Drive Time with Travis Wingfield begins.
Now, let me check your pulse if you're not.
What is up? Dolphins? And welcome to the Draft 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, a tough loss, a Dolphins fall twenty one to fourteen in Germany at the hands of the defending world champion Kansas City Chiefs. Will break it down with an opening little monologue I put together for you guys. We'll hear from head coach Mike McDaniel,
quarterback to a tongue of Baila. We'll do the five big picture takeaways and of course take you through the gameplay by play here from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Draft Time Podcast Miami Dolphins. So a Dolphins fan of a certain
age can appreciate how challenging that entire game was. From starting off shooting yourself in the foot, fall behind by a touchdown in the opening drive, not responding to that drive for a few drives, giving up another touchdown late in the half, and then a offense that looks like it's found as spark and then all of a sudden,
something goes wrong from your very best player. He puts the ball on the turf, they pick it up, they lateral it, ran it back for a touchdown to make it twenty one nothing at the halftime break, and you're thinking to yourself, here we go again, Dolphins in a big game. We're never gonna hear the end of this. And I hate it. I hate it here. I hate being a fan of any team in sports because it
seems like it always ends in misery. Right after I had just shared the Gray Cody story talking about enjoying this beautiful dream the Miami Dolphins are on this year, that happens, and you're thinking to yourself, Travis, how can I possibly stand that? From my mind, it seems like every time we have a big challenge, a big game
against a big time team, we do this. And then the Dolphins respond and they show you the resolve and they bounce back and they show some bite and they show you why they are a team that has everybody talking about them weeks into the NFL season. But a Dolphins fan of a certain age knows how these movies typically end, at least they have in the past. Right. A buddy of mine from back home texted me, I think it was it twenty one to seven, and said, like, hey,
they're coming back. They might have a chance. And I said, you know, if I know this team like I know this team, and again, it's not fair to do that for this team because twenty eleven or two thousand and six, two thousand and two, none of those teams have any impact on the twenty twenty three Miami Dolphins. But I told him, you know, maybe a little bit of a sad Dolphins fan. I said, they're gonna come back, They're gonna have a chance, and they'll come up just short.
And that's what happened. And those ones can sometimes be the toughest games to deal with. Now, look, why is it so tough today? What are you feeling like? I feel like your stomach just got ripped out. I'm curious how Dolphins fans feel. I think I'm kind of alone in that a lot of people I've talked to you don't feel that way. But let me tell you why I feel that way, because the narrative stuff, I don't really care. You know, that makes my useless Twitter scrolling
at night a little bit worse. But that's on me, right, I allow myself to be affected by that. None of that matters. None of the power ranking stuff matters. Yeah, it's fun to be on top of those and to share the tweets that people praising us and talking about how great we are. And look at this next team in the National Football League, hard knocks. All the kids are dressing up as the head coach and everybody wants
to be the Miami Dolphins. That's all fun, And maybe that's partially to blame for the way you feel after a loss like that is the absence of those endorphin releases you get from all of those experiences of winning a big game like this, or just in general, the reaction of winning on social media and what we do now in twenty twenty three in the National Football League, and we overdramatize every single play, every single game, every single result. But where I get real down is the
actual missed opportunity the Dolphins had today. They had them, they had those guys, guys, they were the better team, and they just could not capitalize. And that's what I'm reminding myself here today that they're close, and you don't want to hear that they're close because they haven't broken through yet in one of these games. I've been the first one to say that sometimes it takes taking your lumps before you break through, and then when you do, gosh,
it's got to be glorious. The famous Steve Young after his Super Bowl win, get this gorilla off my back. They said he couldn't win the big one he finally did.
Or Peyton Manning finally exercising the demons in New England, or I guess it wasn't Indianapolis, but in four playoff losses you know before the two thousand and sixth season, to those Patriots teams are Bill Belichick and Tom Brady where they're every single year to raise their trophy and put an end to the Peyton Manning in Indianapolis Colt season that year. But gush, these lumps. They hurt, man a god, they hurt specifically when you're the better team.
So maybe they'll be better off for this. Maybe they'll be eleven to three come Christmas Eve when the Cowboys come to town, and the narrative will still be they can't beat good teams. Maybe that's the blessing. Maybe it allows for a really damn good football team here in the Miami Dolphins, and that's what they have, a damn good football team to carry the nobody believed in US badge down the stretch. Maybe it's a good thing. They'll
have their chance to exercise their own demons. Hell, I think those last three games of the year are essentially playoff games because they are teams that are good enough to be in the playoffs and teams that I believe Dallas, Baltimore, and Buffalo are all going to have double digit wins by the time you face them at the end of the year. That's for another day, but that's kind of a playoff stretch before the playoffs and the next time you'll have a chance to prove that you are one
of these teams. And I don't what does't even mean to prove who you are? To like, the standings will prove who you are at the end of the day, right, So I can stomach the talk, the noise, that's all that is. It's all talk. What really gets me, though, is the standings. Because you had a chance today you were the better team and you still lost a game that you were better in and it hurts, It really hurts. Let it hurt. I get it. If you're my age, you know what it's like to root for this team
with everything you've got. And I kept saying to Seth and OJ in the radio station, Damn man, how the hell am I going to handle a devastating playoff loss or a Super Bowl loss?
One day?
This is how I feel about a November fifth game. And that's how it feels today, Like a playoff loss. It feels like you were eliminated, but you know what, you weren't. And that's the beautiful thing. There is a tomorrow. This team is going to come out of the bye week healthy and ready to go on a run. But it's okay to let it hurt for today it should, but we'll be back. Let's go ahead and hear from head coach Mike McDaniel on the narrative and what it means, and you know, how do you feel about it?
The overall mental fortitude of the collection of individuals, their commitment to this season and this organization and this team, and they show me every day.
This is something that.
You know, I think we're all very aware and we knew going into the game that you know, if we're gonna lose, what the narrative of would be and that's fair like you you I should we shouldn't feel entitled to uh high opinions uh from from the masses, and you know, we have to earn that confidence and we have to earn.
You know, every it.
It also gives me a ton of confidence because I know that NFL games, each and every one of them, is tough.
I think people undervalue poor records. You have to. It is hard to.
Win in this league, and so to win in any in any right against any opponent is something not to take for granted. And uh, as long as you continue to get better, ultimately that narrative will subside.
But that's on us collectively, from.
Coaches and players alike, to you know, if you want the narrative to change, change the narrative.
I really kind of feel like Coach and I had the same thing there in terms of, yeah, it exists, it's out there, but if you want to change it, you have to go change it. But ultimately the result of this team and what this team is built on, I think will ultimately make them better. From this, let's go ahead and hear from Tua on a missed opportunity in Frankfurt on Sunday morning.
And you know, we think, man, if we would have made this play, or if we would have made if I would have made this throw, and that that's a part of the game.
It's a game of inches.
And all we can continue to do is work, you know, and not lose sight of where we want to go as a team. We got to continue to stick together and not deviate from that, regardless of what everyone outside is saying. And we just got to put our head down and keep going.
And the funny thing is, like you think about those individual plays that ultimately maybe cost you the game. I remember thinking back to, like, you know, some of those like Joey Harrington losses in Buffalo for instance, or whatever it might have been. Like these teams that were seven and seven trying to give themselves a chance to be alive in week seventeen to go win a game and make the playoffs and then ultimately probably get destroyed by
the aforementioned Tom Brady or Peyton Manning. But this is different, Like, we're upset because we lost a chance to earn the number one seed heading into week number ten, which what does that mean right? Like McDaniel could probably give me a pep talk right here, like mission accomplished, Travis. We didn't accomplish anything. We were the one seed at week eight? What does that mean? Who cares? And he's right? So
we move on. We live to find another day. Let's do the stats real quick before we get into the story of the game and the five takeaways from this game. It was rough early on for the Miami Dolphins. You guys saw how it played out. The offense could not get much going and as a result, they wound up actually usurping the Chiefs in most categories. Twenty first downs to sixteen, the Dolphins were three for twelve to Kansas
City's three for ten. Miami, of course oh for one on fourth downs that was the big play late in the game. There but two hundred and ninety two yards to two sixty seven. You out passed them, You out rushed them. Yeah, out total snapped him fifty eight to fifty six. Both teams had one giveaway. The Dolphins took three sacks, the Chiefs took two sacks. The penalties Miami had six for forty five, Kansas City six, nine for
sixty nine. And you out possessed them. So it was there, man like, the game was right there to a twenty one for thirty four one hundred and ninety three yards, when the last time he here for under two hundred in a full game, one touchdown and a eighty seven passer rating, Mahomes was twenty for thirty one to eighty five and two touchdowns. I bet you if you would have told someone that both these quarterbacks gonna throw for under two hundred yards, you would have told them you
were crazy. But that's what happened in this game. So the Chiefs take the opening kickoff drive and march it down right down the field, executing ball fakes and misdirections and motions. It looked like us on offense for a while. They got chunk plays and the mesh rail concept that we run. Noah Gray gets loose on a corner route and it looks like they're gonna have great spacing and throw all over the field and they get a touchdown on the board. It comes off the board because he
didn't make the catch. And then they throw a screen pass that goes right behind a blitz and that goes in for a touchdown on second and that screen pass would be a key throughout the game. We'll come back to that. But you're thinking to yourself right away, like here we go. Defense is gonna struggle against an elite quarterback, and that didn't happen. We'll get back to that here and just second, Dolphins get the football back and it's a positive start. They get a fifteen yard shot from
two to waddle into a trio of defenders. But then you take a time out on a key third down a false start, and it's like same stuff, right, like these procedural operation issues that plague You put you behind the chains and you wind up not converting. After they actually come off size make a third and nine and they blitzed to it and get a free runner and get him down in the backfield. So Steves Bagnolo had a great game plan, had a great pressure package and
impacted the Dolphins when it had to the most. The chief get the ball back and you're thinking, if they go score, here, here we go. But it didn't happen
that way. The Chiefs punt after a really good three plays from Jalen Phillips to force an incompletion off of pressure, they get Andrew Van ginkle deconstruction for a beat on a beating a block on a second down play, and then third and ten they get in on the whole again and he has to throw the football away, so a quick punt Dolphins get it right back, but they
punt it back themselves. After we had a shot down the field from Tua to Tyreek that looked like it was gonna be a big game, tight window, one of those vintage Tua throws into the bucket, but Tyreek just cannot make the catch off the fingertips. We then miss a block off the edge, looked like claype want a chance to make a big time seal, but Raheem can only get one edge one yard off the edge and it creates this third and long on second down to ten.
Early down running failures were a big key in this game Miami. On those first three possessions they went punt, punt, punt. They had three first down runs that resulted in one or zero yards and it put them behind the chains.
But then you got the the shovel pass inside that looked like Savon could have broken free and made made some haste, but he gets tripped up at the last second and gets cut down short, you punt the football back, and that was after Miami had a first down at the twenty five yard line to Jalen Waddle for a nice catch and throw and catch from two to to Wattle, but an illegal shift which quite frankly, we pause. Everybody was set at the snap, but I'm not going to
complain about a phishating today in this one. So they shoot themselves in the foot, cost themselves point with points. With that, the Chiefs get it back and you get another punt right back after really good coverage marrying up with good pass rush up front. I thought Xavi and Howard had one of his best games of the season of the last couple of seasons. He was sticky in coverage downfield, so too was Ramsey. I thought Holland and
Elliott played really good back in coverage. Thought cater Coo, who had a good game on one of these plays. On this drive, David Long forces Mahomes off the spot and Jalen Phillips could say cleanup sack, which is no game, but it was a cleanup sack after a good blitz
from Long. Then you get a dominant rep from Zach Seeler for a quarterback hit and then ex good coverage downfield, no separation, Boom, quick quick stop there and the Dolphins get it back, but they punt it back after a couple of drops again, so they'll just continue to make errors that put themselves behind the chains and ultimately take
the offense off the field. The Chiefs go out another three and out because Christian Wilkins blows through the offensive line and gets a seven yard loss on a tackle for loss in a fly sweep. Great play there. You get a great coverage from exaving Howard once again to force third and seventeen, and then you get pressure that forces the check down and here comes cater coohu for an open field tackle. Defense is humming. All three levels
are acting in perfect synchronicity and playing good football. Dolphins get it back. Okay, now the offense surely will go down and answer, right, didn't happen? They do a shot play to Walla goes incomplete, where it looks like you kind of lost the ball in that weird roof over there you get a weird broken play where two of
gets hit for grounding. But I thought that Raheem was in the territ like in the area because you saw to a he knew where he had to go with pressure right like you saw him immediately get to that sideline throw to Raheem after the initial pressure broke down. His first red wasn't there, but he throws it like just eight yards behind Raheem when he was trying to get it over there, and they call grounding third and twenty. You have to punt the ball back anyways, and then
talk about a critical play man. There's a third and five on the next drive after Rakwan Davis made back to back good plays to create a third and five from their own ten yard line, and Rashi Rice makes a diving catch at the chains off his body and that would extend a drive where instead of punting from their own end zone up by seven, the Chiefs then march a ninety five yard thirteen play drive to make
it fourteen zero. They converted third and shorts and the drive that created the opportunity to go score that drive. So at that point, you know fourteen to nothing, you have a chance to double dip at the end of the half. In the beginning of the second half, but Miami looks like they're gonna do that because they get Boom two big plays, a nine yard run, a slant to wall for fifteen, a shot the Tyreek for nineteen.
Looks like the Dolphins offense, we know, right, But then they throw a screen pass after a positive first down gain to durham Smyth where Tyreek Hill catches it and as he's trying to put the ball away, they wedge it. They knock it from his grasp down to like his hips, and he kind of has it pinned against his you know, his belt almost while he's moving backwards. So to me, one of two things is true. Either Ford progress is stopped or he never caught the football. I kind of
think that both things were true. They didn't see it that way. They rule a fumble return for a touchdown, which, by the way, they pitched it back and that kept the play alive. And I thought Miami could do in a bad job of running to the football in that spot to get that tackle. They don't. They run it back twenty one to nothing, and Twitter's a buzz. Right, everything is chaos. The Dolphins are complete pretenders at this point. They can't hang on the field with these good teams.
Good night, Dolphins, Right, That's not how it went let's go ahead and take our first breakrate there, come back on the other side and pick it back up with the second half story of the game and the five takeaways. That's next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. Second half story of the game,
second segment here of the Sunday Recap pod. Dolphins fall twenty one to fourteen in Frankfurt to the Kansas City Chiefs, and the Dolphins get the football back twenty one to nothing. It's just not looking good. And then they go out and they execute a big play on first down and it turns into a holding call that turns a fifteen yard run from Raheem most Are off the edge into second and seventeen and that produces a three and out.
And you're just thinking yourself, at what point are they gonna get a break or not make a huge mistake in a key spot. And that answer would come very quickly because the Dolphins put it back to the Chiefs. You get a Christian Wilkins stop, a miscommunication pass and then a scramble where Mahomes has to try to get
eighteen yards on the ground. The Dolphins do not allow that and get the football right back to the offense, and then we get the Miami offense we've known to you know, come to know and love this season right down the field for a touchdown. You get two passes to Wilson and Smyth and a Wilson run that produces a couple of first downs a critical third and two. You hook up to Durham Smythe for four yards to convert the first third down of the game. They were
zero for six at that point. And then to a I love the throw to Cedric Wilson for the touchdown because number one, he's kind of running to the corner of the end zone and the defensive back is walling off the back pylon, but he has inside access for a throw to Cedric, and he knows that one McDuffie is like kind of kind of stumbling a little bit, and Cedric just to be in great shape to go make a play on the football. So Tua throws it high and inside and Cedric goes up and gets his
mossing version right. He goes up and post a rises a defensive back for his second Dolphins touchdown in as many weeks. Good to see him come on here primetime said, as Tua says, the team calls him in that locker room, so a big player to get the Dolphins out of a hole. It's twenty one to seven. Two of goes six for six for sixty four yards on the drive and the touchdown, and then you're thinking to yourself, just give me a stop. Oj kept saying, get the ball
back in the third quarter. There's four minutes left. Get it back in the third quarter. Give yourself a chance to score early fourth quarter, and then maybe we can make a run at this thing in the fourth and the Dolphins do you one better because Xavi and Howard comes up on a short throw and cuts it down for no gain. Bradley Chubb gets his hand on a screen pass, which was the most effective play for the Chiefs in this game, running the ball inside to Isaiah
Bachecko and quick hitters from Patrick Mahomes. Think about that. That's if you can force offenses to do that to have success, you're probably doing something right. So Bradley Chubb swats the screen down and then after the offensive holding call, it's third and twenty and Bradley Chubb, like he's done all year long, wins a pass rush. He meets Jalen Phillips at the quarterback. Chubb knocks the ball out, Sealer sees the ball on the ground, has a great effort
to jump on it and recover it. Great work from Chubb, Seeler, Wilkins. Those guys had awesome games. Jalen Phillips did, Andrew Van Ginkol did. The entire defense played their butts off. They give it back to Miami, and of course holding on
first down creates first and twenty. Then we miss Tyreek and this is where, like I thought, Tua's accuracy kind of wasn't what we're used to for the rest of the game, even though they scored more points the rest of the way, but I thought that some of his throws were just a little bit off from where they usually were. And that started on a first and twenty ball to Tyreek where he's open on that deep dagger right the inbreaking route about eighteen yards down the field.
We've hit it for a million yards this year, and the ball's a little bit high and behind. Then we take a time out on third down. Like it's just these wasted timeouts they add up. I'm not saying it's wasted, but you don't you know get in the play call in there would have done wonders to say that time out. Then on third and twenty, Chris Jones pushes Austin Jackson to the ground, gets a roughing call and that gives
the Dolphins nude life. Then they swing it out to Raheem Moster on a toss play on the next play, and he gets a great block, an absolutely phenomenal block from alec Ingold, and he has great vision and a good cut to put his foot in the ground. Bang it back inside and get in there for six twenty one to fourteen and it's not even the fourth quarrea. And then the defense says, okay, we'll do you one better.
We'll get the ball right back. They get a couple of first downs, but then they get another great play from Bradley Chubb to break up a pass into the flat. Then they get a run stuff. Then third and nine they try a deep shot. Miami's pressure gets in but Mahomes makes kind of a off platform throw and it's a good throw down the field, but there's cater Coo who great coverage to break it up. Dolphins defense is humming.
Dolphins get the ball back on offense, and you're thinking to yourself, they're gonna go do this thing, aren't they. Two runs by Raheem for thirteen yards, then he fumbles, and good on Chase Claypool. That was gonna be my play before the play. Had this game gone the other way was Claypool diving on that loose ball that Raheem
put on the carpet. You get a second down complation to Ingole that sets up a third and four and Rob Jones gets hurt and I'm thinking about you, Rob, Rob Jones is one of the best people you ever meet in this world. Man thinking about him and his injury. Hopefully he'll be okay. But Liam Meikenberg comes in for his first rep one on one against Chris Jones, and he like he holds up, He doesn't enough to give two a Tyreek for a great timing throw to the
perimeter to move the chains. Watal for thirteen, Tyreek and around for four Raheem for one, third and five. Critical third and five play here, and this is what I'm talking about with Tua. He hits the pass to Tyreek for eight in a first down, but I thought Tyreek had some room to run. But the balls a little bit on the back hip, and like watching other quarterbacks college or pro, it makes me appreciate how damn perfect Tua is ninety nine percent of the time with his
location and timing. Because most of the time the ball's right on that face mask upfield, they can turn into a play. I just thought there was a couple that were a little bit behind. We'll watch the tape tomorrow and get you guys more of a breakdown on that. But I thought there was some chances to make bigger plays than we had. This was one of them. It did move the chains, but then we go a toss outside to Akmed, he loses six. We take a sack,
third and two, twenty six incomplete. Just like these critical moments of the game that were in your hands to make these big shifts just didn't quite go your way. And then it's like, well, the Chiefs need two first downs to end the game. They're probably gonna get it. They throw a screen to Kelsey for six yards. Great, right, They're already ahead of the chains. But then Pacheco runs
for three and then third and one. They dial up a pass and Miami plasters every single option on the little boot roll the quick flat route, the little slide route they want to run, the little hookup route. They plaster Kelsey with double coverage, just great, great Dolphins defense to get the football back, and then Miami takes it with two twenty eight two timeouts. You need seventy five yards. I assume you go for two, although you out played them in the second half by a lot by like triple,
so maybe you'd go to overtime. Who knows. I'd be curious to hear what Mike says about what they were thinking there after a potential touchdown because Raheem Moster goes for twenty six yards with key blocks from Connor Williams for a nineteen yard rounth left side, a key block
from Tron Armstead. But then things get wonky and the Dolphins open up this series and empty when you had one seventeen to play at the plus thirty one yard line, two timeouts, the full menu is open that you go empty, incomplete pass, incomplete pass, and then it looks like Cedric Wilson's opened down the field, but to what throws it? Shorten.
This is a part that's gonna annoy me about. You know, he's talk about narratives and what's on social media, Like Tua can throw the ball twenty five yards, so like stop saying that he missed an underthrow. It was a miscommunication, man, Like, let's go ahead and hear from Tua in fact on that third down miss.
With what happened with me and said that was just miscommunication. And you know, in big time moments, those things like that can happen. So you know, I I gotta throw a better ball. You know, it was just miscommunication there. And then with with the last play of the game. I mean, I'm always gonna blame myself. I I you know.
I got to catch the ball.
So whether that's getting in a in a better position to catch it or whatever it is, can end the game like that when we have an opportunity like that against a really good team.
And he's right, you can't. And I just want to reiterate the point that, like Tua was trying to throw a comeback, Cedric ran a takeoff, like just please get lost with the like your takes that you want to get out there, you know. So what happened was, you know, Cedric was the one to the field, the white side
of the field, and it's third and ten. The Dolphins need a first down to keep this game going, and Cedric runs like a double move to the back pile on a takeoff, and Tua throws a timing short comeback route that we've seen him hit time and time again to Tyreek Hill. I've never seen him hit to Jalen Wall or Cedric Wilson or anybody else in the receiving corps. But he tries this this throw and it was there. It's where it needed to be. But Cedric takes off
and runs down the field. It goes incomplete. Let's go ahead, and hear from Mike McDaniel on that critical play third down incomplete pass at Heeddrick Wilson.
If I know my personnel, well two is probably standing up here since he gets to talk before me and saying this, that and the other about it's on him.
It was, It wasn't.
There's a there's a lot that falls on squarely on my shoulders that they were, you know, doing something that we had talked about, and the miscommunication is something that doesn't happen if you know, I put them in the appropriate situation during the week, so.
You know there was a uh too. It didn't have time to observe.
He uh he he signaled kind of a one route and that has a conversion and cedric interpreted as another thing. And that's just things that when you're working together as a football team, you know, and you have the right effort and mentality from all your players that uh, you know, it's it's one hundred percent something that I can control personally, So you know that the the it I was very very proud of, how of the resolve of you know,
I'm very encouraged about the team. And just to be in that position on that final drive takes a lot of uh, you know, there there was a lot of expectations not met, you know, in the first half, and for those guys to you know, for the defense to shut them out in the second half and only hold them and only allow fourteen points, and for us to be in that in that in that situation, uh, with one minute to go. I think that's the bigger picture
from the players perspective. And you know, I told told the team that you don't have to worry about me learning from mistakes. That's it's gonna be hard one hard one to digest, but will make it purposeful.
And I know, you guys by now have seen the fourth down play against zero coverage because Wattle had not just green grass in front of him, he had the entire end zone to work with. In terms of Tua laying the ball out there with those you know, perfectly projected deep shots that kind of hang up in the air to give his receiver a chance to run to space. If he catches the snap, it's a touchdown. I'm like, there's no doubt in my mind, but the snap is just off his frame. Tua cannot handle it. Tua took
the blame for that. I think the snap was good enough to make a catch, but maybe against that look against zero, you know, you're hot, like they sent like the entire house. It was seven guys coming and four guys dropping one on one coverage. And here's Tuoa actually on that play because like we said, he had a chance to make a big play there to potentially really kind of stake his his flag in the NFL in terms of a big semeture moment there, but it didn't
go that way. Here's two on the fourth down, this snap and sack that ends the game.
Ultimately, they played zero, so we we had routes for it was really one on ones on everyone, so it's really your best matchup.
That's how you look at that. What a bummer, dude, we had that one. Let's go ahead and take our last break right there. Come back into the five takeaways, we'll hear more from McDaniel and two. That's next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. You've relived the game, Let's go ahead and do the five takeaways here. Number one, just the self inflicted wounds in big games. At some point they have
to learn from it. At some point they have to improve upon it and use it to their advantage to not make those mistakes. Play a clean football game, because I think that if this team plays a clean game in a big game, they're gonna get you that big win and you're gonna feel great about it. When's that going to be, I'm not sure, but I hope it's the next one that we play. But the timeout on the first drive on third and nine, the illegal shift that wipes out what would have been a first down
at the twenty five yard line. Instead it's third and fifteen. We run that shovel where it looks like Savan has one tackle to slip. We can't we punt the football back. That illegal shift cost you points. The penalty I thought was questionable, but it cost you points. Tyreek's drop on second nine from the minus forty one would have put you at the plus thirty yard line. That's more of a physical air than a mental self inflicted wound. But
you punt two plays later. You fumble at the end of the first half, a ten point swing, maybe a fourteen point swing at that point in the game opening drive, the third half of the half three and out thanks to a hole that wipes out a first down run. You get a hold immediately after the Bradley Chubb force fumble recovery that you overcame, but still a self inflicted error there, and then two of misses that third down throw to Centric Wilson. The miscommunication just can't have those
in critical spots. It seems to be the team's I don't want to say calling car but it's what happens frequently in those big spots in these big games, going back to you know, last season, the big games, the playoff game last year, Buffalo Philadelphia, this game, it just it sucks to see the defense allows the opening drive touchdown, and then you wind up going punt punt punt offense after two tops on the defense like some better complmentary
football and self inflicted womens that prevents you from having that complementary football. What I I think put you in the winner circle today. Let's go ahead and hear from two on self inflicted errors.
We were trying to get things going, couldn't get things going, whether we were you know, shooting ourselves in the foot of there's miscommunication with a run play, or there's a flag for.
This or that.
But you know, the the game's not played in two quarters, is played in four quarters, and so we knew we had the second half to try to come back and make a run at it, you know, but it's it's always tough if you go against a team like that, and you know, those guys know a thing or two about big games.
He's certainly right they do. Takeaway Number two is I think this defense is for real, guys, and I talked about it. That's where a lot of my hype came from this week in terms of how I was telling you guys on Twitter and on the podcast how excited
I was for this game. That we get a pair what I think is the best offense in the NFL, which I'm willing to hear debate now, because this team has to prove they can you know, produce against the top level defense before we can give them that moniker even though they are at number one and most categories still, but man, the defense, Like going into the season, you know, people thought that maybe the Dolphins offense last year was you know, fluky, and I'm using air quotes, but everyone
had faith in this defense because of the coverage, because of the rush, because of the three levels. They had good players all three levels, and they were deep, and then injuries bit into that. But today they had the starting defense out there, and what do they do besides hold Kansas City to fourteen points and on their final
eight drives just seven points a lot. On those final eight drives after the opening drive pressure without blitzing four man rushes, they can kick Jilen Phillips inside to the three technique and he can rush at guard, and you can send Chubb off the edge and Van Ginkle off the other edge and Christian Wilkins inside and you can win with your pass rush with excellent coverage downfield, from Ramsey being one of the best. Did he even get a target in this game? Xaviing Howard, I thought played
his best game of the season. He looks fantastic in that, you know, opposite Jilen Ramsey role. I thought cater Co who got better, and I just I think that's the impact of Jilian Ramsey, man, Like you're gonna have every cornerback spot gets better because you have Ramsey. You had Holland and Elliott back out there communicating, the back end
looking really well. The run defense was great. Baker and Long were fitting runs really well, except for a few Pacheco runs that got loose, but they were blitzing and getting in there and making their impact. Felt this defense man the stop at the end giving the ball back to the offense twice. All the defense was fantastic in this one. Let's go ahead and hear from McDaniel how proud he was and the plan, the takeaway Travis Kelsey who had just three catches in the game.
You know, I thought that they had a good plan.
I was very very proud. I was very very proud.
Just we we approached the game as a team ready for you know, the Super Bowl champions and understanding that we're gonna have to be that they were gonna.
Have some success.
But the biggest thing is I didn't want to see people waiver and wow did we get tested with that? So, you know, I think the biggest thing is we uh we didn't let the first drive knowing that historically, ah, you know, the Kansas City Chiefs let you know, led by Andy Reid, have always been very very good at presenting new problems and new issues, specifically in the openers.
And so when you just handling that storm, I mean to have you know, seven points given up by the defense after that first drive.
That that's the bit. That's the huge.
Thing that you know, I'm really really encouraged by by our mental fortitude because I know you knows as the season progresses, these these games get bigger and bigger, so you have to be able to uh sustain things, or you have to be able to survive situations where you're gonna get presented with new problems in game and adjust.
And I thought we did a great job with that.
And I thought we were very competitive in re routes. I thought we played team defense as I would expect, and guys when they were at the point of attack with Travis. They they were executing their fundamentals and technique.
So that will.
Always be our calling card in all three phases, and it's something that I look forward to continue to improve on in the bye week for the second half of the season.
So I think that defense is only going to get better. I think the offense is going to learn from this first half of the season. Having a bye week to go back and kind of self scout. I'm excited about what's to come for this team in the second half of the season. Take Away number three, you have to learn how to win these games. The Chiefs just made critical plays. The Rashi Rice catch I talked about that's a critical play that changes the game. You're not punting
out of your end zone. You're now marching ninety five yards for a touchdown. The Tyreek drop on the second downplay that I talked about earlier or second nine, that would have been, you know, twenty five yards in field position, and the difference between being in field goal range and punting two plays later. The fumble there to give the ball back and then to not tackle them again to the ground. Just these critical moments, the third and fourth down at the very end of the game, critical moments
where the game has decided. Miami comes up large in these in the games they win, which is fitting. I guess that kind of fits the whole point there. But the games they've lost against teams that have been there, right, Buffalo has been deep into the playoffs, Kansas City has gone to the super Bowl and won, the Eagles went to the super Bowl last year. Those teams have found a way to just beat us in these critical spots,
and Miami has to find a way. They have to find a way to be better in these key spots in these big games against these big time teams. That the fourth takeaway, The narrative is the narrative until you prove otherwise. I did a whole thing about it. I don't care. But like McDaniel said at his press early in the week, either the narrative is going to be We're going to the super Bowl after this game, or we just cannot beat good teams and we should just
fold up shop and not play anymore. Right, I added the last part there, But those are the two potential outcomes from this game. Well, it's gonna be two weeks of not fun content of thinking about how the plays you had that didn't go your way all the way through the bye week, and that leads us into our final takeaway. Number five is that I say all the time on the show here guys, everything is still out
in front of this football team. I think that makes it an uphill climb to get the one seed, which gosh, I would have liked our chances to go all the way if you have home playoff games at hard Rock Stadium, and that's still a possibility. I shouldn't talk so definitively, but I think it's a really tough, you know, hill to overclimb. You have a two game deficit now to the Chiefs, and who knows if they lose two games the rest of the year. But the division is still
very much in play. It all is, and you're still in prime position to go out and top the Bills and the Jets and win this division. But you know, a week off, a bunch of home games, the Raiders, the Jets, the Commanders, the Titans, and the Jets. Again. You know, I like our team and against most teams, I like our team a lot against those five teams. Last year we began eight and three. We all felt like we were a super Bowl team and then things
went sideways. Now I mentioned these games because does anybody expect even after today's game, even after the Philly game, does anybody expect anything less than five and zero during that run? I mean, you have to play the games, you have to go execute. Injuries happen, things can change. But at this moment, you look at that and you think you could be eleven and three. But even then, still would anybody consider the Dolphins the favorites to win the Super Bowl at that point? I don't think so.
I don't think we should care. It doesn't matter. But that's how the outside will view you even if you are eleven and three and you've earned that. But you know what you'd earn at eleven three is being eleven and three and being in a top of your division and being in a position to finish the season with one of the best records in the league, which puts you in position to make a run in January. And like I said, that all exists out in front of you.
It sucks, it hurts. Embrace the suck, embrace the hurt, embrace the pain, and try to get on with your life. Go play with your kids, It's a tough loss to swallow, a tough pill to swallow, but this Dolphins team will be back. Count on that. That's my time. You all. Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts from. Leave us at raady and leave us a review. Follow me on social at
linklin NFL. Follow the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank podcast with my guys Seth and Juice. They kill it every single week. Check out the YouTube channel for media availabilities, Dolphins Today and so much more, and last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot Com. Until next time, fins up, Caroline Cameron, Daddy, He's coming u