense had been able to do over the last couple of seasons. And it starts up front where they really built things, built that thing out with a core of inside outside rushers and guys that can impact the passing game.

And before Mike Rabel, this was a team that really struggled to get pass rush and it was kind of one of those you know how certain teams have these annual positional blind spots, like I can think about the Jets, for instance, stand hands is on the Around the NFL podcast always talks about how they haven't had a good pass rusher since John Abraham back in like two thousand, was it five, I don't even know when that was, but you have that. That's what it was here with

the Titans. There was never an edge rush. But since Rabel's arrival and that first draft class, he goes up there with John Robinson and gets Harold Landry, a massively disruptive force off the edge. The next draft class, they go to the inside and nab one of the game's most disruptive interior defensive lineman and Jeffrey Simmons in twenty nineteen. Then this year they go out and they pick up Bud Dupree and free agency, they also scooped up Denico

Autrey from Division Nico Autrey from division rival Indianapolis. Like you get the point, it's been a point of emphasis, and they can really shut down the run and rush the quarterback with their starting four up front, So there are a lot to deal with up there. They have that big playability offense and their solid in the kicking game. This is a complete team that's tough to beat at home, and they take on the personality of their head coach,

which is one of tough, smart discipline football. We know how that goes. And with that, let's go ahead and dive into the matchup, starting with the Tennessee quarterback and the Dolphins safety's I rattled off those statistics for you, but this has been a bit more of a challenging season in the numbers as far as the numbers go for Tannehill this year, but I don't think that really tells you the story that you see on tape. The Titans offense has looked different in this season for a

few reasons. And look, we're not going to downplay the absence of Derrick Henry. He's the best running back we've seen in a long long time in this league, so losing him as obviously had an impact. But It's not just been him. It's been a lot of hits to the offensive line. And we all know how how Tannehill has been able to endure pressures and high sack games and something that he's had to do this season. He's

been sacked forty five times. That's the same number of sacks that Miami has as a defense, and it's the second most sacks allowed in the National Football League. But he just keeps getting back up. He's tough as nails. I mean, one hit by Clais Campbell basically knocked him out for a year and a half there, but other than that, he's never missed any time. And as a result, there's a dip and stats across the board for him. Touchdown percentage here's from twenty nine one. Here are the

numbers in each of these categories. Touchdown percentage seven point seven, six point nine, it's down to three point one this year. Interceptions six seven another year, fourteen of them. What about interception percentage two point one one point five two point nine, yards per attempt nine point six seven point nine down to six point nine. He's two and a half yards worse than he was his first year as far as

yards per attempt go. And that's again, these are I always think quarterback stats are team passing stats, so just keep that in mind. And the sacks thirty one this year with two games left to go, still up to forty five. And the reason I bring this up is it's the key to the game for my money, finding a way to continue to get these free hitters that

we've seen Miami so adept at creating this season. And we'll see if the Titans can get some of their guys back up front, but disrupting Tannehill's timing getting him off the spot, that would go a long way towards an eighth straight win. And with that, let's take a look at some of the PF data here for Tannehill. When he's been kept cleaning this season, seventy one point six percent passer seven point seven yards per pass, eleven

touchdowns but eight interceptions. When he's been pressured, fifty four point seven percent completion, five yards per attempt, four touchdowns and six picks. I mean, things change for players, but we know about that, right not blitzed sixty six point five percent, six and a half yards per attempt, eight touchdowns, ten picks, and when he's blitzed, and this is strange.

Sixty seven point four percent, eight yards per attempt, seven touchdowns and four picks and those are flipped like clearly better when he's kept clean versus being under pressure, but more effective against the blitz than not. And when you look at time to throw, two point three five seconds when he's blitzed, the ball comes out, that's one of the hottest rates you'll get, and then two point five nine when not. So there's a much bigger emphasis for

them on the quick game this season. And look, I always say this, I've seen more of Ryan Tannehill than any other player as his career had kind of came along when I really got into tape study back in like the early two thousand tens and kind of learning the game back then. And I always said it from those days, twelve personnel play action, two or three man route combos to let him kind of stand in their survey and drive the football from a clean platform, and

that's where he was most dangerous here. And then you pairman Tennessee, it was a perfect pairing with a receiver like a J. Brown and an offensive linel they have and obviously are running back like Derrick Henry to put

more bodies in the box. So with that mine with play action this year eight points on yards per a tenth with sixty five point six percent completion, five touchdowns and four picks without play action sixty seven point one percent completion, but just six point two yards per attempts, so two and a half yards dip their ten touchdowns and ten picks. So it doesn't matter who the running back is. Ryan Tannehill has always been a very good

play action quarterback. Keep that in mind. So there's been volatility with both with the chunk plays come out of that play action approach and the time to throw difference here off of play pass two point eight six seconds two point four without play actions, So much more quick game this year than in year's past. And the cliche says you have to run to set up play action, but it's been pretty well proven that that's an antiquated approach.

Play action works based on the way you execute it, and Tannehill and the Titans are sharp in the play action game. So keys for the defense, you know, limiting fall steps, don't don't get, don't give that second level hook, throw that dig route, easy access for Tannehill by taking the cheese and the play action it's easier said than done, and really taking away those digs and those seams shots.

I mean, Tannehill really excels on those throwers. Thinking back to the Brian Heartline throws, the Charles Clay throws right down the middle. When he's in rhythm, he has that good little hump over the second level in below the safety is because of the big strong arm, the ability to spend the football. He's also got the big powerful arm to push the ball outside, so he'll make you defend the entire field. He's also an adept runner with the football in his hands. I'm exactly dynamic in the

shiftiness department. Kind of reminds me of micat Sicky that way. But he's fast. He's a long strider who can chew up yards in a hurry. If you crash that defense event on zone read and you give him a lane, he can go for. Just look back to last Thursday as an example, Buck twenty to play in that game. They have it at the minus forty six in a tie game, and he rips off a twenty three yard run that puts them right into field goal range and

they go and kick the game winner. So where do Javon Holland and Brandon Jones, who at the time of this recording is on the COVID list and Eric Rowe factor in here well? As far as the matchup goes, the former two have been essentially full time players. Will Rose usage fluctuates between forty two sixty two. Sometimes I'm seventy of the workload depending on the opponent and also the availability of Holland and Jones, who have been down here, you know, three games over the last four or five.

But the Titans roll with what the league does. Basically, they are within one per cent of the average on both eleven and twelve personnel usage, but they are the second highest usage of thirteen personnel, which, as we talked about last week, because of three tight ends, brings more linebackers and safeties onto the field. So I would think about all three of these guys, we'll get run for the Dolphins safety group. Holland and Jones lead safeties with

six team pressures this season. Apiece next is eleven. By the way, at j j Ron curseon Dallas. Eric Row also cracked the top twenty. He has six pressures on just twenty six pass rush reps, where Jones has eighty six and Holland has sixty one. But all three of these guys can create pressure on the quarterback. And like we talked about three hitters, that might be an area of of concern for the Titans in an area of opportunity, I should say, easy for me to say for the

Miami Dolphins defense. So I was looking at this earlier as well. This is all some strange splits here for the Titans, and this is how their numbers go against number of safeties that are deep single high zero coverage and two high safeties so against zero, which we know Miami has plenty of eleven sack percentage their thirty eight and a half percent on third down, and they have just two point four passing yards per game. Now, they haven't seen it that much, but they've been sacked more

times than they've gotten the pass off. From that look, that is very interesting, intriguing to me. With one single high safety point three passing yards per game one and three point seven rushing yards per game and on third down, this is so weird. They passed the ball for fewer yards against single high than they do run the ball with two high safeties, it gets weirder. Thirty one point six rushing yards per game and a hundred one point

three passing yards per game. Right, maybe maybe the numbers are skewed towards more throwing, but it means I would think with Derrick Henry that would be a much more closer percentage split there. And they're also thirty four point one percent down rate against two high safeties, so maybe that's the route right there. I mean again, there's weird

splits that tell you different things. How you want to put together, that's beyond what I can do, but I'm just giving you the interesting facts are that I found very intriguing about this big time matchup. I think disguising coverage and causing a decision to disrupt that quick passing game always a key, and it will be a key here, which brings us to our next matchup, the tight ends and receivers of the Titans versus the cornerbacks of the Miami Dolphins. I'm still so perplexed by those number of

high safety splits, like they're flipped from what's normal. It can't get over that. But here we start with a J. Brown and you saw the impact that he can have in that game. Last Thursday night, first game back, forty Niners really didn't have an answer for him. Eleven catches, a hundred and thirty five yards and a touchdown and their offense going from zero points in the first half to twenty in the second. And that came directly with

where A. J. Brown's production came from. He took over that game like a star receiver does, and he wins with his ability to put his big frame in position whereas in possible for guys to get through him. He's a crafty route runner who knows how to kind of sink the hips, drop the shoulder and kind of put weight into the defensive back. And from that position, you have to be ready for him to really have a

three way go where he can continue vertical. He can break it off in the direction or even come back to the quarterback, so he puts you kind of on your heels, and then from there he can explode out of those breaks. And with the big body and the physicality, if you want to try to go around him, it's

a good opportunity to get past interference. So the physicality to match up with him, it's always been something that Xavian Howard's excelled with right, but not just with how he matches up with actual hands on the receiver, but the way that he can mirror and well, I'm trying to think of a synonym for mirror, but just mirror the routes and the moves that the receiver takes, in this case a J. Brown, And that allows him to recover better and break on the football better because he's

not at the peril of being overpowered physically by a J. Brown. I can't wait for this matchup if that's how it goes. I mean, who knows, Maybe you double a J and use X and Byron elsewhere. Maybe they're part of that double. You certainly have options, as you do every week with this deep secondary, especially with the return of Justin Coleman. But last week, I mean, this should tell you how

excited they were to have him back. Sixteen targets, four of those versus Josh Norman three forty two and a touchdown four of those versus Ambrey Tombas Thomas two forty six, three versus Jimmy Ward one for twelve And this is an underneath ree route And I saw it on tape because you don't want to bring a safety down in

distry of cover A J. Brown. So one for twelve against three targets on that double and then two targets against Kawan Williams two for twelve, two against Fred Warner the linebacker two for fifteen, and one for Marcel Harris one for eight teen. So he'll find his matchups. They'll move them all over the football field and give him Miami's prepency to mix things up. That's probably the smart assumption for how to defend him, to mix it up

with different looks. But we'll see his ninety two targets lead the team even though he's only played eleven games, and still he has double the targets of the number two options, which is Nick Westbrook. It kind he has four the six targets. I'm sure Julio would have a lot more than thirty eight if he played in more than nine games. Then it's Chester Rogers with thirty seven targets. And this is where you start to see the idea

behind the offense and that thirteen personnel package. It's a J. Brown and then a collection of people we we mentioned the forty six, thirty eight and thirty seven targets. Here's the rest of the list, thirty four for Jeremy McNichols, thirty four for Jeff Swain, twenty one for Dentree Hilliard, twenty for Derrick Henry, eighteen from Michael pruittt seventeen from Marcus Johnson. So they spread it out beyond their top target. How does Miami counteract that? Well, First, will Julio Jones play?

I think that changes things. Even if he's if he hasn't been as productive as he was for so many years in Atlanta, you still want to account for him, and he's still averaging fourteen point five yards per catch, and even just one big play can change the complexion of the game. Now, the rest of that collection, that's all backs and tight ends aside from Marcus Johnson at the bottom of seventeen targets. He's a receiver, so you

need backers and safeties to be involved as well. But I think the matchup really starts with a j Brown and the rest depends on how you treat that one as far as getting him figured out. If you can take him away, that's going to force the offense to go in options that they just were not able to produce with last week. Can you duplicate that for not just one half, but two halves. That would be a big key in this game. Let's talk about the Titans

offensive line the Dolphins defensive line. But first these words so up front, we already preview the Dolphins safeties versus the Titans quarterback as well as the Dolphins cornerbacks versus the Titans receivers and tight end. Let's go ahead and pick it up with the offensive line of Tennessee first, the Miami front and look, Miami has three edges inside the top thirty and QB pressures this year. Wilkins is top thirty among interior defensive lineman stealer, Butler Davis doing

it too. It's a lot to contend with, and I talked about this earlier. The numbers the Titans have posted against different looks, giving this Titans line different looks, different mug duck backers or safeties in the equation, different games with the defensive line pulling different guys into the hooks on whether it's a Adam Butler or Jalen Phillips just back in, different guys out showing pressure, playing coverage vice versa. We saw the cat Blitz last week brings some bring

Nick need hum bring, bring them all. I think that's the key here. Like with Tannehill, keep this line guessing, create even the slightest hint of hesitation, and that will go a long way to getting pres the pressure you need to slow this Titans offense and ultimately win the game. I have no idea who's gonna play. Like we told you the names on the COVID list off the top that could change last week. Here's who who, Here's who

played and how many snaps they've played this season. Dylan Raddin's the rookie at of North Dakota State one fifteen, Ben Jones at left guard, check that, Ben Jones at center, one thousand, twenty eight snaps, Nate Davis in the lineup at eight nineteen, Aaron Brewer at four eight snaps, and then David Kestonberry one thousand and fifty two snaps at right tackle. So Taylor Lawan is battling an injury and came off the COVID list on Wednesday. My days are

swado back. He's a Pro Bowl level tackle with a real nasty streak and a tone center for that group. I mean, remember that back in the game. He's played seven hundred and fourteen snaps. They could get him back, that'd be a big edition. Kendall Lamb also on the COVID list. He's a reserved tackle just eighty seven snaps played. Ty Sambrio played a hundred and twenty three snaps at tackle for him this year. Bobby hart Uh found his way into a hundred and one tackle snaps as well.

Roger Staffile has been one of the game's best guards and or tackles before his time with the Rams for a long time. Seven hundred thirty snaps for him. There's a lot to sort here. And but as we look at the injury report again, the Titans get some key pieces back. Taylor Lawan should be back, will pencil him in there, and again Roger Staffel was back on the practice field as well. They also got David Long, the linebacker who missed the last six games, back on the

practice field on Wednesday as well. So here's the here's some pressure numbers for the got five guys that you think might start the game. Taylor Lawan twenty pressures, four sacks and five hits. Roger Staffold twenty two pressures, two sacks and six hits. Ben Jones twenty one pressures. He's played the entire year, so I think like really good numbers there, one sack and four hits. Nate Davis thirty

three pressures, five sacks and five hits. And here's one that I haven't seen this year, David Cassonberry forty two pressures, eleven sacks and eleven hits, so twenty two total impacts on the quarterback. And so Emmanuel Ogba takes most of his snaps off that right side and Kestonberry goes six five three time, but he's got thirty four inch arms.

And I wanted to look that up because Oga has been really effective with his swipes and his cross chops and the moves that he utilizes those big heavy hands in. And he had eight. They had eight pressures allowed on Caston Burry against the Pittsburgh Steelers a couple of weeks ago. I think that's T. J. Watt territory for some comparison there. We'll see how Emmanuel Ogba can keep his hot street going number eight in the NFL right now among edge

defenders and QB pressures. Nate Davis has really stabilized that position for them no more than two pressures in a game Since Week ten against the Saints. Ben Jones and the center have been one of the best centers in football for a while now. He's always right around pass blow efficiency. No sacks allowed this season, just one last year. He allows less than one point five pressures per game, and then staff fold again, the former tackle kicked inside.

I'm curious to see how he deals with the quickness of Butler, because he gets those quick getoffs and kind of had that first step quickness. Might be a matchup to watch. But also I got to thinking about kind of him getting kicked inside and playing more of that stationary role, the way Zack Steeler has been able to move guys with pure strength. A combination of those two things I think could be a good challenge for a guy in his first game back then Taylor lawan Pro

Bowl player. The guys that have gotten him Chandler Jones, you know how to monster first game and the Bills over the last couple of years. I've given him some issues with a mixture of Jerry Hughes, Gregory Russo a j EPINESSO. So he's a tough matchup. But let's see if you know, I think Jalen Phillips might be a good a good run over there on some pass rushing downs, but also obviously been ginkle Ogba Steeler. Whoever lines up

over there, see if they can score some wins. If they can, that'll go a long way towards a victory. Then we finish up on this side of the ball. Taking a look at the Titans running backs versus the doll Fins linebackers. Not much running last week. Jeremy McNichols was the top ball carrier with seven for thirty one. Tannehill was next at three for Entree. Hilliard had five for twenty and the guy who had the most carries was Deonta Foreman, but he had the fewest yardage with

nine for seven. Team. So who's it going to be this week? Probably a combination. They've been trying to find solutions since Henry's absence. They brought in Adrian Peterson, but he was only around for three games. Foreman has the most carries behind Henry's two thirty nine. He has eighty six. He's averaging four point two yards per carry. He's missed forced twelve miss tackles. Hilliard has ten forced miss tackles on thirty nine attempts, so he's been uh, you know,

but forcing miss tackles. Keep that in mind. I think Miami's ability to tackle in recent weeks has been really good and played a big role in our victories. And I also believe this is a game where a land than Roberts physicality can play a big role than the just the way he kind of sets the tone and the running game is always important. I think Jerome Baker has plenty the equipped to roam at the backfield in

terms of speed. He was shot out of a can in all game long on Monday night, and we get due rally back to maybe help out against some of those thirteen personnel sets, So speak to me. Of that eleven personnel twelve personnel, those are both within one percent of the league average. One personnel is at eight percent. That's the ninth highest usage of two backs, one tight end that a full back they utilize quite a bit, and the number thirteen personnel is the second highest usage

of that with nine percent. With three tight ends and one back on the field, then there are less than ten total snaps between ten and oh and double o personnel. It's four and five wide, So you know what you're gonna get. Lots of tight ends, lots of running backs from full back, some lead dives, some of that stuff, and then play action off of that. Let's go ahead and flip this thing over to the defense. But before

we do that, a quick break. So we are back on the Thursday edition of the Drive Time podcast, brought to you by Auto Nation, and we've previewed the Dolphins and tighten on the Dolphins defensive side of the football, and now we flip it over to the offense, the Dolphins quarterback versus the Titans safeties. And I mentioned this that I thought to his tape was actually better than what the broadcast showed or what I saw from the

broadcast copy. But I still think these last two games would actually greatest two of his lower ones in what has been a pretty good season for the second year quarterback. Hopefully he can pick things back up here, but I think Miami needs him to be really sharp in this one. A couple of those third down mrs last game need to hit those need better ball security in the pocket. So how can the Titans make life rough on him?

Some Titans defensive numbers here, They blitz at twenty point five percent, that's the seven most, so they don't blitz too often. Their knockdown rates eight point one percent, that's twenty second most, and their pressure rate is twenty four point two percent that's nineteenth most. So they don't bring a lot of rushers. They don't get home a heck of a lot, and they want to get home with three and four pass rushers. More on that in just

one moment. Jack Rabbit Jenkins returned to the lineup on Thursday night for thirty eight snaps after missing three game games, and he was limited in practice on Wednesday when he played last week. And I think if he plays the whole game, or if he's healthy, rather help play the entire games. We mentioned Caleb Farley's out, but Christian Fulton is in, Elijah Molden is in. That's basically their top

three cornerbacks. If you factor Farley has been banged up a lot this year, then Kevin Bayard never leaves the field at safety, and Monty Hooker has six hundred snaps there as well, and Dan Kruikshank has four hundred of what as well. So what I'm getting at so they can get into their dime and their half dollar even dollar packages. They're deep in this position group. But when you look at their top cover guys, they don't come on blitzes. They just they play coverage and they play

the run. Bayard has nineteen pass rush reps. Jack Rabbit two hooker for Fulton five. Elijah Molden does have fifty two pass rush reps. He's a little bit like Brandon Jones and the way he plays down around the box a lot, but also an exceptional slot cornerback Kruek shank back at safety five and then even at linebacker. I mean, David Long has forty nine pass rush snaps. That's that's quite a lot. When they do bring the extra rusher a lot of times it's him. Jayon Brown just twenty two.

He kind of he kind of built like Jerome Baker in a way that he plays. So his blitz numbers not being that high, that kind of tells you the scheme they run there. And then Rashawn Evans thirteen. He's never gonna blitz basically, so to a gotta throw it against coverage. What are those numbers? Well, first, I thought that's been a strong point of his game and not sure if you saw Brian Baldinger's breakdown of that rip to Waddle I covered on the Tuesday podcast Drive Time

as well, but he was really impressed with. Two was timing off the top of the drop hitch up ball out. I think it's been a strength with how he puts the ball kind of in those soft spots, and those are windows that open and closed quickly, but he's been able to find them with anticipation and just being on time and in rhythm. And I want to get into

that our next matchup. But first, two more things too, was numbers when blitzed, or rather check that when not blitzed, and when he's kept clean when he's not blitzed seventy one four percent seven point seven yards per attempt, nine touchdowns, but seven picks when kept clean no pressure seventies six point three percent seven point one yards per attempt, twelve touchdowns and three interceptions. So can you protect him against their four man rushed the big key in this game.

Let's actually go ahead and here now from two a tongue of Bloa on Titan safety Kevin Bayer, who I asked him about on Wednesday on how the All Pro kind of gets things organized for that Titans defense. Like you said, he's he's a pro bowler, so you know he's he's really good at what he does. Um, you

know in the back end, he's their communicator. You know, he gets guys a line in the back end, he communicates out where everyone needs to be, who's pressuring, who needs to replace him, you know all of that, and so you know he's the captain for them in the back end. I think he's done a really good job. So definitely got to be aware of where he's at and who he's covering at all times. Uh, and you know,

look pretty much elsewhere for our matchups. So do you have a QB one talking about the all pro safety of the Titans? All right, so I mentioned playing zone, playing coverage. I said, that's been a strong suit of two's game. Let's get into the Dolphins receivers and tight

ends versus the Titans cornerbacks. I think everyone knew about waddle speed, but his ability to find those little hookup zones underneath to show too of his numbers to make tough catches, and then on top of that too, the ability to creative to find creative ways to get him the football for this offensive staff. I think it makes sense that he's a featured option again in this game, and we know he can move all over. Here's how the Titans coverage numbers stack up from most primary guys

Jack Rabbit Jenkins five hundred twenty one coverage snaps. He's forty four of sixty six this year in terms of completions versus targets, four hundred and seventy one passing yards, four touchdowns, and a pick. More name players Christian Fulton three hundred ninety three coverage snaps, twenty seven receptions on fifty one targets, so not a lot of completions there.

Three eighty six yards, two touchdowns, two picks. Elijah Molden, the rookie out of you dub three hundred seventy five coverage snaps, thirty six receptions on fifty one targets for four forty three touchdowns and a pick. I was most intrigued by Molden because one he's a rookie, Two he

plays in the slot the most. Three nine seven of his five hundred sixty one snaps are in that position, and a hundred and twenty four are also in the box, So he's basically always inside the numbers and obviously the number three, Waddle plays most of his snaps and the slaw, although he does move around a whole lot in this offense.

And after watching the tape, you know Molden gets a lot of those one on one reps inside the slot and when he gets help, well, we also saw Miami create opportunities to get free releases and one on one matchup despite capping Waddle or showing those double teams and a variety of motions and stacks and bunches would get him off of those double teams and Moldens and ultra competitive type of player. That's kind of how they have

the DBS around here, Jack Rabbit Fulton, same way. Fiery type is going to challenge you every step of the route, play physical defense, and I don't think the testing numbers here matched up with how well he plays and how well he transitions, and that's probably honestly why he felt to the third round of the draft class. But he's a damn good slot. But it's a fun matchup and the reason I meant and the testing of four or

five nine forty, he didn't run the agile drills. His ten and twenty yards splits were slow, so start stoppability. I think Waddle can test that a little bit if that's how it looks on the field. And Fulton was one of the best. I thought, kind of press cover two types, and he certainly has the length to play a little bit of man coverage out there. But I thought, coming on, you know, a long, physical athlete, sounds like

a potential Davante Parker matchup to me. And Jack Rabbits played six hundred and sixty of his seven hundred and fifty three snaps out wide, Fulton five thirty seven of his six four So those guys were almost primarily outside corners, although you might consider I guess either of them could really match up on Goosiki or maybe you put Jack Rabbit over on Parker, like maybe there's some sort of bracket on Wattle where there's Jack Rabbit on Parker and

Fulton on the combination of Isaiah four, Mac Collins Albert Wilson if he can make it back, all kinds of possibilities here. Now, for the tight end purposes, I wanted to look at the way they handled certain tight ends around the National Football League. George Kittle had three targets, one against uh Jack Rabbit Jenkins, one against Kevin Byrd, one against Buster Screen. The slot cornerback Pat fryar with four targets, two against Harold Landry, one against Zach Cunningham,

one against Elijah Molden. Then the Patriots with their two tight ends five targets for Hunter Henry, one of those against Jack Rabbit, two of those against Kevin Byard, two of those against the Monti hooker John who Smith four targets. Two linebackers involved in their two targets against John Brown and Dylan Colea Peace. So they really find different ways to get that done, and I just find it interesting that it could be any of those options in the game on Sunday. Let me get into our matchup of

the game. Really, as far as this side of the ball goes, the Dolphins offensive line versus the Titans defensive line, I want to look first inside pressures and run stops. Jeffrey Simmons and forty one. It's the most PFF pressures for the first three seasons of a player's career at

that position since Aaron Donald. That's pretty good company. And then Dineko Autry, who's on the COVID list right now, but we'll see fifty five pressures, nineteen run stops, So more of a pass rushers as far as as far as that production tells you, but it's pretty good pass brush production. To he and Simmons, it's the best interior pass rush duo on football for my money. And the next the third player comb in that rotation tier Tart

five pressures, five run stops. So you see the usage drop off after those two guys who have played fourteen hundred seventies seven snaps with Simmons and Autry, and then the third most interior you used, interior defensive lineman has three d and twenty snaps, So something else think about their Can Miami test their conditioning there and force those

guys off the field a little bit. We know they have the wide runs and the screen game capability to kind of make those guys retrace and get outside and run a little bit, but outside it's also tough to get out there too against this defense. Harold Landry fifty nine pressures, thirty eight run stops. These are monster monster numbers. Bud Dupree sixteen and sixteen. Now he's only played nine games, so his per game stats are a lot better as far as that drop off goes, But then from there

another one of those drop offs. I'm not going to even try to say his name. I'll be honest with you. I've never heard it said before. Um Adnnier. It's his last name. Close enough, dred ninety two snaps, thirteen pressures. Now, this isn't to say these guys can't play. They just haven't really had to play a lot this year because those top line guys have been healthy and played enough to where they haven't had to go into that deep into their bench. So something to think about there, But

a big game from Miami's front. I think it really starts inside with the interior. Three guys. We saw those two Pro Bowl caliber ends in New Orleans get their fair share of pressures on toa but he was able to really kind of navigate those and step out of a few of them and make plays off script. Where he got into trouble was when he stepped away from that initial spot, climbed up into the pocket into more pressure from the interior or just outright pressure from the

interior in his face. So finding a way to squeeze that and keep that interior off the quarterback, big big key in this football game. We finish up here with the Dolphins running back versus the Titans linebackers. Rare Shawn Evans one of those true B gap to B gap bangers. Fifteen run stops on a hundred and fifty eight rundown plays this year. He's a block defeater, a violent collision maker.

Teams have targeted him twenty six times with twenty two completions in the passing game for to ten, but he also has two picks. There's so many weird numbers in this game. Only two balls have hit the ground when he's been in coverage on twenty six snaps. Crazy David Long is a big addition to this group if he can return twenty five run stops, nine quarterback pressures, four plays in the football with a pick and three pass breakups.

No touchdowns allowed in coverage either. So he's a terrific processor that plays with great pad level and great leverage and great instincts, and that processing I think would be tested in this game. Still have his work cut out for him coming back in his first game with six games off to knock any potential rust off and then

Monty Rice another guy that figures into the situation. Here the equation a strong rookie from Georgia who packs a punch hundred and seventy nine snaps this year, just four as a rusher, eighty nine in coverage, nine D and run defense where he has ten run stops. Which back will it be this week for the Miami Dolphins. I

liked the mixture last week. Duke Johnson had a slight edge and then Lindsay and Miles were one snap apart in the game as far as youth, did you go os and Miles very involved in the passing game, Lindsay very involved as far as the carries, with the same number of carries as Duke had. And I think what this backfield does is it gives you options depending on how you want to attack. Do you want to try to isolate backers and coverage, Maybe that's more of a

Miles gas Can roll. Do you want to get those wide outside zone runs. Maybe that's more of a Philip Lindsay role. He can certainly do it. Do you want to have the kind of between the tackles but also a combination of pass catching. That's something the Duke does pretty well or has so far here at the Miami Dolphins, Like I like to say, we'll see and I sure his hell can't wait. On special teams, they are twenty

one in d B O A Miami's twenty eight. Their kicker, Randy Bullock is twenty four for twenty eight this season. All of those misses are between forty and forty nine yards. He's one for one with a fifty one yard or on fifty plus. So it'll be interesting to see how they play it in that fourth down territory at the plus thirty five or so yardbind. Do they want to try fifty yard field goals? They haven't this year. They're punterer Brett Current forty four point four yards per punt,

the top return manch Chester Rogers. He was here last summer ten point five yards per punt return. He's shifty and he'll take chances. Twenty three returns this year. He's also brought out fourteen kickoffs for an average of twenty

point one yards. My three keys to the game are to generate unblocked rushers to hit free free erunners against Tannehill and the Titans passing game, and just bring that consistent pressure against this Titans passing game and force him off the spot, enforcement to make quick decisions, trying to throw some of those quick touch passes that we uh try to force other quarterbacks to throw here and see if you can't. Just keep him under duress, keep him

guessing all game long. Number two account for receiver A. J. Brown on every single play and Julio Jones for that big play element he could possibly provide for the Titans. But with Brown they could not move the football until they got it going through him last week. He's a big part of the offense. Number three. It's two parts to stay on schedule offensively, and one way you can do that is number two. To hold up against the Titans three and four man rushes, no big negative plays,

get positive yards, keep the change moving. That will go a long way towards playing compilary football with the defense to win this football game. The Dolphins will win this game if they can keep Tannehill under pressure and move him off of his spot with multiple looks. And the Titans will win this one's twofold if they can collapse the interior pocket regularly and Miami's same offensive mistakes carry over with the penalties the sacks and missed opportunities in

the passing game. All right Long podcast today. I had a lot of fun putting this one together. Tomorrow we have the mail Bag and John kN Jemmy and NFL picks. Check out Top News up on Miami Dolphins dot com. That's gonna be my time for this edition of the Drive Time podcast. You all please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave us a rating, leave us a review. You can follow me on Twitter at Wingfield NFL. You can follow the team on All Socials at Miami Dolphins.

Check out the fish Tank podcast. Marco Coleman on the show this week. You don't want to miss that with Seth and o J. Of course our YouTube channel for the media availabilities, as well as Dolphins Today with Joanna, myself and Rachel, and of course Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, Fins Up, Caroline, Daddy is coming home. St