Drive Time: Dolphins Demolish Commanders 45-15

two thousand and one. We'll break down this victory. We'll do the play by play, we'll do the five big picture takeaways the play before the play and thoughts from Tua and Mike McDaniel from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.

find your Dolphins content from me, been talking about how this team has a special aura to it and the ability if they can execute and get things accomplished, to accomplish lofty heights and the ultimate goal. Right, I want to go ahead and play this sound here from Tuatungua Bi Looa, who was asked after the game about the way the guys worked this week and a follow up question to the question that I post to Mike McDaniel.

I think it was on Friday when I asked him, what did you learn about last year that was instructive for this year? Being at this point the first weekend in December, eleven games into the season, you're eight and three in both marks. What was last year instructive towards

this year? And how can you guys get better from that the follow up question was, well, you had mentioned or McDaniel had mentioned that Wednesday and Thursday's practice had an intentionality to them and a locked in focus, and even after the game today, McDaniel said that it doesn't matter who the opponent is, the guys approach every day the same way, and that can often be like lip service where it's not necessarily I guess taking a face value when it's said across the league, but it's pretty

difficult to ignore the results you get in accordance with what coach said there. So I want to go ahead and play this audio from TUA who talked about how locked in this team is right now.

as well. So I think that's what Mike is seeing is everyone knows that we can do something special this year, and like no one on our team is trying to waste that opportunity.

you might think. I know that might sound again like we've raised the standard to a certain point that we don't appreciate what good stats look like. But I just thought that the that sheet would be a little bit more lopsided. But the explosive plays can change that a little bit. I digress from a game perspective. Miami had twenty first downs to Washington's eleven. Miami was seven for

thirteen on third downs, Washington was six for fourteen. But that again was a lot like last week, where the Jets got a lot of their third down conversions late in the game when you're not really pressing the issue defensively up by multiple scores, Dolphins were two for two on fourth down, one for one on fourth down was the commanders. Miami had four h six to Washington's two hundred and forty five yards. That includes two eighty three through the air versus just one oh seven good stuff

from the Miami defense. There one twenty three rushing for Miami, one thirty eight for Washington. Miami only had five more plays than Washington, which, again the explosive nature of the Dolphins offense can do that sometimes. We'll talk about this a lot in the podcast tonight. No giveaways from Miami. One takeaway. No sacks from Miami with another cobbled together

offensive line combination that changed in game once again. So no sacks again, A credit to those guys, a credit to Butch Berry, A credit to a timenge by Lowa because sacks are definitely a QB stat and he keeps those things low weekend week out. Two penalties for fifteen yards. We sacked Washington three times, by the way, Sam Howe got dumb three.

for team records, the potential league records they're looking to set this year, and marks that are you know, all time in that regard. So let's go ahead and hear from coach on how special one and ten are and how much fun they've made our lives as Dolphins fans.

certain windows because he trusts what Tyreek's gonna do. Tyreek's able to be super aggressive because he trusts to his field vision and knows that if he's putting a ball up in the air a little bit over the middle, to just track it and catch it, because two is not going to lead him in hard harm's way. So, uh, the the aggressiveness they are or they they play with is is very unique and just h you know, their their ability to make plays together that other people can't.

I think is is is why there there is the results of both of their numbers. It's they're independently awesome, but together they're even better.

Kind Of getting away from the two in Tyreek stats here, let's go ahead and get back to that. He's the only player Tyreek since at least two thousand to have two games in the same year with multiple receptions of sixty yards in that same game. He had two today and two against the Giants back in Week five. Crazy crazy stats there. Let's see what else we got here. Tyreek is the first player in NFL history with five plus games of one hundred and fifty yards receiving plus

a touchdown in the same season. He is now the first Miami Dolphin to have twelve plus receiving touchdowns in a season since Mark Clayton did in nineteen ninety one. Remember Chris Chambers had eleven back in two thousand and five. Let's see what else does Tyreek have. He's topped one hundred and fifty yards receiving for the sixteenth time in his career. That ties Julio Jones for the fourth most. Jerry Rice had thirty, and then Lance Alworth and Treo

Owens both had seventeen apiece. My goodness, Rice was a different cat, wasn't he? Most one hundred yard receiving games in a season for a Miami Dolphin. Tyreek Hills eight are the now tied for Mark Duper for the most. Last year, he had seven. That was third in the nation in the Miami Dolphins history. He also has let's see, three one hundred yard games in a row. He's the first Dolphin to do this since Chris Chambers back in five. It's the second longest one hundred yard game streak by

receiver in team history. Pretty good stuff there. I mean, it's it's it's uniform across the board for these guys. For the production they've had with Cheetah and Tua and the offense, just a lot of fun to watch. Tua also extended his twenty one game passing streak with a touchdown two twenty one games. He now trails only Dan Marino with thirty as far as Dolphins all time record. So good stuff there. Let's go ahead and get to the story of the game. And it started early on defense,

as it seems to always do for the Dolphins. They get a quick stop of the commander's offense. And I was really impressed with how David Long flew around the football field in this game. And it began on the first play of the game where he fit his gap and stuck the running back. And I always like to see what happens at collision with the running back and the full back because or the running in the linebacker, I should say does he fall forward or does he

get put back? And when David Long arrives, it typically goes back into the direction. You also had a Sam Howe like erran pass on this drive because Jalen Ramsey drove out of his back pedal on an out route and I think maybe had that thing in his crosshairs for a potential pick the other way, and how Like kind of let go of the ball mid throwing motion and the ball just kind of skipped out and went off to the to the ground, and then we got

good pressure. But Sam Howell does what he's done all year and scrambled, made a big play and threw the ball to the sideline. McDaniel challenges the play. It looked like at first glance that Johan Dotson was out of bounds, but he was not. The plays upheld. The Commanders stay on the field, but then we get Cater Kohu with a run blitz to shut that thing down. Brandon Jones drives on a flat that creates a third and eight, and then Miami operates from this look that we haven't

seen much from this team this year. In the past a whole heck of a lot, but a simulated pressure look with zero cover zero and like an all out blitz. But we did have Van Ginkle peel out and Sam Howe looked confused by that, which, of course a young quarterback against this defense. Gosh, this defense has been impressive and they looked like it today, but they can certainly put the screws to a young quarterback and kind of

confuse them. And of course on that blitz, who else besides Brandon Jones who got a bunch of run today playing in for the injured Javon Holland. Great to see him getting pressure on the quarterback. And just this, I thought this drive set the tone for the game for the Dolphins defensively, that we're gonna have different looks. We're gonna hit hard, we're gonna force you out of the pocket,

we're gonna force you some tough throws. And they got one first down, but that was it and Mimi gets the football back and what do they do besides a check down from Tua to Waddle that I just thought was instructive of two was game today? The way he I watched the Patriots game at three o'clock in the morning the other night because my son was awaken. That's what happens when you are a parent of a one year old is you watch Dolphins games at three o'clock

in the morning. And I was watching the Week two Patriots game, and I just thought the way that Tua got from like interior of the field boom boom down the field and then quickly to his checkdown to the swing route to the perimeter route to his running back was like really clean operationally, and I thought he got right back to that in this game.

field because you have to pill your coverage off. Maybe go Patriots three safeties look, but the commander said, bet we'll try that again, and they got beat twice for two long touchdowns. This's whe I seventy eight yard touchdown where again Tyreek is the two to the field, the second furthest out receiver, and he just gets inside or

the corners outside leverage. There's no safety help. He runs with a nasty little move, a little hesitation step at that corner, and Tua puts the ball right on the money. And they talked about this after the game. T and McDaniel did about the ball placement and about checking to this play and having conversions that they can go to, you know, in play before the snap goes off and after the fifteen second you know clock ticks off that McDaniel can no longer communicate with two in his helmet.

with your with your starting quarterback. We have to learn from things and have lessons, not scars. And and you know, the connection between Tua and tyreek Uh in terms of two players playing together, is about as good as I've ever been around. Hence, hence they're the the some of the players they're able to make each and every week.

especially going as fast as he's going. It's tough. It's remarkable.

We're pretty deep into the podcast. We're two drives into the game. Let's go ahead and take our first break right there, come back on the other side, do the rest of the game story, and then we'll go ahead and pick it up in segment three with the five big picture takeaways. All of that next Here on a victory Monday edition of the Drive Time podcast, your host

Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. So we are early first quarter here on the recap of the dolphins forty five to fifteen win over the Washington Commanders to improve to nine to three and currently at the time of the recording, sitting atop the AFC. If the Chiefs win this game tonight, it'll be second in the AFC, ahead of Jacksonville and Cincinnati on Monday night, which will dictate whether Miami is second or third in the AFC

going into week number fourteen. Okay, so the Commands get the football back after the long touchdown pass from Tua to Tyreek Hill, which, by the way, haven't covered this yet. Tua eighteen for twenty four on the day with two hundred and eighty passing yards. That's seventy five percent, eleven point seven yards per throw, two touchdowns, a one to forty one passer rating, and Tyreek five for one fifty

seven for two touchdowns on this day. And the defense came right back out swinging after that, Zach Sealer gets immediate pressure inside to force Sam hal off a spot. How good was Zach Sealer in this game? Man? He was just vicious with his rushes, quickly penetrating inside the long arms that always seem to benefit him for leverage creation. Just a fantastic game from him. And then Caterer had a couple of good reps, one in coverage on the tight end, forcing Logan Thomas into a tough diving catch

that he could not make. And then you get Van Ginkel an out and out pass rush win that gets to Sam Howe, and I believe it was Chubb and Sealer that finished him off with the sack on that play. So Miami, you know, we'll talk about the depth of the team here pretty soon, but Miami just finding hits and pieces all over this defense, all over this team

in general to has to have success. Dolphins with the football back and they kick a field goal with a devon a chan pop pass with burst that we know about, right, and you can just see the difference in his burst and the way he finds those small creases but also runs through contact like he's a physical dude in the way that Raheem moster are with the four to three speed, you don't expect it. Maybe Raheem's a lot bigger of

a guy, but the physicality is there. Man. We saw that with how this team ground the Commanders into a pulp in that fourth quarter. You get a stick to waddle between a trio of defenders for sixteen yards on third and four, which I thought Miami's third down operation across the board, whether it was running game, passing game was superb in this game, and in fact, Miami's now eighteen for twenty nine on third down and the last

two games combined. I thought that was a great throw to kind of settle Wattle into a window of space compared to the three Commanders that were in that area. And Tua just had that in his bag all game long, right, But also the attention that a Chan got on the route there was something that caught my eye. You get a ten yard run from Raheem, then we started going

backwards and get ourselves behind the chains. But the play before the play today was the third and seventeen drag route that Jaln Waddle ran the shallow crosser where we got twelve yards to put Jason Sanders in position for a forty eight yard field goal, and Wattle got all kinds of good blocks, put a good move on the first defender and then dropped his shoulder and ran through a tackle to put himself, you know, short of the sticks, but in range inside fifty yards for a field goal,

which Sanders hit and then the defense comes back out and gets any immediate three and out. As Christian wilkins Man, he made a play in this drive where he defended the front side shoulder but then was able to get backside of the gap on the other side of the guy that was blocking him. Just impresses with plays like

that all the time. Again, Seler gets pressure on third down, you get great rush lane integrity from both Bradley Chubb and Andrew Van Ginkel, forces a throwaway boom Commanders three and out, Miami goes three and out on the other side, and Waddle when he dropped that pass, he had a block on a safety who had maybe the only angle on him and nobody else did. And I think he might have ran to the end zone on that play if he caught that ball, But either way, no harm,

no foul. They also had a negative run after that. So just an ugly drive and those are gonna happen to the course of a game. Then the commandsion of the football back and what do we do on the first play, But Andrew Van Ginkle picks sixing Sam Howe. He's got a fumble six in his career, the long win against the Rams four years ago. He has a punt blocked return for a touchdown that was Jalen Phillips' block against Chicago last year. And now he has a

pick six and this one off Sam Howe. This time he just works down the line on a now throw catch rock throw from Sam Howe. Get yourself in the passing lane, catch the football, and he's off to the races with the beautiful blonde hair flowing in the wind in Landover for six. Dolphins take a seventeen oh in lead. We'll hear more about that from coach McDaniel later on.

So the commander of the football back and they have their best driver of the game going down the field where Ogba had a great play for a sack where he played through the right tackle with power and overwhelmed him with the right hand stab and just kind of again played through with power for that sack. With him, we lost contain on the outside on a big Brian Robinson run, so it's a little bit giveth and take

it there on that particular situation. And then the player that Jerome Baker got injured on which, by the way, Bake tweeted tonight, don't worry about me, Dolphins fans, I'll be back sooner than you think. That's obviously a great sign. But he got Curtis Samuel on a wheel up the corner, and then Brandon Jones came over to make the play at the pylon and took out Baker at the knee, and he had to lead at the game after that.

But the Commanders get into the end zone three plays later for their only touchdown of the half, and they're one of two in the game, and then Mini gets the ball back, and what do they do but answer man, it's the last drive before the half, and the Dolphins had the football coming out, so they dominate the middle eight minutes of the game, which is obviously something that all great teams do, and my imedied it in this one.

You get, first of all, Julian Hill had a jet motion kickout block where he sent a man all the way over to Baltimore. And then we had just consistently, you know, third down conversions. Once again, third and seven, two sixty yards to Tyreek. Hill uncorks this dime a

beautiful in flight adjustment, So baseball references right. I used to play in field and outfield in my younger days, and head whips were a DRELLI ran every single day where you would track the baseball over one shoulder and then flip back the other way and locating the ball in air, taking your eyes off. It is not at all easy. In fact, McDaniel explains it here in just a second. But these deep shots. Man Tua slides away

from pressure. How good was his pocket presence all game long in this one, just kind of subtly moving away from where pressure might be get to a clean platform platform. Uncork that thing. Celebrate with six in the roller coaster right after the fact. Let's go ahead and hear from McDaniel on that second touchdown and the rare depth perception something you will never hear, you haven't heard before, probably from a coach, the depth perception of Tua to recognize

where safeties are on the field. I love this answer here from coach.

in this game in place of Jerome Baker. He was fantastic on the screenplay on third and a mile where they had dumped Sam Howe the previous play, and then Duke Riley comes in and forces an incompletion on a screen that's supposed to be like a give me ten yard play, right, but Duke saw it all the way and knock that thing down for no game incomplete pass.

Miami gets it back and they go to the eight minute well really four minute offense here, but back to back drives with Raheem physical runs and they get themselves behind the sticks with a negative play that puts it a second twelve. But then you get a third and six throw from two of the Tyreek where again fantastic throw with Tyreek going up over his head to make

the catch. You had like kind of a high low concept with Tyreek and Jalen and Tua just saw it, felt it, put it right in the window, right on time. Just cooking in this game all game long. Really fun to watch him do that. Then you get a third and twelve play in the red zone where Tua again gets trouble off the spot, has to scramble and move and finds waddle for seventeen yards and another first down.

And then just a couple of plays later, Devon ah Chan or rather Raheem Moster goes in for another touchdown for him thirty one seventeen at the break. Miami comes back out of the break and goes on the field and scores yet another touchdown where you get two runs put you in a position for a third and two and then two. A finds Tyreek on the shortest completion of the day to him for like four yards on a mesh concept, which I thought was brilliant because the

Commanders were in that man coverage. You run a mesh and you bump off that middle linebacker wide up and throw in the middle of the field. Move the chains stay on the field, and then e Chan gets going and just continues to make plays. A really cool swing pa where he breaks a tackle and gets a bunch of extra yards, finds River Craykraft for a big first down.

Tua just there was a comment in the game that Mark Sceleras talked about with Tua changing up his footwork for throws to Tyreek and Jalen compared to his throws to Cedric or.

when you took the will of the Commanders. Although they did get a touchdown and two point conversion on their next drive, Dolphins punt the football right back and just missed Tyreek on a corner route.

got surge. Liam Eichenberg's playing the best football of his career and it just looks fantastic. Connor Williams. I thought Keon Smith had some good work. I thought Lester Cotton had some good blocks on this drive as well. Just this team is clicking right now.

the football. Offense had passing game, early, run game, late everything, clicking their third downs, quarterback, play, your top receivers, your role guys, your the offensive line, like everybody got in on the victory today and showed their medal, showed their depth, showed their toughness, and just came out and played fantastic

explosive plays. Splash players on defense, pass rush coverage, run d run game, pass game, red zone production, long drives, short drives, long field goal, good special teams work, only a couple penalties, complete game. We knew it was coming, We knew it was in there, right. We knew this team had that performance in their bag, and they showed it as it could be a sign of things to come. And if it is, buckle up, man, We're in for

a fun ride here. Takeaway number two is that the solutions to teams taking things away like the slot fade for instance, are presenting Miami with more opportunities offensively to

show you their versatility. So again in that Jets game, we talked about it on the podcast a lot last week, how the Dolphins got them with those looks because of their ability to do multiple things offensively and really create indecision for the defense and the commanders here with that hybrid's man zone coverage helped to the boundary for waddle slot plays outside leverage. So Tyreek just runs right by

him on the inside and Tua drops it in. And those are too easy, but they're not always guaranteed when you get them like that, and we just don't miss them. We have now ten plays of fifty plus yards on the season. I believe the Chargers were second with five coming into the game, and I haven't looked at their box, but they only had six points in their game, so I'm assuming Miami now has double these second place team

in terms of fifty plus yard plays. Then, of course, the sixty yard touchdown, the Tyreek just uncorks this thing with like super crazy anticipation, let that thing out there, puts it right into the brad basket hand off sixty yards down the field for an easy touchdown there, and this team just continues to find multiple ways to win. I think the a Chan's presence and insertion back in

the lineup creates another element the team. The defenses have to deal with from a not just a vertical stretch aspect, but the horizontal stretch. Because you just saw the urgency they felt when he had the ball on the perimeter in the same way that they filled it with Raheem Moster, but man achan a second guy like that, It is it is rare.

I'm just going to really make sure that they're covering either him or Jalen or any of our guys before I start moving on in my progression.

both ways up and down the year. Even the victory is early on the defense closing out, you know, the early games, being the last one on the field to make the plays that got us in the in the winner circle ultimately, But gosh, this defense is clicking right now, isn't it. And it doesn't really matter like you can plug a play almost it seems like with injuries and guys that have gone down, and it's a good sign of the team's depth and the way they work together.

But I thought Zach Steeler was maybe his best version of himself this season today. He was fantastic in both phases. I thought co Who's run blitzing and tight coverage and just overall being a menace. And the slot was on display. Christian Wilkins two gapping and penetrating and getting sack product or pass rush production as well as run defensive production. Jalen Ramsey just him and Xavi and Howard that played the X man in the end zone to break up

that pass. My goodness, what great ball skills that was. Ramsey just not really targeted like he usually isn't. If you do, you probably get picked off. Van Ginkel has a sack, has great rush land integrity, has a pick six. I thought Bradley Chubb played well off the edge. Raekwon Davis,

David Long was fantastic in this one. Like it man, It was so good that they continue to just hold offenses down to minimal points, and they do it with different guys and they make splash plays like the one that Andrew Van Ginkle made let's go ahead and hear from coach on Gink phenomenal.

on the shoulders of the coaches. And I thought when you have people, uh, when you have players that are prepared and locked in and know what the opponent's trying to do, you know, to be able to to be able to aggressively get in that screen lane is one thing that on top of that to for it not to be a PVU or a batted ball, but a catch in it. You know, it's a it's a huge

momentum swing. It's a huge play in the game. But my favorite part of that play is that it's not just showing up on Sunday that that was stuff that we saw in practice. And they talk situational football or you know, serious start, earned first down, all the different things that you can kind of get a beat on stuff and then shoot your guns when you when you have conviction that of preparation.

balance with those couple of plays early on. We'll watch tape more for him tomorrow and see what things went right there as well. Keon Smith comes into the game and has a really good space clearing seal off the edge for the a Chan run to finish things out. And you know, he just looks like a guy that, with the way he fires off the football, is a fit in the system. And you can look at up and down the ross at this it's a testament to Chris Greer, who has now five winning seasons out of

eight as the GM of the Miami Dolphins. And if you really think about, like in earnest when he was like, I don't want to say like fully in charge because he was always the GM. But to me in earnest like his era kind of began in twenty twenty in a lot of ways. You know, it's it's not fair to cut out either part of that. But since twenty twenty four of those winning seasons, and this roster just gets better every single year, and you have hits like

Cater Kohu an undrafted free agency. You have Tyreek Hill trade, which is probably the greatest trade in Dolphin's history, Like maybe don Shu look probably up there. Larimy Tunzel was also a trade executed by Chris Greer. Like the list is long, Ricky Williams is a good trade as well. But the way this team has been established and the roster's been constructed, you can plug and play offensive line when they get injured. You've been down multiple running backs

this year. You've lost Tyreek and Galen for stretches of games in game and had no wallow for some of those games. Like they just find ways to win. It's a testament to how good this roster is and how great of a job Chris Career has done, and how good the coaching staff has done on getting guys ready who are not your typical starters. My fifth takeaway, and this is my number one ask going into the game. You can ask sethan Oj play a clean game, and

they did. No turnovers, two would never put the ball in harms bay one time. There was no fumbles in the game. Two penalties for fifteen yards. It was a sloppy field in December, and we were as clean as buttoned up as we could be. We had one drop, some negative runs, but all things told, fantastic end this game. Let's go ahead and hear from two of the close things out here on overcoming the turnovers that he has had recently, and I love this answer.

team at Miami Dolphins. Check out my guys, Seth and Juice on the fish Tank podcast, the YouTube channel for Media Availabilities and Dolphins Today also have a breakdown coming up on Jalen Ramsey this week.