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Drive Time with Travis Wingfield begins.
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What is up?
Dolphins And welcome to the Drive Time Podcast, part of the Miami Dolphins Podcast Network, covering your team, your Miami Dolphins. How's it going everybody? I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show, we're gonna get the perspective from the opposing sideline. Sal Capaccio from WGR five point fifty in Buffalo and the Bill's sideline will join us to give us the perspective from said sideline ahead of this
big matchup on Sunday. Plus, we'll hear from the assistant coaches who met with the Media on Thursday and we'll read a couple of your reviews on Apple Podcast from the Baptist Hell Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
This is the Draft Time Podcast.
Maye Daffy.
Give it up for my guest today, the great Sal Capaccio.
And joining me today on the Opponent Sideline edition of the Draft Time Podcast is Sal Capaccio. You can find him on the Bills sideline during games, also on the Buffalo Bill's Beat. He's also the host of the Extra Point show on WGR five fifty up there in Buffalo South, Welcome back in. I was telling the kind of the guy that I go through the podcast plans with every week here on our staff. I was thinking about getting
Salbuck on the show. I had him on once upon a time, and I couldn't think of when that was.
When did we last do this? Do you remember?
But it's been a while, because it's funny to me, I remember when you took your role.
Are you from Seattle? Is it you came from Seattle?
I remember that right, and it was awesome because I know that I think you, like were a Dolphins fan.
You got this job. It's like me, I grew up in Buffalo right as a Bills.
Fan, and here I am in the sidelines every week, covering the team every day, and it's super cool. It's been years, it's been years, but I appreciate you and you know, just really cool to see you grow into your role. I wanted to say that too, and to be where you are right now, but it's been several years.
But it's good to talk to you again, Buddy, Well.
I really appreciate that, man. Thanks a lot.
And I watch obviously a lot of Buffalo Bills games, and every time I see you on the side, like, hey, there's Sal I know him.
Good to see him doing his thing over there.
Let's go ahead and talk about a I guess a somewhat important football game. It's going to take place here across the street on Sunday night, A little important game.
I don't know.
Maybe these two teams have played so many important games over their storied rivalry, but this one man right up there are some of those nineties playoff games with Kelly and ma Reno, if you ask me. But I want to go ahead and just start with that, Like, what's the vibe around the Bills this week?
I know it's only Wednesday taping this podcast.
But what's kind of the vibe for these guys heading into a game where you know, they're used to playing big games last few years, but this one's a big one against the division rival.
What's the vibe there in Buffalo?
Well, let me just go from a fans standpoint.
You know, growing up here in Buffalo, we used to have what's called Miami Week, and still is. This is week Miami Week. It's like a high school rivalry game for fans. I grew up in the eighties and nineties and in the seventies, the Dolphins beat the Bills twenty straight times, so much so, so much hatred was built up.
When the Bills beat the Dolphins in the opening game regular season in nineteen eighty, the goalposts came down after the game, right, and then you know, there was the whole Brian Pax stuff going on, and then the Bills got better, and Levy and you know, Shula and Marino and Kelly's you reference, it's been amazing and here we are for all of this on the line.
It's incredible.
And I think that you know, more so than that particular rivalry, which means a lot to Bills fans. Of course, it's just about survival now because the Dolphins are in the Bills are not.
So the vibe is basically, hey, we got to get this done.
And it's a nervous anticipation I think for this game because I think Bills fans are confident with how they've played against Miami over the last you know, a few years and this year, but also knowing things don't break their way and things go wrong in this game. They're sitting at home and can't even have another game now as far as the team is concerned, and you know, I think the team feels good about where they are
right now. It hasn't been the cleanest on offense the last few weeks, but it has been wins and really under Sean McDermott, Travis, you go back very very good record in December and January, like late in the season after you know, bye weeks, and then they've never lost after a bye and they very rarely lost in late November and mostly through December basically under Sean McDermott, and they seem to be playing their best football.
They're healthy, so I think the vibe is good on that front.
The team seems very confident fans I think are really really you know, confident as far as their team and playing the Dolphins, but at the same time, no anything can happen to these kinds of games, and they just want to get into the playoffs at this point.
I have like three follow ups off of that, so I'll just go ahead and go down my list, because you touched on really a lot of the things that intrigued me about this game. Num On One is you talk about there could be a scenario going into the game Sunday Night Game two seventy two where Buffalo has to win to make it in, but there's also scenarios
where they get in before they play that game. How do you think that could possibly change the emotion of the game or I guess that the mentality going in I think the easy answer is not at all.
Right, you hope that's the case.
But what do you think about that potential mental aspect of this game?
Well, I don't.
I think it'd beat the naive to think that there wouldn't be a cigh of relief if the Steelers were to lose or the Jaguars were to lose. Right, of course, I think everybody would say Okay, they're in. But the Bills want to win the division here. They're the three time defending champion. I mean, they want to keep their crown. They want to be the number two seed. You know as well as anybody what it would mean to have home games in Buffalo in the playoffs, right, And that's
what's on the line here. It's not just the two seed. Think about what the two seed is. It's not just the division. Yes, that's a nice t shirt, it's a nice crown, it's a trophy, it's a band or whatever you want to call it.
Travis, do you get home? You get the two seed.
You're talking home in the first round, win home in the second round for the right to go to the AFC Championship. That is a huge, huge deal in Buffalo as opposed to going either back to Miami or to Kansas City where they've lost in the playoffs. You don't want to do that. So I think from that standpoint, it doesn't doesn't matter. I mean, this team is ready to go out there and try and win a championship either way.
It's funny because you mentioned the potential for a rematch in wild card weekend. I think probably both fan bases just don't want to see that for the the kind of chaotic nature that it would it would ensue from that because like you just put a game plan out for that team, it just makes the whole thing, like I guess, a mystery almost in a way, because like you're going to this game where.
It's like, well, we know we have to get this done.
We know we have to slow Stafon Diggs, you know, Josh, like we need to create turnovers, but in the rematch, it's like, who knows, it all goes out the window. So it's just an interesting and very fascinating aspect of this game. You also touched on the offense the last month or so, and that's where I really wanted to focus this this I Guess episode was talking about the change from from Ken Dorsey to Joe Brady, and you know, I'll never forget the Bills were struggling. JJ Watt tweeted
about the team meeting. Once you have one of the players only meetings, it's over for the year. But that is not at all what happened to this Buffalo team.
They've rattled off several wins in a row. But I'm curious because it hasn't been pretty right, like the last two wins over inferior teams that are not gonna that are playing U haul games right now with you know, backup quarterbacks had chances to win games in the fourth quarter against the Bills ins because the offense was not able to consistently put the ball on the end zone.
What's going on with the offense?
What has been the biggest change as far as going from Dorsey to Brady? Just kind of give us the ten thousand foot view on the offense post OC change.
First of all, I like that term ul game. I'm gonna steal that from you.
I stole it from like Steve Merriucci back on my last game they final for my two thousand and seven.
So yeah, feel free.
I always say run for the bus, but that's even a better one right now. All right, So look, I mean this has actually kind of been the Bills MO this year, which is they play to their level of competition. They played down to inferior opponents all year. Think about their losses Jets opening weekend, Bengals at their place, I
shouldn't say Begs, the Patriots at their place. When Mac Jones drove down to the field at the end, Denver Broncos at home, and then even the games where they've won, they've struggled with some of these teams, the Giants, the Buccaneers, but then they play the Dolphins forty eight to twenty. They wound up playing the Cowboys thirty one to ten, right it seems like, and then they beat the Chiefs at Kansas City.
So it's kind of been the m of the Bills all year.
But the common theme of the last couple of weeks is that they really had to rely more on the defense.
Than the offense.
And that's because the passing game just has not clicked. I think there's a few reasons for that. I would tell you that the last two weeks, I think Josh Allen's been off. Now an off Josh Allen is still a good Josh Allen, but he has not been firing and hitting targets. I think we're accustomed to. You go back to the Chargers game. First play of the game, he's off to step on Diggs. Next, that series is off again, but when it came time, money time, he made two big time throws the stuff on at the
end of the game. You go back to this game this week against the Patriots, same thing, but I it truded that more to the entire offense being out of sync. I think there was a lot of pressure. Josh mentioned people at his feet look good. Bill Belichick credit. Of course, the you know they're having the season they're having. He's still Bill Belichick. He can still scheme, and they were down players, but he's figured out a way this year to get after Josh a little bit, and I think
that really kind of impacted them. And the other thing, Travis is the Bills don't have big separators at wide receiver, not like Miamis Tyreek Hill and Jalen and Wado. It's a different kind of receiver group. They're good in their own right. They could do some things, but there hasn't been a lot of separation. And when Josh has had guys, he's missfired. He missed Stefan last week would have been an eighty something yard touchdown.
He just overthrew them.
That happens, But there's other times where he just he's got to fit the ball into a tight window.
There's no separation. So I think all of.
That has kind of happened. At the same time, there's still one of the best offenses overall in the league. It's funny we talk about in this context of what's wrong with the offense. It's because we're so used to seeing them put up such bigger numbers overall, and Josh Allen leads the NFL in touchdowns overall.
Spoiled fans man.
We're experiencing that as well right now with what the way the offense has really changed the last two years compared to the previous twenty five years. And all of a sudden, you have one or two games where you don't score more than twenty five points, and it's.
Like, what's go going on with the offense.
It's like, well, there's still number one in EPA, like all these important sets.
It's number one. So like, chill out a little bit.
And you did ask me about Brady real quick. The difference, the difference from Dorsey to Brady really Joe Brady.
Since he's come in, Hey more Josh Allen runs.
Now, we all thought maybe McDermott was dialing back the runs, because you know, that's something they've talked about as an organization, you know, Josh not taking big hits in that.
I wonder if it was Dorsey thinking, Hey, this is my guy.
I can't get him hurt because once Brady come in, they're running the ball with Josh Allen Moore and we they need that. He needs to run a little bit more now he is dealing a little soreness with a shot he took last week. The other thing is they've run the ball and used the ball I should say, use James Cook out of the backfield more. That's really helped them. And then there's just been this distribution at wide receiver. The talking point this week is why is
Stephan Diggs not producing? How can we not going to them? And I think that goes back to a lot of things I said earlier about with the offense and what's going on. But that's what you've seen from Joe Brady is more Josh Allen runs, more James Cook out of the backfield, the dispersed passing game not as much focused on steph on Diggs.
Was the shot that Josh took, the play where he fumbled against the Patriots.
No, it was the last play of the game to get the first down. He got it and then Kyle Allen came in for the two kneel downs. It was a third excuse me. Third and three, he runs for four yards and as he's diving down he gets a shot right here. After the game, he says, and I point to my shoulder by the way, left shoulder, he says. After the game, he got a stinger, and he never had a stinger before. It felt funky. I'm thinking, you never had a stinger. That's wild for Josh Albert to
play and never had a stinger. That's amazing to me.
Is the The other interesting part about that is Toua had the same kind of the same thing happened.
I don't know if it's a stinger.
I know the actual diagnosis, but he got hit on his last play of the game against the Baltimore Ravens as well. So interesting dichotomy there. And it's you know, you touched on this as well, And this is kind of what I talked about with the idea of the rematch and how you just like you can't really predict or kind of I guess forecast what you think you might get. Because of that fact of the rematch and just playing a team six days prior its it's also
wonky to me. Sal It's like I'm seeing these things You're talking about with Alan and the and maybe just being a hair off sometimes and the production not being where it usually is the last four years. But like I've wrote my script for the preview podcast, like, none of that matters because Josh accesses this other worldly element against the Dolphins every damn time, and it's so frustrating.
So it's I just I'm so confused this week about my you know, my my pregame content because I don't know how to like unfold what I expect to see from the Bills quarterback who's been so good. But you touched on some really good stuff there with James Cook and Stefan Diggs. I'm curious to kind of get the the you know, the four to one one here to go back quick to an old nineties man.
I just aged myself by saying that.
But uh, Stefan Diggs looking forward to potentially seeing Jalen Ramsey because we don't expect to see Xavi and Howard in this game. I imagine those two guys matchup quite a lot. What is a what's the mood around the potential Digs versus Ramsey matchup?
Well, I think they're expecting that here, right, Fans are at least I don't know about them in the building, but I would imagine they would as well that you know, Ramsey would be on Digs. And that's somebody obviously with a lot of respect from Stephan and from the Bills offense. And if that happens, well, I mean, remember what happened last time these two teams played. Gab Davis showed up, right. I mean, that's the that's the matchup you look at.
And Josh has been clear about this Travis where he says, look, of course I want to get Stepan involved. He's the number one receiver, he's elite. But I gotta throw it whoever's open. I got to throw it to where the ball dictates me to throw it. So if that's the case, then I would expect a healthy dose of number two and three wide receivers and targets to go to against other people. Was a cohu last time to play it
against you know, Digs. Maybe that's the guy. I don't know you in a situation if he's playing as much, you could tell me. But that would be the case, Eli Apple, whoever it is that's playing, I'm guessing that's where they would go with that. But The other thing I would expect is maybe to try and move Stephan around, which they do sometimes to get him in situations where maybe he's Jalen Ramsey can't shadow him and be on him.
But you know, look, for all the I do.
I do things like this, I go on these podcasts, I go on other markets, I go in national shows, and they always ask me about Stefan's attitude and how is he handling everything. Yeah, that's not been an issue at all. Actually, Stephan has been a great teammate and he he just.
Wants to win. There's a great clip of him.
Josh is miked up at the Chargers a couple of weeks ago Christmas weekend, and Stefan and Josh didn't connect very well that game.
He didn't have big production.
But at the end they're standing in the sidelines and Josh is nervous and Stefan looks right at him.
He standing next to me. He goes, don't worry, We're about to win. Man. Like that's who Stefan Diggs is, That's what he cares about.
It.
It's funny because, like, you know, we talked about the perception coming into this game, and you know, you have one bad game and things are all your previous guy that you crowned a franchise quarterback six days prior now can't play in the lead or whatever whatever the discourse might be. And that's that's one that always got under my skin as well as a person that wants Buffalo to lose every damn game they play, right, I'm like, no, Stefan Diggs is a great player, Josh, Like, They're gonna
be fine. Like it's one of those things where it's outside the noise usually is louder than what actually happens inside. Really good stuff so far, I want to go ahead and take our first break right here. Come back on the other side, discuss the other side of the football, the Bills defense versus the Dolphins offense. That's next here, Salaka Pacho my guest today Draft Time Podcast, your host
Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. Back here for segment two on our Thursday edition of the Draft Time Podcast, talking to Sal Capaccio of WGR five point fifty up in Buffalo. And I want to start with this, Sal, because you know again I told you on the other side, we want the Bills to lose every game they play, and I know you guys feel the exact same way
about us. So when the Bills were I think it was six and six, maybe maybe five and six, I forget the record, and a bombshell article came out with twenty five sources linking back to the disbelief in Sean McDermott and YadA YadA, YadA yah, all of that stuff, And since then the team has come together and almost galvanized, it seems like, over that article and played their best
football of the year. Is that what you think happened when that came out, and the support for Sean McDermott was overwhelming in terms of, like, yeah, this guy's one of the best coaches in the National Football League.
Yeah, I do, Travis, But I don't think it was, you know, a, let's have this meeting and get behind our coach and we're going to play for him and outwardly talkalked about right.
I don't think that was the case.
I think from my perception was there were players in there, even like I remember right now, I don't want to get this wrong. If I remember Micah Hyde might have sex because Michael was here when some of the references came out of some of the things that were said by Sean and that became national news, and even he's like, I don't even remember that, like this a while ago, Like Shawn's my coach and he's great and we trust him, right, Like I think there was a lot of that, which
is why does this matter? Like who cares about that? But there was also I would tell you when they went in Kansas City that weekend, every single person that had a microphone in his face from my mic at least said we wanted to win.
For our coach.
Like they they had that thought in their mind, even it might not have been spoken amongst each other and the group. And I'll go back to this team plays well in December anyway, they seem to rally around, you know, certain circumstances and situations where they need to towards the end of the year. And they've done that, and Shawn's a very good coach at making sure that they're playing their best football when it comes time. So yeah, I
do think there's an element of that. I think more than anything though, it was more of a bigger picture of people letting you know, hey, whoever wrote this, whatever he wrote, whatever he said, we don't care in here because we trust our coach and we're not going to worry about that now. Saran Neil told me it was a distraction that week, like, hey, just another thing we had to overcome. But Jordan Poyer said, I didn't care. I just went out and played football. And I love
Sean mcturmott. So I guess doesn't matter who you talked to, but there is there is a a something to be said. I guess for the fact that they have played in one four Street game since that happened.
Right, And that's one of the benefits of having that continuity of those leaders and the guys that have produced for a long time in that building is that they tend to be those galvanizing forces that can really grather
the troops. And I've explained this to my show a few times, and going back to the Baltimore game, I had Charles Davis in the podcast last week and he talked about I was like, what's the moon going into a game where both teams are coming off big wins over Dallas and San Francisco, respectively, how do you match that emotional level? And he was like, Travis, the Ravens have been here for the last five six years bringing these big time games, and for the Dolphins it's not
entirely new, but it's newer. And that's the same case here against this Buffalo bil Ty and like you mentioned, going for their fourth straight division championship, Miami trying to buck them off that for their first and fifteen years.
But going back to the McDermott idea and the more I suppose tangible and actually, you know thing that you should discuss here is the change in the defense of schematics and just the production overall because they went from Leslie Fraser to now Sean McDermott back in charge calling the defense on his own. What's been the biggest shift there going from Fraser to McDermott, especially down the stretch here in December, Like you talked about, with all the good games they've played.
Well, I would say aggressiveness is number one, and that can manifest itself in a lot of forms. Right, Aggressiveness doesn't have to be blitzing. Everybody thinks about blitzing a little more Manda man defense. Those are traditionally very heavy's
own defense, but they mixed up some maandom Man. They've done that just the way they attack, the way they use and they've always been a penetrating defense with the defensive line, but even this year more so, I think they're relying on more penetration up front.
Ed Oliver's having an incredible year.
You know.
You see Dakwon Jones having a great first few games and he gets heard, he comes back, you know, and that's why they're lining and t Robernarder he has these gouty stats because he's he's got to make plays. He has to make plays because they're penetrating on the defensive line. I think that's a big one. But more than anything, to me, it's not even the difference from Leslie Fraser to Sean McDermott. It's what this defense has had to
morph into with all the injuries. You go back and I know Miami Primate River, Miami has incredible injuries.
We get it.
So Miami fans understand this.
Though.
Week four, they lose Shreavius White against the Dolphins for the year. Week five, they lose Matt Mlano. To me, I mean, he's an All Pro last year, he's playing at all Pro level through the first four games. Same game they lose Akwon Jones. That's that's an elite player
at every level. Basically that they lost and for the next few weeks it was kind of uneven and the Bills and they were trying to figure out and what we've seen here is and I think this has been a very impressive job by Sean McDermott on the defensive side. They had to learn kind of where each part fits and go through this a little bit. The coaching staff had to learn, the players had to learn, and now we're seeing the fruits of that.
And honestly, Travis.
Maybe the biggest thing was the addition of Rosuell Douglas at the trade deadlineup. This guy's unbelievable. I mean, I can't believe the Green Bay Packers traded him away for a third round pick is what they did. Basically, it's and they gave up a third and they got a fifth back. Actually the Bills. He was just named DFC Defensive Player of the Week this week. This guy breaks on the ball, gets his hands on balls, mix plays. It's incredible and that has mitigated the loss of Trevius Wape.
But it's a loud Sean McDermott also, I think to play a little bit differently than he'd had to go with Dane Jackson, who's a fine player, but he doesn't give you the options a guy like Russell Douglas does. Who's long, He can play man to man, he could play a little safety, he can do a lot of different things, and I think that's been a difference too.
I think my reaction when I saw that trade announced was, man, you let the Bills off the hook. They were just gonna have to get into their depth and they were gonna have to, you know, try to overcome some losses that they probably weren't equipped to do so, and you go out and give him a player he's probably playing at a Pro Bowl level. So that's what great teams do that I find ways to replace their losses and their injuries and all that stuff. And we've seen Miami
do that as well. So fun matchup coming here on Sunday night. I always end these podcasts now the same way. I give you the option to fill in the blank after the question.
It's two full.
The Bills win this game if, then you take over and the Dolphins win this game. If and that's yours as well.
I think the Bills win this game if they just don't turn the ball over to Miami and give them extra opportunities.
And we know that Josh Allen can throw interceptions.
We've seen that and people talk about him turnover machine whatever I mean, I don't care.
Josh can throw an interception every game.
You take that because he leads the NFL in touchdown passes and touchdowns, and that's what you get from Josh Allen. Right, you're gonna get the wild plays. He has not thrown multiple interceptions though, since before Joe Brady took over, and I think that's important to note, even though he usually has won a game. But don't turn the ball over. That's fumbles too. James Cook has had problems holding out of the ball at times. He's fumbled the ball away
a few times. So I think, don't turn the ball over. Maybe one turnover you can withstand. Don't give Miami extra opportunities. For Miami, I think they got to hit some plays down the field if they have to, if the Bills keep them in front of them and force them to kind of go eight ten play drives, I don't think that's a good recipe for Miami in this game.
They're gonna have to be a little risky.
I know they probably won't have geal and waddle, but the Bills don't typically give up long passes. But Miami might have to hit a couple in this game to get over the top of them and force the issue a little bit.
It'd be a lot of fun on Sunday night on NBC A twenty kickoff fifteen kickoff rather Dolphins hosting the Buffalo Bills at Sal Sports on Social Sal, I appreciate your time, man, five fifty wgr up there in Buffalo, and you have a new podcast that just dropped recently, too, right, Can you tell us about that.
Yeah, it's called Sal's House actually, and actually I invite people in my house and I talked to them and it doesn't have to be about sports.
I had.
We have a guy here, a couple of guys. Actually they call the Buffalo Singing Cops. And there are two police officers who've actually been on Ellen and they've been on different shows and they're singers and they do national anthem and one of them is good friend of my mo. Badgery came over. We talked about his life and career. Those are the kinds of things we like to do,
but of course lots of football stuff. Eric Wood was on, so I appreciate you saying that, and of course it's always game day in Buffalo as well myself Matt Bove. That's part of the Odyssey Network that I'm on on WGR Sports Radio five fifty as well.
Well, keep killing it, man.
I appreciate you come on here and doing our show, and I would say best of luck Sunday, but that would be a lie.
So hopefully we see you guys maybe again down the road in the postseason.
Ah, you got it, man, I'll see on Sunday.
It's so funny doing those podcasts with the opposing beat guys who I just think the world of, but the team that they cover I don't think the world of. So it's like this funny balance on those shows. But yeah, how good is he? I mean, Syal's the best.
Gives us good information. Also a very nice guy, which goes a long way with your boy.
All right.
Before we get to the assistant coach audio on the third segment of the podcast, a couple of the daily listeners really want my attention, So I'm gonna go ahead and give it to him here because I have a couple of reviews from people that have left reviews in the past, and I remember your names because of this, and you just keep updating those reviews with one star. And what's actually really funny about this one is there's
two stars. So I'm gonna go ahead and read two of these reviews for you guys, amid other reviews that are much nicer than these ones. So I do appreciate
you guys doing that. If you haven't had a chance to do so yet, whether it's Apple, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts from, go find review section, leave five stars or one star if you want, whatever you want to do, and just leave a comment in there, because those are the algorithms that help the podcast get populated out to more Dolphins fans.
And so I always say it's a free podcast.
I've never once charged in the seven years I've been doing daily podcasts on the Miami Dolphins, never once charged a cent for anything. I don't really read your ads anymore with Locked on Dolphins, but not on here. We have the mid roles, but I don't read live liners. So the one thing I ask is for reviews because it helps the podcast get out to more Dolphins fans.
And also I heard this take on the Around the NFL podcast Once upon Time from Greg Rosenthal, and I agree with him that if you leave a one star review on a podcast, you're a bad person because it doesn't.
Do you any good.
It's not going to change anything, and ill it does is potentially affect the livelihood of the person you're rating. That's the only outcome from that that you can get. Which if you want that from someone, I think it means you're a bad person. So yah, yeah, Just I want to read these two negative reviews because they made me laugh, and I want to give you your attention that you're looking for because the first one from Dolphin Ray, What's up?
Ray?
You do this all the time, Buddy.
We talk about how bad the podcast is, but you always update your review, which is interesting. I mean, I hate watch some stuff, but I wouldn't listen to a podcast every day that I hate. But basically, I got a one star review here because I said that Connor Williams is a good center and he disagreed. So the bad snap in the Kansas City game because this post was on November the seventh, because Connor Williams had a bad snap in the Kansas City game. The podcast gets
one star, So Dolphin Ray, I see you. I'll look forward to your update here shortly when you hear this. The other one that prompted this segment was the one from l TS five six to two. Is that the Suns guy I don't know, the guy that comments on both me and Kyle's podcasts and hates on us, which is pretty funny, But this one was funny. And here's why it's so funny because I got two stars. But listen to the review that gave me two stars. That sounds like a one star review.
Horrible.
It's the title.
He talks too fast, he is too wordy, and he sounds stupid. Get rid of this guy and get somebody else. Plus it's a one word sentence. Plus he just talks guys up, talks up guys.
Like a Homer two of this and that. How's to now Travis still elite? Yeah?
He is, man, He's the fucking He's the freaking starting quarterback in the AFC for the Pro Bowl, voted by the GMS and the coaches and the players.
You dufuss.
Because he threw two interceptions against the best defense in the NFL. He's not a good player anymore.
Got it here?
Man?
These people the hell out of here. All right, let's go ahead and take our last break right there. I've got to say there are a lot of really nice comments in here as well. Jay Joffy five four seven a five star review best in depth Analysis, and I appreciate that you talk about the great guest, real analytical, tons of tape breakdowns.
I really appreciate that what we're going for here. Thank you for that. Fins up ten to ten.
You basically nailed the podcast missions that I produced this year for my bosses, talking about in depth analysis but not getting too far in the weeds and being loose with it. That's kind of my entire approach here, Hence all the references and the jokes, because you know, I've been doing podcasts for a long time now and I'm a big podcast consumer, and I would venture to guess that most of you guys out there agree with this.
The you usen to a podcast for the content. The content the material brings you in, but what keeps you is the personality of the podcast host. That's why so many podcasters fail, because even if they have good material, you have to entertain Like, you can't do this and not be entertaining. So that's what we're going for here. Shoot, I don't know how to pronounce this. Amerzel fins up. Great pod, Love Travis's attitude and thoughts every week, love it,
wanting more, RBSKI love and drive time. Somebody asked about a Raykwon Davis replacement next year. I don't want to go into that because that's an as season podcast. But yeah, there's all kinds of really a positive positives in here. I mean, there's eight hundred five reviews and it's a four point eight stars out of five. But I just thought those negative ones were really funny and I wanted to share them with you guys.
So oh yes, one.
More before I forget anybody out that listens to the podcast close to the Sarasota Springs area in New York State.
If you are, hit me up on Twitter. I have a question for you. I need some help with something regarding that area of the world.
Hit me up.
That's that.
Let's go ahead and take our last break right here. Move on to the third segment, Pick the week eighteen games. It's over, guys, No TNF tonight, It's over. Season's over, like damn comes and goes faster every single year. Pick the week eighteen games and here from the assistant coaches all of that. Next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. Final segment here for the NFL picks of the twenty twenty three season. We'll
do the playoffs as well. Ten and three in the playoffs last year. Did not pick the playoff games in twenty twenty and one apparently, But just looking at my overall record here the last three years on the show, I need nine wins to match my career high in pick wins.
Tend to beat it.
And how fitting is it that we're going into a week where we have like literally fourteen backup quarterbacks playing in the games on Sunday.
Tough week.
Let's go ahead and cue the music and pick these games. And you guys know, we have certain preferences with regards to what happens on both the first game on Saturday and then what happens on Sunday. But just going over the games and making these picks, I think it's gonna be either at Kansas City or home for Buffalo in the wild card round.
So that's the so bringing truth that let's go ahead and play the music and pick these games.
So Saturday, you probably want Pittsburgh to beat Baltimore, even though there is the best route possible is for Baltimore to beat Pittsburgh, which is what I think will happen in that game. Now, I don't think you get the results in the back end and make that kind of worth it for Dolphins fans. But I'm picking Baltimore with Tyler Huntley to beat Mason Rudolph and knock out the Pittsburgh Steelers, even though I think they'd be motivated to have the Steelers in the playoffs, so maybe they give
us that grace. But we'll find out come Saturday at four thirty.
The night game a fun one win.
It in loser goes home, Houston Tech and the Colts. I'm taking the Texans because even though I love Gardner Minshew, I love C. J. Stroud much much more. Jacksonville over Tennessee. I just may find a way to get that win and win the division. Of course, if they do not and Baltimore also wins, now you're talking about a really good scenario here for your Miami Dolphins.
But We'll see what happens there. Give me Jacksonville to win that one. If you get one of these games wrong.
If Traps gets one of those two games wrong, we're gonna be in good shake. Detroit over the Vikings. I think that Dan Campbell wants to play for the win no matter what. Give me the Saints over the Falcons and the Who Cares Bowl in the NFC South Division race, the Patriots over the Jets because the Jets never score any points on Bill Belichick. The Bucks over the Panthers. I'll take the Bengals to beat Jeff Driscoll and the Browns.
Man, if the Bengals had just beaten.
The Chiefs last week, we also have that game as a potential knockout Buffalo situation, but it didn't happen that way.
Green Bay over Chicago, although I'd.
Really like the way Justin Field and that Bears team is playing right now. Dallas over Washington to win the NFC East.
Want to collapse with the Eagles.
Man, Give me the Broncos over the Raiders and another Who Cares game. Give me the Eagles over the Giants, although they might be resting guys as well, but they haven't really announced whether they not are or not yet. Give me the Seahawks over the Cardinals in the game they have to have also have to have the Packers lose for them to get in not looking good for Seattle. The Niners over the Rams because I like Sam Donald
more than I like Carson Wentz. Give me the Chargers over the Chiefs, who are playing Blaine Gabbert in that game.
And I'm picking Buffalo over Miami.
I know, I know him, I know I know.
Let's go ahead and stop music and get to some sound bites here from the assistant coaches on Thursday, and start with Vic Fangio, who was asked about the Bills offensive line and the continuity in the fact that they have only basically missed four percent of a starter on offensive snaps.
That was said terribly.
They have five players on their offensive line who have exceeded a thousand snaps year and they have the fewest percentage of missnaps by their offensive line. What does that continuity do for an offense coach?
Yeah, it's unusual for that to happen, as witness Tire locally with our offensive line. And they're good players too, So when you put continuity with good players, good things happen, and they pull a lot of their linemen. They do a good job scheme in their run game, and I think that's attributed to continuity.
Also, I'm gonna go ahead and play a common thread idea here with both coach Frank Smith and Vic Fangio, because the two games that you probably as a Dolphins fan, want to flush out of your memory bank forever are the Buffalo and Baltimore games and the Titans game as well. But just in terms of the overall score differential and the I guess embarrassing fashion of those games, those two to me stand out above the rest. Here's coach on the difference and the common threads in those two games.
Yeah, we didn't play well early, you know, and things snowballed, and it wasn't one area that was letting us down.
It was basically all phases, both run and pass.
And I think when that happens, you know, you get not back on your heels playing wise, but it makes you feel that way a little bit.
Think tomorrow I'm going to ask coach McDaniel about the idea of big games and big moments and how you train for those, because I keep thinking about how the Charles Davis comment last week in Baltimore. This is business as usual for them, right, They're used to big games, and for the Buffalo Bills the last four years, they're
used to big games as well. This is a young Dolphins team, and there are players Ron Armsted and Tyreek Hill and Jalen Ramsey that have played in those big moments, but for the most part, the core of your roster just hasn't had those big games experience, especially at the
quarterback position. That's why I always say that the idea of a legacy game for a twenty four to twenty five year old quarterback is kind of silly because how often do I have to look back at Peyton Manning's career and realize how tough it was for him to find deep postseason success, and the same questions were asked
about him shrinked too much in big games. It actually went back to Tennessee for him, and then he won a Super Bowl and he was carried by a defense that yearly because the offense and Ozer six for the Colts wasn't that good, but the defense got hot when Bob Sanders came back for the playoff run.
That year.
That's a segment I want to do on tomorrow's podcast. But I just thought that was an interesting comparison there, and I'm fascinated by this, by this topic, and so that's why I wanted to play these sound bites for you guys and go ahead and pick it up here with coach Frank Smith, who was asked about the shootouts they've played in this year. The Chargers game in Week one, and the offense was more than up for the challenge,
more so than the Chargers offense was. But in the Buffalo and Baltimore games, you matched points early and then things got away from you late. And the theme was kind of common there, right, pressing offense that turned the ball over and just no longer could execute in the same way the Buffalo offense with the Baltimore offense did. So here's coach Frank Smith two questions the shootout idea and the common thread between both Buffalo and Baltimore games.
Well, it's a good question because I don't think really you go in with the you can never go in with mindset of this is going to be what's necessary. So it's more of you approach each moment like each moment is the most important, all right. If you look at the entirety of a situation, you'll your the natural human self will take you to too many conclusions and too many possibilities, and then that leads you to maybe think you need to do more. But in reality is
you just stay in the moment. You realize you maximize this moment, you're so in tune to what is necessary now, and then stack them so the minute that you start thinking, you know, like I go back to college, like I'm getting to sing in a class, and all of a sudden, I need to get a on this exam to save myself because I don't hear all my dad give them me hell. And then all of a sudden you start pressing, you start thinking about things, and all of a sudden
you come out and you get a B minus. You're like, damn, like, because all of a sudden, you've made a result for yourself.
As opposed to it's like, no, what do you really need to do?
If I want to get that result, I focus on making sure each moment is at my best and making sure that I stay now, because it's the result you seek will come through the process of you know, deliberately staying in the now. And I think that's the most important thing that we try and strive around here is just our intent to each day, each moment, and I think that allows you for in those you bank those reps for the future. If every moment you're playing is
of that intent the highest level of competition. Do you take that to each day, each moment of what you're doing, because this run play might not seem like a whole lot, but then what if we call in a game and it got thirty yards?
Did you all play together or something? You know what I mean? I think that that is how you approach those moments.
And I think that's just something that I know Mike really strives with all of us and on us on offense stay in the moment.
And has the moment at time gotten too big for your guys here's coach Smith.
I think that got too big.
It's just like you can't It's easy to sit back and like, what's the correlation between the two times and try and find the similarities where there's different variables at play, Like that was a different point in the season coming off of you know, a huge win versus Denver, you know, and then now this week at Baltimore was a different set of circumstances where it's like as we go through the different games and different moments, it's like, you know,
learning form because you know now as we're getting into this game and hopefully the future is just going to be now right, staying with that, making sure that all the things we've learned throughout.
The season we can maximize one at a time.
But yeah, I mean that's the hard part. It's like you don't know what is going to be expected on so that you can't forecast it. All you can forecast is my individual job and being making sure I maximize it as we go forward in the game.
Let's go ahead and finish up here with offensive line coach Butch Berry, who always just commands a great press conference when we get him. He was asked about the commonality between the pressure that Bills put on the Dolphins offensive line back in Week four with that four man rush and what can you do to make sure the result isn't the same.
Here's coach Barry.
I think that we're in a much better place overall communication. I think that when you do bring up that it's a guy's first time playing center, and I was his first time starting in a game at that position. There's naturally some cadence issues to work through with having to go silent on the road and just overall communication of everything and making the calls and being the centerpiece and the voice for the whole unit to work as one.
And so I think that in that situation, based upon everything, for him, he battled and he utmost respect and how he performed, but he is in a much better place at this moment in time than then. I would say that that's one piece to it. Another piece, obviously, is when somebody does go down that factors. And I think that was a game that, you know, overall just kind of wasn't it. We felt like we were in a position where we was best suited to throw the ball
more than normal. And so anytime that you're throwing the ball probably more than you typically anticipate, you increase your variables and opportunities for.
Them to have what would be viewed as success.
Right, really fun stuff on this edition of the Drive Time podcast, I'm gonna go ahead and get out of here tomorrow. Marcel Louis Jack from ESPN has covered both Buffalo and Miami, so I'll be a fun conversation with him. You don't want to miss that, But that's my time.
No football tonight, enjoyed watching friggin Netflix. Whatever you want to do with your time in the meantime, you all, please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, rate review, follow on social at Wingfold NFL, follow the team at Miami Dolphins, check out my guys, Seth and Juice on the fish Tank podcast, the YouTube channel for media availabilities, Dolphins Today, and so much more, and last, butt not least,
Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, Finn's Up, Caroline the Camera, and Daddy's coming home.