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A wide Olphen touchdown, trick call, uncrelievable, just.
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Drive Time with Travis Wingfield begins.
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What is up? Dolphins?
And welcome to the Drive Time podcast, part of the Miami Dolphins podcast Network, covering your team, your Miami Dolphins.
How's it going, everybody?
I am your host, Travis Wingfield, And on today's show, we are going to talk.
About a Miami Dolphins football game.
Certainly not going to earn any awards for prettiest game you've ever seen in your life, but there's gonna be a lot to chew on, including plenty of players who stood out, some things to debate about, competition and battles and all that fun stuff. Plus we'll do the five flagship takeaways and here from head coach Mike McDaniel. All of that and more from the Baptist Hell Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
This is Yes Miami Topics.
Let's go ahead and kick this show off with a statement from coach McDaniel that I think was the most important part of the entire day.
Yeah, he's doing good. Yeah, No, it was a mid section injury that you know, sometimes you have guys that end up coming up with an injury after in the middle of camp, after having a tremendous offseason. That that's kind of what Jalen has had from OTA is the onset. He's come to work. He does some really good things, so you never want to see anyone ever get injured. But he's banked enough quality reps that I'm really not
worried about his participation within the offense. So unfortunate that it's not something that I don't that will be a long term deal. But he's steadily rehabbing and working with the trainers, which fires men.
That's obviously Mike McDaniel talking about Jalen Waddell, who, of course he was injured in the last practice we had out here, and coach was asked about it after the game on Friday night, and that's your answer there. So it sounds like Jalen should be okay. We'll get you
updated more and we have more information on that. Let's go ahead and talk about a football game here, because the Dolphins lose the Week one preseason opener to the Atlanta Falcons, a nineteen to three final from hard Rock Stadium, And let's go ahead and take a look at the autopsy as it were here of this game. And you know, we'll hear from coaching a moment here about where he thinks things broke down as far as where the scoreboard
wound up. But Miami had more yards than the Atlanta Falcons offensively, three seventeen to two twenty seven actually, and really you look at the entire you know, game book in terms of numbers, twenty to thirteen and first downs three for ten versus three for twelve on third down in favor of the Miami Dolphins, zero for two on the fourth downs obviously, both of those in the red zone, which is something we'll talk about here. But more total yards,
more passing yards, more rushing yards, more plays ran. The four turnovers is where the game really swelling in favor of the Atlanta Falcons. But I think that when you look at this game, it was pretty even back and forth throughout the first you know, three and a half quarters, and Miami's inability to capitalize on some of the red zone looks they had, and I thought they had chances
to make some of those plays happen. Two of the red zone failures were fourth down failures, and one of the throws I thought was a chance to hit Tyler Croft in the corner of the end zone by Mike White. The ball got tipped into the air, but Devon Achan had a chance for a cut block on a blitzer and he missed it, and that blitzer got his hand.
In the football.
If you hit that block, you have a chance to throw a clean touchdown passing the corner of the end zone. Another one to Brax and Barrios on a little mesh concept where they got the linebacker in some peril and kind of rubbed him with a dB who was covering Brax and Barrios. And we'll talk more about Brax and
Barrios here in a moment. But I thought White had him open in the end zone and you know, not wide open, but NFL open where Barrios had him stacked on his back and the ball is a little bit behind and that gives a dB all he needs to catch up and get a hand on the football.
So those two.
Plays right there with you know, a late pick six that gets tipped into the air, a late punt return that gets ran.
Back for a touchdown. That's that's the that's.
The game right there, and you're gonna hear coach talk about process over results, but using the results to kind of teach and learn some things. I think the Dolphins have a good chance to learn some things from this game after going back and watching the tape and realizing four or five plays can really change a game in
the NFL. That's kind of lesson for this game. I takeaway is that Miami played well and consistent throughout the course of the game to you know, keep the scoreboard what it was as a six nothing, six to three ball game, and again could have been you know, fourteen to six or seventeen to six if the red zone had gone a little bit better. They didn't, And that's
a teaching lesson to learn how in this league. If you don't capitalize on those opportunities that are right there for you, you'll find yourself on the wrong side of the scoreboard. Let's go ahead and hear from coach who met with the media after the game. This was an opening statement before they ask questions to Mike McDaniel.
As did you guys enjoy that the clinic?
Yeah, no, the.
I I hope it doesn't get lost. It was a It was a really cool defensive effort for a lot of.
Guys that haven't been here very very long.
So private players and coaches for that, and uh, yeah, you're gonna lose football games when you're vote for three in the red zone and you give up a pick six and pun return. But overall, I'm fired up to be here, guys.
So let's go ahead and do five takeaways from the game.
We're gonna do this after every single Miami Dolphins football game in season. Gonna be a little more in depth on the takeaways because you can learn more from regular season football and kind of give yourself a big picture thought after a game, as we like to do, you know, as media and fans too, where every single game is an event of itself and you have to kind of forecast, you know, big picture takeaways from each game, but in
the preseason not so much. But I want to stay true to the format here and kind of give you
five thoughts I had coming out of that game. And look, I've always been this way, going back to you know, the twenty sixteen season covering this team on Lockdown Dolphins, where the exhibition season for me is about finding standouts and highlights and star not stars, but stars are the game that you think can carry that production over into the regular season and help your team come September because the games in August, no one cares about the standings
in August. Let's find out what we can do to make the team better in September. That's always been my pro. So just kind of have that mindset going into the takeaways here because number one and we'll again we'll talk about the individuals shortly, but I thought the ability of the offense in a game situation to create opportunities and scheme up plays for guys showed up a little bit today.
You know, Eric Azukama had the two carries for fifty two yards I think it was, and thirty nine of those on the one rush that he took around the edge and showed you the run after catch ability that
he has. There was the third down conversion to Miles Gaskin and the big game that he had where they short motioned him against a linebacker who didn't really follow him to the wide side of the field, to the side of the field that he went to on that motion and kind of gives you a little tip there as a quarterback or you know, anybody in the offense that hey, they don't have a guy for him, or
maybe they're in zone coverage or man coverage. Based upon how they moved they short motioned him, he gets a free release into the flat. It's an easy pitch and catch for him to Mike or from Mike White to Miles to move the chains and get that first down. There like really easy pickings. A quick screen to von a chan where he was able to pick his way through some traffic and pick up a first down. There was a Texas route to a change later in the game,
again on a linebacker. You know, if a Chanin's running for the outside shoulder that linebacker, he better flip his hips and get committed to going vertical that way, and the minute he does that, a chain breaks it back across his face and catches a pass, takes a hit first down. Love the toughness we saw from devon a
change in this game. So the offense's ability when they have a chance to scheme things up in a regular season game, That's what I'm excited to see because I thought we saw, you know, the offensive line struggled late in this game, particularly to protect the quarterback, and Scaler was, you know, tough as hell back there, taking some shots and getting back up and staying in the game and
staying with it. And we heard from him post game he was very you know, just I love hearing Scaler communicate after a game, you know, the way he sees the game and kind of taking things, his own accountability of things, even though you know, if some of those pockets were he'd had no chance in some of those pockets. So I just I thought that his ability to kind of bounce back and you know, be Scalar Thompson was
important there at the end. But to give him a chance to go out and compete against you know, and Coach mentioned this as well, as might I see an opportunity next week where Skyler and Mike flip their you know, game script and give Skyler a chance to run with some more of the I guess higher up the depth chart part of the roster versus Mike White, who got to play first to night. Flip those guys next week
and maybe get a better look at that. And we'll talk about the quarterback competition for that number two job here in just a moment. But in general, you know, the opportunity to scheme things up for your offense is where I think this offense goes from. You know, a bunch of highly talented players that didn't get to see a lot of those guys tonight in terms of the main components of your offense.
But you take it from a bunch.
Of guys playing football to like, all of a sudden, it's a chess match and you have a guy like Mike McDaniel putting all together to really make those pieces hum and work together in harmony. That was kind of a small takeaway I had from this game, just in those few plays.
Number two is similar.
It's the continuity of the offense plus newcomers or new contributors I should say as well on offense that could have a real impact Braxon Barrios was a guy that I thought was really good in this game. Eric Azukama obviously a really good opening night in the preseason here in this twenty twenty three season, a guy that didn't play a lot last year in the regular season. That's why I call him a newcomer, new contributor, a guy that could potentially contribute for you this year.
I thought there was a good.
Glimpse of that on the offensive side number three, and you heard coach allude to it in that opening statement about some of the defensive players that just got here. I thought it was impressive for DeShawn Hand to show up and play as much as he did and really provide, you know, a good look at a very strong candidate for the next guy after Wilkins, Seeler and Rakewon, because we know we have in those three guys, right and Coach Fangio talked about that a little bit. How we
know those three guys are good players. They're going to give us lots of snaps this year. But what's beyond that in the depth, and you have a bunch of guys that are fighting for roles on this team that don't have a lot of NFL experience, will insert DeShawn han who's played in that role pretty much his whole career with the Detroit Lions. I thought he looked really good in this game, played a bunch of snap showed you he's in shape, and coach alludes to that in
his press conference. That's a big sign to me because that was a spot where who's going to be the guy that kind of played that John Jenkins role last year. I think Deshaan Hann really put his best foot forward to say, hey, that might be me going forward. Takeaway number four. I noted the penalties eight for seventy two
in this game. It's something, of course that the Dolphins have emphasized the operation and just making sure the whole thing is cleaner from a penalty standpoint, and that's the kind of stuff that can really you know, bog down drives.
There was a.
Holding call on Elijah Higgins that I didn't like it. I didn't agree with it. I thought it was a little bit soft from the perimeter, but it took away a big play and put Miami behind the chains. Just stuff like that that happened a little too frequently last year, and you saw a little bit poke up in this game, especially late, and you'll hear a coach in the press conference talk about the fact that, like late in that fourth quarter, is you know, you're running guys out there,
ninety man rosters pluging this game. Thirty one guys not available for the Dolphins in this game. But if you look at the list of guys not available, a lot of guys that will be contributing on Sundays not out there. So you're going into you know, your entire ninety man roster and getting everybody on the same page with that
many players can be difficult. In that first preseason game, I thought we saw some of that kind of rear Itch Ugly had there late in the game, just having to track going forward because the penalties, if they can cut those down man this offense, they can be as good as they like. Number five, the ability to finish
the game, and the stamina. You'll hear coach again talk about, you know, guys having a hard time getting back to the huddle at certain points and just trying to get themselves into game shape.
It we saw some guys play the pretty much the entire game.
I think Alamo yu Lave the center from San Diego State. I think he played the entire game, not mistaken, No Connor Williams, no Dan Feenie, So it would make sense that he did at that center position. Isaiah Willams out there for a lot of the game tonight as well, and he showed out really well.
We'll talk about him in a moment. But I just thought that the.
Stamina to play that full game and then to not finish the game or finish the game the way they did, I thought was just a negative takeaway that you can kind of look at and learn from and get better from hopefully going forward.
Those are the five takeaways there.
Let's go ahead and come back on the other side here and talk a little bit about some competitions the quarterback position here a lot more from head coach Mike McDaniel. That's all next on the game Recapetition of the Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. Let's go ahead and play some sound here from coach McDaniel to kick off the second segment of the game recappetition. Dolphins falls to the Atlanta Falcons to go to zero to one in the preseason by the
final of nineteen to three. A pick six late, a punt return late for six, zero for three in the red zone. That's the script to lose a football game, the formula to play a losing football.
As the Dolphins did in this game.
Let's go ahead and go to coach McDaniel, who talked about the offensive execution, but got more into just the overall theme of the night in terms of competition, fighting for positions on the on the offense, on the defense, and the team in general.
Here's head coach Mike McDaniel.
I thought, I thought it was a pretty good job in the first half. Henceforth we were in the low red three times and then gave you know, see fourth downs in preseason games as an opportunity to you know, see see certain people at the point of attack. Second half, I didn't like the operation at all. You know, the compounding.
Variables of like guys being more tired than they're used to, getting back to the huddle late, those types of things I did not like at all.
You know, I think that there was some real good stuff on the line of scrimmage from the offensive line, particularly in the first half, and there's some you know, there's a lot of things to build upon it's a preseason is all about process of results, but you learn you use the results as a teaching tool. So yeah,
I think that you have to. You can really learn the hard way and you utilize preseason to see how precious those opportunities you get in the red zone and how you have to come up with points or you can, you know, waste a pretty good effort by the defense, you know, holding that team to six points and really really come together. So there's some good stuff to learn from. And I thought there was certain players that are in heavy competition did some good things that will help them stand out.
And you know, so it's the tale of two halves really offensively, and to that point. We'll talk about the quarterback competition here in just a moment. But I thought that one of the guys that coach allude to there was Isaiah Win. At least that's my takeaway from it because the way I watched him and Seth commented on it,
OJ talked about in the post game show. I thought Isaiah Win played incredibly fast and fired off the football and really got some surge in the running game, which on those interior three positions, you know, the left guard spot for winning this game. You want to get that knockback and surge in the running game and try to create lanes up the middle to get those big running
plays up the middle on your offensive attack. And I thought that when, especially when you factor in what we've heard from coach in the past, and offensive line coaches here and offensive coordinators talk about, you know, Frank Smith and Butch Berry and obviously Mike McDaniel talk about is playing fast off the ball, and the players talk about it and they want to fire off and trust the process of you know, we're going to put you in positions to play fast and not worry about the vulnerability
that comes with that of making mistakes or over running a player, over running your block and putting yourself in a bad position, and that.
Trust fall that coach talked about.
For a guy Isaiah Win who came over from a primary gap man scheme in New England and you know, put his best foot forward on the first game of his career in the Miami Dolphins uniform in this system that does prioritize the way they come off the ball, I thought that was super impressive. Attached to some blocks, got some pancakes, move guys around and create some lanes. So I thought Isaiah Winn did really well in his first game as a Miami Dolphin at that left guard spot.
The quarterback competition, if you want to call it that, then two job between Mike White and Skyler Thompson.
Now the statistics they're not.
Going to do those guys in your favorites, go ahead and read those off here real quick. So for Skyler in the game, he of course played the second half. He was ten for sixteen with one hundred and four yards, two interceptions, and was sacked four times. That was kind of the main takeaway late in the game was in again the coach we'll talk about this was just how difficult it was kind of you know, rowing upstream for Skyler Thompson to get anything accomplished with the pressure bearing down.
And he talked about in his postgame press conference as well that he didn't really he kind of got confused by a couple of the pressure looks we saw from the Falcons in this game and maybe held the ball a little bit too long and took some of those shots.
But not his you know, best game statistically. We saw him really tear it up last preseason, but a rough night for him with a forty one points having a passer rating, and then for Mike White as well, nine for fourteen eighty five yards and a pick and just the one sec but a fifty one point two passer rating. And I thought Mike missed two throws that were really
the difference in his night. One was the I mentioned the mesh concept to Braxon Barrios where he ran that route over the middle of the field, that fourth down on the end zone going away from the press box in the that was the first quarter, made the second quarter,
but run in that direction. There was that mesh concept that that Brax and Barios got free on and the ball was a little bit back on the back hip back shoulder area and that allowed the dB to come over the top after he got beat on the rep initially by Barrios, and recover and get a pass break up. And then the throw the one that was picked off in the end zone again from Mike White, where he
tried to find Tyler Croft. They ran that layer's concept where they had a short, intermediate and deep and Craig Craft went to the corner and it looked like he came up in for a moment, but White tried to jam the ball into a window to Tyler Croft, and I thought the decision was maybe to go to cray Craft.
And also the window had kind of tightened up and he was late on the throw to Croft, and that allowed the dB to peel off of cray Craft and come back down and make that play gets deflected and then you know, tips in the end zone typically wind up getting caught by somebody.
In this instance, it was the defense. So not the best showing for the quarterbacks.
But again, like you know, everything, the context of all that is really what matters the most. In fact, coach touched on that and its press conference is a results thing. What do you look at in this quarterback competition so far and what do you make of it? Here's Mike McDaniel.
Yeah, No, It's what's important to keep in mind is there's a lot of things that go in You don't just look at it like, Okay, Mike did.
Better than Skylar. It's not that it's much more complicated than that in terms of the opportunities both had and you know, Scalar needs an opportunity to play with the same guys that Mike played with, which you'll probably get next week, so they're you know, I think it's about how people learn react, and you know, especially with quarterbacks, you have to be very coachable. You know, there's gonna be a point where two is gonna be taking all
the reps. You better be learning from the things that you did in the preseason and the things that two is learning from. So quite critical on the holy evaluation process is how guys move forward from here.
So those are some of the main points I wanted to touch on here.
Let's go ahead and take our last break right here and just rip through the list of guys that I was impressed by, some plays that kind of stuck on my craw a little bit. Let's go ahead and break the rest of this game down here on the other side of the break. Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. A nineteen to three preseason opening loss for the Miami Dolphins against the Atlanta Falcons.
The next time we're going to be home is Week three against the Denver Broncos on September twenty fourth, So a lot of road games coming your way. We're gonna have live practice reports on Twitter on the podcast, on the story on Miami Dolphins dot Com from Houston next week, the game on Saturday, then of course Jacksonville Week three, and then it's here.
Man, football is only thirty.
Days away, so it's coming very quickly down the pipeline. Here. Let's go ahead and talk about some of the names that I thought stood out in this game. I broke them into halfs because some of these guys played multiple halfs obviously, but that was easier for me to go
that way. So running back Miles Gaskin kind of I think is one of the first ones you look at, and just the patience and the vision that he showed I thought was really reminiscent of twenty twenty Miles Gaskin when he had that really good year where he was the feature back in this offense, you know, running and catching. Big game for him tonight, that big game out to the right side where he made a couple of moves,
made guys miss and found open space. Looked like him run through the Apple Cup once again against my Washington.
State Cougar's there for a little bit.
Seven carries, fifty seven yards, that thirty five yard long rush also, and then of course in the passing game, also had two catches for twenty yards, so seventy seven yards from Miles Gaskin. Good showing from the veteran running back in this game. I thought that mentioned Isaiah Win.
I thought Eric Azukama was really good. And how nice is it when you are on a topic on and on and on and on, and Seth and Oj gave me crap for us in the postgame show and then you kind of get confirmation of it quickly after the fact. But Eric Zuokoma with the football in his hands, he can do some stuff. Now, man, that's his Texas Tech tape. That's kind of what I've felt. I've seen it here at training camp, although it's not live and you can't really judge, you know, ball carriers as well.
But he's big, he's strong.
He took off that they flashed next gen stats up on the big board at one point in the game. And on his thirty nine yard rush attempt at the end of round that he took, he hit a top speed of twenty point five miles per hour on that run, So really impressive long speed for a guy that can, you know, go out high point the football and just looks just looks like a football player.
Man.
I think that Azukama's ability to kind of create some space.
There was a throat to the flat to Devon a Chain where Azukama ran a dig that really was important to hold the attention of the defense vertically, just to open that space underneath. And I thought the way he got into that route and really snapped that thing off took the attention of the dB, who was also concerned about the speed of getting pressed on that vertical route. I thought that Azukama's route on that play opened up.
The space for Devon a Chain.
I could be wrong, that's what I saw, but I just think he looks really sharp in the things that he's doing right now for this football team. I mentioned Braxon Barrios, you know, Mike White talked about it on the podcast.
Or in his press conference that I played in the podcast.
I don't know how many days ago was that in camp, but we could go ten days ago, I don't know.
But he talked about the way Braxton is able to you know, feel soft spots and zone understanding, like the lean of defensive backs and where their coverage might be kind of catered towards, and how he can pick up heart soft spots and just run away from guys in man coverage, which that mesh concept, you know, running away from him trying to pick a rug from the linebacker or from the receiver that you're meshing with in that middle part of the field.
We saw that. We saw him pick apart zone coverage.
Just a couple of third down opportunities or a third down conversion and a fourth down opportunity for a touchdown that just didn't happen. But I thought Braxon Barrios really
put his best foot forward in that regard. Jalen Twyeman got on the board of the sack, but I thought that his best pass rush rep was an assist on a sack, although he didn't get the half but it was picked up by Mitchel Lagude because Jalen Twyman put a little swite move where the offensive lineman threw his punk and Twinement swiped his hands off and then got around him. Really impressive interior rush. He's pretty strong in the upper body and he showed that off so far throughout camp.
Didn't love the penalty.
Late he tried to get a touch on the quarterback whose slip put a hand on the head, got a fifteen yard penalty.
Can't do that.
That was a mistake late in the game, but overall, nice performance by you. Then Twyman mentioned DeShawn Hans showing here, showing up, you know, last week or earlier in the week and showing up and having an impact and playing somebody snap speaks to his conditioning. Was impressed by the showing that he had. Garrett Nelson had a sack and it was pure effort, which is exactly what he is.
The edge rusher from Nebraska who got on the upfield shoulder, leaned into the rusher and just bent that arc and worked and worked and worked to get an impressive sack in his NFL debut. I thought, Noah, Igbinogny, you know, minimal reps, but really showed you again the things that he's been showing us in camp that I think have improved the instincts of the feel and just the understanding of how to play within the structure of the defense and not necessarily just like Okay, I'm in cover three,
go cover the deep portion, the deep third of the field. Like, I think he has a better understanding of how to adapt the coverage based upon what is happening in front of him.
And he had a ball that.
Was caught on him, but he was in great shape for and he flipped the hips, drove out of the back pedal, and really showed you the explosive movement that made him a first round pick. A few years back, I thought Elijah Campbell had a really good rep coming from depth from that safety position, flowing downhill and making a big tackle in the backfield.
And then channing Tendall.
Man, I think there's gonna be ups and downs with Tendall's he kind of gets more and more football under his belt. Just played like four hundred something snaps on defense at Georgia, only played a few snaps last year. It's gonna take some time, especially in a new defense, for him to get fully comfortable and play at that full speed.
But when you see him go, man, he goes.
He was also on that next Gen leaderboard for fastest runs. He was up pushing towards twenty miles an hour as well. So I was impressed by Tindall. And I didn't even know this until Seth brought up in the post game show, but he had quite a night in the box score as well.
How many tackles was it ten? Total?
Tackles and had a sack in the game as well. Pretty impressive from the second year line. I keep looking at, you know, the rookie report here, like a Chain had a really impressive game with the way that he caught the ball and ran the ball as well. And I
thought that he showed you the speed in space. OJ mentioned the toughest between the tackles that he displayed the stats ten jump off the page at you with devon a Chain, But he sure just kind of proved I think some of the things that folks wanted to see in terms of toughness between the tackles. He had four catches for forty one yards and one of those was a big first down conversion on third down where he took a pop over the middle of the field and
got right back up. So toughness from that young man and just the rookie class man the rookie class plus the guys from last year who we heard from Chris Greer and Marvin Allen say that the idea behind drafting those guys was a little bit more of a two year projection than expecting rookie year impact. And we heard Wes Welker talk about Azukama feeling more comfortable in the system this year, and for Tyndall learning a new system, but he's playing faster.
It looks like a training camp.
So getting these young guys that are going to be important pieces to run out the backside of your roster to compliment you know, Tyreek and Jalen and Tua and Tehran and all these you know, star players that you have. Those guys are going to be vital pieces to give you, you know, good quality production throughout the course of the roster and give you depth. And I think that they showed tonight they can be guys that can contribute, you know,
down the road for your team. So those are the guys in the first half I noticed the second half, I gotta start with another rookie here, a couple of guys actually in Cam.
Smith and Kedron Smith.
I thought that Cam Smith had one of the best reps I've seen, really again from a rookie cornerback in this team in a long time. And it's what I've been seeing all training camp long. Where he was after making a great tackle for loss, after Josiah Bronson got penetration to force a running back to bubble down in the red zone. Here comes Cam Smith from you know, from depth and comes down and makes a big play in the backfield. Kind of got shooken up. Had to
leave the game after the series, but he didn't. That didn't stop him from making a play on the very next snap where Kedrin Smith gets a pass break up,
and it's very impressive from Kadrin Smith. But the way that I saw Cam Smith react to that play where they ran like a little seven flat combination a corner route and a flat route trying to put the two dbs in peril on that side of the field, and Kedron got over the top to make the pass breakup, but you saw cam Smith really sink into that cloud part and pass off the flat route like he's not going to hurt me here on third and goal, I can get depth and go impact the corner route and
he damn near got to pick out of that play. So he got, you know, one more step that might be an interception going back to the way. So Cam Smith, I thought, was very impressive in this game, also had a pass break up earlier that just showed you the speed and instincts and he looks the part man, let's go ahead and hear from Mike McDaniel on what he liked from his rookie cornerback in this game.
Yeah, no, the I saw Cam as you'd want to see him, which is letting it go and trying to make some plays in the ball. You know, he was. I saw him get involved a couple of times. His energy was good, and you know, before looking at the tape, it felt like he was the competitor we were looking for from him. So I was happy with what he was doing out there.
But again, we're going to dive into that tape, which will be fun, fun stuff.
Tomorrow mentioned Heron Smith a couple of plays in the football on coverage. He just kind of been a playmaker since he got down here. I had the pick six in practice the other day, and I believe he was the scooper on the strip from no Eggbunoghany to take it back for a touchdown as well. So big plays from Kedron Smith. I mentioned Josiah Bronson had a couple
of plays, big fan of Elijah Higgins game. Had that nice catch where he ran a route and broken play where Scaler Thompson scrambled and he had eyes back to the quarterback in the minute Skyler started to flee, Higgins came right back to the quarterback. They then schemed him open for a completion in the flat right after that. That I thought was really impressive. So big fan of
Elijah Higgins game. And he had that holding call, which you know, get that ironed out, but I think that he really showed you kind of what he's capable of here in this first game. Brandon Peely has amazing power on the interior. That was some impressive work at that defensive tackle position, especially on that tackle for loss where he stacked it, strung it out, peaked the running back, shed the block and made the tackle. Impressed the stuff
there from the rookie. And then Chris Brooks, another rookie, the running back from BYU. He's a physical guys and man like he was. He was dropping the shoulder, putting down some guys and really run through some tackles to the tune of five carries for twenty four yards, you know, four and a half yards per rush. The Dolphins averaged six yards per carry in this game. So the running game certainly found its footing. And again the stats favored Miami,
but the critical plays favored the Falcons. In a big, big way. Some things that I thought were, you know, could be corrected. Was a couple of sacks early in the game were on some boot rolls with a tight end, had it like a green dog blitz to pick up. And that's a sign where a green dog blitz and the defender, you know, id's a guy that he's covering or staying in protection. They stay in protection, they're going
to go ahead and blitz them. And on these boot legs we saw both Eric Saubert and Julian Hill miss blocks that led the sacks. In the quarterback, those are things I think you can get ironed out, which is a little bit of teaching him like a little bit of a put it on table and now you see it. Hopefully don't make the same mistake twice there. I thought the two sequence play on James Tunstall, who I thought I had some good blocks in the game, the rookie tackle.
A couple of penalties back to back were killers in that game. Late game pass protection I thought had some issues off the right side there. There was a couple of plays where it looked like Lester Cotton and Keyon Smith kind of got crossed up. So get that stuff sorted out in practice here going forward. Aubrey Miller I think is often in good positions to make plays, but there was a couple of tackles he overran this game.
I thought Mike Rose was similar in terms of how he was able to get in position to make plays, just couldn't quite finish them. But these are things to look at to say like we can take these and learn from them and get better next time around. So all in all, you know, not a pretty game, a lot to grow from, some performances that I think people want to have back a little bit there, but all
in all, it's preseason football. We got a chance to watch the Dolphins play and I had a good time, had a good time doing the postgame show and bring this podcast to you guys as well. So that's the wrap up show, no podcast Tomorrow. Is gonna be back with you guys on Sunday for another show back here at Dolphins camp, and then we'll hit the next week running again with the Houston Texans, be in Houston for those joint practices and then of course the game on Saturday.
So that's the podcast.
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He's covering up