Drive Time: Dolphins Fail in Houston 20-12

the Draft Time Podcasts. So before we get into the stats, as we do every single week here on the show, just want to do what we tend to do after these types of games and tell you, well, good morning Dolphins fans, it is Groundhog's Day once again, because here you are in a big spot, in a big game, and you come up short, you come up looking like an unprepared team, and you lose in a big spot where you had every opportunity to put this game really in cruise control and take control of the game and

put it, you know, put it away. Like the way that the Dolphins played to defensively in this game, the way they held CJ. Stroud, the way they battled against short fields, they should have blown the Texans out of this game. Man, but they didn't because they couldn't execute in every single phase offensively. And I think it opens up a lot of questions about the long term build of this thing. And we're gonna do more of this

on the Wednesday show. I have plenty of thoughts on all of that, and now I don't think is the time for that. We'll go ahead and reflect on what was, and we'll get to what it should be down the road, and down the road, I mean, in two days. But with regards to this game, you came up short in a big spot once again, and it is the same

damn show, the same damn movie every single time. You come out unprepared, You have a horrible offensive series, you have penalties, you make mistakes, you have special teams gufts, and then your quarterback misses throws and he finally eventually settles into those two making better throws, and this one the turners got away from him late. But it's the same script every time. We couldn't protect to save our lives, we couldn't run the football. The running game is dead.

And we talked to Joe Rose in the pregame show and he's like, yeah, fellas, I don't think it's going to happen this year. It seems to be kind of a lost cause at this point. When you don't have a right tackle and you don't have a true why tight end, you're probably not gonna run the ball that well, especially with the guard play that you get from this team.

And so there are a lot of things to think about, and I, you know, I think we'll speculate about how to maximize the resources that we have who to move off of, perhaps some addition by subtraction in that realm,

perhaps a philosophical shift. And the one thing that I think is going to rub some people the wrong way is I think the quarterback is here to stay, and you can maybe kind of, you know, formulate the plan around that quarterback because he has shown you, maybe not in these games as much, but I will again point back to other quarterbacks that have had much better careers than Tua who had the same things said about them

at one point in their career. And I do believe eventually he'll get there because I keep coming back to this, this comment that coach made in his postgame press conference. We did a whole segment on it on the radio about how the way our offense is built. We have to be so connected otherwise. He didn't say otherwise, but he said, we have to be so connected because otherwise you get these mistakes and these off target throws that

turn into not just near misses, but into picks. And you have a star receiver who seems to run the wrong route every damn time in a big game and seems to drop multiple passes in these big games, and in this one, his last drop led to the game winning pick by a cornerback who, by the way to once in college punked for a luck like a seventy yard touchdown in the Alabama LSU game. That cornerback completely

punked Tyreek Hill in this game. So I think that there are your close in a lot of regards, but you have to make some serious changes and we'll see what happens coming up. Like I said, we'll talk about that more on a Wednesday podcast. But I am just frustrated. I am tired. I mentioned on the podcast last week in the preview show. I should be so excited for

this game. My favorite football team is playing a critical December game where if they win, we are going to be singing in their praises and talking about how the miracle runs going to happen. They're going to make the

postseason after starting two to six on the year. But as I'm going looking at Christmas lights with my family and watching movies with my wife and my family and having a great weekend, and then I wake up on Sunday and I'm like, oh, I get to watch golf YouTube for an hour, but then I have to go to the station and do the pregame show, and then I have to watch the game, and I know how this game is gonna go, and then it goes the exact same way I thought it would. It is exhausting.

If I didn't have this job in this career, I don't know how invested I would still be. Like it's getting to that point. I'm telling you diehard podcast listeners like basically telling you, like you shouldn't do what you're doing because it's wasting your time, which is a conflict of interest for my own well being. But damn it, dude,

Like when will it ever change? And I feel like that question kind of starts at the top, like you have to make change to see change, and I don't really necessarily believe in doing that or talking about that here on the show and going in on people's like jobs and titles and builds and structures and stuff like we do the team building stuff on the podcast here.

But damn it, dude, the sum of your parts is less than what you have in terms of your talent on the roster and the makeup of the people you have, and it's got to change. You got to stop being so soft, You got to stop being so mentally a week, and you have to find guys that can elevate their games in these moments. And you know, the quarterback didn't have it today. Tua was awful, terrible, terrible game from Tua. I don't think that's who he's been in all these games.

I think there's guys that have shown that in all these games, and I think that that's where the changes can start. And hopefully you can get the quarterback playing better in these games as he has in other situations like this, compared to other guys that maybe just haven't done that. And we're talking about everybody in the entire you know, in the entire program. So that's my opening discussion.

Just a difficult, difficult Miami Dolphins loss as they drop twenty to twelve to the Houston Texans to fall to six and eight, and on the really making it tough to find the path of the postseason here is they actually looking around the league right now doing the show. The help the Dolphins need to get is happening right now with the Colts and Broncos and the Bucks and Chargers. But I'm not even gonna get into that here on the show because it's I think the Dolphins of the story.

Here on the Draft Time podcast, we kick it off with the stats from the game, as we always do again, Dolphins fall twenty to twelve. And here's the hardest part to kind of, you know, swallow this one, is that you outplayed the Texans in so many ways besides one statistic. And we heard Mike McDaniel his postgame press conference say that you have like a three percent chance to win games in this league when you turn the ball over four times. And that's exactly what happened because Miami eighteen

first downs to twelve. They won that twelve first downs for the Houston Texans today, who had one hundred and eighty one yards of total offense. You shouldn't win games in the NFL when you get a buck eighty one. You shouldn't win games when you get a possion that begins to the four yard line and you only get three points out of it. That happened to us back in the Seattle game. Right, didn't win that game. That's a defensive performance that should have lifted you to victory.

But unfortunately Miami's offense just couldn't get it going and turned the ball over far too often. They have two hundred and twenty four yards of their own, one seventy two through the air, fifty two on the ground. For Houston it was one oh four in the air and seventy seven on the ground. The teams were similar on third and fourth down. Miami four for thirteen and converted two fourth down opportunities. The Texans were five for thirteen

and converted their only fourth down opportunity as well. But again, four turnovers to one. That's the difference in the ball game, and Miami got one of those lucky takeaways. Right I talked about it on the podcast, like, can we just get one of those breaks to go our way for once? And they do at the end of the half. They get a ball on the ground and off of an errant snap or a miscontrolled snap and Jordan Brooks goes in there and scoops that thing up and puts us

in plus territory. So you got that, but you gave back four in the other way. We had three sacks, two was sacked three times, and CJ. Strow was sacked four times. Eight penalties from Miami for sixty four yards seven for seventy for the Houston Texans, and the Dolphins had the ball for thirty three and a half minutes in this game. Let's go ahead and run down the game script before the five takeaways and get the heck out of here. So the Dolphins opened the game with

a punt, a six play eleven yard drive. They you know, I thought it was indicative early on of how the

game would play out. And this is kind of what you you know, you expect in a game where you are down your you know, Pro Bowl left tackle, your right tackle was injured back in the middle of the season, who has been very very good player for you, excuse me, and then you lose Kendall Lamb, who doesn't go in this game despite that questionable designation and some optimism about his availability earlier in the week, or I should say

last week on Friday. He doesn't play in the game, and you get Jackson Carmen in the game, a practice squad elevation from a couple weeks back, or rather he joined the Dolphins practice squad and got signed to the active roster after a couple of elevations there and then Patrick Paul left tackle. And I thought the Dolphins kind of inability to get yards on first down showed up

early and often in this game. Luckily, they convert that first third and seven with the throw of Malik Washington to the sticks, who did a great job to absorb that hit and get the ball past the sticks. But then a misfire on first down, a two yard run Stei up a third and eight to it gets pressure flees to his left. They brought the simulated pressure that flushes him immediately and it turns into a dead play.

Throw the ball away, live to fight another day. We could have survived this game if that was the course of action throughout the game, but it didn't play out that way. The Texans got the ball back and they kick a forty four yard field goal eight play fifty five yard drive that takes four minutes off the I just put in my notes here Elijah Campbell started the game, so that was a development that I was curious to

track throughout. He got some more snaps at that position, but we did see plenty of Javon Holland and Jordan Poyer in this game as well. We'll do snap counts

on the Monday Film recap episode. Early in the game, I thought maybe, like it's gonna be one of these games again, because they had that jet sweep to Tank Dell where he is basically dead to rights, and then he makes a move on Javon Holland and Anthony Walker and turns what would have been a loss on second and five to a first down, And I wrote, that was a situation we have to get this offense into because they have struggled all year long on these third

and longs, and you know, if you can't make tackles, you're not going to get third long. So that's what happened early on, But luckily the tide would change for the defense. We do get another takeaway opportunity as Cater Kohu punches the ball out and what a game he had on the ensuing run on the first down play, But they get a nine yard gain on a second

and ten. After that play where Kendall Fuller makes a tackle short of the sticks, they try to throw wheel on Jordan Brooks to Joe Mixon third and one, and Jordan Brooks is all over it. They go incomplete and they kick the field goal, and I'm like, wow, that's a surprise for a team that has this kind of offensive firepower. But as you would come to find out the way their defense played, it was the right decision.

So it's seven to nothing, or rather three nothing. About halfway through the first quarter, Miami gets it back three and out. Three plays eight yards a minute and twelve off the clock, a hold on the special teams, and once again in a big game like this, you have a couple of special teams mistakes that cost you. Encroachment sets up a second or a first and five, you get a two yard run for second and three, you go incomplete, and then it's third and three and Tua

breaks the pocket again rolling left. We've seen him make plays off schedule, off script this year, but he has Tyreek Hill and just misses the throw. And OJ said, Tyreek Lake got a foot on the ball like he kicked it, and he said, if you can do that, you can dive for it. I don't disagree with that, but that ball has to be better thrown more on the target. Four your receivers to make a player on the football. Texans get it back and they go three

and out. Three plays negative six yards, take less than two minutes off the clock. And who was beside Zach Seeler, who gets an immediate win, forces a throwaway to start the drive where he splits the right guard and center and forces Stroud backwards. They get a quick game completion and set up a third and three, and then Seiler wins again and this time finishes off the drive as

a looper off of a game with Jordan Brooks. And you notice that Brooks on this play picks off the new left guard Titus Howard, who couldn't get back inside fast enough. So some of that offensive line shuffling of the Texans I thought caused some communication issues early, and

we took advantage of the air. Two of our best players on defenses, Sealer and Brooks getting there free big sack on Stroud to get the ball back to the offense and the offense takes it down the field twelve plays forty five yards and almost takes eight minutes off the clock and kicks a fifty five yard field goal,

and we get another short game on first down. But then we get a quick game to John Hu for nine yards and then Tua finds him against a free runner in the a gap, blitzing him and he did a good job of replacing the blitzer of the football to pick up the first down on that particular play,

and then more quick game and run game. The screen game is really cranking, and you kind of knew they were gonna have to throw a lot of those quick screens and get the ball out on the edge and help mitigate the mismatch that was you know, backup tackles against one of the game's best pass rush duos off the edge, and we put ourselves down, you know, a big a swing, one of those escort swings where Tula

goes through his progressions. Like because of the screen game and some of the run game you had working early on, there were some dropbacks where Tua had time to throw. And as we'll hear later on from coach McDaniel or discussed from his comments that the Dolphins, you know, and you could see it in the telecast, which we can't

see without having all twenty two for ourselves. But Tua was frequently like just kind of chilling going through progressions trying to find who was there and couldn't pull the trigger. And we heard McDaniel say later on at halftime that they need the eligibles to be where they need to be, and they weren't where they needed to be or weren't

available for passes for Tua. So it was either pressure or you know, good coverage and just out and out defensive wins from the Texans throughout the course of the day. We get ourselves into a third and seven situation and two A scrambles for what was maybe going to be a first down after review, but it's all for not because they call Rob Jones for a hold on third

and seven. Team we lose one yard on a screen pass, and then Sanders connects on the fifty five yard field goal to make it a three to three game early on right in this thing, right, and then you get a three and out stop three play, negative five yard drive where Jordan Brooks flows to this wide run, shoots a gap, knocks the offensive lineman back, and makes a

tackle two yards behind the line of scrimmage. He also banged up Joe Mixon on the play, and then Cater drives on this bubble screen and makes a great play where you could tell his preparation for the game was on point because he flew off of that snap before the ball was even snapped really and makes that play. Third and fifteen, they try a tight window throw to Nico Collins and Gillen ramses right there, three and out stop.

Dolphins get the ball back with a chance to go take a lead right but then you go three plays, three yards forty two seconds and you lose a fumble as to a missfires on a deep out route to Tyreek Hill on the first down play. He had it, he was wide open. The ball just got away from him. But there was a roughing the passer call on that one. And then Raheem takes a toss five yards, we miss waddle on a glance that gets broken up and that

was like a quick pressure on two as well. Then it's third and fourth minus forty four and Liam got walked back into the quarterback and Jackson Carmen got beat by a speed rush from Danil Hunter, which was that's a tough matchup there off that edge and Tua doesn't feel that backside pressure, goes to throw the ball and as he goes a throw, it gets hit, ball comes out. Texans takeover very ugly series there. Texans paid off on the other side with a seven yard touchdown pass from

Stroud to Nico Collins. Four plays twenty eight yards. They start their drive with one of those play action boots and CJ has a free role, and that was really like the only offensive play that worked for them in the course of the game was when they would play action him and not have somebody kind of butts that edge or getting his face off the edge and he could then run and create from there or just wait for windows to open up. They get tanked el for

fifteen yards. They get themselves into a third and four situation down at the seven yard line. Everything that Texans did offensively they had to really work for, even those touchdowns down in the low red zone. They get a three man rush that does not impact CJ. Stroud on that play. He steps up and out of it. We lose Nico Collins on the back end. As you can kind of see Jordan Poyer and Anthony Walker trying to

figure out who's got who. They wind up like not covering anybody and kind of get crossed up there and Collins winds up wide open for a touchdown for six in the back of the end zone. Houston leads ten to three. At this point, Miami gets it back a chance to go put a dent back in the scoreboard, right, and they do with a ten play, fifty two yard drive that takes almost five minutes off the clock and

produces a thirty six yard field goal. And I put a note here on my notes that said that I was a big fan of the Malik Washington swing day through because he comes across the formation on jet sweep and he after the snap he bubbles back, which usually bubbling is a bad thing, especially if you have the football.

But here the timing of the play made it really work because it kind of gave two of the chance to go through his progressions, read out the downfield routes, and you know, get displacement from the coverage, and then he puts a perfect ball on the upfield shoulder and it goes for a twenty yard gain. But then the very next play, a Chen has a first down run into plus territory and Waddle gets rolled up on he

would exit the game and not return. So on offense that is already down their top, you know, three tackles is already they lose Waddle in this game. It's it's tough sled and when you're that banged up on the offensive side, and he wouldn't return to the game. So and then we get Grant Debos gets injured as well, and the reports are that he is staying in Houston tonight and he is stable and stable conditioned. So that's

good to hear. After a very scary situation there with Grant dud both taking a shot to the top of the crown of the helmet and he was down on the field for quite a while there. The Dolphins, after that fifteen yard penalty, get a five yard throw to John hus Smith where a defense hits a low block

and once again moves us into scoring range. And then we get a little a couple of good running plays where one a chan I thought had a touchdown when John who kind of turned down the block and I think that he thought somebody else was gonna pick up down the field and it allowed the defender to come down and get a hand on like eight chance belt or his jersey, and it pulled him down when he had a big lane to run through off the left side.

And then the very next play they run this really cool motion toss where eight Chan motions into the backfield and then like he returns back the opposite direction, they toss it back that and you can see the entire Texas defense flood to the motion side and he has a big lane. I thought he might score on the play.

He winds up getting tackled with the four yard line, but it's holding on Tyreek Hill to push it back to second and ten the twenty one yard line, and we'd have to check down the third down play and kick a field goal. So that's a penalty that you can probably say not probably, but you feel like you could have scored four more points on that drive if not for the holding call. So that's points off the board,

potentially still a ten six game. And Houston has their bad luck drive happen right four plays, nineteen yards fumble lost after they a snap goes off of CJ. Stroud's hands, and then here comes Jordan Brooks and just scoops that thing off the ground and takes it back the other way to put Miami at the thirty eight yard line in great territory. But after a two play drive one negative one yard, they throw a pick two that throws

the ball over the middle of the field. And I don't have the audio currently, but here was what Tua had to say about the play after the game. I saw the defender. It was more so a trusting that Tyreek was going to cross his face. And if you look, a lot of the throws that we throw in break safeties are there. We throw it to the safety, trusting that our guys going to cross face. But that's not just on Tyreek. That is on me as well, which is kind of like, yeah, dude, we get what you're saying.

It's coded. And I mean, Tyreek's always in the wrong place right going back to training camp, he's talking about how he's in the wrong place in certain routes that turn into turnovers, and he's making big drops and critical games. And look, Tua's got his own cross to bear here in terms of how he played in this game. But your big play receiver, your thirty million dollar receiver, continues

to make these mistakes. It's getting it's getting pretty old. Man, and then you get this crazy effort from devon a Chan to cut down that play at the five yard line before Caden Bullet could take it across the end zone,

and the Dolphins defense stands up again. Cater makes a fantastic play on the second down pass where you could see him playing outside leverage and cheating the out route and driving on it just like the previous screenplay we talked about, where he gets out to the perimeter before the ball can get there, breaks it up and saves the Dolphins four points. Texans field goal thirteen to six at halftime. Let's go ahead and take our first break right there, come back on the side, talk about the

second half and the five takeaways. That's next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by AutoNation. So it is still very much a game at thirteen to six at halftime. But the Texans get the opening half kickoff and drive nine yards seventy plays four minutes and ends with another Stroud to Collins touchdown pass, this one for four yards and we stopped him for third and

short and Chop Robinson has CJ. Stroud wrapped up in the backfield, but he throws this ball while in the grasp and somehow can get the pass off to Collins for a first down and moves the change. After what was going to be potentially another third down, Chop Robinson sack to get the Dolphins off the field, and then we get a third down stop on a John Mechi dropped that would have been a touchdown had he caught it.

Chop gotten had kind of gotten pushed behind the quarterback and Stroud stepped up and threw a dime but Mechi dropped it, and Okay, the third down play that Stroud made with Chopp was no longer relevant because we got to stop here anyway. But they run a fake punt on the next play and they get a thirty five yard gain and it sets up a touchdown on another play action where Stroud can get wide and create and

Fins calling for the second time. Their run game hadn't found much, Their offense hadn't had just kind of been beating us in the margins right. Two takeaways, special teams explosives. There was that penalty on the kick return on the second drive that cost Miami like twenty yards or so.

We just keep making these errors offensively and on special teams and the quarterback is not playing well just to was worst games sensibly that Buffalo game back in week two, and so that's where the game kind of got away from you twenty to six here, But Miami fought back and got themselves back into the game, but real quick before he pressed forward. I want to run the audio here or talk about the audio from coach McDaniel who

talked about the punt. He said that we were anticipating that situation, so we had the appropriate call, and I'll have to take a look at the execution of it because I was surprised if it was the punt return scheme that we want in that situation to defend against on that specific play, So end quote there. It's something they were ready for that play, but whatever, for whatever reason, could not execute to get that stop, which would have

been a huge play in the game. At thirteen six you get a you know, a fourth down stop right around midfield or so could have been a huge play. But luckily the offense fought back and had their best drive of the game on the next series eleven plays seventy three yards, six and a half minutes, and Maleak takes one of those now screens for a big play, damn near broke it for a touchdown, gets clipped up

with like the forty two yard line. You get the the I mentioned it earlier when I was wrong, the unessary roughness on Grant Dubos on the injury takes the ball to the plus forty three yard line. Just keep granting your thoughts because how scary was that? And I'll be sure to be retweeting all the team's updates on how Grant Dabos is doing here as we get more and more information. So then you get a third and sixteen and the way the game's going with the game plan,

and you know the quick game. After a Jackson Carmen holding on third and six wiped out a first down to turn it back into second or rather third and sixteen, Tua hits his best throw the day, Tyreek on a dig for twenty one yards, a great throw in a catch, and then just a couple of plays later on fourth and two, he comes back and makes even a better throw to jonnick Smith in the back of the end zone on a broken play that goes for six. But then we missed the pat as Jason Sanders hooks it,

and it's now twenty to twelve. The Dolphins trail by still one possession, and you get a three and out from the Houston Texans offense. Three play, one yard two twenty on third and two, chop does get home, this time with a beautiful redirect as he did get behind the quarterback, but got off the block, climb back upfield and C. J. Stroud, as he likes to do, escapes to his right. Coverage is very good down the field.

Brooks was plastered from the check down back. You saw Walker and Ramsey had really good coverage as well and rotated in that middle part of the field. And Chopp just keeps working and makes the big play for the sack.

Get the football right back and the Dolphins take the ball down the field and it looks like they might go in for another score to make this either a tie game or a two point game if they can't get a two point conversion, but it was intercepted at the five yard line by Derek Stinglely a thirteen play fifty three yard drive that took almost seven minutes off

the clock. I loved how they had patience to open the drive with the running game a completion of John hus Smith creates a critical third and one and then Raheem Mostored a good, strong physical run to move the sticks. They get to line quickly and get another play in there against a mismatched personnel look where the detextans are heavy and Miami has more. They go empty and they hit Smithe for eight yards and to the third quarter.

They get stuffed on the opening play of the fourth quarter from Raheem Moster, but then TWOA delivers a shot the Tyreek hill to move the sticks on third down and puts us at the forty yard line. Since the pick TWOA was ten for eleven with a touchdown throw, so he had come on after the pick, which we know that two alecs to do that after he turns

it over. Then another third down, third and four, we try the speed out to Maleak Washington is not there, sets up a fourth and four play, and then Tua throws a great dime to John U. Smith across his body getting off of the spot John who breaks some tackles and moves the sticks for us. Then a first down play for nothing, which kind of felt like the theme throughout the course of the day. A quick out to Malik it's up a third and five at the fifteen yard line and you get a interception throwing the

ball to Tyreek hill On and Trent Green. Throughout the game was talking about how Miami had kind of been setting up this double move out and up look because Derek Stingley had been jumping those out routes, and we talked about in the podcast last week how frequently the Dolphins were able to hit those outs against the Jets and their off coverage. But this time Stingley gambles and it pays off because he undercuts the route and I ran the route for Tyreek jumps it bad football left

too far inside. He makes a play picked off and the Texans just get the big crushing takeaway. But Miami's defense fights back and gets a stop a punt from the Houston Texas on a nine play twenty six yard drive on the ensuing possession where Seeler draws a hole in a second and five play where he pretty clearly won the move and got by the tackle and was able to draw that hold, and so you know that would have been a first down around midfield with seven and forty to go in the game, and a field

goal could have been curtains at that point. They do get thirteen yards on the second and fifteen play on the third and two. We butted him though, and Anthony Weaver has one of his best calls of the day. He replaces the rusher with the football to move the chains and it's under six minutes and looking bleak, but then Miami bounces back as both Javon Holland and Kalaias Campbell make plays to create another third and down third and eight felt like that was the season at that point.

Four and a half minutes to go third and seven, and this pressure look works even better than the last one did. To force a quick throw. He sprints out to his right and tries to throw back over the middle. It's high, in complete and we get it back but we go three and out, and this was like it kind of felt like this was the game at this point, because to punt the ball from this position with only

one time out left felt like deflating. But Miami on a critical drive from the seventeen yard line four to twenty to play in the game, two timeouts, down by eight, what do you got? I write down here? And the drive starts this way, which kind of felt fitting for the entire game. False start, sack, timeout, hold, and a drop on the holding call like I don't have any breakdowns for you because it's just like, yeah, that's how the game went. Texans get it back and the defense

stops him again. Two more runs don't move the chains, but they did milk all the Dolphins timeouts. They get a third down stop where Chop comes in for another sack where he just completely destroys the right tackle. It's a three play, negative five yard drive, took fifty four seconds off the clock. Miami gets it back, but the

first play is picked off. And you heard, you know, we've I'm sure you've heard this discussion on social media to talked about the first interception there with not crossing face and this one, the ball hits Tyreek Hill's hands, but as Stingley comes down now with it, he pulls it away from Tyreek, gets the interception. Game over, They kneel out the clock and that is that. So really tough way to go. Steingley played a hell of a game. Dolphins did not bring their a game and they fall

twenty to twelve to the Houston Texans. Let's go ahead and take our last break right there, come back on the other side. Do the five takeaways. That's next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by AutoNation Five takeaways from the dolphins twenty to twelve loss at the Houston Text and dropping them a six and eight on the season, And mathematically I believe they'll still be alive in the playoff hunt, but it is going

to be bleak over the final three games. Is going to have to win all those games and get a lot of help. As I believe the Chargers are going to lose the Bucks. That's probably the team you're gonna have to replace because the Broncos are going to beat the Colts right now. So that's what's ahead. What's happened

on this Sunday number one too. I had a bad game at the worst time, right and like, the turnovers are the turnovers, and I think that every play requires context to determine, you know, the receipts, route, the offensive line, the call, like whatever you want to talk about in terms of fault or blame or whatever. You if you

want to do that, that's all good and well. But there was just some throws early that I thought were indicative of him maybe not feeling as comfortable, not getting his feet set, like the inaccuracy, like this is the most accurate quarterback in the league. Right, So he had a couple of throws early that were just off. That miss to Tyreek Hill on the broken scramble play on the second drive that Tyreek ended up kicking. He missed the deep out Tyreek on the very next drive where

he was roughed. He had the bad ball security and the third down fumble where he separates the hands and the pass rushes right there. You got to find a way to put that ball away. The pick. After we get some fresh life down there, we finally get some luck, the luck that I begged for in the podcast. We got it. But he throws a room service interception there to the Houston defense that gets ran almost all the

way back. We just I wrote, we had to find an adjustment to that single high safety drive where they would play they would like show a too high or a single high presentation. He would come down and camp in the middle and they would like invert two cover guys back can just confuse to it. He looked like he didn't, you know, see the field very well in this game like he usually does. Now, McDaniel at halftime did say, you know, we need eligibles to be where

they're supposed to be. That was a quote from him, which you know tracks because we've had some dropbacks where two it has time, but he has to scan scan, scan and can't find anything. So it's either the immediate pressure or nobody. Nobody opened for the most part on those on those stalled out drives. Then he bounces back and got it clicking, has us in the red zone, down by a score in the fourth but another interception

where Stingley jumps the route. Then we have two chances in the fourth quarter and they both were completely disaster drives, a three and out that went backwards and a pick on the first play. I you know, I thought the ball to Tyreek was actually pretty well thrown, but Stingley made a better play on it than our guy did and turns into a pick. So three picks and a fumble lost in a game where you only needed twenty one points to win. That's a tough sell right there.

So that's takeaway number one. Takeaway number two that I felt that personnel dictated a game plan that made things tough and you know this is an offense that prioritizes the tackle position. Right We've seen Ron Armstead get a major contract and produce at Pro Bowl level for three years. Here when you've had him healthy and he's played, you know, the majority of your games. He missed this one obviously after an injury last week, but Patrick Paul played fine.

But when you're down, you know your veteran all start left tackle, your right tackle is a guy that I don't know how much experience he has playing in a system like this. There was a couple of reps for Jackson Carmen where I thought, like, ah, he just he needs some time and some refinement. But you don't have that benefit when you're down so many players, which you know is an indication of a guy getting called up off the practice squad or signed up off the practice squad,

I should say. But there was the one where Daniel Hunter did the spin move on him, and like, you know, I thought back to when when coach McDaniel talked about, you know, retraying the offensive line to play a new style of football they're not used to in the system that fires off the football and makes runs and passs look the same like it looked like Jackson Carmen was struggling to get to his past sets, and that's to me to be expected for a guy that new in

the lineup, especially you insert him, you know. So, I thought Liam had a tough day at right guard. I thought, really the entire offensive line kind of had a tough day in this one to keep you know, true, true drop back pass sets, and I thought that dictated a lot of screen game in this one. We saw even more than the twenty five percent behind the last scrimmage

throw rate we've seen. So just a tough way to make a living because if you get behind the sticks, you can make a foul and you try to get this quick game going and you can't really run the football again for the fourth or fifth straight game. Like it's tough to make a living that way, and we saw that play out twelve points because you're just not going to drive the field like that five or six times in a game. My third takeaway is the defense has some certified dogs, and it starts with Zach Seeler

and Jordan Brooks. They couldn't block Seiler in the game. He is as good as it gets. Like we're talking about like Chris Jones Nomine madap week. That's the company that Zack Seiler's keeping right now with how he's produced the last couple of seasons. And then Jordan Brooks has gotten I think played his two best games these last two weeks after the Packer game, and that was a

guy that was already playing at a high level. I added Kter Kohu to this game, particularly because he made a bunch of really good plays, saw the field, drove on the football good time, some big time tackles. I thought Javon Holland played his best game in a while. I thought Gelen Ramsey was very good, Kendall Fuller as well, kalay As Campbell as always. I thought Quentin Bell said hard edges. So there was plenty of good defensive efforts out there, but Sealer and Brooks to me stand out

is like cornerstone types of this defense. My fourth takeaway, and it's going to be similar to the fifth takeaway. The record against teams in playoff positions technically drops to zero to five this season, one and six last year, so that makes one and eleven combine. Now the Rams, I think will by the time you're this podcast, the Seahawks lose here in an hour, then the Rams will be atop the NFC West. So that could change the record here, you know, from from to one and four

into two and ten, but doesn't change the argument. It's it's an issue they have to find a way to get these wins. Until they do, that's that's what people are going to talk about. And the fifth takeaway is that just self inflected errors inflicted airs? Do you find

this game and this season? You know, picking the red zone that's three points if you don't throw that pick there at least at least right the holding call that brought back the run that would have set up a first and goal to the four yard line, that could have been four more points. The pick at the end of the half gave them three, could have been seven, but it did give them three. Probably took three off the board right on the fringe of field goal range there.

So that's nine points. If you count the four from the Tyreek hole, that's thirteen points. I mean, you know, the fake punt, the penalty and the kickoff that cost you almost twenty yards of field position in a critical field position game miss throws. If we play a clean game, I think you win this game going away quite frankly, and it didn't happen that way. So tough to deal with, tough pill to swallow. Let's get out of here. You all subscribe or rate, review the show, leave us, or

give me a follow on social at wingfleld NFL. The team at Miami Dolphins. Check out Seth and Juice on the Fish Tank podcast. Check out the YouTube channel for Dolphins HQ, media availabilities, and so much more, and last, butt not least to Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, Fin's Up, Carolyn and Cameron, Daddy's coming