Drive Time: Dolphins Cowboys Week 16 Preview

A win puts us in a stranglehold position in the division. A win for Dallas keeps them alive in their race for the other conference's Eastern Division. We'll go ahead and get to know Dallas, look at the big storylines, what we learned from the film and numbers, the keys to victory. All of that and more from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Draft

Time Podcast. Ye Daffy first here off the top. Congratulations to Bradley Chubb, the AFC Defensive Player of the Week for his performance against the New York Jets with three sacks and two forced fumbles in that game. Go ahead and get online right now. Go to Twitter, go to NFL dot com and cast your Pro Bowl votes for the Miami Dolphins. Each of our guys send those guys to Orlando, so maybe they can skip the game. We

go to Las Vegas the following week. Anyway, win this game. First, let's go ahead and meet the Dallas Cowboys, because are we ready? Guys? Got a big football game coming up on Christmas Eve? Holidays coming down the pike here. It's the best time of year football, like every day with the bowl games and the NFL schedule stretching out to Saturdays. And your Miami Dolphins have never been more in the

mix this century. Well, I suppose two thousand and two thousand and one and they were in the mix, and eight and twenty sixteen. But do you think those teams had a chance. I don't a chance to win a big game, a chance to build some confidence and put yourself in position to win one of the final two games, which would give you the division title. And you know what. We'll get to all that first, though, the weather Sunday

with Chili against the Jets. The last two games, Actually walking to my car against the Titans after that miserable night, I was freezing my ass off. My wife loves the weather. She thinks sixty degrees is t shirt weather, because well, we're from a cold area in the country. My blood has already thinned out. I've already been always been a cold guy, as it is pretty skinny guy. I had the seat warmers on going home from that Titans game.

It's cold, man, I'm tired of this cold front. But Christmas Eve, fifteen percent chance of some rain, partly cloudy, a little bit of breeze, but seventy four degrees at kickoff, and that sustains all the way until night time. But it sounds like a great day for football. And how about the drainage system at hard Rock Stadium. By the way, I was convinced that was going to be a bad field, but not the way that field works. I didn't realize

that it was so good. No tarp and it just was a solid surface after rain all week long and then summer type of downpours on Saturday. So the Cowboys on that beautiful field with Dolphins throwback jerseys ten and four. How do the Cowboys get here? It began back in twenty s sixteen when they became one of those fortunate teams who found a star quarterback, and yes, Dak is a star quarterback. Don't listen to Skip Bayless or who.

I don't know who. I don't know who's mad about it, but someone's mad about it right on Fox Sports one or ESPN one. A of the fortunate teams who found their star quarterback late in a draft. It doesn't happen very often, but what a boon it is when you get your franchise quarterback in the fourth round, not to mention a comp pick in the fourth rounds like pick

one thirty five I think it was. They've won seventy one of his one hundred and eleven starts at quarterback and the one time he missed the majority of the season. Back in twenty twenty, they bottomed out right and they wound up with a top draft pick, which brought in their other nationwide superstar. I won't say global because football players aren't really global, but Micah Parsons well, and then I guess the year before that, in twenty twenty, they

got Ceedee Lamb too, so he's pretty damn good. But what it all boils down to, it's one of the best drafting teams in the entire NFL up there with Greer and the Dolphins going back to twenty sixteen, and the Ravens, I think the other team in there as well, Saints too. Every year they get hits Dak in twenty sixteen their slot corner Jordan Lewis. In twenty seventeen, also got Noah Brown, Xavier Woods to Tobio Wozier in that season, who all left and have had good careers since then.

In twenty eighteen, they got Layton Van Dersh and Michael Gallup and three current Dolphins Connor Williams, Mike White, and Cedric Wilson all on that same draft. They got Dalton Schultz and Christian Covington that year as well. In twenty nineteen, they got running back Tony Pollard in safety Donovan Wilson. In twenty twenty they got Ceedee Lamb and Trayvon Diggs and Tyler Biottish. I mean, that's three stalwarts of their

current roster. Diggs is hurt right now. In twenty twenty one, they got Parsons, who's one of the best players in the world and probably their other best defensive lineman in Nodgie Zua. And we'll go ahead and call him ode on the rest of the podcast, because might pounce in that name more than once. Twenty twenty, they got Deron Bland, Tyler Smith, Jake Ferguson, d Moone Clark. I think you get it. Every year they round out a great draft class and what's crazy, one of the best offensive lines

in the entire National Football League. We talked about Beottish and Tyler Smith. Tyrone Smith and Zach Martin have been there since twenty eleven and twenty fourteen, respectively, and both of those guys are going to Canton one day. DeMarcus Lawrence has been there for a minute. He's still a beast. Another top draft pick. They traded for Brandon Cooks. They hit on u DFA's Cavante Turpin, ric Odal, Terrence Steele. They revived the career of Malie Hooker in free agency.

They signed Stefan Gilmour this offseason. They have utilized every avenue to turn this into one of the best rosters in football. And Mike McCarthy, who your Boy was kind of hard on in terms of just not thinking that he was gonna have the solution when he said that I want to play good defense or good offense to

run the football and rest my defense. I did not expect a thirty point per game offense to come from that mindset, But that's what he's gotten out of this group, moving gone from Kellen Moore, and he gets the last laugh because their scheme is awesome. It's rolling. It's the top scoring offense in the NFL if you don't count the Miami Dolphins, who are top thirty one and a half points to thirty point eight points per game, and their defensive coordinator Dan Quim probably going to be a

head coach next year. So this is an elite team with an elite coaching staff who is probably a year or two beyond where my Miami is in terms of they're like the initial building part of this build, but they're in a difficult place in terms of they can't

get over the hump. And what's funny about that hump is that each of the last two years it's been losses to a team who looks a lot like the team they're going to face on Sunday, Divisional round to the Niners last year, two years ago at home in the wild card round for that same Mike McDaniel O seed forty nine ers team, but an elite team which makes for great storylines. And we start here for Miami. Playoff spot can be clinched, win and you are in. That's it. The other routes are a tie for Miami

and a bunch of other teams losing. So I'm not going to cover that because dumb. You can reduce the magic number in the AFC East to one, but it could be won already by Saturday night. And if the Bills lose to the Chargers, I'm not holding out hope. Although maybe the interim head coach Bump could be in action there, I'm still not holding out hope. They just lost sixty three to twenty one. But if the Bills lose on Saturday, then number is one going into the

game and you can clinch the division on Sunday. But you can clinch the playoff spot regardless of what happens to Buffalo, and it would be the first back to back playoff appearances for this franchise since the two thousand two thousand and one seasons. Let's make that happen. You're facing another contender coming off a loss. It sort of grinds my gears that every great team we've seen in this year double digit win team right that the Chiefs are They not double digit yet, but they'll get there.

The Eagles have won double digit games, and now the Cowboys. They all faced us coming off of a tough loss. And Dallas is the only team to not have back to back losses in the National Football League since the start of last season. Can we change that? On Sunday? How about making the Titans loss purposeful? That's a storyline here, so on Hard Knocks, McDaniel has alluded to making that loss purposeful in terms of learning from that loss. Right, Sometimes a loss can be a good thing in how

you respond to it. I thought the Jets game gave you a glimpse into how this team is wired from a psychology standpoint, why it's a special locker room, the way they celebrated together. And not just Andrew van Ginkel breaking up a pass on a wheel route in the first quarter, which is a big play in the game, right, but Ethan Bonner in his first career game deep into the fourth quarter of a thirty point blowout with the pass breakup, and he celebrated like he just clinched a

trip to the Super Bowl. That told me a lot about this team. Sunday can tell me even more about this team. And then how about a winning team that visits hard Rock Stadium for the first time this season? Crazy stat, right, first team first time ever teams with twenty combined wins but one or fewer wins against teams

above five hundred matchup. Kind Of silly though, right because, like Denver was over five hundred just four days ago, so that stat would go out the window if Denver hadn't got blown out by Detroit and a fully healthy Chargers team back in Week one, by the way, was a good football team. But either way, I digress. The narrative is still the narrative, and you can change it on Sunday. All of those games have been on the road, and that finally you get the big test here at home.

I think it's very important for this Dolphins team. And the last storyline I have here are the home and road splits for either side. Dolphins a dominant fixture at home five yards per attempt and the passing game allowed compared to six point three. That's a good pass defense either way, but my goodness, five the passer rating against seventy four point one at home compared to ninety seven point two on the road. Twenty one touchdowns allowed on

the road compared to just nine at home. For the Cowboys offensively, their yards per attempt and the passing game goes from eight point eight to seven point six home to road. The passer rating goes one fourteen point four to ninety seven point five home to road. They average five point four yards per rush at home, four point seven on the road, and they scored thirty one touchdowns

at home compared to twenty one on the road. They're three and four on the road, they average twenty one point seven points per game and three hundred and six yards per game, and they're minus one in the takeaway department, or they turn over battle, I should say. But at home they're seven to zero with forty points per game. They double their production. They go four hundred and thirty one yards per game. That's one hundred and thirty more and the plus ten a post of minus one. So

they are not the same team on the road. Make that be the case here, and you should be okay, and we go ahead and start talking about this matchup with the Dolphins offense versus the Cowboys defense. And their safety position. It's gonna be a key in this podcast because they use them a lot, and they use a lot of those guys to play the linebacker position, So Malie Cooker is their best safety. He missed the game on Sunday, it sounds like he has a pretty good

chance to play in the game on Sunday. He plays eighty percent of their snaps, jay Ron Kurse plays seventy two percent, and Janya Thomas plays twenty percent of the reps. At cornerback. They are thin right now because of the Trayvon Diggs injury, but on the perimeter it's Stefan Gilmour at ninety four and Deron Bland eighty nine. Without those two guys, I'm not really sure who next man up is, So keep an eye on that thro the course of

the game. There are a lot of positions for this Cowboys team offensively and defensively where if one guy goes down, kind of like you saw for the Dolphins, with multiple guys going down, it could drastically change the course of this game. So in game injuries for Dallas here are critical. If they lose any part at a couple of spots, there's a snowball effect that could be had there, and that's one of them. The cornerback position inside, Jordan Lewis

plays sixty three percent of the snaps. Then Donovan Wilson is a third safety slot type and he plays sixty four percent of the snaps. On the defensive line, Jonathan Hankins plays thirty eight percent of the reps. And if you ask a Cowboys fan what happened in Buffalo, they're gonna tell you Jonathan Hankins did not play in the game, which is not the entire case, but it is partially

the case. He has been a key run stopper and he was out and it sounds like he could miss this game as well, So don't think he might be doubtful to play this game. Odigie Zuwa Odie fifty eight percent snaptaker. He's really good, especially as a pass rusher. They love to get him one on one chances when you take all your attention towards Parsons or Lawrence, so keeping on him. And then Mazzie Smith twenty eight percent of the snaps and Golston twenty eight percent of the snaps.

Off the edge. Micah Parsons plays eighty percent we'll talk more about him as we go along here. DeMarcus Lawrence is he kind of reminds me of Bradley Chubb his game fifty five percent snap take. Doris Armstrong is forty two percent, and then Dante Fowler twenty five percent, almost exclusively a pass rusher. At linebacker, Damone Clark plays seventy four percent, and then Marquis Bell is listed as a linebacker here, but he's really a safety who goes two

hundred and fourteen pounds. He plays sixty percent of their snaps. Let's go ahead and talk about why this defense is constructed the way it is. It's it's confusing. Leyton vander Esch, Damarian Overshown, and tray Von Diggs. All those guys are on ir. That's our top cornerback, it's our top two interior linebackers. Malie Cooker didn't play against Buffalo, nor did Jonathan Hankins, but it seems like they could be back this week, or at least Hooker could. I don't think

Hankins will be. We'll see. And the Marquise Bell changed positions like he was a safety who is now a linebacker two hundred and fourteen pounds. It's a tiny linebacker. That's why you have so many safeties seeing time they're short onlinebackers, and then without their middle of the field safety eraser and hooker, that's really tough to overcome, and they couldn't in Buffalo. They got ran up and down the field on then you remove your best run stuffing

defensive ten. I picked Buffalo to win that game last week, but honestly, the score wasn't really a surprise. When you realize all that going on and how Buffalo won with the running game, It'll be a good week to have a healthy Raheem Moster him on eight chan Jeff Wilson, Chris Brooks. Their personnel usage, get a load of this, Get a load of this. Three percent FORO to three. That's it. No other base downs. They're a nickel twenty

seven percent of the time. That's the lowest in the league because they play a league high sixty one percent of the time in their dime package. Alec Ingole, durham Smythe Chris Brooks, Julian Hill, you're up right, go ahead and bring it in, guys, bring it in a little bit closer. We're gonna end the first segment of the podcast with a monologue on the Dolphins offense first the Cowboys defense before we get more into the matchups. We're gonna have a talk here, right, I'm a homer, right,

Travis the homer. I picked the Dolphins a lot, and because I still think they are the best team in the conference. I think this season has shown you the Niners are the clear best team in football. But I like Miami in the AFC. I always have. So when I tell you this next part, just know it's derived from two things. One that belief and two I'm watching a Dallas defense that leaves swaths of grass vacant in

the middle of the football field. I'm watching a Dallas defense that fits the run with two hundred and ten pounds safeties that they've converted linebacker. What I'm telling you is that there is one area of concern this week, and if that's mitigated, it's not feasible that Dallas is responsible for slowing Miami down even a fraction. That reason

is Micah Parsons in the pass rush. But with Tron Armstead, you can slide that protection all day long, and our motion and our backfield action with tuas details I think will be okay in that regard. But then also this is a potential trapdoor scenario, a potential issue where you feel a loss of Connor Williams. Liam really needs to be on top of his stuff against their pressure packages because they bring the heat and they can affect your

quarterback with that. Now, I also said, it's not feasible that Dallas is responsible for slowing us down, but it is feasible that we slow us down because we've done it the majority of the games this year, so it's not unconscionable. What I'm telling you is this, if if if the Dolphins offensively are on their stuff, on their ish, if we don't commit drive killing fouls, if we don't turn the football over, we will score at will. I'm talking six touchdowns, forty two points. Let me tell you why.

On the other side, Drive Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. What'd you guys make of that teaser on the other side there, let's go ahead and tell you why I feel this way. So their base defense is dime right, that's six defensive backs on first down they run it sixty percent of the time. I mean, if you have sixty b's you only have

five guys in the front five offensive lineman. That's five on five hat on a hat, add alec Ingold, add Durham's Smith add to Julian like sixty f fo four percent on second down, sixty two on third down. I think the injuries at linebacker has dictated this because again they line those safeties up down in the second level of their defense, which bodes well for their ability to get depth on their drops or matchup against backs and

tight ends in the passing game. Right, But you've also got again Marky Spell two fourteen, Wanna thomas Is two seventeen, j Ron curse Is two to fifteen, Donovan Wilson's two zho four. Two hundred and thirty pound linebackers are considered slight in this league. It reminds me of the matchup in Buffalo last year where alec Ingold, on the first nap of the game, blue to Ron Johnson off the football and said, it's gonna be a long night for you boy. He wears down those light boxes in the

running game. It's a great game to have the best fullback in the NFL. Their coverage, deployment cover one thirty three percent of the time is second most in the NFL. Cover three forty three percent of the time is eighth most, and they run quarters ten percent of the time. But it's a Cover one, Cover three defense. It's man free,

that's three deep, you get it. And it's mostly cornerbacks that play those deep covers too, So the safeties again are playing in the hook and the curl flat for posterity. They play more man coverage than anybody else forty eight percent of the time, and they're also playing off seventy five percent of the time, which if you're gonna play man press twenty five percent of the time against us, have fun, you know. And it's probably even more than

that because without digs, they've had more off coverage. But that plays into my thought about the Titans game plan that they could have, which is this, are they gonna play this variation of middlefield, closed, single high, and three deep, which is what you saw from the Titans, that three deep coverage, three safeties, But they would always buzz in the middle of the football field and they sort of abandon that backside receiver r A the X to help support

in the running game, to play their light boxes with those three high safeties with a cornerback playing a quasi will linebacker role. I could see the Cowboys doing this, especially after the way the Bills attack them in the running game. It's a lot for any defense to handle, but especially when you're having to dig deep into your depth with all the injuries they have back there, it is a concern. But they do make it up elsewhere, which is we'll get to that, but just look at

their tape. They haven't. I think they could run that plan, but it would be the first time they had because they haven't done it before. I wrote that note before watching the tape and coming back from the tape. There's a lot of man coverage outside leverage and access access to digs and slants and posts. Brother, that's where we live. They run a lot of press man free, which is Gilmour and Bland press coverage with Malie Cooker in the center field, and you can get vertical routes off of this.

You're gonna get one side of that with a deep access without safety help. So if Tyreek and Waddle every damn week we hit a vertical pass. If they play that coverage, you have to beat them deep. They also run Tampa two, which coincides with our dagger concept. Dagger a clear out route to clear out that safety, run the hook or the deep dig in behind that. That's what you get when you ask a middle linebacker to run down the pipe and try to cover your vertical

three seam, run that in breaker off that. With Tyreek er Wattle, it's wide open. They'll run some quads as well, your seams, your post or digs. But they love to go zero on third and medium or long. And like remember the Lions game last year. They tried to zero us up the entire game and that defense was not good. So it's a different story here. But zero coverage with Tyreek Hill and Jalen Wattle, you're asking to get beat deep. I cannot wait to watch this matchup. And here's what

else I like about it. Their cornerbacks are not known for their fluidity. Jordan Lewis the slot. He is forty fifth percent tile or lower in his forty yard dash ten split, shuttle, broad and vert. That's your sombrero. If he catches Waddle or Hill, go after it. Deron Bland is in the seventieth or the seventeenth rather percent tile for three Cone means he's the worst changer up direction

in the National Football League. Fifty ninth percent in vertical seventy eight and ten split seventy four and the forty Those aren't good numbers for Tyrek and Waddle at all. It's a rough matchup. How about Stefan Gilmour, who was an elite tester when he did go back to the combine, but that was like nineteen forty seven. He's thirty three years old. Like I think the reason they play like they do is to deal with this deficiency I and I mentioned the forty nine ers earlier. The forty nine

has run a similar offense to Miami, right. Hey, guys, Dan Quinn's been there since two thousand and one, and that's when the Niners have become the Cowboys Daddy. The volume stats aren't gaudy. Back in twenty twenty one, twenty three seventeen games, one hundred and seventy two passing yards, one hundred and sixty nine rushing is great. In twenty twenty two, it was a nineteen to twelve final, but I think they had a backup quarterback in that game

that wasn't pretty. One hundred and ninety nine passing yards and one hundred and thirteen rushing yards, but the win and then this year with Brock Purty, the best quarterback they've had in that system, forty two to ten, two

hundred and fifty one passing, one to seventy rushing. But even those numbers don't tell the whole story, because the EPA allowed each of the year's second highest, fourth highest, fifth highest against those teams, and the teams some of the teams that have posted better epas against them than San Francisco, the Lafleur Packers off that same tree, the Waldron Seahawks off that same tree, and the McVeigh rams and then the Bills this year. But you get what

I'm saying. This offense gives us defense issues. It's a lot of jargon, but it can be boiled down to teams with condensed offenses formationally with lots of motion. Teams that neutralize the effectiveness of that blitz package. Those are the teams that hit them the hardest. I'm just saying. Go back to the Philly game this year. They gave aj Brown lots of attention and Devonte Smith had I think one of his worst games. That's why the offense

fell apart in this one. If that's how they play it and we get Tyreek back, that means lots of one v one chances for Jalen Waddle and inside access to him. Good luck there. I think it's fair to assume they might play it differently because of the play ties. But Gilmour took Brown without help and press mirror as the ex boundary. We saw Tyreek take Trey White to the shed last year for a touchdown on that exact Look if you want to do that thirty three year

old cornerback against Tyreek Hill, I don't know. Good luck, but he's their best guy back there. They have missed Trayvon Diggs. Bland has all the picks, and the coverage numbers otherwise show you that he's been feast or famine. So he has eight picks, five for touchdowns, and just a fifty four percent completion rate. But when they get him, they get him. Like DK on Thursday Night Football a couple weeks ago. He's allowed five hundred and eighty yards

on four hundred and eighty coverage snaps. I mean that could be the difference in the game right there. They missed twelve tackles versus the Bills, which is crazy because they have the fewest miss tackles in the NFL, in fact, just forty three, and the second fewest is fifty five. So most of their miss tackles came in that game against the Bills. But that's what happens when you have to put backups in the game and they might be in that same spot again here we saw it in Buffalo.

I think you could stay in twenty one twelve twenty two personnel the entire game and build your vertical shots with Tyreek and Waddle off those heavy max protect two man route combos against you know, if they want to play their dime defense and run the football, but if they take the dime defense off the field, you take your vertical shots there when they come out, you know, River Craycraft, Hedrick Wilson go back out there and block the perimeter. You motion to further displace their run fits

and kind of cause confusion and their communication. Like think about the touchdown run in the first quarter of the game on Sunday or the Edmunds run versus Baltimore. That man coverage motion can get them out of their run fits. I think Miami can pop them for two bills in this game, guys. And if Mazie Smith, the first round rookie has to fill in for Jonathan Hankins, he couldn't. He just couldn't play in that game. He was overwhelmed by power every single play. If you get big Rob

hunt back, good night, good night, nurse. How about their pressure numbers, because they're impressive. So Michael Parsons has eighty nine this year, that leads the NFL. DeMarcus Lawrence has forty one, Odie has thirty four, Dante Fowler has thirty two. He's almost exclusively a rush guy seventy thirty split and then Doris Armstrong has twenty five. For the next guy. But their blitz frequency thirty two percent eighth in the NFL. Right,

it's a lot of blitzing, run and pass blitz. It's paired with twenty one percent pressure rate, which is actually the third highest discrepancy in terms of blitz to pressure rate. So they blitz a lot but don't get home as much as they should. I guess they're fifteenth in pressure rate despite the eighth best blitz rate and two against the blitz this year twenty five percent dropbacks, seventy percent completion, seven point eight yards per past eleven touchdowns, no picks.

Please blitz this quarterback, Please do it. I'm really curious to see how they attack us, but also how we attack them in the running game, because Buffalo had success all over the field, but especially off the perimeter, and I'm not sure anybody does that better than my minami. Buffalo had nine for seventy three off left end, six for forty three off right tackle. That is fifteen for one to seventeen. Tough to lose when you get that, and if we can get the outside running game going

like that, you're not gonna stop our passing game. So there's that. The week before that, Philly got just four for eight and three free, so you got to earn it, but it's there. I think the defense is pretty overrated, that's my takeaway from this, and this is a function of the guys they've lost and the mismatch for this Dolphins offense, this style of offense, because early on they are pretty good, but it's not been good, and it's never been good against the forty nine ers, which I

think we compare pretty favorably to the Niners. The Eagles game where they stomped them. They lost three fumbles, one in the red zone, two and plus territory also had a turnover on downs of the plus thirty. So that's like twenty points right there. Like it wasn't that they could blow out except for on the scoreboard, which is

where it counts, right. Yeah. It just watching that Niners tape again, like some of the stuff that we do, the Niners did and got guys wide open, like our chair concept with a deep post clearout and the deep over Like they don't have the horsepower to match that. That's all I gotta say about that. Let's go ahead and flip this over to the other side of the football.

Dolphins defense versus Cowboys offense. You know about Dak Prescott, you know about Ceedee Lamb eighty three percent of the snaps, Brandon Cooks plays sixty six percent of the snaps, Michael Gallup fifty five, Chilean Tolbert forty one, Dante DeVante Turpin plays twenty five percent in the slot, but their main slot guy has been Ceedee Lamb. He plays sixty percent out of the slot. Jake ferguson the tight end seventy three percent snaps this year. He's a stud. We'll talk

about him in a second. And then Luke schoon Maker thirty two percent. Their offensive lines Tyron Smith and sorry, the interior offensive line is Tyler Smith, Tyler Biattish, and then Zach Martin. But TJ. Bass is a replacement if Martin cannot go off the edge, it's Tyron Smith and Terrence Steele, and then Tony Pollard and Rico dow are the top two running backs. They're seventy percent and twenty one percent snapload. So Zach Martin has a quad injury,

we'll see if he plays. They're gonna try to get him to go this week, but we'll see. I imagine he does because he's that kind of guy. And then Turpin is the top guy in the slot in terms of his workload eighty percent inside, but Lamb goes in there sixty percent of the time. So does Ramsey travel again, I feel like he does. We'll see personnel usage eleven personnel for them is sixty one percent. Their twelve personnel

package is fifteen percent. They bring a third tight end of the game five percent of the time, and then they have a little bit of twenty one to twenty two personnel packages both four and a half percent, so they're pretty well mixed, pretty versatile to good offense. Would be really, really nice to get Javon Holland back for this one. It sounds like Deshaan Elliott could be back. He's already out there practicing a limited basis not quite out of the protocol as of this taping, but he

could be back. We'll see. But we need those guys to be the stingiest defense in terms of limiting explosives, which Miami is. When they have those two guys out there without them, those numbers are a little bit different, but having both those guys back skew heavily in Miami's favor. Some notes here on watching the Cowboys film. They're scene shots, just catch rock throwed in the middle of the football field. It's a lot like Miami's. Dak is in rhythm, he's

on time, he's accurate, he has zip. It's very too esque with the anticipation, the accuracy and the command that he has, and those seam shots to tie it end Jake Ferguson are just so impressive how he's able to body guys up and out leverage them, and then Dak puts the ball right where it needs to be, Like they make impossible to defend throws on the regular They also push the ball with anticipation and do a great job when there's rush in his face falling back from

that rush, like the Eagles got heat on him all game long. In fact, he's been blitzed twenty eight percent this year, and he completes seventy percent of those passes for seven point eight yards per pass, nine touchdowns and three picks. When he's not blitzed, he's also pretty good seven point four nineteen and four, like right on target there. When he's pressured, he's still really good sixty three percent completion, eight point two yards per pass, five touchdowns and two picks.

He's just tough. But where he does have his misses is when you move him and the footwork gets sloppy, like his heels click or he's not hitching in rhythm, his inability to kind of get reset or pump and shrug. That's where you can get misfires and then potentially picks. Hopefully you create some of that with getting him off of that first read and changing the pitcher because he's the sixth highest quarterback in terms of throwing to his first read in the National Football League. Two is the

sixth lowest. So, like, the narratives are funny because it's just how it goes. But if he puts the ball in your hands, got to capitalize on those opportunities because they can make you pay man, because this is probably the most dangerous group of eligibles we've seen all year, maybe Philly, but I tend to lean towards Dallas. And that starts with Ceedee Lamb, who look like we haven't

traveled when we've had X, Cater and Ramsey together. But Lamb goes inside for sixty percent of his snaps, you cannot, like you, maybe you double him with Cater, but like, it's not gonna be a one on one situation there unless you travel with Ramsey. That's what I would do, either double inside or Ramsey travels. But then you also have Brandon Cooks, who's a baller who I think maybe is a tough matchup for X because that's not x's

play style. So I feel like the move might be Ramsey on Lamb, Cater on Cook's funneling to help, and then X on gallop or Turpin or even Ferguson like I like X and the tight end the more I think about it, because his physical style matches that lamb though two point five to three yards per route ram that's tops in the NFL. Behind or second behind talk, I should say Cooks can change the game on a dime. He's a field flipper. Ferguson, He's like George Kittle light man.

He's physical as hell, and the way he stems and stacks and uses that big frame to kind of block you out. It's tough to cover a guy like him, and their vertical passing game is a lot of good pockets to create these double move shots against man coverage and the way you beat that pressure. But you probably can't blitz. So I think that like Van ginkel On, Terrence Steel could be a key match up here because his speed against Steel's play type is a bit of

a mismatch. He's more heavy plotter type, but there's not a single Tomato can on the offensive line unless Zach Martin's down, and then Christian Wilkins needs to win that matchup repeatedly, which he probably will because he usually does. But you're gonna have to earn your reps. Earn your wins. Big week for this pass push. It's been so good this year. But beat the Cowboys now we're talking. It's

also that vertical passing game. Why I think Javon Hollins's presence is so important because this is the second most explosive offense league, again behind Miami, But the Dolphins limit explosives at the second best rate in the NFL, and they've exploited limited range safeties like Reblanken Ship for the Eagles. Good player, but not very athletic, you know, in terms of his speed, right, they just love love to pump and shoulder roll, these double moves that create vertical shots

against displaced or slower safeties. But with Javon Holland back there, nobody anticipates and has good range and speed like him in the entire National Football League besides maybe Minka Fitzpatrick. So his ability to get back and play in the game is so key. Because deep passing this year dak fifty one percent completion on throws twenty plus yards down down the field, eight hundred and sixty six yards, nine touchdowns in a pick. It is a lot to ask for.

You need Wilkins and Steiler. They've all been good, but I think this, if there's one matchup where you can get a little bit veteran savvy aside from that right guard spot, it's Tyler Badish because he just he's probably the weakest link of the whole crew, but he's still a great player. So you have to get wins from Steeler and Wilkins. Then you've got Tony Pollard, who's a

matchup in the passing game. He can hit you with big plays in the running game they have They run lots of power and duo so our ability to stay on blocks is big and create free runs for David Long and Duke Riley. It's a big game for Duke and David, and then Ray Kwan also to make sure he holds the point on those base down running plays. Look, these are two awesome, awesome football teams. Is gonna be a fun matchup. Let's go ahead and just do this

real quick before the last break. Pass block efficiency Tyron Smith ninety eight point two, that's t Steed level. Tyler Smith ninety eight point three. That's probably the best left side in the NFL right now. Tyler Padish ninety seven point six is not great for a center. Zach Martin nine seven point four is not great for a guard, but it's good. But TJ. Bass is nice seven point six, so it's even better. And then steal ninety five point four.

That's you. That's your Van Ganinkle match up. Let's go gank, go, get your go, get your paycheck this week Big Doug probably the toughest player Bradley Chubb will see all season and he's on a heater, so that's a fun matchup. Bradley Chubb versus Tyron Smith. Let's go ahead and take our last break right there. Come back on the other side. Tell you what's at stake. Predict this game, give me some keys. That's all Next Draftime podcast, your host Travis Wingfield,

brought to you by Auto Nation. We've previewed the matchup, told you the keys to either side of the football. Let's go ahead and tell you what's at stake. Everything. I don't want to alarm you and come on too strong, but freaking everything, man, it's all on the line this week. You lose this game, probably can't clinch the division until Week eight. Team you lose it, you probably have to say bon voyage to the one seed You lose this game,

and this is projecting a potential psychological impact. But now you've lost two of the last three, the winning team narrative permeates another week. I think this team has a level of confidence and self belief right now, and I think a win in this spot, on this day, in this time slot against that team, the most popular team in America, the most talked about team in America, I think a win here would provide the same galvanizing force that was the opposite of what you got in that

Titans loss in terms of how this team will come together. Right? Does that make sense? Maybe that's the wrong way to say that. More so the feeling you have from the Titans game of dread, and I think winning this game does the exact same thing on the other side of that spectrum. Now, from a number standpoint, right now, your odds at a first round buy are fourteen percent, your division chances are sixty three percent, and missing the playoffs altogether as one percent. But you win this game, you

go to a twenty percent first round by odds. Your division odds go up to seventy two percent because you can beat Baltimore or Buffalo to get in in the Division, and if you win this game, you clinch a the playoff spot, so missing the playoffs goes down to zero percent. If you beat Dallas, you need a win in one of the last two games to win the division. If you beat Dallas and that win occurs in Baltimore, you're playing for a win and in for the one seed

in Week eighteen. And if you lost to Buffalo, you are at worst the three seed and one more Baltimore loss or case loss away from getting the two seed. And Baltimore plays San Francisco on Christmas Day. Losing to Dallas a first round by goes to six percent, the division goes to forty nine percent, and missing the playoffs goes to three percent. It's a huge, huge, huge game. My keys to victory Number one quickly identify Dallas as

blitz game. This quarterback is elite at that The best way this defense can mesh you up is by creating blown assignments and the true drop back situations. If we can avoid that, I think we can move the ball and score lots of points. Number two, convert low red zone opportunities. Anytime you face a great offense, you have to score in the red zone and hold them out in the red zone. Get seven, not three. We've struggled down there lately. Finished those drives in the end zone.

And number three, stay honest against the double moves and pump fakes. You have to limit their deep passing game. They get as many explosives of anybody, and they want to create those shots off of play action, pump and double moves off the edge. Stay honest on those. My areas of concern. Can we execute against a bad run defense if we have our key missing parts on the interior? Big week to get Rob Hunt back. I hope that happens. We'll see. Can we prevent the deep game if Javon

Hollins out. If it's Brandon Jones and not Javon, probably gonna get more of those deep shots from Ceedee Lamb and Brandon Cooks in the company. Can our pass rush get home against a great offensive line. They've beaten up some lines and bad quarterbacks. If they do it this game, heads, it was hard to turn A little bit. Area is to exploit their tiny second level of defense and their dime heavy defense. Run the football down their throats, execute

down in the red zone. Beat them up that way, and also a kind of an antiquated cover one, Cover three scheme that does a great job of moving Mica Parsons around, But if you can't get home, their coverage schemes are gonna get torn apart by a defense that refuses to span the middle of the football field against a team that's great and exploit in that area of the field. My prediction, I think it's entirely possible that

the offense goes off in this game. There are some extenuating circumstances that could prevent that, but I think everything is here for the Fins to capitalize and prove to you this is not your father's Dolphins, and you guys know how I feel. I think we're getting the best version of this team over the next three weeks, starting at the quarterback position, and I think that means points.

But I will give Micah Parsons two drives ruined on his own and maybe one or two drives that we show ourselves in the foot so ten drives, six drives, thirty four points, and then with Javon Holland twenty four points allowed without thirty one either way to Dolphins dub thirty four to twenty four or thirty four to thirty one depending on Javon Holland. That's it. That's all. Go vote for the Pro Bowl tomorrow. Michael Gelkin the Dallas

Morning News. You don't want to miss that podcast. He was fantastic talking to me about this game and why I said. I mentioned to him the Cowboys having not lost games and back to back games in two years, and he said, well that changes this week. A little teaser for you guys there to come back on Thursday. Check out that podcast. On Friday, Greg Olsen's on the call. He's going to join me and talk about this game

as well. Exciting week, guys. Enjoy this Dolphins and big football games late in December, and a big win would be a great Christmas gift you all. Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, wherever you get your podcast from. Go ahead and leave us a rating, leave us a review. You can follow me on social at Wingfield NFL and the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank podcast Dan Marino in the fish Tank this week. Don't miss that one with Seth and Juice.

Also the YouTube channel for Media Availabilities, Dolphins Today and so much more. And last, but not least Miami Dolphins dot Com until next time finds up Caroline Cameron Daddy, He's coming home. M