Drive Time: Dolphins Close Out the Pats 24-17

thousand and two. I think that's pretty special. I think it's pretty special to get two consecutive victories on the road to open your campaign. And remember, because of the Germany game and two road games in the books, Miami only has five true road games remaining, with nine games at hard Rock Stadium on the schedule. Still, we're gonna break down this game tonight though, Dolphins over the Patriots. We'll hear from Tuatngo bai Loa, We'll hear from Mike McDaniel.

We'll do five takeaways, tell the story of the game, the stats to play before the play, and much much more from the Baptist Hell Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Draft Times, that's Miami Dolphins. Well, we are feeling ourselves tonight after the Dolphins get their second consecutive win, and before I get into the game story in stats, I was looking at my storylines after the fact and they kind of.

I do not have an update for you on that, but I'll get that for you guys on the Tuesday podcast because well it's late here, or I should say early on a Monday morning. And then how would the Dolphins fill in the Zealand Phillips role if he was not available? Well, Andrew Van Ginkle gives you that answer. We'll talk more about that here in just a moment. How would the Dolphins attack this Patriots defense? Would they doubled Tyreek Hill? Would they bracket him and create opportunities

for other folks? Thought that played out pretty well in terms of how the Dolphins atacked this Patriot's attack. And then how could Miami attack a offensive line of the Patriots who was down a couple of players, most notably their left tackle Trent Brown and then of course Riley reef the right tackle on ir and I think that Miami kind of checked all those boxes as you go down the list. Let's go ahead and talk though about the stats here before we get into our story of

the game or guess how the game played out. As we go along the first segment here off the top team statistics, Miami really kind of you know dominated, I would say for the majority of this game. The Patriots did have one more first down twenty three to twenty two. They were more efficient on third down seven for fifteen compared to Miami's four for ten, But the Dolphins out gained in them by more than one hundred yards three

eighty nine to two eighty eight. They outpassed them two forty four to two hundred, and they out rushed them one forty five to eighty eight. That's on ten less plays as well, sixty one to seventy one in favor of the Patriots, and total plays ran. Miami turned it over once. The Dolphins turned over the Patriots twice. They also sacked Mac Jones four times compared to the aforementioned

single sac on to a tongue by Loa. The Patriots penalized five times for forty five yards, Miami six for forty six, and the Dolphins possessed the ball for thirty minutes and nineteen seconds, which obviously gives you the Patriots twenty nine fourteen. Miami also averaged six point four yards per play. That's right in line with where they were a season ago, and that was second in the NFL coming off a game last week where they were even

higher than that. They were at seven yards per play in the first half of this game, and man, what a crazy contest this was. Is Miami not slow out of the gates. They went down the field and kicked an opening drive field goal eleven and thirteen play drives, and that's kind of where the story of the game lines up. We'll get to this in the takeaways as well, in terms of how Miami attacked this thing from a

philosophical standpoint. Actually, let's go ahead and start here with this sound from coach McDaniel and coach and quarterback to a tongue by Loa, who both addressed how the Patriots played it and how the Dolphins had to respond to the Patriots plan of attack in this game.

that the guys were in. And then, you know, I was happy with a lot of stuff that Tua did, you know, But I think that that forced throw to two Tyreek in the second half is something that he was trying to win the game after a couple of frustrating drives, and that's something you have to learn from, you know, you don't force the hand, you know. But overall, I was really happy with how he bounced back from things that you know, I know, frustrate him anytime he's

off on any sort of throw. You know, in the past, you know that frustration is really led into multiple drives and and you know, there was one drive in the first half. Was it the first or second half where he I think it was the first one of the first drives in the second half, I can't remember, but he had a couple throws that he would have liked to have back, one to Tyreek and one to Jalen Waddel down the field consecutively. But it speaks to where he's at in his game, because I thought he came

back from that. We had some operations stuff that will we'll need to clean up. You know. There's that's the whole point, and that what I talked to the team about all the time is it's a journey. It's a journey of getting better. So your best football is in December. So when you're able to not play entirely or clean at football and get to win, you embrace that and we'll look forward to get better from it.

mistakes as well. Obviously the interception that you heard coach talk about there and Tua kind of trying to force that one in which went away from the script that I thought he followed pretty well all night long. To take the profit take the short stuff, take what's there.

And if you go look at two US passing chart, how often did I talk about this in training camp, how Miami was finding ways to be more widespread as an offense, whether it's the running game, whether it's taking shots in the short intermediate field that the perimeter throws that we saw to a make all training camp, all preseason, and now in the two games in the regulars season, if you go look at his next gen throwing chart, stat like, there is almost nothing in the middle of

the field. So props to the Patriots for taking away

Miami's bread and butter. But props on top of the props to the Dolphins for adjusting and finding a way to get multiple ways to win games on offense and as a team in general, which we'll talk about here in just one second, but before I go to tua on Bill Belichick and the way this Patriots defense plays so tough, which, by the way, in games started by two a tongue of Biloa, the Dolphins are five and l against the Patriots and Bill Belichick, and they're twenty

three and thirteen in general in games started by too a tongue of I looa. But My note is this because you know, the Patriots have their offense has not ranked as highly in recent years as it used to.

And while you know that maybe is a little bit nicer than what things used to be facing a certain quarterback and head coach combination they once had with the weapons they once had, I'm ready for this defensive mastermind to not be part of our lives two times a year because Bill Belichick once again crafted up a really good adjustment at halftime to kind of slow the Dolphins offense in a way that we haven't seen in quite

some time with this quarterback at the controls. So I want to go ahead and play some audio here from Tua talking about how that defense adjusted to the Dolphins offense before we get to our game story. Here's QB one victorious twenty four to seventeen to a tongue of Bai Lowa after the game.

and actually ran for positive yardage. And we were like, that's the adjustment from a year ago that maybe you didn't see as much, where he was able to process what he was seeing in real time and really make a good decision right there. Not that he didn't last year, but we thought it was a different level of processing in football IQ within that moment.

You get a couple of first downs from the Patriots to kick off the game, but you get a quick punt after that because David Long and we saw the Blitz have big impacts in the game last week against the Chargers, especially in those late game situations, trying to stop Justin Herbert and the Chargers offense from mounting a

comeback late in that game. And we saw Miami go back to the well on the opening drive with David Long and a little green dog Blitz where he runs in there and gets a big hit on the quarterback to finish him up. And they originally awarded half of a sack to Bradley Chubb on that play, who had himself a hell of a game, but David Long showing some downhill explosiveness getting a sack to get the Patriots

offense off the field right away. And then we talk about the Dolphins offense doing what they do best, just getting down the field time and time again, really efficient operation, passing game, running game, and I thought it was again going back to the Belichick defense and the Patriots defense attack for Miami to just be so sure fired in the short and perimeter passing game to get fly sweeps going to find different options to get the running game

and passing game going. I thought was a good example of vertical and horizontal stretch to put the ball really all the way down the field quickly and efficiently, before we once again get into an area that through two games has been a bit of a rough patch, and that's the low red zone. Now Miami's scoring points, which is great, but there's points to be had that are

out there. So after a couple of running plays don't go for much or at one running player, then an incomplete pass, you get a throw away on third and five from the third and goal from the five yard line where the snap is low. Tua has a hard time corralling it, and I think he might have had Brax and Barrios to the front Pilon, but he opts wisely to throw the ball over everybody's head, get rid of it. Fight to live another day, or live to

fight another day. And we've seen that a couple times from Tua now, which I think is a good takeaway as well, to preserve his health and make sure we have him here for seventeen consecutive games, which this would be you know, we see this team can be when he's out there. I thought that opening drive was a good mix of how wellis offense has played a little bit of the things that have plagued them, the quarterback center exchange issue, the low red zone execution, and then

Tua being smart with the football and protecting himself. Then I thought one of the biggest moments of the game was the Dolphins response as the Patriots were responding to the Dolphins opening drive. And it just looks like we

see it every single day in training camp. And that's why I love doing this job comprehensively and bringing you guys all the camp reports, all the preseason action to carry over into the regular season because you can learn the entire story of the team from July twenty sixth or whenever the first day of practice is all the way up till you know, January, hopefully in the postseason, hopefully into February, where these stories interconnect and we every

day in practice. Christian Wilkins, Jalen Phillips, Bradley Chubb, you name it. They get their gassers in, they condition unlike anybody really on the football team that I see, and I think they need to because those guys play in positions where typically you don't get major high snap counts. But all these dudes go out there and play fifty

sixty snaps a game. And Bradley Chubb to be a defensive lineman and a receiver, a slot receiver, catches the ball down the field to retrace that thing, and for guys to come down and force him to, you know, make moves and bubble and run around. For Bradley Chubb to show the effort and have the conditioning to get down there and strip that ball from the backside was

kind of a game shifter at that point. And just the way he did that, and then for Deshaun Elliott to rake in there and get it away from the Patriots player, really good stuff. Really good application of training camp coming to life in the regular season. And off of that, the Dolphins march seventy three yards to make

it ten to nothing with a touchdown. And I thought that Tua's throw to Brax and Barrios on the back shoulder, moving up off the spot, a little bit off structure, off script, in between two Patriots defenders, kind of that honey hole we talk about in that cover two look really pretty jerk route slash like jerk to wheel that Braxon Barrios ran balls right there, hits it, big play, puts them down in gold to go, and then the Fins capitalized with the Raheem Moster first touchdown run of

the night and eight yard rush. And the Dolphins on this drive as well, had a big screen to wallow for twenty seven yards on second and nineteen. That play was from the plus forty three yard line. That I think, you know, if we can add the screen element into our offensive attack, it's only going to make us more and more dangerous. So really cool to see the Dolphins have a variety of ways. You know. Savon Achman had to carry for a first down on second and seven

where he broke some tackles. Isaiah Winn had a big block on that wattle screen at Tyreek's all over the formation, lining up with the wide position, going across the formation in motion, just to really befuddle the Patriots early on, and they were doing that ten to nothing early on

in the game. They go back and get another Patriots punt, another green dog blitz from David Long once again another quarterback hit, Andrew Van Ginkle gets a quarterback hit, Cater Kohu beat a block and shut down screen pass for a loss. So the guys are coming out fired up, ready to play this game. Defense certainly looked like they had something to prove in this one as well. Then the Patriots defense responded as they are wont to do with a three and out forced on the Dolphins. And

you're gonna hear McDaniel talk about this. Maybe he already did in that first SoundBite actually with Tua getting frustrated. I'm pretty sure this was the possession he was talking about where Tyreek was kind of in a triangle of Patriots defenders and Tua put it in the spot between all three of them, and it kind of looked like Tyreek had outran the window and Chris Collins were set

as much on the incompletion. Then had a deep shot to Jaylen Waddle where it looked like defensive pass interference, but either way, the ball was a little bit shortened and just off the mark in terms of the accuracy, and so the Dolphins get it back to the Patriots, who go down and get themselves a field goal. And this was a Patriots plan of attack all night long, and I think the Dolphins defense executed.

back to back big plays for first downs. Then he has Barrios to put him in scoring range, and then the beautiful design to the motion smythe away from the strength and that creates a one on one situation for Kyle Duggar, who's an all world player, but one on one with inside leverage against Tyreek Hill, easy pitching catch for a touchdown. They're just a lot to deal with.

As the Dolphins take a seventeen to three leads a halftime, then you get a three and out, and this might have been where Michael was talking about the frustration as well, because we missed a couple of plays and throws. Here. They get a sack on the third downplay that winds up pushing the Dolphins into a punting situation, but he immediately get a return punt from the Patriots and the Dolphins go down. It looks like they might put the

game within a three score lead. That could effectively kind of put it on ice.

It's a little bit more of what they didn't have a year ago. Now it looks like you have more options. Then you get the deep ball from Tua to Waddle for thirty two yards, a big connection. They finally give him a chance to make a deep play and he does. Then the offense stalls out and they have to kick a field goal and you get this crazy field goal block.

So Christian in effect kind of saved you seven points here because we had Javon Holland first of all, in great men on man coverage and the slot, which we saw more of that in training camp, especially after Ramsey went down of him playing some man coverage, and he right here shows you why pins the receiver to the

sideline gives him no window. The Patriots would get themselves into the red zone, but then after a fourth and inches conversion, they tried Devonte Parker one on one against Xavion Howard, who has a vintage Exavion Howard rep where he pins him to the sideline, high points to the football. He's getting pulled and interfewed with the entire time doesn't matter.

High points, the ball catches, the football taps the toes Dolphins ball twenty ninth pick of X's career and the fourth tied for fourth all time with Patrick Sturtan and Glenn Blackwood in Dolphin's history. Dolphins then go three and out, and that's three to three and outs in addition to

the two touchdowns a field goal. With the block field goal, we get a drop on first down and then we get Mostert run to setut third and seven, but then feet get tangled for Tyreek Hill and it's back to the Patriots, who then score a touchdown to make it seventeen. And then Miami looks like they have a chance once again to put the ball in scoring position to win the game, and they just couldn't do it. There was

a snap issue again at this point. We had smythe for a first down after the snap issue, but then we had an undershot ball to Tyreek that gets picked off with good coverage there just thought to force that ball a little bit, like Mike had mentioned in the open of the show, but the Dolphins would get some offensive success later as the Patriots wind up going three and out, and then the Dolphins get a forty three yard touchdown run from Raheem most Or they make it

twenty four to ten, and you get really good blocks from Lamb and Win, and you get a really good climb from Robert Hunt as well as Connor Williams as Raheem takes off for forty three yards for the long touchdown the second straight week. In the fourth quarter, you get a quick change and hit an explosive play one play touchdown drive for the Dolphins. Patriots come back and score a touchdown of their own to make it back to a one score game, twenty four to seven team.

And then can the Miami Dolphins four minute offense close it out? We'll finish up with that next and the five takeaways on the Draft Time podcast, your host Travel Wingfield, brought to.

can they close it out? Was my question here. They get Raheem Mozert for five yards and a hit on a defenseless receiver very if he hit to the back of Walla's head for fifteen yards, then you go raheem for ten to another first down at the plus forty four, raheem for two, and then he breaks a couple more tackles, get seven to put up a third and one situation at the plus thirty five. You convert there. You're pretty

much milking another minute and two off the clock. Kick a short field goal, call it good, get the heck out of there, go to two to zero, but we fill on the quarterback center exchange, which tu after the game took responsibility for that issue. And then Jason Sanders is no good from fifty five yards to give the Patriots a chance to get back in the game. But you get a big sack from Bradley Chubb to put

him behind the sticks. A big game for Bradley Chubb in this one to get home incomplete on second and eighteen. Gasiki gets fourteen yards on third down to set up four more than four, and then we get the crazy play of the night where Mike Gesicki catches the ball short of the sticks. The Dolphins do a great job

to stand him up short of the sticks. And he later rolls it back to Cole strange of all people who puts his helmet down, absorbs a great hit from Javon Holland and kind of runs over the top of that. But then Eli Apple and Andrew Van Ginkle arrive at the scene and hold him up and you can see it clear as dawn the replay, the ball is about six inches short of the line to gain. Dolphins defense does its job late, holds him up, gets the victory.

What an impressive performance. And Van Ginkle was all over the place in this game. In fact, let's go ahead and here from coach McDaniel on Andrew Van Ginkle, who had himself a whale of a football.

not just play but be an impactful force. Says everything about him and really all the people that are uh that are around him as well, like as far as coaches and you know. It was it was really cool to see that. But it didn't surprise It didn't surprise us. Really. I figured he'd have a pretty good game. He's a he's a really good player.

each other's momentum. Specifically the the Bradley Chubb forced fumble that turned into a twelve play touchdown drive, and then the the defense holding their offense to a field goal before the half, and then the offense making the plays to go down the field. I think those are the biggest points in the game. And it was probably, uh, you know, you go and look at the tape, and I told the guys in the locker room that they're gonna feel like it didn't need to be a nail bier,

and that that happens a ton. You're fortunate to get the win in that in that learning process of how to, how to you know, make sure that that's not the case. But overall, you know, on the road, prime time division opponent, those are very very valuable games to be able to come up with the win. So as happy for all the guys really, So.

in the running game. But for the Dolphins to be able to attack the short perimeter passing game, the screen passed to Waddle on second to nine for twenty seven yards, the fly sweep to savon akmed to really stretch them horizontally to create that space and create opportunities to get chunk gains, to get short gains, to let guys run after the catch, to open up the running game, and to really force them to come down and on that stuff to create more opportunities up top the mid red

zone runs. On the second drive, Raheem goes to the weak side with a good number count and I don't know if this is a check to a maid or if he just stayed with it. But they had positive numbers to the weak side of the formation. Stick with that call it run the ball, go score points. You'll

love to see that. Then you get versatility on the second scoring drive Craycraft twice smythe runs from Mostert and from Savon Akmed Braxon burials on that whip wheel route, Tyreek the touchdown on the short pass after the Smyth motion. Whatever teams are taking away from the Dolphins offense, they're finding answers in other parts of the field. To the tune of what I mentioned, two hundred and thirty seven yards on thirty four plays in the first half seven

yards per play. I think that also helped the Dolphins defense pull off their plan and really make the Patriots one dimension on the second half. Big part of that is the offense executing early on in the game, and then when the passing game struggles, the run game kind of comes to life. A forty three yard touchdown scamper from Raheem Mostert, who had himself one of a game. You got excellent catch and climb on that play from Williams and Hunt. I cannot wait to watch that on

the All twenty two and break that down. And then the four minute offense I thought was really well executed until one single play could have been a nice little bow in the end of that game to maybe go kick a field goal, go up twenty seven to seventeen, called a game, get out of there. Obviously it didn't go that way, but still you'd get the win.

under my skin a little bit. But still the Dolphins allow just eighty eight rushing yards on twenty five attempts, good for three point seven yards per or three point three yards per carry, I should say, which is a

very effective day from the Dolphins run defense. And we saw them kind of have a different game plan this time out, reducing the front with more bodies inside, bringing Wilkins and Stealer and putting Raquon on the nose a little more frequently, getting long shooting gaps and Bakers shooting gaps the off ball linebacker position. There was relentless pressure all night long. Four sacks. I'll get you guys the

hits and the pressure numbers tomorrow. Chubbed the you know, the pressure off the edge, Van Ginkle off the edge to Sean Elliott. Really nice game after I thought was kind of a rough opening game for him. But the humble recovery, the drive on the near I n T and the third down to nine on the fringe of the red zone.

And the best part about it to me was the operation on the scoring play to Tyreek Hill where they had the ten second run off after the Barrios play went down in bounds just barely his knee hits the green part of the grass, not the white sideline, So they run ten seconds off and when they cut to the angle of the of the offense versus defense, the snap like the Dolphins are at the line. They snapped

that ball right with sixteen seconds. You maximize your chance to run three plays there without timeouts with sixteen seconds to play. Very good job getting the ball all the way down there, and then a very good job but being aware of the situation to put it in the end zone. And then the great play call in great design and great execution of the Tyreek Hill touchdown.

a good start there. And my fourth takeaways, how about this offensive line and running game, Man, they looked awesome tonight.

eight yards per attempt at that time. So the ball is getting eight yards down the field on average coming out of his hand to two seconds. That's great design, great quarterback play. But when they had too on true dropback situations. Aside from one sack and the pick that got a pressure on to they were doing a great job keeping him upright.

Love the push they got, especially in the fourth quarter in that last drive when the Patriots knew the running game was coming and they still got the push. Let's go ahead and hear from Mike McDaniel on the effort of Raheem moster, who we in the postgame show.

that way. They felt good about their upfront matchups, and I thought the guys were properly prepared and took that personal and we were able to make some plays there that were instrumental. So you know, that's that's something that we've been building on, and it was it was a you know that that's an important moment for the for the guys, because you know, defenses watched tape and they're they're going to try to evaluate how you've won game won games before and not allow you to do the

same thing to them. So that was their priority and I thought I thought guys did a good job and and there'll be stuff that we'll get better from two. But the guys were fired up to.

But you know this, it's well deserved done in every aspect of the run game.

Patriots also at to two. Patriots and Jets next week. Always a fun matchup to watch there as a Dolphins fan. And then across the league, I mean the Bengals and Charge to two teams that I saw frequently picked to represent the AFC and the Super Bowl. They are both h and two, including a head to head win.

But I think if you look at the conference as a whole, and the more presumed favorite of the two conferences in terms of records would be this year the Dolphins have put their best foot four in the AFC that has struggled out the gates through the opening two weeks and have a chance to get to three to

no next week against the Lebroncos. So really good looking opening two weeks here for the Miami Dolphins in terms of how they look on the field, in terms of how the conference around them has played, and obviously the only team in the division right now without a defeat. So that is your fifth and final takeaway. And the

play before the play tonight is multifaceted. Braxton barrios Is eighteen yard punt return was similar to a sequence the Dolphins had last week when cater Coho sacked Justin Herbert to back the Chargers offense up to the shadow of their own goalpost. Tonight, it was Andrew Van Ginkle to get that sack. You get the good field position last week at the thirty five yard line and it's one

play up top to Tyreek Hill for a touchdown. Tonight, it's an eighteen yard punt return from Brax and Barrios and out to the forty three yard line of the Patriots. It's another one play drive with a forty three yard gallop from Raheem Most from Raheem mos Dirt in a seven point game with eight and change to play. That's a big time player there that essentially put the doll Dolphins in position to close it out late. So that's your five takeaways, your game story, and your play before

the play. We're gonna have the All twenty two podcast for you guys either tomorrow or Tuesday morning. It's two thirty right now, so we'll see what happens for y'all. We'll also hear from head coach Mike McDaniel and some players at the press conferences they do on Monday.

Dolphins dot com. Until next time, Finns Up Caroline Cameron Daddy's Come and Home