Drive Time with Travis Wingfield begins.
Now let me check your pulse if you're not far though. What is up? Dolphins?
And welcome to the Draft Time Podcast, part of the Miami Dolphins podcast network covering your team, your Miami Dolphins. How's it going everybody? I am your host, Travis Wingfield, and on today's show, a.
Little bit over it now, still not all the way.
But it is time to turn the page and go win a football game. Quit crying quick complaining on Twitter. Let's go beat the New York Jets. They come to town on Sunday. Sweep opportunity, a chance to go to four and one in the division. The film has been grinded, grounded, ground the key matchups, the keys to victory, all of that and more. Let's go ahead and get into this. From the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is.
The Draft Time Podcast. Maggie jaffeir.
Real Quick Hard Knocks recap hated the episode. I mean two out of four now have been terrible for different reasons.
Why JP's injury was not fun and then watching the way that game ended, I still thought, even watching Hard Knocks knowing the result, I still thought like, oh, twenty seven thirteen, they got this in the bag, just like me walking across the concourse down to the fort where we do our radio show after the game ends with the twenty seven thirteen league thinking like cool, we are ten and three.
This is awesome.
And then we had to go watch the game on the JumboTron and it was a miserable, miserable experience. Speaking of miserable, it's supposed to rain here all week, I will say the hard knocks part that I liked the best was the way the team responded and head coach Mike McDaniel's message to the team about like home games, road games in the playoffs, none of that shit matters.
We don't if you play like this.
So let's get that stuff corrected and get onto the next So, speaking of miserableness, the weather this week and a rain all day long, and Sunday is forecasted for an eighty percent chance of rains. We might get a wet, sloppy field game. We shall see. Well, yeah, we'll see.
How that plays out.
Because, as you know, or maybe you don't know, the weather down here can change in a flash, and that tends to happen a lot, like I was preparing a golf weekend, you know, back in when it was the summer, and like all week it was like in a rain on Saturday, and then sure enough on Friday, the rain pushed back one day and Saturday was a perfect day.
So you just never know.
Anyway, I think we shortened the Jets Intro here and spare you the second rundown of Jets futility in the last four weeks, as we covered this before Thanksgiving, just because of the proxy me that last game, right, So now we break down the film, we'll go longer on that since I think that's actually a pretty substantial change from the Black Friday game. But with that in mind, let's go ahead and do an abbreviated version of the
Jets intro here with the bullet points. So they bottomed out in twenty twenty, right, Joe Douglas, the second year with the club there won their first two games of the season in Week fifteen and Week sixteen to lose
out on the Trevor Lawren sweepstakes. They hire Robert Sala in twenty twenty one reboot the program with immense draft capital, peaking in twenty twenty two with Sauce Gardner, Garrett Wilson, Jermaine Johnson, Bryce Hall hit the ball out of the park with that draft class, brought in Aaron Rodgers and a whole bunch of his buddies to coach and play on the team. He gets hurt on the four snap of the season, and it's right back to Zach Wilson. Offense hit an all time low in terms of futility
with third downs and touchdowns produced. I think they've since gotten out of the bottom of that category with their best third down performance of the season against the Texans on Sunday, went to Tim Boyle and we smoked him, and then he got smoked by the Atlanta Falcons, and now he's out of the NFL, which is where he should have been. Right thirteen to eight in that Atlanta game, and started much of the same for them in the
Houston game. The immaculate half, the reverse immaculate half, in fact, swapped eleven consecutive punts with the Houston Texans. So don't come into this game thinking the Jets all of a sudden have this offensive firepower. In fact, I saw a tweet from a guy who I really respects. Not going to put his name on here, but a Fantasy football national guy who said, like, the Dolphins very conceivably could
lose the next four games. What like, there's a chance they lose to the Jets, no doubt about it, right, Like, there's a chance.
There's always a chance in this league.
But they're nine point favorites and Zach Wilson still their quarterback, and they still have just as many injuries as we do, Like, what are you talking about?
Knock that stuff off.
If this Dolphins team is who you think they are who I thought they were, Danny Green, then this game shouldn't be an issue. It's gonna tell you a lot about the Dolphins team, I think. But either way saying this is like a maybe a loss, like maybe it is, but to put it in the category of the Dallas Baltimore and Buffalo game, get all the way the hell
out of here with that nonsense. So five consecutive punts will start their game, But then they had touchdown drives of seventy five, sixty nine, and seventy five, And actually that's quite a few first time since categories from them on offense, Like all those long drives scoring thirty in a game thirty and a half. So it'll be Zach Wilson at the controls for the New York Jets on Sunday when they come to town. Who are the Jets right now? Is my first storyline to look at here.
It's always about when.
You play teams, right, not who you play, but when you play them. I think we got them at their lowest point of twenty twenty three and we beat the crap out of them twenty one point win up in the Metal Lands. Now, this might be the best version of themselves. How do they respond to having some success? You know, Zach Wilson occasionally in the past has had I don't want to say games because he's never had like a good game before.
He's had good drives.
That Casey game, he had like two drives where I'm.
Like, oh, he sees the field, what happened? How did that change? He's had good quarters.
He had a good half against the Houston Texas on a good game, he had a good half, but ultimately that good performance in the second half did make it on balance a good game. In fact, AFC Player of the Week for him. So he figured something out there for a little bit, but there's never been an encore.
Can he do that? Can we prevent that?
We should find out at five and eight is their mindset we can win out and have a shot here, or is it let's evaluate for next year. Either way, I think you get a loose team that's gonna go for fourth downs. I think you're gonna see some trick plays. They might, you know, get some razzle dazzle going. But they finally scored some drives from their own side of
the field, your own side of the fifty. And they also went for a fourth down on their own side of the field against Houston first time all year long, sans do or die spots. So all that stuff on the table. Another storyline here. Can Miami continue their dominance against Little bro because Tua is three to zero in
his career starting against the Jets. We scored the second most points of the season on them on Black Friday, had the most yards against them of anybody else, had the most rushing yard sorry, second most yards most rushing yards, and second most passing yards on a game in a game against that team the first time around. In general, we've beaten them seven out of the last eight and if not for a really really bad defensive pass interference call back in twenty nineteen which helped us get Tuas,
So thank you for that. But if not for that, it would be nine of the last ten against the Jets. Still eight of the last ten, but the trap game, right, that's my final storyline bullet point here. I think the most impressive thing about this Dolphins team has been their ability to take coach McDaniel's ideals and put them into practice. Again, not about who you play, it's about your own progress
and taking care of your own stuff. We're on a short week and they're coming off extra rest compared to us. That matters, especially when you're banged up the game before the Gauntlet. Right. This goes back to the first bullet point. But Dallas and Baltimore coming up with Buffalo after that, I'd say combined record of twenty and six the next two games with a twenty seven and twelve record over the next three games if you include Buffalo. So do
not look these overlook these five and eight Jets. This is a must win football game, guys. We cannot go to nine to five and go into that Gauntlet with two straight losses and all the pressure of the world. You have to beat the Jets, get to ten and four, get yourself into this, locked into the second seed, heading into the scoutletd of games, and put yourself in position to win a couple of big football games and be right back where you were before the meltdown against the
Titans on Monday night. Let's go ahead and kick off the Dolphins offense versus the Jets defense segment here and again you know the personnel here. They're gonna have Jordan white Head back there. He plays every snap, and Tony Adams, who did not play the first time around, will return for this game after an injury he suffered in the game prior to the Black Friday game.
He's back on the field.
They're corners. They're gonna get help back there as well. Sauce Gardner and DJ Reid play almost every snap. But you have Michael Carter, their slot corner who was back in the lineup, and actually Brandon Eckles, his replacement, had to pick six. You we'll give and take there. So those are the guys that will deal with Barrios and Smyth on the interior. Obviously, the premier match upon the
pimeter there with Tyreek waddle against Sauce and Red. But as far as their defensive line, Quinn Williams plays about seventy percent of the snaps. John frankly Meyer is about sixty percent. Quentin Jefferson's back, he didn't play the last time around. He plays about fifty percent as well, and then Solomon Thomas. It's just a big, hulking, long, physical, wants to beat you up type of offensive line. The Titans where the saint or defensive line should say, Titans
were the same way. So you kind of had a glimpse at this last couple of weeks, really going back to the Washington game, the Jets game previously to that as well. Off the edge, Jermaine Johnson is a sixty five percent snap taker. He's had a really nice second year there for them. Bryce Huff I think is their best pass rusher. He only plays about half the snaps, although that has increased substantially over the last month or so.
Quinton Jefferson is back. I mentioned that already Michael Clements a thirty three percent player off the edge, and then the linebackers are it might be the best due in the NFL with CJ. Mosley and Quincy Williams. Robert salag gave as an injury update earlier in the week, and so that John Franklin Myers and Jordan Whitehead got Nixon bruises but should be good to go for the game.
So there you go. That's the personnel group. There are three.
Their defense starts twelve percent of the time in their base package seven percent, thirty four, five percent forty three. So there's some variation there, but primarily Nickel eighty five percent of the time. I mean, they just it's their best position with those top three guys, and I think it's probably number one, number two in the NFL, right behind Ramsey X and co Hooper possibly, but they play that package eighty five percent, so you can kind of
dictate the terms there. That's why I think we run the ball so well off the perimeter with alec Ingold and Raheem Moster, and now we get devon a chan against this team as well, against a team that hasn't defended the perimeter in the running game that well, because well, those cornerbacks, as good as they are, not much tackling going on there. So the scheme is a lot like what you get in San Francisco right where Robert Salah
cut his teeth as a defensive coordinator. It's hair on fire from your front, one gap, get up field, disrupt. It's tight physical coverage on the perimeter and a two tones setting. Very fluid off linebackers. They'll stay in too high in some passing situations, but they want to play in that and will adjust if they have to. And that's why I think it's important that Miami makes them do that. I think this is the most important defense
to get the perimeter run game going against. Make those corners come up and tackle, make that one gap rush hesitate. We have done a good job of neutralizing defensive fronts really all year except for three games, and those were games that Connor Williams didn't finish the game. And so you're gonna have to find a way to make that happen, especially with an offensive line right now for Miami that is not healthy at all. I don't know what's going to look like on Sunday, but you're gonna be down
several guys again, so a big challenge there. But if you can do that, you'll have success. So if you can do that, and Miami has done that, so well this year, make those cornerbacks tackle, make that one gap rush, hesitate. If you can do those things, you'll have success. And
I think you know that perimative run game going. You get the horizontal stretch and then all those speedy receivers you have can get into those soft spots of their zone coverages and they run them or beat them vertically when they do go man, but you know, make them make quick decisions with a pass rush that has been
held at Bay a little bit here. When you can operate from that type of offensive structure we saw in that first matchup, and then when it was go time, third down press man, we won the big verticals down the field, right, big shots to Tyree, big shots, the Jalen that sparked scoring drives. Well, the first one is
a turnover on downs inside the five yard line. What we scored after that, so it kind of setch up for a big play, setch up for a big offensive response there and then a field goal drive after the Wattle big shot. But you get what I'm talking about here, Like field flipping plays that typically produce points right, you can hit those against this defense if you get yourself into third and short situations and I mentioned in the last POB I couldn't wait for the matchup on the perimeter,
and then we had some vertical shots against them. Last year we just didn't hit, but that was without QB one and it hit this time with QB one in the lineup. So the Jets will play about seventy thirty split there in terms of zone versus man, but I imagine that will go more towards zone in this game. I mean, they tried it and they got beat first. You know, seventy yards on two pass plays in those man coverage reps, but it is a top ten man rate.
Everybody plays a lot of own these days. I think the Jets will want to generate pressure with four and get their backers into the hook zones and the curl flats and make Miami throw the ball wide. So again, attacking the edge is not just a run game focal point this week. It's a passing game idea too. And nobody reads quarterbacks eyes in the hook and plays those little hookup throws and seams and quick pops like CJ.
Moseley and Quincy Williams. So Tua has to be on his stuff in this game and play a smart, safe football game. We went over their ability to win inside. But how can you get the ball on the perimeter of the running game right? And we did that in the first game. Round thirty six yards running off left end, thirty eight yards running off right end. And this is classify as a B gap run, but really it's stretch and bang, which means stretch that thing out, see that
B gap and hit it up in there. So really it's a wide run. But you don't run off tackle. You run off the inside of the tackle. But we got five of those runs in the B gaps for a total of fifty one yards. That's one hundred and twenty five yards running out wide on twenty three rush attempts.
That's the game.
If you do that, it'll help to be the sharpest version of himself. Prior to those interceptions he had in that game, he was sharp. But you need that again to go out win this football game. Now, how do the Jets wreck this game from their perspective. Let's go ahead and take our first break and comeback on the other side and.
Tell you how they do that.
We'll also talk about the Dolphins defense versus Jets offense. All that next draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. So I mentioned how can the Jets wreck the game for the Dolphins here on the Dolphins and Jets Preview edition of the Draft Time Podcast, the same way they did it against Houston. Right, the Texans were down four offensive line starters. Sound familiar. They pressured C. J. Stroud twenty times. And that's what
you need to find a way to avoid. And that goes back to the perimeter running game, the screen game, the quick game, and when they stink that hat down in the box taking and hitting your vertical shots. You guys know the blue plant. We've seen this this month, within the last month, like you get it. We saw this just four games ago. And that also includes the
perimeter passing game down the field. We saw Tyreek hit that corner route to start the game against the Titans, then the far hash forty yard laser from Tua in the second half to I thought we missed some quick hitters on slot outs and when teams span middle of the field, those can be easy pickings to get you going on a drive, convert on third, what have you. But also when you're late on them, that's how you get a Brandon Eckles pick six too, right, So it
kind of plays off each other. But it's all about the overplay. What do they take away. We have to be an offense that can take what they give and exploit what they allow. I thought the Jets game was one of the best examples of that this entire season.
And I like our chances against this defense more than Tennessee is because I thought Tennessee's game plan and being fluid to be able to change the picture pre and post snap was so critical to Tua playing one of his worst fourth quarters of his entire career, in my opinion, and that's not what the Jets do. So I think it's a better matchup for Miami in terms of just how you singularly match up in each position here against this group. So Bryce huff top pass prusher off the edge.
He is so good he flips sides and plays both. I thought he gave Austin Jackson as many problems as anybody has this year, and that's more of a compliment because almost nobody has given Austin Jackson problems. But hopefully we get Toron Armstead back. But I don't know what's gonna look like otherwise like who plays where? Who knows? Man, Quinn Williams, John Frankly Myers their size, length, big dudes,
and then Quincy Williams and CJ. Mosley speeding instincts. They are so stout up the middle, and again it's why you have to win off the edge against this defense. Hopefully Liam's good to go in the pivot.
We'll see.
We already know it's probably at least another week until we see Robert Hunt, so it could be Cotton at center. Maybe Rob Jones, does Kendall Lamb kick inside. I don't know, Man, we'll see. McDaniel mentioned that Lamb was cross rating back in training camp, right, So I'm just opening here because of the hell situation up front. It is a tough defensive front to be short against. I think the real key in the game was obviously the run game, but also how sharp you were on third downs, and that's
contributed to the running game as well. But eleven for sixteen, that's the winning formula. Get your explosives when they present them, but maintain a high success rate, stay in third, manageable, and drive the field.
I am really curious to see.
How they attack us I'm inclined to think they would adjust and sneak some help down off the edge and try to change those pictures pre and posting at But I think this is a team that believes, like we are so good at what we do that you have to beat us doing what we do best. And Miami's like, Bett, we scored thirty four points last time on y'all that said, you know again, Houston, everyone's bullsh in the Jets team after last week. But that Texans team was down four
offensive linemen. Tank Dell receiver one, was lost for the year of the game prior Nico Collins left the game in the first quarter. He is their second receiver. Number two, Noah Brown was in and out of the game with an injury. So think of our offensive lineman being down the way it is right now without Tyreek, without Waddle and Cedric Wilson, your number one receiver in and out of the game. Like, let's hold off on crying the Jet the five and eight Jets.
Okay.
Oh, and by the way, c J. Stroud missed most of the second half, so call it your backup quarterback too. Actually, you know what, I've just convinced myself that we will do the same stuff because the Jets had or they will, I should say, because the Jets had a ton of success against a Houston offense. It's very similar to what we run. So strap up for the same game plan. Take from that tape against the text and see why
they were not successful. And in that game they would, you know, keep a back end for help and pass protection, then release into the flats and got some pretty good yards that way. So I'm looking at this tape compared to how the Dolphins excel. I think it's Devon Hchan's time to have one of his monster games. I mean the Washington game, a couple of touchdowns, like one hundred and something yards.
That's good, very good.
Titans game not as much, had some nice plays, but not as much yardage. I'm talking like Giants game, Devon Hchan or Buffalo or Denver game, like those games where he went off in those ones. That's what I'm looking for. In fact, my lock of the week. Do I do a lock of the week. I don't think I do, but I make my bold predictions. My prediction this week is I'm gonna call it a buck fitty yards from scrimmage for Devon Achan and we need it. Let's go ahead and pivot to those side of the football here,
Dolphins defense versus this Jets offense. What's new with this Jets offense and why was it so much better in the game against the Texans? Well, because they got many, many opportunities. I mean, you can't punt the ball back to the same offense for an entire game, expect to not have any points unless you're down for offensive lineman, starting quarterback, your top two receivers like the Texans were for them, though, Zach Wilson back in the lineup. Their
top receivers. Garrett Wilson really the only guy that I think challenges you in a lot of ways. Alan Lazard's been running around some routes out there this year. Randall Cobb has done a little bit of that, but mostly been inactive for games.
And their slot.
They like this rookie Xavier Gibbs, and he's kind of a jet sweep, kind of like screen punt return type of guy. Tyler Conklin and Jeremy Rucker, the two tight ends had big games on Sunday. They want to throw these vertical balls up the seam, and I think Zach was sharp with those in the game, but I don't think it's consistent for him to where like if he wants to challenge those tight windows and put the ball in those tight spots, he's going to get he's gonna
get picked off. So like, if he does that stuff again, I think Miami's defense is going to be able to react a lot better than a Houston defense that is well coached but just doesn't have the guns right now. On their offensive line much healthier Lake and Tomlinson is their left guard, Joe Tipman in the center is a rookie, and their right guard will be I gotta change some of my notes here. It's actually going to be Jake Hanson for them at the right guard position. Off the
tackle spot. Makai Becton's back. He didn't play in the game against US the first time around. He's a stout, big tackle that can really kind of, you know, dent the edge in the running game. Max Mitchell's the right tackle and running backs Breeze Hall is about a half snap taker fifty five percent. Dalvin Cook played about twenty percent of the snaps, and they want to get Izzy Aba Konda more reps, but that doesn't really happened yet so far this year, so a lot has changed, got
a lot healthier. Even Dwayne Brown was back, but he was playing that sixth offensive lineman role. In the game, Max Mitchell and Joe Tipman had injuries that they had to exit but did return from Connor McGovern did not play, and that was where Jay Hanson steps in at right guard because he's out for the year, and Cook and Breese both got banged up in the game.
But should play against the Dolphins on Sunday.
Their personnel two thirds of the time, eleven personnatch three wide receivers. That means you have to run out like an Allen Lazard, like Xavier Gibson. It's just not one of the better eligible groups in the National Football League. But they do run their twelve percent, their twelve personnel sixteen percent. Those two tight ends they like them both a lot, and then thirteen personnels even more at nineteen percent.
They also run a little bit of twenty one personnel, but that has gone down since you know, Cook is him playing as much as he was early in the year. We need the defense to get back on the stuff they were on prior to the final five minutes of Monday night football, and they could face the same challenges as the offense with the injury situation. Deshaun Elliott and Javon Holland are the two keys man with them, I love our ability to stop anybody because of the communication,
how well things get passed off. I've praised it all year long, but even without one of them, it looks like a disaster. It reverts back to the early part of the year when they couldn't stop a nosebleed for you know, the I guess the opener in game number four against.
The Buffalo Bills.
But that's what it looks like when you don't have those two guys back there, or one of them even at least. But also, the way we shut their stuff down the first time was relentless pressure because they couldn't block Zacher Christian, but they couldn't block Jalen Phillips. So you need Van Ginkle to get back to what he does best. I think that he does challenge Max Mitchell in a way that is not beneficial for the Jets that way. Same with Bradley Chubb off left side, like
that's gonna be a fun Matchuy McKay Beckton. I think that he can overpower Beckton a little bit because Becton is a huge dude, but he can kind of get, you know, in narrow footed, narrow healed, and that can get you off balance. Now, let's talk about Zach Wilson, because has your boy ever been more right about a
player than Zack Wilson. Just had a full on panic attack because I looked at my wallet on my desperate here and my normal debit card that's in the front of my wallet was in the back and I thought I lost it.
That was scary. Zach Wilson, Right, what's the deal with this guy?
No?
I mean, I don't think he can play guys.
He's coming off the best game of his career and he's done this briefly before. Right, Usually a driver too puts together a full half in this game. And where I was most impressed with some of his ideas of blitzes and hots, which is where I've said, like, if you can't do that in this league, you can't play quarterback. It's why there's such a disconnect for how good quarterback play is actually evaluated, and where I thought that was
his biggest challenge coming into the league. Because go back to his BYU tape like that was his entire tape. Like hit the back foot, scramble out to the right and create against these Mountain West defenses. Doesn't work in the NFL, and it hasn't worked for him when I've watched him in the past. It's the ability that to see the field that stands out right, or the lack of ability. That's the most important thing about quarterback play. Can you see how things unfold, how to attack it
before it happens. It just wasn't there, but it was on Sunday in the second half.
So why is that?
Well, I know early in the year they wanted him to play safe and protect the football and rely on their great defense. But that produced you know, ten touchdowns and ten games and the worst third down percentage of all time in NFL history at that point. They have improved upon that, but you just can't play that way. So I wonder as they kind of shifted to more aggressive The first ten plays of the third quarter were
all passing plays. Maybe Houston wasn't expecting that after five straight punts, but they allowed him to play more free, and you know, he was successful. But if you can if he does it again if he thinks he's gonna show up and just like I'm gonna play free and loose. Vic Fangio is smarter than that to just let him do that. So I think you could bait and switch some things, like show a blitz and he makes his determination pre snap and just that's where the ball's going,
because it worked against the Houston Texans. Like blitz that guy and rotate the hook, or like fake the blitz and back out, Like I think this is a good week to put like seven guys up on the line and then just kind of do like a Brian Flora's game plan almost because I think he'll come in here with a lot of confidence that he's not had in the past. And if he thinks he has a solution, I think he's gonna let it rip. But you're prepared and you know that. So it takes one interception to
really reset the entire thing. So getting to him early, forcing a mistake, that's my big key here. I think that we're gonna see a big, big regression here from Zach Wilson. My other prediction here, even if the Dolphins defense is as banged up as it might be, coming into the game. Breis Hall covered him three weeks ago. His big playability has been their entire offense this year until Sunday. You have to tackle him. But I think the key here is just to bully them in the trenches.
We did it last time, needed again here. They were banged up on the offensive line. Last time a round got healthier. Beckedon Dwayne Brown, Joe Tipman all back. But last time around this was the offensive line. The left tackle was Carter Warm he had a ninety one pass block efficiency, Tomlinson ninety five to five, Tipman ninety eight to one, and then the right guard, Chris Glazer was ninety six point one. Max Mitchell ninety five point two.
So here's your improvements from that group. So left tackle is now in much Kai Beck and his PBE is five points higher than Warren's. It's still not good. You want to be around ninety six ninety seven. He's under that at ninety four point eight. Tomlinson has actually improved by point four points. He's up to ninety five point nine. Joe Tipman has improved also a pretty good number here, ninety eight point three on the interior.
But here's where it gets rough.
Jake Hanson ninety six point six is you've got to be better than that a guard, and then Max Mitchell's ninety four point three. So both tackles have struggled big time. Here for the New York Jets. Big game Here for the Dolphins. Dominate on the perimeter with Jalen Ramsey and Xaving Howard. Give your attention to Garrett Wilson, tackle Breisee Hall. Force Zach Wilson to stay in the pocket and beat the crap out of this bad football team.
We need it. Go get a big victory.
Let's go ahead and take our last break right there and come back on the other side and talk about what's at stake, the keys of the game, and my areas of concern in it to exploit all that. Next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. As we do in the final segment here of these preview podcasts, what is at stake, Everything, Everything's at staken. We'll stay that way each week the
rest of the way. Every game is the most important game we get the time of year when you're a good football team and a win keeps you independently in the two seed and if Jacksonville then beats Baltimore in the night game, you would have Jailah back to the one seed. How good would that feel after this week?
Very very possible here, and we touched on this earlier, but the moment we lost a KC in Germany, to me, the goal was to achieve a top two seed to ensure that you're playing at least two home playoff games, provided you in the first one. Now, the top spot is still very much in reach. In fact, you win all your games, you'll have the top spot. But just winning this game makes the runway for a top two seed a whole heck of a lot shorter, as Buffalo
is now just two games back. But win this game and give yourself a magic number of at least three if the Bills lose to the Cowboys, which is very well in the realm of possibilities, and then match number goes down to two with three games to play, and you can just kind of win your way into the division championship before you even see Buffalo. But it does kind of feel like that Buffalo game is going to be a pretty big one now after losing to the Titans.
So gosh, it sucks, but anyway keys to victory.
Number one, keep Zach Wilson in the pocket. His natural instinct is to flee and create. Have to have good rush land integrity and force him to anticipate and win from the pocket and he'll take a lot of sex. So put him behind the chains and they'll make mistakes. I think Zach Wilson has a big couple of big mistakes in this game. That's kind of my prediction on that side of the football. Number two, attack the edge of the Jets defense the exact same as the Week
twelve game plan. Winning the edge and the run game keeps us ahead of the chains. It neutralizes their pass rush, and their heavy flooding of the middle of the field with zones opens up chances outside went outside the numbers. Win the game in my opinion, and then play sixty minutes. Every loss is a lesson, right The lesson from Monday is to play a full sixty minutes because in this league it is never over. And like coach McDaniel says,
let's make the game purposeful and learn from it. My areas of concern our line against a really tough pass rush and run defense up in the middle.
Garrett Wilson.
If we're down one two safeties, I worry about coverage bus and him getting free into the secondary areas to exploit the perimeter of their defense, their verticals against press, and their entire offense. I think you can really get back to your dominant Dolphins defense in this one.
My prediction.
Oh boy, I was bragging about how good I was in the last game, and that's kind of the humble pie I needed, right Like, we missed badly on that one, get damp and when I realized that Robert Hunt wasn't playing, I thought I probably should have changed this to thirty eight to ten. But even then, like, whoof way off, Time to get back on track. Unfortunately, you're not gonna
have the same confident Travis this week. I do not think this is the offense that can score with anyone that we've had in the past.
Because of the injuries.
I think we need the defense to bounce back, and again with injuries that could be a problem again.
But I think we get it done.
I know everybody wants to change everything they thought they knew because of one football game, but I'm promising you that Zach Wilson is not good all of a sudden because of one half of football.
I promise you that.
So I think you can turn him over and if he plays free and loose, that'll happen. If he doesn't, cool, just get those sacks that he's like takes every game. Wath them punt the ball five consecutive drives again and I'm gonna go twenty seven to seventeen. But that seventeen that the last touchdown come on a late score for the New York Jets. This game is all about one thing to me? Is this locker room that special different breed of players and connection and guys in terms of
how they play for one another. Is it the mentally tough, focus, determined group full of leaders that we've believed they are all year. Because if it is, we'll get a strong performance, we'll bounce back, we'll sweep at division rival, get that bad taste out of our mouse, and if not, we'll lose. Then you can pick all the holes you want in the program, all the comments about December collapses, all that stuff. I think you're a week early. If you're doing that
right now. If we lose to the Jets, have that We've seen this team respond to losses. This year in an emphatic way. Coming off a loss three to zero with a thirty six point point differential, let's make it four and oh with fifty and we be Gucci Son.
That's my podcast. Has my time a.
Little bit short this week because you know about the Jets, You know who these guys are, what they bring to the table, and what this matchup will look like. So that's the story and I'm sticking to it. In the meantime, you all please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple, on Spotify, tuned, in Stitcher, wherever you get your podcast from. Go ahead and leave us a rating, leave us a review. You can follow me on social at winkled NFL. You can follow the team at Miami Dolphins.
Check out the fish Tank podcast with my guys Seth and Juice, the YouTube channel for media Availabilities, Dolphins Today, and so much more, and last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot Com. Until next time, Finns Up, Carolina, Cameron, Daddy