Dolphins Titans Week 17 Recap

now come to its conclusion. It's a convincing thirty four to three defeat in Nashville. We're gonna get to the five takeaways, check on some of the storylines. I was interested in going into this game and assess where we go from here. Here from Brian Flores and to a tongue of Iloa from somewhere in South Florida. This is the Drive Time Podcast. So no post season play for the Dolphins in the game that Miami had to have to stay alive in the postseason chase, and it just

didn't really go that well. From the very start of the football game, some key moments and opportunities to possibly get back in the game. We're gonna cover all those moments, including some of the stuff offensively, defensively, some of the calls and the explanations of those calls in this game. But I want to go ahead and start this podcast with Brian Flores on the team not playing well enough to win. With as much riding on this game as there was on Sunday. Every week, we we we put

our best foot forward. They try to U have a good performance. It was no different this week. I think our guys prepared the right way. The way how good we could practice signs are a good team. They had a good plan. We didn't play well enough in any of any any any phase. And you know that starts with me then coaching well enough either songs m We'll go go back and make the corrections, and trying to

play better next week. My own personal crafty story lines here and how it just really didn't come out in the Dolphin's favor and almost any facet. I mean Ryan Tannehill versus some of the free rushers the Dolphins have been able to create over the course of the winning streak. Just couldn't get those couldn't really get him off his spot.

There was one instance where I thought they did get him off his spot, and it wasn't in completion, But that was really it that the course of the game was curious about a j Brown working on Xavian Howard or Byron Jones, or double teams or zone. I think we saw a little bit of all of that in this game. He only caught two for forty one. So Miami did a good job neutralizing the Titans top offensive weapon in the absence of Derrick Henry and Julio Jones.

But the Titans offense just didn't really have to do a lot today with Miami's offensive performance and to in the elements was a question. We are a storyline. I was curious to see how it played out. Eighteen forty two oh five, four sacks, no touchdowns, gets the pick that gets kicked up into the air, which is unlucky, but there were some other players in the game that went in his favor as well. He finishes with a fifty three point one passer rating. Who can run the

football in this contest? Well, the Titans answered that rather vehemently. The number two ranked defense against the run in Tennessee versus the number seven ranked Dolphins run defense coming into

this game. Titans win that one handily as well. And then just how Miami would handle a game in elements in cold weather that required against the physical football team that had a good game plan like coach Flora has mentioned there against a tough, physical team, and how the rushing kind of balance would go in this game and how that would create the tone of this game. I mean, I think we can all agree we know how that

went in this one. Let's go ahead and go back to head coach Brian Flores here about how his team is feeling coming off this loss. You know, I don't have the performance I'm looking forward. You're dispointed, um, but you know this this group, well, they're gonna stick together, support one another, get back out there tomorrow, make the corrections tomorrow, prepare for up for for another big game

next week. The big game Brian Floors is talking about Week eighteen, the last game of the Miami Dolphins season. The takeaways here, number one, It starts with the quarterback position. I really just thought the last three games in different capacities that the performance of Tongua Byloa had not been

to the standard of what we had expected. Over the course of the previous portion of the season, in that middle part of the season, coming back off the finger injury, the thumb injury since he replaced Jacobe Brissette, the Baltimore game, and some considerable strides throughout the course of his career.

But now off of that stretch, a three game stretch of kind of the same mistakes that became weekly that he kicked out during that stretch and cut those curious interceptions down, we see we see not just those, but more opportunities of those some weird short hop throws that don't quite get there, some off target throws that some strange decisions with ball location and where to go, and it resulting in balls getting batted into the air and

possibly intercepted. And O J talked about this early on in the game, how it seems like in some of these games it Takeshi a while to get warmed up. Like the Jets game a couple of weeks ago, first quarter was not very good, the Saints game, got a very slow start in that game, playing poorly to the start and then having more of those mistakes trickle out

throughout the course of the game. And the accuracy issues is a part that the rest of stuff, okay, like we can work on that, we can get better at that, but at least the end of the day, we know that he is always going to be a high completion percentage accurate quarterback who when he has the right throw and has the right read, the ball is gonna be where it needs to be. But that just wasn't the case in this game. High low, wide behind all game long.

He struggled with the accuracy. And that's gonna be one of our takeaways later on about the uncharacteristic elements of this game. But man, how uncharacter touristic was that of this quarterback? And that's I think where you get a lot of the narrative and some of the stuff that

you're you're gonna see on Twitter. And I talked about this on post game how this type of game and this type of moment it invites the conversations that you you hate having him on Twitter right and social media and you want to just be able to say, no, we're good right there, it's doesn't it's done with. We don't need to even look at the draft or free

agency or whatever the case may be. And that's not going to be the case that you're going to have to deal with that this off season because of this performance. That's how this league works. It's it's high risk, high reward, and when you don't perform in these big moments, that's what people see and that's what people are going to remember.

So when you could put your hat on the accuracy and you don't have that, that's when that conversation, that's when that leads to a performance like this one, that leads to a conversation like that one. I mean the

two misses on the first series. There was a throw behind Mike and Davante on on on different dig routes, not setting his feet on that one that I was talking about to a Monty hooker that could have been picked off where he gets This is something that I've noticed has been a bit of a trend on these high balls over the middle where the feet don't get set. And it's so weird because normally he's so good with the footwork and the they do get set and he

drives the football because of it. But that little shuffle away from the initial interior pressure and then the release is quick and good, but the feet have not matched up yet, and so the ball sails on him as he doesn't get the feet set on that play and it goes over Mike's head and Monty Hooker has a possible interception opportunity that gets dropped. The ball comes out of his hand on the lost fumble that sets it tightens up with a seven oh lead at the plus

fourteen yard line. Just trying to throw a quick hitter, a now route right too, Jalen Waddle coming back to the to the formation a little bubble inside bubble type of screen, little tunnel screen. Ball just flipped out of his hands like and then it failed exchange later on on a third and short play. Just these these little things that pop up, those are difficult to overcome. And then when you're not accurate on top of that, very

difficult to overcome. And you know the other point here about this his I don't think it's unfair to ask the question about the performance in implement weather games Buffalo

last season. I mean I talked about this also in the radio, about how there were so many drops in that game and different elements and the defense could not get a stop to save their lives, and how the three picks may have been might have been a little bit more because of that than it was, you know, the quarterback play being not good for sixty minutes, but in this game, you didn't have those things and the

quarterback play was not good. And yet that was There was sleet in that first half, I understand that, but it did clear up at times throughout the course of the game. There was some wind gusts here and there. But the ball was just all over the place in this game. Last year at Denver, it wasn't it was just a cold day. Wasn't snow or rain, but it was cold. And that's what happens in the a f C. East East Rutherford, the meadow Lands, the Foxboro, Buffalo, it's

cold weather cities. So it's just something to think about it. It's wasn't good in this game. We haven't seen it good yet. You really hope that it does get better. And let's go ahead and hear from Brian Flores talking about the impact this game had, or the weather conditions I should say had on this football game. Yeah, I mean I think it was raining, it was slick. But regardless of that, we've got to do a good job for tecking football and it's always our number one priority.

We got to do a better job protecting it. It's always the top priority. And look, you know they had the same elements we had. We're dealing with some even playing field. From that, you gotta do a better job. And so I kept looking for this portion of the game where Tah would find that little flicker of get heating up and hitting that hot streak we've seen pretty much every game, even when he hasn't played, like I said,

up to the standard we expect of him. And he gets off the goal line with that great second and tent RiPP to Davante Parker down by fourteen. That's a big time throw that the Dolphins had to get going to get themselves back in that temp over them offense and kind of get things rocking and roll. And then it's another big game down the field till Mike get sicky and I saidtle load passed down the seemed to Derham Smith. Then we take a sack and the driver

is basically over from there. Then we come right back and miss a throw to Jail and Waddle on a slant where he's open with a clean pocket ball over the top of his head in the fourth quarter. But then we're back with a forty five yard rip to Jail and waddle for a gorgeous corner route and then it's back to back mrs after that. So I thought the line play was good. I thought Duke was running the ball pretty well as well. It just wasn't to

his game. And I wanted to go to this part of the tourist press conference post game because I mentioned the last three games I just were not as good as the previous games. So here's what to I said after the game about how teams maybe played them differently or adjusted over the course of the last three games with the Jets, Saints, and now Titans. Here's to a mostly by the Titans right here, I think, and I

think they really run what what they do well. There's is really not much game planned unless it's it's third down. You know, they'll they'll bring some pressure here and there on normal down and distances, but other than that, they thick to what they do and what they do really well, and they just go out there and execute. You know, we we try to stick to what we do and try to execute, but obviously that wasn't the case today.

Ease today. And then on this first takeaway, let's go ahead and finish up with another point from to about what the Dolphins offensive game plan coming into the game was in the loss only, we wanted to try and push the ball down field, get into some of the the areas that we felt we're going to be avoided with the play action game, you know. We we wanted to try to stay ahead of the sticks, being manageable third downs, but that wasn't the case with our first

three series. We were third and nine, I think third and ten, you know, and and maybe another third intent uh but yeah, I mean, you can't you can't go out there and you know and not not being able to execute on the road against a good team, you know, and expect the outcome to be good. So it just

needs to be better execution from us us. Let's take a short pause and we'll come right back with takeaway number two Drivetime Podcast five takeaways from the Dolphins Sunday lost the Titans thirty four to three, and Week number seventeen.

Takeaway number two on this edition of the Drivetime Podcast is that this game was way too close to the same script we saw earlier in the season, where the strong defense deteriorates as the game goes along and the offense really fails to put together much our amount really any type of scoring drive at the course of the game. And that was so often the case early in the season, and we saw in this one, and it wasn't a

fun time to be reminded of that game script. And for the Titans to come out here and Waddle had had I think it was three straight games with nine catches for ninety plus yards or eight catches for ninety plush yards, they pretty much removed him. Besides one play in the game, I think it was late into the third quarter. He had one catch for just no yards in the game, which is so again just kind of

out of character for this Dolphins offense. They've always been able to find ways to get the rookie receiver involved. He finishes the game with three catches for forty five yards. Confirm that three catches for forty seven yards, So he is now two catches shy of tying an Kwan Bolden's single season receptions mark for a rookie receiver. We talked about two was miss throws and how that was problematic for the offense is kind of just getting stuck in

the mud and not being able to do much. That ineligible man downfield early in the game basically takes Miami out of a first and ten from right around midfield situation. With the first two plays in the game, like already having good success getting upfield and they would convert that first down later. But I just thought it was just

emblematic of how this game went. Kind of like the Jason Sanders kick off the crossbar that bounces back from fifty three yards, you never see him not have enough leg and on the play before that, a sack coming around the right end there pushes that field goal from I think it was a nine yard loss from forty five forty four yards to fifty three yards, and that of Orsk goes off the crossbar, uh, just being loose

with it in the pocket. Like right after that bomb to Jitlan Waddle on the double reverse pass that with the flee flicker type of action to not be aware of the surrounding areas and that that particular play that's not a good look. And then right after that, Waddle has a drop on the drive after Miami falls down three.

So just a lot of these things that got in the way of the Dolphins success and that was the idea of two things I said earlier on the podcast is this season that I forgot about it, and I'm glad that I did, because it wasn't much fun talking about it. But the Murphy's law, how everything that could

go wrong did go wrong. And then what coach Flores had mentioned it we kind of talked about in the podcast as a result, was how guys would take turns making mistakes it seemed at times for this Dolphins team. So here's head coach Brian Floors on the team's failure to execute. And I think it always comes about and comes back to fundamentals and technique and tackling, defeating excuse me, tackling, breaking tackles, blocking guys, defeating blocks, and um hm, you

know we can come up with all this. You have a plan, but at the end of the day, that's that's that's really one football balls onto them. So you gotta take care of those fundamentals. And you know, we had some some communication issues as well, So yeah, I mean, I guess against a good team, you gotta take care of all those little things or else they take advantage.

You know. Seth kept making this point on the post game show on five sixt w q A m about how he didn't feel like this game was like the game against Tampa Bay earlier or the game back in Week two against Buffalo. I always just a three phase SmackDown, and he's he's really right. I mean, the Titans had one more first down in Miami, seventeen to sixteen. That number, it kind of blows me away. They had just fifty two more yards. It was just the mistakes and the

offensive really ineptitude through the course of the game. Just three for eleven on third down. They were seven for fifteen on third downs. That's what where of your big differences comes into play. But yeah, just not good enough for the Dolphins. You heard coach Flores talk about the execution not good enough, fundamentals not good enough in this game. The third takeaway is that the nut the run defense is not the one we were used to going into

this game. Deonta Foreman has fourteen carries for seventy yards in that first half. We talked about him having the lowest average coming into the Titans running backs, but he rips off a big day. They then hit the thirty yard wildcat on a really game clinching type of play in the fourth quarter where you're down by fourteen, third and inches right around midfield. They get that, not just the conversion, but they run it into field goal range and eventually go in for the touchdown, and then that

helped to set up the play action passing game. We talked about that as one of the keys Titans averaging two and a half yards better per pass when they go play action, and we talked about how you can create that without having to run the football. But we saw that early in the game that they tried to get to those looks, but you would see Jerome Baker kind of falling into the hook zone and interrupting a possible passing laner Xavien Howard getting his hand around for

a pass break up. And so they were able to impact those play action passes early because they were doing a good job on early ounds of stopping the run. But once that got away, it made kind of everything go away because then Tannehill could get those naked boots and get involved in the running game those little play action looks where he gets a tight end leaked in behind the coverage for a wide open walk in room

service touchdown pass. So a lot of that came off of the running game, and it seems like even when things would get stacked up at the line of scrimmage, and I talked about how Christian Wilkins was a bright spot in this game on Twitter because he continues to just you know, they had to hold him a couple of times. He gets into the into the backfield, makes a couple of plays at line of scrimmage a couple of times, like every game, He's just a lot to

deal with. And even with a performance of that nature and other guys making plays, with the course of the game, it just seemed like they would stack things up and then find a way to push the pile an extra three or four yards, and going from that second and nine to second and six to me, seemed like a big deal in this game. Now they got Taylor Lawan and Roger Staffold back, so I mean that's you know, this is no slouch on the other side of line

of scrimmage. I mean, they that offensive line had gone through its tribulations this season, but they get those two guys back makes a big difference. And I thought that

little key detail was a big reason for it. They finished the game forty rushes for a buck and you can see that got inflated late, but I thought that was indicative of how the game went on, went through the course of all sixty minutes, and again they built a Russian game off that passing game for Tannehill to just go thirteen for eighteen for a buck twenty and

two touchdowns. Takeaway number four. I kept referencing this earlier on how some of the really all of the losses for the most part this year have come at the expense of uncharacteristic mistakes. And we've this is just kind of an additional takeaway here, but we talked about it already, the things you haven't seen from this team, Like we talked about with some of the inaccurate throws and the mistakes that have just kind of been the same script

this season. But even then, like we've come to, you know, we talked about standards, like Javon Holland took a couple of bad angles in this game that I thought sprung big running plays which just haven't seen that much this year. Xabing Howard gets a flagged for a defensive pass interferens. We're pretty clearly he did in fear of that pass route on first and twenty to get them behind a

bad chain situations. Davante Parker, the most relaxed human being on the team, loses his cool and I can't blame him for that, but it's just one of those games where all these things are kind of mounting and snowballing, and that's how you wind up losing by thirty one points. And the last one here this is more of a last year thing. But again for Sanders into the win fifty three yards off the crossbar, like since when That's

not what I'm used to seeing from him. And that's that's where it's that's where you start to just kind of like, Okay, well, now what because when you see things occur that you're not familiar with in the sport, with his team, with his game, and that's where you're kind of like, all right, well back to the drawing board.

I guess I don't really know. It's it's that's the That's the beauty and the difficulty of the NFL is how emotionally charged it is, and how every game has so much riding on it and every single performance feels like the most important thing in the world. And that's that's the beauty of this game. But also that's why it hurts so much when you don't get the results

you want. And I think that a lot of these things might have a lot of you like me tonight kind of with our head in our palms, asking ourselves, what the heck happened out there? Can we can we run that back? We try that again? Maybe I don't know. It hurts, man, it sucks. Takeaway number five quick a short break. Takeaway number five on this Sunday recap edition of the Dolphins and Titans Week seventeen game of the Drive Time Podcast. Is that playoff contention? The season as

we know it has come to an end. With that loss, the Dolphins have been eliminated from one postseason contention. They can still clench back to back winning seasons with a win next week against the Patriots. That would be the first time since two thousand to two thousand three seasons. That was the last two years of the first stint of Ricky Williams. A small consolation on what I know a lot of you were hoping to get from this season. So I asked this question to the guys in the

postgame show, what has this season meant? What have you learned what we need next year? And what the season has meant was to me was to teach you, and this is every single year, but this year definitely to teach you to not react too positively and too negatively to a single football game. We've seen what kind of streaks and runs and the way teams can play for periods of time. We've seen that, so I hope we all learn from that, and that to me also is a What it's meant to me is a lesson in

press perseverance, which is awesome to have. And what do we need next year? Well, we have one more game to go. I'm not gonna get into specifics just yet because I have a month to get ready for the Senior Bowl, another month to get ready for free agency after that, then two more months of more draft prep after that as well. But these are some things that I would just put as general general things that we need to have a better idea of at this time

next year. Number One, what's the offense is identity? What do you want to be just it just seemed like too many times this year, whether it's a drive or a series or a game or whatever, we'll be going one way then something would flip. We couldn't get back to that successful part of what whatever was working. And it was pretty clear that when Waddle wasn't going, this offense was having a real tough time moving the football.

So finding more, I guess, more more options offensively too, to be able to successfully move the football with more regularity, because that was a problem all season long. Number two, don't rest on the defensive laurels because the safety room was good, but doesn't stop even going out and getting a Javan Holland to make it really good. I always like strengthening strengths a big that's a big thing for me. Number three is just the big games. And this kind

of goes back to more today. Just too many times. I mean, how many times have we since I don't know, the early two thousand's. I mean the team game in Buffalo, the two eight game in the meadow Lands were two

big wins. But tell me tell me any other big, big, tough and this isn't necessarily but I'll throw it in their tough road games where this team has gone in there, maybe against some of the odds, against some of the expectations, and one when they had a chance to make people step back and say, okay, alright, Dolphins, we see you Buffalo. Last year, that's thirty point lost last year, thirty one point lost. This year Minnesota two eighteen, that game was

a thrashing. Remember the Dolphin cook game. There after the miracle game two fourteen, there was a loss to the Ravens where it was close at halftime of Baltimore pulled away late, and then Miami got thralled by the Patriots the week after that and then basically had to play the string out two thirteen. Uh Buffalo. After beating the Jets, the Steelers and the Patriots and three consecutive games, you get the Buffalo shut out, and then the breaks, the breaks.

You need to give yourself a one game playing against the Jets at home, but that didn't go with our way either. So just too many times these days where you feel very anxious in a good way going in. That's what we want. You want these pregame jitters and anxieties as a Dolphins fan, but too often they've ended just like this one. I want to see that change.

That's my hope for a new year. All Right, we have one more week of regular season coverage coming y'all's way, but the podcast doesn't go way in the off season, we'll be right back getting to work ready for the Senior Bowl, free agency, the draft schedule, release, O t A s all the way up to training camp, and a second. The season starts after next week. We'll cover the Patriots week all week long, and then turn this

page over to the off season. As the season officially for postseason contention is over, we'll cover all of that on Drive Town. That's gonna be my time. Stay tuned for a post game segment from myself, Seth and o J on five six w q a m. After the Dolphins loss in Nashville. 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. They have a best of your review episode coming up this week. You won't want to miss that. Check out the YouTube channel for all of our media availabilities as well as Dolphins Today. Until next time finds up Caroline, Daddy's coming home, and just a quick heads up. This was recorded before we knew the Dolphins were eliminated from playoff contention, so I

keep that in mind. Here is the postgame segment from the five sixties w q a M Show between me, O j mcduffee Seth Levitt, the first segment from Dolphins and Titans, recapping right after the game went Finally, what is up, Dolphans And welcome to the fifth quarter postgame show on the Miami Dolphins Radio Network. The Miami Dolphins Podcast network is all here. O. J mcduffee and Seth Levitt from the Fish Tank. I am Travis Wingfield, the

host of the Drive Time podcast and Juice. We start with you every single week, seventeen weeks now in the books. One more in the biggest season ever here in the National Football League. We came in here very fired upstate, three of us, ready for us, a squad to prove themselves against a narrative that was building against them, and they didn't do it. Juice. Yeah, once again, man, you know we'll get to this point in the year. We've

seen it a few times. We've got an opportunity. You know, the whole narrative this week was Dolphins pretty much control their own destiny and go on the road. You know, and and a in a in my opinion, a winnable opportunity, and uh, you know land egg again. You know, it's it's a tough deal. We started off so bad in this game, especially offensively, that it became, you know, not so much fun to watch. Missed opportunities is what we what we can really pretty much say about this whole

post game show. You know, missed opportunity going there and get a win. We had missed opportunities on the football field to make some plays, miss opportunities to recover some some fumbles, miss opportunities throughout the whole game. But then at the end, missed opportunities to make some tackles, so, you know, another missed opportunity, you know, to continue control our own destiny travels. It's it's painful, bro. I get

the frustration by a lot of people. You know, you can read all the social media stuff you want to do, man, but personally for me, man, you you get so excited about stuff. You know, last yesterday I was at you know, watching Penn State game. I didn't even care about that. All I cared about what to the Dolphins are gonna do today? Like that, it meant nothing yesterday, you know what I mean. But this game right here was so big and so much was you know, on the line

for our team. And it's not over yet. You heard Jimmy talking about it late and you know in the broadcast it's not over yet mathematically. But man, when you got a chance to control your own destiny, big Seth, you know what I mean, and you've got a chance to go out there, you know, and and and continue this this run that we're on. You know, it gets the team that you know, minus Derrick Henry, minus another

one of Julio Jones on all fans. You know, the defense is good, but you know, but for us to go out there and not be able to, you know, to take out a couple of running backs, you know, a couple of tight ends and made plays. You know they want to talk about, you know, the Ryan's Handy Hill game. Ryan Taniel had that he had a solid game. He does with Ryan does you know when you got a good running game with it. But our opportunities that we didn't take advantage of is what what you know

what messed up everything for us today? Seth Jews mentioned the disappointment of you know, I was just looking at the score up of last season's Week seventeen game that was finale. This not now we have eighteen weeks here, but thirty four to three, and one of these games that Dolphins fans kind of circles like, all right, this is the time for the same old Dolphins mantra to go away, for the Dolphins to prove themselves in a big,

spotlight game. Last year, in that same situation, it was fifty six to twenty six against the Bills team that didn't really play the majority of their starters the entire game. And now thirty four to three is disappointment what you feel today because you were telling us kind of a different story back in the other room. Well, well, I'm definitely disappointed the game for sure. Yeah, absolutely. I think I had a little bit of a different feel for

the game itself. But you know, you heard Jimmy said. Juice talked about Jimmy at the end of the broadcast there and he said, highly disappointing, and it is. And I think it was most disappointing to me is that they just as you said, just they didn't seize any opportunities. And you know, the Bills game, I felt they were completely outclassed last year. I think that, you know, it was a fun run. Last year, you saw a team that took a step forward, but ultimately they were outclassed.

I don't feel that Tennessee is well. I mean they were today for arendy one points better, but I didn't feel that's what we saw today. And I think that to me, it was so much of it was self inflicted. It was those unforced errors. It wasn't that Tennessee came out with some game plan that we just couldn't figure out, and they just dominated the Dolphins all day. Again, they did.

The score tells you that they did. But if you look, if you dig deeper into it, yeah, you can't throw a ball without the ball in your hand, Fumbling snaps, missing guys, open players, throwing the ball over their head. And I know a lot of that pointing to the quarterback, and and and and honestly, it really should and and I am a fan of to a tongue of la, I am not saying, you know, I think there's gonna be a lot of people jumping on the pile now.

There's a great opportunity if you don't like to This was a great game to go jump on the pile here. But this is a guy who has been the most accurate quarterback in the league this year, and we didn't see any of that today. You know, Janalen Waddle was

missing an action for so much of this game. And it didn't again, Travis Yoga, watch the All twenty two, but it didn't seem you didn't see a bunch of replays where they had three three defensive backs just bracketing him and there was nowhere to throw the ball to him. They just weren't finding ways to get him the ball when guys were open, they were missing him. And then there were two big plays, not the fall to the

Miami Dolphins. And I don't like to blame officiating, but there was a pass interference call on the third and seven that went against the Dolphins inference. And there was the pass interference on the fourth down play just egregious where Davante Parker gets hit early and then his arm hooked and he's trying to catch the ball with one hand and they don't call that. And those were huge,

potentially fourteen points swing there. Now you look back and say, well, it's a thirty one point game, but it wasn't when there was third and seven and that pass interference was called against Nick need him when he's getting pulled to the ground by his jersey. They go on to score a touchdown. There was a one score game prior to

that drive. They're punting there if that call isn't made. So, I mean, there were some he plays that didn't go the Dolphins way, and when they had opportunities, they just missed them, and that's a tough pill to swallow. You also omitted the shades if I want to say, two thousand nine against the Pittsburgh Steels, when Ben Roethlisberger fumbles the ball going into the end zone, Dolphins recover it, show the ref of football, and they still award the

ball back to the Steelers. The same thing happened in this game today. Come out of the pile with with the football and they don't give them the ball, even though I think it was Emmanuel Ogba came out of

there with the ball. But Seth, you kind of mentioned the flow of that game and not feeling like there was any any point where the Titans were just vastly superior, maybe until the very end there, but that's that's kind of My theme here is that it followed the same script we became all too familiar with early in the season, where the defense starts strong and then just slowly deteriorates

as the game goes along. And then, to go back to an old floralism is they took turns making mistakes, and they started right away, and that was a key to this games. You couldn't go into this game and hold and set up first and twenty. You couldn't go negate a twenty yard rip by Miles Gascon on our screen, pa Us with an ineligible man downfield. You couldn't allow a third nine sack to make a forty five yard field goal now a fifty four yard field goal. They

took turns making mistakes in this game. And then, just to kind of finish that point just before I throw it back to you, to me, what this game does, guys, is it opens up all those narratives the Dolphins fans don't want to hear about. They're not ready for the big game, they're not a true contender. They might have to have another solution at the quarterback position. The things that make the off season not nearly as enjoyable as it is when you do have all those things. Yeah,

I mean there are a lot of things. And we had these questions a lot. I mean we've we've we've tried to answer these questions a lot as as fans, as analysts, whatever we are. We try to answer a lot of these questions. And there are gonna be a lot more questions. I mean, obviously, you know, the situation is nothing that you'd hope for. But finally, you know, you think about it. Man, Look, the offense has been living off of defense for eight weeks plus, you know,

and it finally came to the the roots. But the offense need to come out there and get something done. Couldn't get anything done. They had plenty of opportunit when he's like Seth talked about miss guys, missed opportunities. So I mean, this is one thousand percent the defense didn't play the same defense that where you used to see it. Couldn't stop the running. We need him to do that. But at the same time, though they've been they've been holding it down the whole time. This is this is clearly

clearly in my opinion, on offense and teams. Late in the game, Yeah, we got blown out late in the fourth of course, seventeen points in the fourth. You know, running the ball, you got run blisses, you just help. You're selling out against the run, and you know, and they cracked some big runs against us on the wildcat. Also late the last touchdown to the end. All right, I'll give him that. But early in the game, plenty of opportunities for the offense to go out there and

make some noise. Plenty of guys running wide open, bad throws. You Jeff talked about, you're throwing the ball with an empty hand, you know, not not the dunk, real empty hand, but empty hand in general, because you know you can't squeeze it in in bad weather. Then we come with some plays on offense, some double reverses. Michael sick. I mean, there was some craziness with this offense trying to I

guess we're trying to jump start something. But at the same time, though, man, the offense is been so bad, and when you don't have Wallow involved, like we talked about it, Wallow, we didn't get Water involved till late did we know we're in trouble because Water was our guy on office. We've we've seen it, we tried it. We know that's where we go. So so I'm just saying, man, it was like more than anything, you know, offense and teams punting was terrible, miss field goal that it was

long after this fat things like that. Those things kill you as well. Man, crossbar too for a guy that's I mean, I know it's obviously not at it's not August in South Florida, but a training camp. This guy is consistently putting the ball midway through the uprights from fifty six. A way to play in inclement weather, you know, December and January. Bro, every other team has to play in two. They played in it. You know, here's the reality,

guys and juice. You talk all the time about it's tough way to make a living, to have fourteen fifteen eighteen play drives. There's too many opportunities to make a mistake. You can't lose seven in a row, you know. And then and then sit here and say, oh, well, the Dolphins, it's the same old Dolphins or maybe their pretenders. Oh wait a minute, they lost seven in a row. Let's

not forget that. And so no team in the history of the NFL had had prior to this year, had lost seven in a row and then one seven in a row. Well, clearly that means no one won eight in a row after losing seven a row, and so you have to be perfect at that point. And it's been a fun run and I've loved it, and they still have an opportunity to find a finish above five hundred, which doesn't change anything we said after the last game. I think it speaks a lot to the guys in

that locker room. I think it speaks a lot to the coaching staff, starting with coach Flores, to keep things together. But today today you wanted more. You wanted them to at least show up. If it was just a slug fest all game and they came out on the wrong side of it, maybe you know, you would be disappointed, but you just wouldn't feel like, you know, someone pulled the rug out from underneath you. And that's what happened today.

That's again too familiar with filling you know, as far as covering this team or following this team for the last a couple of decades now, because they get to this point and it seems like the rug does get pulled out a lot. I think to your point, seth something else Dolphins fans maybe wanted to see, was the was the team's quarterback, the team's young former number five overall quarterback, take them up and down the field and keep them in that knockout type of game. That didn't happen.

We'll talk about that and the weather, and to juice this point earlier, I believe it's Raiders win or the Raiders do win their game, and I believe it's the Chargers or Stealers. If either of those two teams win, I believe the Dolphins season will come to an end after the seventeenth week of the season. But they can also, like Seth said, clinch a winning season with the win over the Patriots next seat, next game, and that would be the first back to back occurrences of winning season

since two and two thousand three. We'll talk about two of the weather, we'll talk about the run defense. We'll hear from Brian Flores and to a tongue of Baloa. All that coming up again. The final score from Nashville thirty four to three. You're listening to the fifth quarter post game show on the Miami Dolphins Radio Network, brought to you by the Palm Beaches