Drive Time: Dolphins Bills Week 18 All 22 Review

And you can only do that when you have players like Christian Wilkins, like Zach Seeler, like David Long, and like a Deshaun Elliott as well, because you have to have guys that can play bigger than their stature inside and Wilkins is no slouch. But my goodness, his ability to get off blocks.

outside the leverage or where the block is. But he can also get back over the top of that leverage, which is where it really becomes impressive. And that's the reason why he had those insane tackle stats in the previous system that relied upon basically every single snap being a two gap.

career second and top tape devon a chan man. The way this guy moves, I cannot wait to see what his second season looks like hopefully no preseason injury this time that limits his early usage or his campability, but also just having a year of tape on tape, but coaching the staff, you know, for them to devise even more of a you know, a package or an offense maybe even around this guy, because the way that he sees it with the speed and contact balance that he

possesses is freaky rare man. Sometimes I can't process his tracks live, but when you go back and slow it down on tape, he's usually like a step or two ahead, Like he presses certain angles or blocks or defenders in a way that sets them up for the move he's about to make it. If you're not coming downhill at the right track, you're going to miss him. Jordan Poyer learned that firsthand. If you're flat footed, good luck with that.

And that touchdown run again a good example, like he lulled him to sleep because he stretched it out and it looked like they were.

after contact of his sixty total on the ground. That was four point eight nine yards per rush just after contact. He's a five yards per carry back after initial contact. Three miss tackles for us. He had three runs of ten plus yards, two of fifteen plus yards, and he averaged six point seven yards per carry demon a chan, What a heck of a player he is. My third top tape is Rob Hunt Man. We missed this dude.

If you heard these podcasts on these Tuesdays, you know how I felt about the previous lineup and the absence of Rob hunt with Connor Williams. What that meant as far as Rob Jones, who I think has played really well in his the stint of starting games for Rob Jones, But there was some deficiencies at the other guard position. I was you see they moved Rob Jones back over there because now all of a sudden, you know, I

thought Liam Eichenberg played pretty well. Rob Hunt was my third top tape, and I thought Rob Jones played a good game. But Rob Hunt is kind of the lynchpin, the Jenga piece that keeps that all together. Just an ass kicker man, like so many times guys are engaged and he goes and gets a stack of ribs, or he comes off of a you know, a stunt or a twist and picks a rusher and puts him on

his backside, puts guys in the dirt. He attaches in space, was superb, picking up gains and games and passing off help. Just a very very nice tape for Rob Hunt coming back. He also made the critical block that allowed a chan to put his foot in the ground and get north and south on that touchdown run. PFF said no pressures allowed for Rob Hunt, but who the hell knows because PFF's numbers, I don't understand them anymore. Like they had no drops for Tyreek Hill. Tyrek had like three drops

in the game. The fourth top tape is Deshaun Elliott. I just love his game. I think and hope he'll be back as well. So many crucial run fits where he's you know, he's so tough working laterally taking on blocks, and there was a play. Remember the game against the Bengals in twenty twenty or twenty twenty one, you probably don't. It was the year that Joe it was his rookie years would been twenty twenty, so Joe Burrow had gotten hurt and they were a terrible football team, and the

Dolphins were favored in that game to win. But the touchdown that was the first touchdown of the game was a Tyler Boyd like seventy five yard pass up the sideline on a screen pass and we lost outside contain and went underneath a underneath the rub or the block out there, and it was an easy, like walk in

seventy five yard touchdown. The way Elliott defends that perimeter like he can be engaged on the tight end or the receiver or whoever it is out there on him, but he can still work wide and keep that outside shoulder free, which allows him to set the edge and turn the play back to the inside. But if the ballcarrier bounces it wide, he can also play with that off arm and go make the play.

but when he does, he's very impactful. My fifth top tape, I had two cornerbacks here and I went back and forth, but I'm going with Jalen Ramsey, who would have been higher if not for the rep on the deep digs miss.

And no, we don't grade for results rather process. So this is taking into account that he could have been beaten for what was a ninety one yard touchdown passes Stefon Diggs because that was a quarters look excuse me, where he's got deep responsibility to that portion of the field and we send an all out blitz and they had been throwing hot and checking the ball down, not checking the ball down, but throwing the ball to the hookups and the hots on those all out blitz looks

and he tried to get cute and jump that, but it comes with the double move, which is a good call by the Bills offense and their play caller, and he got beat. But luckily the rush impacted the throw enough to whear. It didn't matter that Allen missed him

by several yards. Besides that, it's this the game plan from a coverage standpoint really hinged on a Ramsey's freaky movement skills, be his communication and leadership to get guys aligned, to make the calls and switches and get that stuff all communicated, and see the fact that you can trust him to cover a guy like Stefan Diggs and really hold him and check for most of the game, mostly Diggs.

Big plays came on Eli Apple forty five covered snaps, forty yards allowed, three for four passing and my just missed I mentioned Eli Apple. We'll talk about him here in a minute. He's on there, so is Jerome Baker,

so is Zach Sealer. Offensive notes for this one. I actually have come around on that little fake give reverse flip play that we run that seems to be stuck in the craw of some Dolphins fans because it does generate overplay and you saw it on the second snap of the game and it produced a sixteen yard run

for Devon a Chan. But we've ran it twice in a row, back to back plays so many times this season, and I will I would bet money that every time you run it on the second rep, you've lost yardage if not seventy five percent of those runs.

Feels like more than anything else, penalties like turnovers, those negative plays wipe you out of these promising drives.

the Bills off guard a little bit. We threw that deep curl to Tyreek off a fake toss action that widened Tarron Johnson the conflict defender in that role. But then we just kind of kept going back to the well and got away from the running game and made critical errors.

ahead and retain most guys. I know a lot of you folks don't believe that, but there are definitely ways to maneuver, you know, your money around and get guys back that you need. And it's I mean, that's part of the beauty of the job that Chris Career and Brandon Shore have done is it really keeps them flexible

in future years with their financials. And I think the idea of bringing guys back can also make you kind of be a little bit short in free agency, which can allow you then maybe to pick up a comp pick or two if you lose a guy or two,

but ideally, I think you bring most guys back. You run it back with the continuity on both sides of the football offensively and defensively, and you go into this thing in your third year of the offense with plans to make, you know, major adjustments, akin to how the Niners found their offensive breakout in their third season under Kyle Shanahan. That's a future conversation, but just something I

wanted to put on the books here. We're going to talk a lot this week about long term output and then also just kind of some you know, adjustment stuff and kind of some fan stuff I want to talk about with regards to my journey and where I feel I'm at right now with the way I view this team, because it's been tough the last couple of weeks.

I understand that. But you're not gonna turn it over to a rookie who's gonna give me who's gonna come onto the scene and all of a sudden be sharp in those areas.

from a not you know, loaded up platform. And you know, we've hit that look all year long. Hit it three times in two games against the Jets, hit it versus Washington for two touchdowns, hit touchdowns versus the Patriots, versus the Eagles, like you get it, switched it Johnson. The corner, the slot corner we talked about with the Bills all the time is head up over Reek, but he fans out to the curl flat and the half field safety squats to come down to take away like the crossers

and the curls and the incuts. And that's two was indicator. When he sees that safety squat, we're throwing deep to Tyreek because nobody can run with him on the planet.

field safety down inside. But he doesn't jump the Braxon route because Tua held his eyes on the backside to keep that buzzing safety away from the collision on Barrios at the catch point, get him leaning one way, throw the ball back the other way back to Braxon. Strong quarterback play to convert on third down a third and fourteen to Tyreek, where he again held the defense to

other parts of the concept. Then shoots an anticipation ball in between four Bills defenders, high degree of difficulty, hit it perfectly. It was run game the rest of the way. But then he gets the next drivet going with some clever ball handling where he shows the ball like kind of to the rail and like separates the hands and he gets the defender off of his feet, gets over commitment to the outside. Then he squares his shoulders and throws a strike inside away from a hit to Durham's Like,

that was Alabama tool on that rep. I thought two plays later he had, I thought his best play of the game.

ball was perfect. It hit Cedric in the hands first. Now Benford recovered and broke it up. But the cornerback is running the route force Hedrick on that play, like, he's right there. You could I don't know, man, Like top gear should be able to separate a little bit right.

Then on the next drive, it's third nine and they completely vacate the middle of the field with two high safeties way out of the play like outside the numbers, twenty yards down the field and Cedric has the entire middle of the field a three way go inside outside vertical come like he had the entire football field to work with, almost one on one, playing against your brother in the backyard, and he just gets dominated up the entire route by Dane Jackson, pressed, re routed, undercut the

route before.

because the quarterback's playing great. He finishes the drive with great location on a speed out for a touchdown, but where only his guy could make a play, and Tyreek did finish it. But then halftime, first drive three and out despite two completions. The next throw of real consequence didn't come till fifty seconds left in the third quarter, a fourteen yard gain of Tyreek Hill. But the very next play was the one that I think changed the

entire complexion of the game. After a Tron Armstead false start, we get overplay on a fake fly sweep and Tyreek gets cover three with a middle of the field safety who is pushed twenty yards off the football and chasing a different help zone. On this particular throw, the corner that's playing on Tyreek in that third coverage, third field deep, third field coverage, he's way behind the play in the dust,

but the throw is low and behind. If he catches it and stride, there's a chance he goes either way, it's still a catch and at least ten more yards running after the catch, at minimum. If he scoops it off the ground and the call is upheld, it's second and one instead of second and fifteen. But the ball skips up into Tyreek. It's a huge, huge miss and a throw that Tua just He almost never misses those throws, but the last couple of weeks he's missed.

to get better at in the off season. He's reading a two man route combo to the boundary short side of the field right and he steps up into a clean pocket. It didn't have to do that. The pucket was good. It held and he shoots it to Tyreek on a corner route between the honey hole, the underneath

cloud and the over the top half field safety. But Braxton Barrios comes clean underneath on that little the same route that Tyd Johnson ran on the drome Baker stick short of the goal line with the end of the first half. Like get five yards upfield and slant across the middle against off zone coverage and it's easy ten yards for a first down to move the chains get you inside the scoring range at that point. And I bring it up because he's not gotten to that look

on that play all year. It's weird because sometimes he's so elite at going front side to backside, but then other times and it's usually pressure, he completely avoids it and just presses the ball into that spot. And the pressing, my gosh, it's happening all the time. It's gotta be a thing that you fix in the off season. Like I don't know if it's you know, we did jiu

jitsu this offseason. I don't know if it's like, you know, controlling your breathing and getting you know, doing some Why can't I think of meditation, like, but man, we've got to calm down these big moments. The ball on the corner route too, was terrible because he actually was open. If he throws the ball to the white on the perimeter, Tyreek can probably plant defeat and make a catch falling out of bounds. But he leaves it too far inside and frankly it should have been picked off.

more downs to work with. That's really it. It would have been a fine throw with a better route and the safety not driving before the receiver broke on the football, which happens because of eyes, right, and that's what happened, Like to his eyes took that tailor rap to the football, But we still had so much time. Like it's the same story for a lot of these games all year long. A lot of good, a few not so good, one

two really bad, and seemingly in the biggest spots. On twenty plus airyard throws, he was two for six for forty seven yards with two interceptions. A lot of his picks have come down the field this year ten plus ariyard throws, five for thirteen, ninety five yards and two picks. It's just these, these top defenses have found the way to take that stuff off the field for us, and

we have to find the way to adjust. It's there, and there's some fundamental things in your offense you can do to get there, but it just hasn't been there so far. He was blitzed only one time. He was zero for one. He was pressured on nine drop backs. He went four for nine with forty nine yards, and both picks came when he was kept clean real quick.

The eligibles, Tyreek, I'm getting tired of this man. One of the best players in the world, a first spell of Hall of Famer, But what's the deal with the big what's the deal with the big game stuff? Every single one of them? Did he drop a touchdown in Buffalo? I forget am I mis remembering that I know he did against Philly. He had the game changing fumble against the Chiefs, dropped the ninety two yard touchdown against the Cowboys. That dropped last week, two critical drops in this one.

That's every week man.

his second year. Speaking of the players like that, Ingolden Smyth more of the same, so impactful around the edge in the running game. Would like to see more of that. The Bills want to know part of these dudes in the first half of the point of attack. Last note on the receivers, all the receivers besides Tyreek, the separation or lack thereof, I should say, was jarring in this game. Now I know what Chargers fans are can playing about

you know, with Justin Herbert and whatnot. But like we saw with two of his first couple of years as well, the money downs were getting pressed and taking an extra you know, one one and a half seconds just to get into the stem. Then we're slow out of the break because we haven't done anything with suddenness or you know, explosiveness to force them to lean or force them to chase. Just got bullied by physicality from the snap to the

top of the route. And this is big guys like you know, like Cedrick Wilson's not a small guy, Braxton is.

that third down catch short of the sticks. You have to find a way to get the ball pass the sticks, whether it's run the route past the sticks or make him miss. You have to do it, like make a play and also it's fourth and inches, go for it. Just go for it, I would have on the offensive line. I hope they played pretty well. Pass Pro was connected all night long. They got surge in the running game.

There were some plays where the Bills got more guys into the fit than we would have a designed unblocked man who would come down and make the play, which has happened a lot this year. But the Bills just really disrupted us up front in the game back in October.

back on the other side. Defensive notes. That's next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by the Auto Nation.

The rush lane contain was fantastic. I mean on the interception for Wilkins and Sealer to beat Alan to the sideline, it's pretty damn impressive, man, And real quick, I know we don't do special teams here in the podcast be on surface level stuff, but ma'am cam Good was right in the hole on that hardy return where he would have made the stop if he didn't blow out his knee at very least make some change directions. But of course when your knee gives out, you can't make that play.

Like a microcosm of the season, right, injuries lead to some tough spots, and this one played out real time. The worst part, by the way, about that tipped touchdown pass to Sherfield is the Eli Apple had undercut it and might have had it for a pick.

he does his press conference. He had three pressures in the game. Did vankinkle ingram? The way he dents the edge as a run defender is so valuable. He can really reset the edge and allow the scraping backer or sometimes safety like Brandon Jones to fill and make that play. But you have to tip your capta both he and Ogba because their workloads given the injuries to Gink and

Good and the bills were marked. I fill those wheel routes and coverage behind it right because like we run these guys wide to these pass rushers, they ran us vertical in the in the coverage game, and you know they couldn't rotate them out like it was. It was tough to watch play out that way. But you know it's there's there's some weaknesses there, but the way he dents the edge of the running game I think is

very impressive. Ogbah Man like he's a good player, but it's not the fit in the system here off ball linebackers. It's such a treat to watch David Long, the way he pursues with speed. The blitzing has been effective. He was in the face on that on Alan on the apple pick as well as the mist to dig, so really good stuff with the pressure standpoint there for David Long, five stops two pressures from him. Jerome Baker had three stops and two pressures. I'm so impressed by his toughness.

The big hit was obviously just fantastic down by the goal line, but I thought he played so well coming in under control, wrapping up and making sure tackles, and that was kind of the theme all night. I liked how their short stuff and hookup routes were constantly met by an immediate tackler.

even though he does both well. The thought of Ramsey X and Holland covering it ain't too bad man twelve covered snaps, no targets, and sixteen of his twenty seven snaps were in the slot. In this game, I thought Brandon Jones made that really bad play on the screen that led to a fifty yard run, but had a couple of splash plays behind lane scrimmage, one pressure, three stops he allowed fifty two yards on thirty seven covered snaps.

And then how about Eli Apple, who I thought his best game is a Miami Dolphin, and I thought the interception was a perfect example of why you continuously put Eli Apple in the lineup because he knows what this defense calls for and what to do on certain reps and looks like he knows they have a all out blitz called on this third down and while Gabe Davis is taking way too long to square up and set the round up for the in breaker.

point four passer rating. When teams target cater COOHU snap counts from the game and then we'll get out of here offensive line went the distance fifty two snaps for those guys as well as Tua at receiver. I mean, Cedric Wilson played ninety six percent of the snaps. Tyreek just forty reps in the game at seventy seven percent of the workload, and then Barrios is next with forty six percent.

get wrist surgery. So the fun continues for the Miami Dolphins. Injuries off the edge see Ingram led the one, I mean, you're playing a guy that just signed here three weeks ago as your primary you know, outside linebacker seventy four percent of the snaps, Ogba sixty percent, and then it was you know all the guys that you're Van Ginkle thirty seven percent before he got hurt, good fifteen percent

before he gets hurt. And then you're playing you know, the guys up front, the Beefy Boys, Christian Wilkins ninety one percent, Zach Sealer eighty seven percent, whatd Rayqwan play forty six percent. DeShawn Han also played fourteen snaps in the game. So yeah, man, you're you're pretty deep into it.

I think a focus on the podcast this off season is going to be more about the depth of the team, because clearly it's very, very important, and the death has been good this year, but when you have fifteen injured starters, it's kind of tough to overcome all that.