Drive Time - Takeaways From Dolphins 23 Seahawks 31

fall to Seattle and to one and three. We'll get to the five takeaways, the stats from the game, individual performances, will hear from coach and the players as well as John con Jemmy with his three takeaways, will go over the post game notes and a whole bunch more on this game recap. This Sunday, October, the four edition of the Drivetime Podcast, Miami Dolphins and support for Drift Time is brought to you by Auto Nation. There are so many reasons to drive pink, but for Auto Nation, there's

only one to finish the fight against cancer. In fact, Auto Nation has helped raise over twenty five million dollars to drive out Cancer. To join the fight, visit the Auto Nation store near you or drive pink dot Com. Let's go ahead and start this podcast as we do every single Sunday, recapping your Miami Dolphins as they fall thirty one to twenty three to the Seattle Seahawks. Good

battle back and forth. Dolphins go toe to toe with one of the NFC elites and now the four no Seattle Seahawks as they prevail once more in the fourth quarter, as they do with that quarterback and with that coach. We talked about it on the Thursday podcast. This guy has twenty nine fourth quarter comebacks and twenty two game winning drive. So it's just it's kind of kind of

par for the course for Russell Wilson. Dolphins were there, had a chance to make some plays at the end, it came out the other way again a few plays ago the other direction, as kind of has been the case in a few of these games this year. Dolphins could have found victory but could not finish something Brian Flores and the players talked about post game in this one, and we're gonna hear from those guys here in just one second. But real quick, on the statistics, Dolphins go

for four hundred and fourteen yards. Seahawks go for four forty one. Miami has a hundred and three on the ground compared to Seattle's ninety eight rushing yards. Dolphins passed for three twelve Seattle three forty three. On third and fourth down, Miami was seven out of thirteen, the Seahawks just four of eleven. That includes a fourth down stop down on the red zone on an Emmanuel Ogg Boss sack that will come up here shortly in the five takeaways.

Speaking of takeaways, Miami they get one, Seahawks get to both interceptions there of Ryan Fitzpatrick Xaviing Howard gets to pick on Russell Wilson. Dolphins got two sacks on Russell Wilson. Fits was sacked just one time. And in this game only three penalties and twenty total yardage combined among the two teams, and those were all distributed to the Miami Dolphins. Seahawks didn't have any penalties or any yards on the day.

Time of possession goes to the Dolphins as well, thirty three minutes and nine seconds to Seattle's twenty six fifty

one of game time having the football. So with that, we'll go ahead and jump right into the five take ways, and I'm gonna start here, and I was trying to figure out how to structure this, but I want to end with my I think my favorite or my most important takeaway, the one that I think that we should all kind of step back and take a look at contextually and apply context because, as I've said for so

very long now, process over results. Man Like, Yeah, the results are gonna be what puts you, you know, ahead and the scoreboard, and there's no debating how important that is. It's the most important thing. But if you want to think about, you know, in a sixteen game sample size football season, where the team might be going and where things might be trending, you want to look more in depth. You want to have a a broader view, not just look at the one single wins and losses and think

that's what the football team is. In every element. There is so much that goes on on game day and from Sunday through Friday, or from Monday through Saturday, rather before game day out Sunday, and it's important to have context to everything that goes into a football game. The countless hours that are worked and coached and put on

the practice field in the weight room. I just think it's very disingenuous to not take a full bird's eye approach and conte and make every think contextual when it comes to such an esoteric sport like football that is so complex and so difficult to to learn, to describe and to really be able to evaluate yourself. So just that's the theme of this podcast tonight, having context behind this thirty one twenty three loss to the Seattle Seahawks.

And we start here with takeaway number one, and I'm gonna go back into the secondary where I was really impressed with these guys, you know and Earnest for all about three or four plays in this game. We talked all week about Russell Wilson on the podcast, on the Blitz, on the Top News, on the game preview, on the flashback. He was in every segment we did, and that's because he's one of the two or three best football players on the entire planet and he's been showing that through

the first three weeks. And maybe I was, you know, I find my perspective a little bit different up in the press box, but maybe up there to me, he never like took over the game, and that was a great sign of progress for the Dolphins on that end. Because this guy has taken over great defenses time and time again. That you know, the Patriots in Week two, Russell Wilson went up and down the field and they

couldn't do anything to stop him. Because when you are that good at that position in this league, the way it's tailored, it's impossible to stop a quarterback who's red hot. You just cannot do it. That's why we have all these gaudy stats nowadays. And the Dolphins were able to, at least in some semblance, limit Russell Wilson, I thought, more so than what he has done the rest of the season combined. And look the deep ball at the end of the first half. At the end of the

first half, that just can't happen, it can't. You see the safety up top roll over to the other side of the formation. Then you've got ig Banogny and Van Noy with a two man route combination to that side of the field, a high low type of deal. One goes short, one goes deep. You just cannot let that guy get behind you. You cannot do it, cannot do it. But that's when we throw in the trash, the deep shot to lock. It sucks too, but that's what this offense has done. Like we just said, they've done it

to everybody all year. They've gotten vertical to Dk Metcalf, to Tyler Lockett, David Moore got involved today the touchdown off the interception. That's another play that I think you want to get rid of such a deflating moment theory, because that's the moment where up in the press box, for instance, the sports writers, they know where their story

is going. Their postgame story has the final direction they need to take it in Like after the Jacksonville game, for instance, after the first couple of drives, I'm thinking, Okay, this Dolphins coming out strong, putting up a big lead. This is probably gonna be my story lead. I'll go ahead and write that, and if it mounts that way, will continue the story that way. And so that Jacksonville story was done within the first two quarters of that

game because it never really changed. But in this game, the storyline kept changing three or four times it changed, and that moment, the Fitzpatrick interception, that's kind of when you start to get your fingers on the keyboard thinking okay, this game might go a certain way right now, And that's what happened, and you know, I was furiously typing away at that moment because how many times have you heard the broadcaster when you're watching a football game say,

look for them to take a shot right here coming off the turnover. It happens, And it happened. But what about the rest of the Dolphins secondary. You lose your captain in free safety for a couple of series and Bobby McCain, Jamal Perry stepped in, and I thought he did a good job. I'd love to go back and watch the tape. I don't have that available to me right now, but you know, we'll do that later in

the week. But I thought he played well and he you know, he played safety a smidge in training camp last year, and I wrote a little joke in my notes here that Jamal Perry has always been a corner because he changed his name from Jamal Wilts to Jamal Perry this offseason, and he played some safety a little bit last year in camp, but for the most part, he was in that slot position last year and he's

been playing there a lot this year as well. So for him to step into that free safety roll, good work and good versatility and good next man up mentality there Noah Bunogamy is a player that they're going to continue to count on on this defense. He is a player that has such high upside that so many folks have spoken so highly of him, both at Auburn and now with the Miami Dolphins. Coaches players alike, they love this kid. He's super young, the youngest player in the

entire National Football League. Dolphins have mixed in plenty of zone and man coverage in this game and this season now, and he was with Tyler Lockett for a fair share of the game today and he only caught two passes for thirty nine yards. Lock It didn't This is a guy that's you know, gone to Pro Bowls before as a y receiver, So he's getting some big time assignments and you know, there's gonna be some bumps along the road.

That's what Coach Flora said today. He's gonna have some highs and some lows, and we know he's gonna come back and compete and be resilient, and we're gonna coach him and he'll be better for it. And I agree with Coach Flora's there. He's only going to be better for seeing all this tough competition. Through the first couple of games. A baptism by fire, so to speak, here in the first four games of his NFL career. Now, how about xaviing Howard on the other side of the ball.

I was on my tweet deck slash had my notes up, and I saw somebody tweet one of my one of people I follow on Dolphins Twitter, said, how about Xavian Howard play right here? We we've lost Bobby, He's down right now, he's not in the game. We and Byron Jones isn't in there. How about to play from x and what does he do? Goes out and gets one, and we're gonna get to this on the inside the numbers, but he's got nearly as many picks the last two

games as he does receptions allowed. His fourteen picks since last December, or since December rather, are the most in the National Football League. Think about that, he missed thirteen games over that span and he's got fourteen picks. Guys, A straight ball hawk, a maker. That was the title of my blitz article on Friday, talking about xaviing Howard.

And he goes out and gets another pick up against DK Metcalf from Russell Wilson, who had thrown one pick all season long so far this year, Eric Rowe just continues to be a solid player back there. For me, I still can't believe greg Olsen caught that ball that he got a hand on Roe got it from behind, and he even signaled incomplete because you tipped the balls and defender you think that's my job. I probably got the incompletion, but the ball lands on greg Olsen's lap

as he's fallen to the ground. It made no sense to me when I saw it live from the press box, and then it made less sense when I saw on the replay. So that was the one catch I think for a chunk game of yardage there that I saw Eric Rowe, you know, I guess give up as a part of but just a bad bounce and a great play there from Greg Olsen. So and speaking of the bad bounces, the fumble the Seahawks have this is off topic,

but I just it's in my notes. The fumble the Seahawks had on Chris Carson when in Landon Roberts came in with Kyle van Noy and they kind of stacked him up and hit him and he fumbled the football. There was a pile of four dolphins right there and one seahawk in the area, and of course he's the one that falls on it. Just that's just the way football goes from times, man, the ball bounces a couple

of different ways. They get that fumble, Olsen doesn't catch that pass, who knows what the outcome of the game is. And then to finish this segment here, Byron Jones again was not out there for the game. They ruled him out on frind or he was doubtful on Friday, ruled out inactive today before the game. But he talked last week and I think this is very important to listen to about the importance of communication and growing that development

together for the defensive back room. We had Bobby McCain post games something similar about how communication has to get stronger and how they just have to continue to work in that area as a secondary, as a defense and as a team. And here's what Byron Jones had to say on just that fact on Friday when he last spoke to the media. We're still wrong. Um, there's no question about that. We have no It was really talented young rookie, but he just hadn't seen a lot but

I can tell you this, UM. You know, he's probably one of the most impressive young guys I've seen a very long time. And the way he approaches the game, you know, it's this kid is here early. These are early. With the coach looking at film, he's they're late. The way he practices, the way he really approaches practice is really impressive for a young guy to understand that. And for me just to see X when he came back towards the end of camp, I think his first couple

of days he got like two or three picks. I'm like, you can see his playmaking ability right away. UM. So it's it's gonna be special, but it's gonna take work. UM. You really have to bond together as a unit. It's not just about having, um, just really good players on the roster. You really have to develop a bond and really developed that level of communication. UM, that can really lead us to a different level. Um, there's a lot more than just the physical talent. There's a lot of

mental talent. There's trusting each other, knowing that this person is going to be where he's supposed to be, knowing you get inside, helth outside help wherever. Whatever it may be, so we're still developing that, but that's a fun challenge going through the year. Yeah. I just think that really that really perfectly addresses this dolphin second, and I'll take Byron Jones a word on that over anything right now.

And again, four games into a team that has been really really overturned a lot, it's you know, we're gonna find out a lot about these guys over the course of the next twelve games for the rest of the season and find out what they're made of. And you know, I'm excited to see them try to rise to that challenge. I think that's gonna be kind of the story of the year and how they bounced back from one in three start played much better the second half of last year.

We'll see if they can do that the final three quarters of this season. Up next. Takeaway number two Shack Lawson, Emmanuel Ogba. That's just the takeaway. I think the things you brought them in to do, they are showing why you brought them in to do that. The length on

the way they're able to stack the edge there. And this is mostly Emmanuel Ogball in this game, who I thought played really well defending the outside run, getting pressure on the quarterback, stacking up the edge and making that strong edge, setting a solid, strong edge that that the offense has to respect and cut back inside and work

off that. I think that he did a fantastic job in that area, had a big TfL had a couple of other stacks where he was able to force the back to bubble and allow his teammates, his friends, his playmakers around him to come in clean it up and

make plays that way. There was only one play where I remember Seattle significantly winning the edge big time, and they had it said it was Andrew Van Ginkle, but then it was David Moore on that pop hass on a little jet sweep, just puts a little move on Van Geekle and he got him a little bit, got him out over his skis, and he won the edge that way. But for the most part, I thought the edge was strong all game long, and these guys have

really been a big part of that. Shack Laws and emmanuel A Ball both playing so many snaps and doing what they were supposed to do, stacking the stacking of bodies, setting a strong edge and creating plays for everybody else in the running game, as well as making their own too, but they also rushed the quarterback, and aug Bas sack

was a very classic Emmanuel Ogba sack. That's just the way he gets after the quarterback, heavy hands, he loves to kind of draw the punch out of the offensive lineman and slaps those things away and then he can dip and bend the yark, which is impressive for a guy that big. My goodness, this guy is tall and long and he's able to get around that edge, bend it tucket and get to the quarterback and get him on the ground. Had that big, big sack on fourth down that was such a huge play at that time

in the game. And then shack loss in his sack too. It came right after an ag Ba TfL. Just a really damn good play from Shack laws And kind of I think on ag bas sack, he was over the he was right around the five technique posession, if my memory serves me correctly, so he kind of had to, you know, line up across the tackle then or the four technique five technique and kind of work off the

outside shoulder. Shack Lawson's was very similar. They're not in that really wide set edge where they kind of can just run around the edge and you speed and maybe a spin moved back inside. They line up over the tackle and they they're able to work into the backfield

from that position. Thought Shack Lawson did the exact same thing and then did a great job to keep his eyes on Wilson and break down there because even though it's the pocket, it's still open space, right because Wilson can flee and have their direction to break down and get a hand on him and get him to the ground. And he got injured in the process of doing that, but he came back from the injury, so that was

great to see. I thought that that entire process of that play was just really good work from Shack Lawson. Takeaway number three and we'll kind of go towards the negative here. It's just the red zone woes and and Dolphins talked about it. Coaches talked about it, players talked about it. They've got to find a way to execute down in that red zone. That's where football games are one and lost. There are schemes and defense is built

on the idea of ending but not breaking. If we can hold you to three, we trusted our guys can score seven enough to go out and win football games. And I think there are certainly opponents that you feel you have to be a little more aggressive against and go get more points against, or just execute better down in the red zone against, because they are more liable

to come around the back end and score. And the Dolphins were staying in pace for that game because besides the seven zero start when things kind of got you know, ugly early, the game was never in a situation where it was two scores until very late in the game. So to continue to stay in that battle and kick a field goal and stay and play good defense on Russell Wilson, and you know, through the first seven drives of that game, Seattle had seven team points on offense.

So to be able to do that and kind of understand how care defense is playing really well today, Let's keep them in the game by continuously putting points on the board and staying on the field and converting third downs and keeping their defense on the field and keeping their quarterback on the sideline. But at the end of the day, there's still gonna be enough drives at the end there for Russell Wilson, and he just showed you what he can do. So to be able to kind

of bog down the red zone. That was a big reason why this game didn't come back in favor of the good guy, in favor of the home team. And on a few of those third down plays, you know, coach and and Flora and Ryan Fitzpatrick rather both talked about execution. On the Dolphins second field goal, they had a fourth and or a third and three rather from the eleven yard line and could not convert on I Fitzpatrick passed to Isaiah Ford would wind up kicking a

field goal from twenty nine yards. You feel if you get a first down there and tide the ten, you feel good about scoring. So that's a chance right there, a player where you can maybe swift the flow of the game four points in your direction. That's the second field goal of the game. On the third field goal, they had a third and four and this one goes incomplete from Fitzpatrick to Jachim Grant and they would wind up kicking a forty five yard field goal. That one

came out from the twenty seven yard line. So maybe it's not you know, it's such a surefire thing to get closer to the end zone. But fourth and three or for or third and four and third and three. You feel good about your chances to convert those over the course of a lot a large sample size, at least your percentage wise. On the fourth field goal, that was fourth and five from the Seattle twenty five yard line,

standards made it from forty three yards out. So again fourth and five and we'll see if you can get that's, you know, not as easy as fourth and short as far as the stats stay, as far as converting those third and fourth downs, and then the final one in the middle of the fourth quarter with about eight minutes twenty seconds to go, Dolphins had a third and three at the nine yard line, and if Gaskin can find a way to you know, if they can get some

push there and get a couple of positive yardags, maybe the differences of the outcome is different there with the fourth and shorter, but you go back to fourth and five there, that should certainly makes things a lot more challenging for the coach to make a decision on going for or kicking. So those are just a few plays, those three plays right there with third and three or four to go, if you can convert those again, just

like the plays the Greg Olsen player the fumble. If you can get those to go the other direction, you're talking about possibly a different football game. But still, at the end of the day, it's up to these guys to execute in the red zone. To find a way to look at those third and four, third and three plays, convert them, execute them. Let's go ahead and hear from Brian Flores and Ryan Fitzpatrick on the red red zone execution. Let's go ahead and start here with coach first. I mean,

I think it's just execution down the red zone. Um. Look, when you get down there, it's that the onlines are tighter, UM, and safeties are closer to the box of the run. Games have more guys in the box. It's harder scoring the red zone, and that you got to have really good execution. We didn't have that today. And you know, again against a good team, you gotta punch it in.

And even though we didn't, you know close, But at the end of the day, you know those points, you know, three instead of seven, they add up, and you know we need every point, especially against a team like that. Yeah, especially it's a see him like that, see ill Seahawks obviously gonna be a tough out anywhere you get them. So if you can get seven points to the three, obviously that helps you. And that was the story of the day, says Dolphins quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick. Yeah, I thought

that was the story of the day. Um, you know, being able to move the ball effectively and not being able to do anything in the red zone and um, you know, whether it was a penalty or poor execution or you know, just a bad read by me, it just seemed like every time we got down there, something popped up, and red zone execution really falls on the quarterback.

And so, you know, for me, I walk out of this game feeling terrible in that I felt like there's a lot of guys on our team that played well enough to win, and unfortunately was not one of them. And when that happens in your quarterback doesn't play, you know, up to his ability, then you're not gonna win a whole lot of games in this league. And those thoughts obviously corroborated there and backed up by the rest of the players. We spoke to Ted Carriss, Miles Gaskin, Bobby mccainn.

They all talked about finishing and that includes both red zone offensively and finishing on the defensive side. So take a number three. Red zone woes are kind of the story of the day here. Number four is Jason Sanders nine for nine now on this season, hasn't missed a point after attempt. He has the best field goal percentage and team history, franchise history over the course of his career, had a such a strong camp. I seriously do not

recall him missing a field goal. Now, granted we don't have the best angle from my spot, but I do not remember him going wide in either direction. He was so money all the time. I have the utmost confidence in three points on the board when they call Jason Sanders out there and he's nine for nine from field goals, no miss p a t s in the year, so why wouldn't you trust him? But also the kickoff pooches. I think that was the first time that I recalled

the I mean, any game this year. Kickoffs getting returned typically goes with the back of the end zone a touch back. He did a great job of pooching that one down in the corner. Got a funky bounce and if from there you almost have a chance to recover it possible you know, fumble or whatever. Live ball into the ten yard line, the Seahawks wind up grabbing it running out to the eleven yard line, puts them back

on the shadow of their own goal line. So great job by Jason Sanders and the kicking game and this one and the fifth takeaway. My final takeaway, my my kind of ending thought for you guys here is that this is a resilient bunch. This Dolphins team is a very resilient group. You talk about these the way these guys kind of handled them else at the end of the game on the postgame pressers, their demeanor after the game. They're upset, man, They're mad. They care, and I was too.

I'm glad to drive from you know, hard Rock Stadium to my apartment is about fifteen minutes away, because I hate that drive home. I made it twice now after the Buffalo game, after the Seattle game. It's like beautiful in South Florida, and all I can think about is, man, if we just get two or three players the other way, we could have been driving home with a victory here, but didn't go out that way. I care, And that's the same demeanor you felt from these players today. And

I understand it's a new year a new team. But I saw the same coach last year rally a team that had far more reasons to be downtrodden and pack it in than they are right now, and they never did. And this team won't either. That's the one thing I can promise you, Like I'm not supposed to speak and you know, definitive platitudes, but this team will not close up shop. That's not the that's not the mentality of this team, of this coach. They're just not going to

be a team that back down from the challenge. They're gonna rise up to it. And this team was. They were close. And all three of these games, all three losses are against teams who are combined ten and one is the Buffalo Bills game. Just went finals recording this podcast, And there was legitimate chances to win each of those games. In the fourth quarter. They had the lead against Buffalo twenty seventeen in the fourth quarter, they had a chance to capture a lead with about eight minutes in the

fourth quarter. Today we talked about the third and three with Miles gask and he gets a couple of positive yards, maybe it goes the other direction. They have a they have more time possession in this game. They are better on third downs. They sacked Wilson more than Ryan Fitzpatrick got sack Rick by the way, that's six sacks allowed in four games for your Dolphins offensive line. They rushed for more yards than the Seahawks. They were not overmatched.

I talked about how Wilson never seemed to really take over the game except for maybe a couple of big plays here, but he wasn't consistently hitting big passes and just chewing up your defense. Aside from that bad start, and let's go ahead and hear from Bobby McCaine real quick on the Dolphins start of this game interception on offense on a tip pass albeit and then a fairly quick score there from Russell Wilson and the Seahawks offense on the other side to go down seven zero in

the first five minutes of the game. I asked Bobby post game about how what the defense did the first seven actions to limit Russell Wilson in this explosive offense to only seventeen points. He talked about how they got to start better, how they have to finish better. Here he is talking about how a poor start and kind of you know, it's good to get that that important tone set early. Here's Bobby McCain on starting better. Just get stops defensively, be better, um the back end, up

front as a unit, we gotta be better. We gotta start faster. As a team, you gotta start fast and come out with the clip energy and come on and just have a good start to the game. Because when you get behind in the game, you get down the game. It makes things, it makes things hard on you, and you, yeah, you're back and pigainst the wall. And so aside from that bad start, this game was always competitive, going toe to toe with a legit contender and they just came

up short. And not finishing leaves a very sour taste in your mouth, and I get that, I feel that, But having a broader view is so important. I see a team that's improved in several key areas, a team that's growing and learning. They need to learn how to finish, which is a very learned skill. In this league. You have to learn how to close out those close games.

And it's one of the things that Flora's will certainly be talking about when he talks about building on what you've done for the guys that have been successful in practice and in games that he feels like. He always says, I feel good about where he's at. To continue building on that means to continue to work better, so those four or five players you can make um so they do go your way, so you can get that w It's the margin for air in this league is so

so short. And how about the evaluation of this team from fits we heard earlier he talked about shouldering the blame on his own, you know, taking the blame for himself down the red zone, not executing for some of the players who he thought played well enough to win the game. But he felt like he didn't that evaluation from your quarterback, from your very honest, transparent, thirty seven

year old leader of your football team. I think that speaks volumes about where he thinks this team is, where they can be, where they should be, and where they eventually will get to if they just continue to stay the course and work hard and get better and make that daily improvement to get the talent up to speed and get playing on the same page, on the same level.

Because this team did bring in a bunch of talent and they are so much better and so much closer than they were this time a year ago, and I think it's very obvious to see that so far. So he talked about this team, you know, with that that comment about him not getting his job done and so many players playing what he said was well enough to win, and that in conjunction with what he said last week about this team, you know, he said they were upset. It was good to see guys upset after the game

after the one in three record. Now, but last week after beating Jacksonville, he said they had plenty of guys who thought they were better than their O and two record, And I think he's right. And look, I get it results based business, but context matters, and context tells you that they went down to the wire with three teams everybody had in the postseason playoff bracket prediction and wiped out the fourth team on the schedule from the word go, from the first drive of the game. So you keep

watching for the improvement, I think you'll find it. How about some of the postgame notes here from Miami Dolphins dot com. Our media staff are our communications department, Brett to such a great job getting all these notes and all these stats out. Davanta Parker posted his first one hundred yard game of the season ten catches one eleven for Devanta Parker. It's the ninth one yard game of his career that's tied for eighth most in Miami Dolphins history.

He also finished the game with two hundred and fifty nine career receptions for three thousand, six hundred yards. The thirty yards moves him past running back Tony Nathan for ninth place in team history in all time receiving yards, and he is now just three hundred forty yards shy

of Jarvis Landry for eighth place. The ten catches he had were a career high, and at the end of the one PM games across the NFL landscape, he had twelve hundred and eighty receiving yards dating back to Week seven of last year, and that which encompasses the sixteen games, is the best in the NFL. If those sixteen games were on its own, Parkers hundred eighty yards receiving would be the fourth best mark in single season Dolphins history.

So a good last sixteen games for Davante Parker. We talked about xaviing Howard, picking off Russell Wilson and the end zone there with five minutes to play in the third quarter. Fourteenth pick for Xaving Howard in his last twenty six games played since December of seventeen. I told you about him leading the NFL and that time span, Kyle Fuller of Chicago, Kevin Byard, Marcus Peters, Quandre Digs, Trey White, demonte Akzy, and Marcus Williams go from thirteen

to ten picks. Among those guys, Xavian Howard now stands alone since December seventeen with fourteen interceptions. We talked about Jason Sanders going three for three in the first half, two for two in the second half, five for five in the game. He became the fourth kicker in Dolphins history to have two games with at least five field goals. Last December against the Jets he kicked five and that kicked seven rather against the Jets on December the eight,

So Jason Sanders has been money in the bank. As far as injuries in this game, DeVante Parker, Bobby McCain, Austin Jackson, and Shaq Lawson all left the game with injuries, but all returned, so a good good news there. On the Dolphins injury front. Eric Flowers made his seventy five NFL start today, Bobby McCain played his seventy five NFL

game today, and Clayton Federalum made his Dolphins debut. Chandler Cock had his first touch today, a three yard reception in the game, first time he's had a carrier or a catch in the NFL. Devon god Shaw had five tackles. He leads all defensive lineman in the seventeen draft class with one dred and seventy nine career tackles for the big guy for Davon god Show. A couple of individual

notes we didn't cover here yet. I thought Matt breeds burst look really impressive in this game that catchy had coming out of the pistol where he catches the ball, turns around and just turns on the Jets ran by a couple of Seahawks defenders. He looked nice. I think he and Miles gassing or teaming up and start to look like a pretty nice little one to punch there.

Gaskin just so physical and such good contact balance. We just say that every single time, despite the fact that he's got the biggest back in the world, he always finds a way to push the pile, get sideways, get skinny press holes until the very last moment before he bounces it, bangs it or bends it, and just finds a way to get extra yards on seemingly every single run.

There was a run on the third drop before the third standers field goal where he was stacked up at the line or kind of behind the line, and he just drove his legs through that thing and got a couple of extra yards out of it. Was so impressed by the way he's able to do that over and

over again, I thought. In the receiving department, we talked about Davante Parker a lot, Isaiah Ford, a trusted receiver over the middle, had that big third and tent catch, and then Fitzpatrick had a third and ten run shortly after that as well. I thought Jachem Grant had some nice looking routes, some nice catches in the game, had a big third down reception over the middle on a crucial part of the game. So getting some more trust

in the middle of the field there as well. I thought Mike Gassicky on that turkey whole shot early in the game between the over the top safety and underneath cornerback was such a great catch and throw from GASSICKI and from Fitzpatrick on the offensive line. Love that heavy

offensive line package. We talked about a few times, Robert Hunt coming into the game getting some real push there had Solomon Kinley with some good drive off a double team for Ted Carriss in my notes here, and that continues to be a theme on this podcast, the double teams of the Dolphins offensive line. We'll get more into that later in the week. About the offensive line, kind of tough to see how they performed from my vantage point.

Talked about Emmanuel Augbon Shack Lawson. They were in my notes a law on the defensive line, and I think we pretty well covered the defensive backs as well on this particular place. So Dolphins followed one in three. The individuals had some good performances. As Ryan Fitzpatrick had said, I actually was a big fan of the play calling

as well. On offense. I thought there was some great designs and one of the things I think that Shane Hilly has done such a good job of this year is that third and short offense, like the third and one, third and two working off that play action, bringing Fitzpatrick across the formation on the Bootleg today had that really nice play where they had snuck during smithe across the formation and completed a pass to him. So been a big fan so far of the play calling and finding different,

you know, different options in the passing game. Something John con Jemmy and I spoke about pregame was they gotta find a way to get the ball spread around and kind of test the Seattle defense. Don't with them locking on one guy and spread them thin and use those matchups to your advantage. We thought they did a good

job of that in this game as well. And speaking of John, let's go ahead and bring him on and get John conjemmies three takeaways to close up this Sunday recap edition of the Drivetime podcast, brought to you by Auto Nation, where every vehicle sold and service is sanitized keep driving safe at auto nation dot com. It's also where Dolphins fans can sell their vehicle for cash right

now again at auto nation dot com. And speaking of John Conjemmi, Miami Dolphins multimedia host and my new seat neighbor in the Dolphins press box there at hard Rock Stadium, let's go ahead and welcome in John con Jemmy right now, John, how you doing tonight, sir, I'm doing great to have us. How about yourself? Well, you know, I told the folks in the podcast that I drive home just I think about the game and kind of replayed in my head,

and I was a little bit upset today. But after some time to kind of marinate the loss and think about it, I've kind of seen the bigger picture. Maybe you can help us do the same. I'm not sure I want to get to your takeaways, John, Let's just go ahead and start with number one for you. Well, I guess the first takeaway is that there were too many.

I guess you could call it explosive plays for Seattle. Now, this is an offense that's going to have explosive plays, but you're gonna need to limit those at some point in the game. And it just seemed like the Miami Dolphin defense, for as much pressure as they put on Russell Wilson and for as much good as they did for the majority of the game, they just allowed too

many plays. I mean I was counting as I was doing the post game show, and there might have been twelve plays of over eleven or twelve or thirteen yards, but they just weren't fifteen and sixteen and seventeen. They were the variety of fifty seven and thirty five and in thirties seven and eighteen and seventeen and twenty three chunk yardage plays that a defense that's, you know, kind of trying to grind it out against one of the best quarterbacks arguably could be the best quarterback this year.

After four games, you just can't withstand that for four quarters. And I think it kind of wore the Miami Dolphins defense down and and it it kind of exposed a little bit again of Noah IgG Bnogamy or or Nick need Um in in a situation right before halftime where you get a fifty seven yard where you're you should be as deep as the deepest player on the field, if your safety, if your corner, if your nickel corner doesn't matter. Let people catch the twelve yard in front

of you. If you break it tackle, it's eighteen yards. But it doesn't turn into fifty seven and it doesn't turn into points. So that's probably my first takeaway. Too many explosive plays for the Seattle Seahawks, a team that doesn't need any help scoring points. No, they certainly don't. And that was something that I was curious to ask you about. Is I guess we will can do a

two pronged here. One. Is that something that you think is easily fixable or something they can just make a quick correction on, because you talk about John the fact that they did, you know, the first seven possessions of the game seven team points for the Seahawks. That's I thought that was a hell of a job on the defensive side, but then you mentioned it kind of wears on them a couple of big plays. Obviously the play at the end of the first half that just can't happen.

We talked about it. It It just cannot happen. You talked about getting as deep as the deepest guy. Is that something you can just kind of, you know, fix and turn around real quickly or it doesn't take more time. No, I think you can. I mean it, it's basically rules and assignments, and they were bust in the rules and assignments, and you know, you have accountability for each player on

the field. You know, if you're an offensive guy and you're saying, you know, I'm gonna put this up on the white board, and every play is designed for a touchdown. You're blocking this guy, you're taking this angle, you're hitting this creed, you're beating this defender. It should be a touchdown right in fantasyland. But you know, on defense, it's

the same way. I have a defender for this. I'm taking this leverage away, so you can't get outside and set the edge like Van Ginkel tried to do today and was run around for another one of those big explosive plays. So there there's different rules and different assignments and different expectations for each player on the defensive side. And I think that youre's there's been some you know, major bust on certain plays, not for the majority of

the game. I'm talking about snapshots of plays during a game that you lose concentration, you may lose focus, or you may just flat get beat out, and they turn into big plays that game momentum, and more most importantly, they put points or lead to points on the scoreboard. I look at the Dolphins seven for thirteen on third down today on offense, and the Seahawks offense was only four of ten including a failed fourth down, so four

for eleven on the money down. Just look at those stats, you would assume that Dolphins had to benefit the advantage in this game. And that's kind of why I let into this podcast talking about how I was encouraged by some certain things because they went toe to toe with this team that you know is four and oh and

probably gonna compete deep in the January. So that's you know, it's a balancing act for sure, John, But at the end of the day, to come away short on the scoreboard, what was your second takeaway from that, John, in this game, Well, I just think, you know, the lack of ability to score points in terms of in the red zone, you know, being able to convert, being able to cash in on a lot of these drives where you took five, six, seven minutes off the clock and kept Russell Wilson on

the sidelines, or took advantage of pretty good field position and then had to settle for three. And now I'm not saying that three points in the National Football League you should take for granted, but five of those opportunities by Jason Sanders could have been three opportunities and you cash the other two in for points in a one score game at the end of the four quarters, you

may end up with a different outcome. And I think there there has to be more shots, not particularly Travis in the red zone, but on the fringe of the red zone. There has to be those explosive plays to a six six Mike Cassicki in the end zone or a six five Preston Williams or six three Davonte Parker, because if you don't complete it, you may get p I and you may get down to the two yard line or the one yard line, and now you're now you're in prime position to cash in for six instead

of three. The inability for the Dolphins to turn into

some of those drives into touchdowns really uh. You know, we talked about momentum on defense, how that kind of drags the energy out of you when you allow fifty seven yard or a thirty five yard or well does the same thing for an offense When you're grinding down the field and you're making plays, and you're throwing four plays in a row and they're all completions, you get to the red zone, you run the football you're throwing in completion, you take a sack or a scramble, and

you're kicking a field goal. That's demoralizing to an offense. After a period of time, and I think that's what happened today. The minament all they got down there, they were knocking on the door, they couldn't punch it in, and the Seahawks really won by uh, you know, their strength of their of their red zone defense. That's a

really good point. They talked about that post game. The coach, you know, Coach Floors and the players talked about how the red zone gets tighter, tighter, windows down, their safeties are coming up closer to the the lion scream. There's not as much space to operate in. So you're talking about going in from you know, twenty five to thirty five

yard range and taking your shots from there. I recall charting, you know, Ryan, Tannehill and Kenny still touchdown passes a few years back and they were all, like you mentioned, John, in that range, like ten of the eleven or something like that. We're from that range, so or whatever, the number was a high percentage of it came from that

outside the red zone areas. A good point there. I have a follow up question for you on that is, you know, one of the things I talked about before I brought you on, John was that this team, they're close to finding ways to you know, win games at the end, but they just haven't been able to do that so far. Is finishing games and and learning how to finish in games? Is that a learned skill? Like? Is that something they can they can kind of grow and develop into it is? I think it's all about

execution and confidence. I think when you get in those positions, the more times you can you can be successful, The more times you can have a drive or an explosive play end in a touchdown, the more confidence you have of you can do that with more regularity. And I think it's it's one of those things that has to happen for the Dolphins to get over that hurdle of that homp or that that stigma of not being able to score once they crossed the torny yard line, at

least not score touchdowns. You have to do it. It's it's a learned trait you have to be able to get in. I think the Dolphins did that, you know, last Thursday night against Jacksonville, much lesser opponent, but still they were able to execute and they were able to get people open. They had wide windows to throw to on a slant to Williams on a corner to Kassuki. They were they were able to find matchups to exploit

and take advantage of. And I think today the competition definitely rose a little bit in terms of the caliber

of defense in terms of each individual player. But I just don't think they didn't They didn't win those one on one battles, nor did they give themselves an opportunity to maybe get into a different type of play that that really put the spotlight on a six six, six, five or six three guy going up for a jump ball or on a pick play getting the right outcome that they were looking for, and uh pressure in the pocket,

you know, and the inability to Travis. I think it's important that the Dolphins have to find a way to run the football if they're going to choose to do so more effectively in the red zone and not allow um contact behind the line of scrimmage. That kind of set you back and kind of gets that, oh no, here we go again, feeling Yeah. The big third down three play the Miles gas and I think really changed the course of the game because he picks up two

yards there third and one. You know, you probably are fourth and one, mother, you maybe you have a different outcome there, So good point there, John. Take away number three from you is what I just thought. There were two parts of the game that struck me that were very important. The breakdown before halftime and then the dolphins ability not being able in the fourth quarter when they

got the twenty nine yard field goal. Uh they had to settle for three, and you mentioned the gas can run gets him down to you know, the three yard line, and then they get a tackle for lost and I thought they should have rolled the dice there and maybe gone forward. So I'm gonna say that there was a bit of a breakdown before halftime. That's my takeaway. You know, the score should have been uh ten nine, maybe going

a halftime and set of seventeen nine. And even though the Dolphins came out and was stood a long drive with an interception by Xavian Howard in the end zone and they turned that around into points another field goal. But I just thought that going into halftime, after giving up points with only twenty four seconds remaining before you get to halftime, and then that long drive coming out, that here we go again type of feeling. They put

a stop to it. But that's that's almost seven. It's off the clock on that drive where you can't get it back and in you're a team that's settling for field goals. That's going to catch up to you at some point in the game. And I think it caught up to the Miami Dolphins. So I just thought that that momentum before halftime and then not being able to to get it in after the Howard interception um somewhere along those lines. Something had to go different for the

Dolphins to win the game. John. We've done three of these so far. The one we didn't do the Dolphins were victorious onto maybe we are the bad luck in three weeks. There you go, but hopefully we're doing this next Sunday after a win in San Francisco. John, appreciate your time tonight, Aman, uh and uh we'll we'll do it all over again one week from tonight. Thanks you too, But all right, see you, John, And there he goes, and there we are going to go for this edition

of the Drive Time podcast. That's gonna be my time you all. Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple, podcast, Spotify, wherever get your podcast from. Go ahead and leave us a rating, leave us a review. Follow me on Twitter, at Wingfield, NFL fall. The team at Miami Dolphins check out the fish Tank and the audible podcast there with John con Jemmy and Kimbo Camper, and of course, last but not least, Miami dolphins dot Com until next time finds up