Drive Time: Dolphins Panthers Week 6 Preview

It brings us to another preview podcast. Here we're looking ahead at Sunday to the Carolina Panthers by assessing the matchups, looking at the biggest storylines and the keys to victory from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Drift Time Podcast. Magie Daffy Shush, another sunny Sunday at hard Rock Stadium, and for those out of town fans, you might be excited to learn that

it's supposed to be an absolute scorcher on Sunday. We've had a tame October in terms of temperatures recently, but that is out the window when the lot of Panthers migrate south for this interconference affair. A heat wave is currently pushing through South Florida that will have you ninety degree temperatures on Sunday with seventy five percent humidity, and that gives you a real feel of ninety six degrees yauzer.

That's one of the many obstacles the windless Panthers will face when they arrive in South Florida for this matchup. Coach McDaniel spoke about the dangers of facing a winless team and how they kind of play with nothing to lose and the being pushed up against a losing streak like the Dolphins were last year on a five game losing streak, the same thing that Panthers face this year. That you can get a little bit more production, a little bit more gusto, a little bit more urgency when

you're coming off of those situations. So something keep an eye on. Coach touched on that. He touched on Bryce Young the Panthers as a whole in his Wednesday press conference. I'm not going to play the sound for you guys here because I think that it's you know, coach speaking about an opponent, and you can just find that on the YouTube channel on his media availability. That's going to be a brief history here of the Panthers before we

get to the storylines. Ahead of this contest, and the two thousand and eight Panthers is where I wanted to start this because that was one of my favorite teams of all time. The backfield of Jonathan Stewart DeAngelo Williams. They had shades of Ricky and Ronnie, or of Camara and Ingram and now Lens. The days of the two headed run, heavy attack running back. That doesn't really exist anymore. You have committees nowadays, and some teams have their top dogs,

but it's just different. Back then, it was like you have one good one great. If you have two really good ones, then you were kind of a unicorn across the National Football League. But then fittingly, I also fell in love with them from afar again. I used to always pick like one NFC team every year that I thought was going to exceed expectations and had players I liked, maybe went draft heavy on Travis's man crushes in the draft. I don't really do that anymore. I guess I just

don't care. I don't have the time now that I have a family and kids to actually, you know, follow around opposed to just being a full time football fan.

But those Panthers teams often put themselves in that category, and ironically again with one of the best runners of all time, but at the quarterback position with Cam Newton, and in those Newton years, they were playoff regulars, a threat to make a run through the NFC playoffs every single season since then, Man, it has been a slog I just stinkly remember Cam bawling out in that twenty seven team playoff game against the Saints in a very very fun back and forth game with Drew Brees and

a very talented Saints roster. Wasn't that the Saints team that got bounced by the no That was the following year I digress and I bet one that Panthers, thinking back to that game, think of rather fondly given their recent run, because a seven to nine season followed that, and then the floor fell out in twenty nineteen, a five and eleven campaign, Remember they still only played sixteen games in the sport, and that brought the end of the Ron Rivera era, the riv era. I'll be here

all week. Tip your watressus bartenders. Nine seasons, four playoff runs, and offensive Rookie of the Year followed by a Defensive Rookie of the Year followed by a Defensive Player of the Year that was the same guy, Luke Keikley, Walter Payton Man of the Year, and Thomas Davis and then Cam Newton book ends his Rookie of the Year with an MVP in twenty fifteen, and of course Rivera had

Coach of the Year in twenty fifteen as well. Enter Matt Rule five and eleven, five and twelve, one and four, and then a coaching change and Steve Wilkes steps in and guides them to a six and six finish, but they move on and I was against that, but I also love Frank Reich, so I understand that decision. Who was kind of the surprise dismissal of the league last

year falling on the sword in Indianapolis sword sword. And the reason I lay all of this out is to say, the type of turnover they've experienced typically creates a snowball effect of conflicting ideals and puts you in a difficult position from a roster construction standpoint. I mean, I told you guys this, I told you guys this, and not to victory lap here too hard five games in. But it was always always glaringly obvious to me as it was pre draft. They took the wrong guy. They just

took the wrong guy. They traded up eight spots and were staring one of the most polished quarterbacks to come out since twenty twenty when to and Burrow were coming out as polish quarterbacks. They were staring another freak of nature who quite frankly, might be the best ball of raw clay the position has ever seen, at least since Vick and Anthony Richardson. And they took the wrong guy.

You know, I see Jets fans questioning why Zach Wilson can't harness all this great talent that he possesses, and that confusion is really just a symptom of not knowing what the hell you're watching. Like sorry, not sorry, but bailing on clean pockets and throwing cool pro day throws down the field against for future insurance salesman doesn't really move the needle at this level. Bubba. Bryce Young was a master creator in college. He rarely won from structure.

And isn't it crazy how that through line like never changes. That's my soapbox, No, it's not, because to me, it's just so weird that CJ. Stroud is bawling and Bryce Young is so weird and the worst part and why I feel for Frank Reich. And it's pretty widely known that Reich and Josh McCown one of the sharpest quarterback minds in the business that we have. Josh McCown, they wanted CJ. Stroud. There's a clip going around of McCown saying to Straub, We'll find a court in Charlotte when

you get here. Didn't happen that way, as Dave Tepper, the owner, steps in and essentially turns the card in on draft night, in the way that billy bunch of numbers on Panthers Twitter might do. Might as well have those TikTok analysts make your pick at that point. Arm strength good forty times. Hey, send it in. That's good quarterback play. All right, I'm done. Can you tell I'm salty on that topic? Rookie quarterback struggling in an offense

that has seen a lot of turnover. They traded Dj Moore to go get Bryce Young, and they've missed him. In the wide receiver room as well. Adam Fielin is their current number one receiver and as far as proven players, that's about it at the wide receiver position. They have some promising young guys on the perimeter, but add the fact in that they haven't developed yet, and Felan has taking a step back in terms of his speed and

explosiveness and doesn't really constitute a huge threat anymore. But you can just see on tape them mcnory or ironing out some of the challenges that come with growing and learning together as a young offense, and the early hits of their last three draft classes have had issues staying on the field. It's another reason why you wind up with this win loss record they have, And that's kind of the recipe of an zero to five team, right, like a building team who sees some bad luck wipe

out some of their most promising stars. Their best draft pick of the last three years was j. C. Horn, but he's had a bunch of bad injury luck. Same with offensive tackle Brady Christensen. That same class produced Terrence Marshall, Tommy Tremble, Chuba Hubbard. Last year they get Iikei Kwanu, who had a rough first year. He's been better in year two, but still hasn't taken that massive jump. Matt Carrall was their next pick in that draft, and he's

not even there anymore. Then. The production from the rest of the class has been, for lack of a better word, wanting this year young Mingo, DJ Johnson, Chandler Zavala, and Jammie Robinson. Defensively, they're working in a new system. It's driven by four really nice pieces and Brian Burns, who's up for a new contract next March, Von Bell, Frankie Luvu and Derek Brown. That gives them the makings of a really nice defensive corps. They're still in the process

of getting up to speed. A new defensive coordinator, a zero Everro's system, a guy that was a candidate for the Dolphins down here in the DC role that eventually was taken by Vic Fangio. So that's the Panthers. They're currently zero to five. They've been one of the roughest teams to watch on tape. Maybe they bounce back here

a little bit on Sunday, Maybe they don't. Here are the key storylines I'm tracking heading into that game on Sunday, and it's all for the home side, like these preview games.

Like don't get me wrong, I love that we have them now that we're a really damn good football team, But you know, these are games you had to used to think about certain advantages, you know, West Coast team coming east, or the heat in South Florida, like that stuff just doesn't really matter to me anymore because I expected a certain standard here, and one of those is the first five and one start in twenty one years.

You might recall back in twenty or two thousand and three that they had a chance to go five and one, didn't make it happen because of an overtime loss. But with a win, you maintain your position atop the division. You maintain the tie or potentially overtake the Chiefs. Who don't they are gonna lose tomorrow night on TNF. But you never know, do you guys going back to that three season, do you remember that sixth game? Boy? Do I?

You know those weird memories you have that just stick forever for no apparent reason, Like it's not substantial, it's not significant. I'll never forget. My brother brought me over to his girlfriend's house one day after high school before

I could drive. He was a senior, I was a freshman, and I remember watching part in the Interruption the day after we lost in overtime to the Patriots on that long Troy Brown touchdown, And for whatever reason, I remember sitting in that room watching that show when probably what was going on in the other room I didn't wasn't privy to the time, but now probably am a little

more privvy too. But Cornheiser and Will Bond were doing an entire segment on why olindol Mario had missed two kicks off the dirt despite that being his home field. I'll never forget that, and I hate that game. That was the last time the Dolphins had a chance to go or yeah, they think that was the last time I had a chance to go five to one. Didn't do it. They did do it twenty one years ago, though, back in two thousand and two. Next storyline, Bama v Bama.

There are four Bama quarterbacks in the National Football League right now. Two was one of them, and he's gonna face all three of the others in the next three consecutive games. He's already one to zero, beating Mac Jones back in week two. Now he gets the latest highsman winner there at Alabama, and of course he'll see Jalen Hurts next week, and then Mac Jones again in week number eight. Two trends that play into our defensive splits here is in my next storyline, we struggled in two

games defensively. Those games were quarterbacked by top ten players at their position in Herbert and in Josh Allen, and those games were on the road. We allow seventeen points seven points per game in the other three games, two of those at home won against a broken Patriots offense, and I think that's super impressive considering that those two games were multiple score leads in the third quarter. The Panthers, our next storyline here, are in search of win number one.

Just to be privy of some tom foolery, playoffs are probably out the window. Teams like this tend to have nothing to lose. They tend to empty the playbook a

little bit. I think back to that twenty twenty one game versus the Jets when they were down here, and I want to say they went up to seventeen to ten at one point in that game, despite being an awful football team that year, and they were throwing double passes, they were going for on fourth and medium, and Zach Wilson was doing Zach Wilson stuff, but they were still like pushing the ball somehow just be weary of a team with nothing to lose, and then finally here my

last storyline staying on pace offensively. This gets into the privilege as a Dolphins fan right now, and Seth always makes fun of me for this on the in the press box, when we're watching games at the radio station, we're doing radio, whatever we're doing. He always gets on me about this because I have a particular, you know, certain statistical interests that I think can kind of back some of the things that I have claimed are going

to happen. And some of those things are like, hey, to go throw another touchdown pass here and boost your passer rating, Like I wouldn't mind seeing that over a two yard rushing touchdown sometimes. And when it comes to the Dolphins all time pacing offense, I think it's worth tracking to a pacing for over five thousand passing yards. I want to see that Tyreek pacing for close to

two thousand receiving yards. I want to see that. Can we sustain a three hundred and fifty yards passing per game mark one hundred plus for Tyreek five hundred on total offense? Can we say he is the number one rushing offense in the NFL and passing offense. I want all those things to happen. So I want a five hundred yard day, and these are the kind of teams you can get those again, So those are a few

things I'm keying on. Let's go ahead and take our first break right there and come back on the other side, and we will break down this matchup in terms of offense and defense and how the Panthers line up on both sides of the football. There. That's all next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. Can you guys sense a different sound today. I'm using a new microphone and I hope it works out. I'm very excited about the quality of the sound. Just

let me know a few noticed the difference. Let's go ahead and get into the Dolphins offense versus the Panthers defense here, and you guys know the matchups by now. The quarterback to a tongue by Lowa. The safeties he will face Von Bell plays one hundred percent of their snaps and Jeremy Chinn plays just fifty five percent. That was interesting to me. He kind of is a essentially nickel defender at this point in a defense that I think should feature him some more. He's a freak athlete.

He can do multiple things going front and backwards inside the side. Just think you should see more of Jeremy Chin and then Sam Franklin, a third safety, also plays fifty percent plus of the snaps, So they run a lot of that big nickel package with three safeties and just two corners. Perhaps one of the reasons you do that is because they don't They're down their top corner right now. JC Horn's not playing, so CJ. Henderson is their top perimeter guy. He plays seventy two percent of

the snaps. Actually, Dante Jackson plays more, sorry, seventy five percent for Dante Jackson, seventy two for CJ. Henderson, and then Troy Hills their primary inside corner at forty eight percent of the workload. But most of Jeremy Chin's snaps come in the slot as well, so interesting matchups there. In terms of athletic ability, all these guys can go

a little bit. We'll talk more about that here in just one second, and then as far as their front goes, that's where I think they're probably best in this defense. Derek Brown is an absolute load and he plays eighty seven percent of the snaps on the interior. That's impressive. Shy Tuttle plays sixty two percent. He's a very good player as well. Keep an eye on those two guys. And then Deshaun Williams plays fifty two percent on the interior. Off the edge another place where they feature a like

all pro type of talent in Brian Burns. Man. He is good, he is bendy, he is twitchy, he's explosive. He had a forced fumble in the game down here back in twenty twenty one when he went up against Jesse Davis. Luckily that won't happen again. But keep an eye on Brian Burns and Derek Brown and then Von Bell and Frankie Luvu kind of my key guys. Keep an eye on. But back to the edge, Yettier Gross

Mottos is a length like Brian Flores front edge. You might compare to like Emmanuel Ogba, but he has nowhere near the juice of Ogba. He plays fifty percent of the snaps, and then Justin Houston played forty five percent of the snaps off the edge. It's it's to me, it's block. Brian burns and you'll be good. And the Dolphins have done such a good job of printing edge rushers from wrecking games so far this season, and then running backs versus linebackers were down to know Moster and Aukmed.

We'll see if Jeff Wilson gets activated, which, by the way, if you didn't hear the news already, devon Acham on the injurieserve officially, and Jeff Wilson has had his twenty one day window activated or he's been opened that window, and they can activate him at some point in the next twenty one days. But Frankie Luvu eighty eight percent of the snaps go Koogs. He is a fantastic linebacker formerly of the New York Jets, and then a familiar face Kammu Guruje Hill plays forty seven percent of the

snaps in that defense. Again operate primarily out of big nickel packages. In fact, nickel is their sixty four percent preferred defensive package, but they do run a lot of bass. There's not a lot of sub package beyond that twenty four percent base in their three to four, which gets them Derek Brown on an edge gets Shy Tunnel over the nose tackle and then they operate with Brian Burns primarily as their top rusher off the edge and Frankie

Luvu holding down that biddle linebacker spot. They do operate from dime defense five percent of the time. They play some zero coverage ten percent. I can't imagine they'll do that in this game. You'd be crazy to do that against the Dolphins offense. But they're in two high fifty eight percent of the time and single high thirty seven percent of the time, which is actually fifth most of

the National Football League. I think we'll see a lot less of that this week as they again good try it, Try and play single high against Miami and see what happens. That's what happens when the Giants kind of went single high or they busted, but they turned into what turned out to be a single high look on that sixty nine yard touchdown pass against Tyreek. We also had the thirty five yard touchdown pass to Tyreek and single high

against the Chargers. And we also had the I don't remember how the yards it was forty seven yard completion to set up a game winner there against the Chargers. Again against single high with a man free coverage with press coverage underneath. Don't do that. You can, I hope you do, but I wouldn't do it. So they're almost almost exclusively based on first down, almost exclusively nickel on second down, So you can kind of manipulate how you want to attack them with. You know, I love that

fast twenty one personnel. Or they get sometimes three backs out there and go to work on teams stuck in their base package with all the speed we have it running back might be different now without a chan, But then they influx a heavy use of dime on third down, regardless of the down and distance, So they play as many light boxes as anybody else does. You know, we're kind of in that category as well. But go back to the Vikings tape and they ran six man or

fewer boxes eighty percent of their snaps. And that's with Jefferson, Addison and Osborne as the top three receivers. I like Miami's a lot more, although Jefferson and Tyreek is probably a take your pick option, but Addison Waddle that's where the big standout is. And then obviously you know the things that Barrios and Cedric and Craikkraft and those guys can all do. Although crak Craft's now here right now.

You get what I'm saying, but you never know. I'm guessing they fear our deep passing game a little bit more. Maybe maybe not. If again, if not try it, try me. I wouldn't do it either way. Here are there season numbers in those departments. So five man boxes is like unheard of, and that's a lot of third down. So that's thirteen percent, But six man boxes is their preferred option thirty seven percent. Rahiem, you're up, big dog like, if they're gonna play that, you have to run the football.

Seven man box is not light, but it's not heavy thirty one percent, and then eight man boxes just twelve percent of the time. So another game of deep balls and running game. That was kind of my forecast last week and that worked out pretty good. Will it work out again here? I tend to think so, because I don't think anybody can stop this offense. And they've also struggled tackling, I think partially because they are banged up

on the back end. Their best cover corner is down Hutch JC Horn, and so is their best linebacker, Shaq Thompson. That's a tough loss for those guys for posterity. They're also without one of their better run defenders and Henry Anderson, and they're also down three offensive linemen, two starters and Brady Christiansen and Austin Corbett, and then one of the replacements for the starter at left guard and Chandler Zavalla. So down to left guard number three on this offense.

That's in the next segment though, But back to the miss tackles forty three are the third most behind the Giants and Texans. And then last thing here structurally zero everro He's been in that Fangio tree and subscribe to

lots of the same principle. So light boxes, some fronts that leave those interior gaps open, like No zero or one technique, so they can combat some of our speed off the edges, but it does leave them lighter in the inside, and without Shaq Thompson, they've struggled to fit those inside runs, so they're averaging Teams are averaging four point nine yards per rush against them, that's fifth most in football, and the seven hundred and four yards allowed

total is the seventh most in football. Some of the specific matchup I'm looking for here, Dante Jackson is feisty as hell. Number twenty six. Just keep an eye though, if he goes out to Tyreek Hill, because he never saw a gamble. He didn't want to take those double moves that Tyreek can hit, or just those quick releases

at the last scrimmage. Like if he gets feisty and wants to come up and press and try a jam and you strike out, usually that means it's a home run on the back end to use a couple of baseball terms there. But he's Tyreek is just so adept at finding those little things in guys games and exploiting them. So I expect whether it happens early or he comes back middle of the game and says, hey too, I got this move on twenty six. When he's out there, check it out and keep an eye for a game

changing play when ten is across from twenty six. Jackson didn't play last week. He was a game time decision, so I assume he is back in the fold there, but Deshaun Jamison replaced him. I mean, yeah, if it's not good with the starter, I can't imagine it's much better with the backup going against a guy like Tyreek Hill, and we have to have an answer for two guys in this defense. I mentioned it already, Brian Burns and Derek Brown. I'd add Von Belt to that as well.

Those are the playmakers as well as Frankie Luvu. But Burns is one of the best pass rushers in the busines has just insane bend and burst and strength, one of the best finishers in terms of finishing off his sacks. Brown is power, power, power, and I thought we did a pretty good job on Dexter Lawrence last weekend. He did have that bowl rush that forced an interception, So

not a clean job across the board. And Brown is akin to him in the way that he can kind of push the pocket and get your quarterback off that spot in that interior pressure. It's the worst place to have pressure in the National Football League. So just keeping one on that matchup. Connor Williams is one of the best centers in the National Football League, and I think

we've all grown to appreciate that now. Finally, despite what you know last year's PFF grades when I said, or whatever the case may be, or a couple of bad snaps in training camp, he's one of the best snarors in football. But if there's one thing that can get him, it's power, and Derek Brown has that power. The way Miami runs the ball off the perimeter really quells pass rushes. So I just wondered if you see more of that and continue to, you know, keep these top edge rushers

and contained based upon the system. And then I mentioned Frankie Luvu again, go Kugs, He's a playmaker man. He and Von Bell are two guys that I just think Tu needs to have eyes on every single snap. They like to change the picture post nap, kind of like

we do done here. Let's be a fun chess match to watch as he goes up against those guys, and then obviously Frankieluvu in the Running Game versus Raheem Moster Raheem has had so many instances of one on one at the point of attack and those players are always super fun to watch. I think we're gonna see a script like this in this game. A ton of run game success, a lot of quick hitters against soft coverage, and then some intermediate timing throws that we typically hit.

And then I think that turns it into night night time where they get a little bit frustrated. They kind of creep up a little bit more tired cornerbacks in this hot, hot heat, who are you know, aren't particularly fast on the perimeter. I always love looking at the speed athletic metrics of the opposing defense and CJ. Henderson for four flat guy, but he builds to that speed seventyeth percent tile ten split, so you can kind of get him in the long game. And then Dante Jackson

is similar. Four to three to two guy. That's great, but seventy fifth percent tile in the ten split. I think you take that short stuffy, then you start pressing their toes to kind of get them to squat, and then you break it off the top of the route, whether it's comebacks or a takeoff move, sudden movement at the top of the route, a secondary move. We'll get these guys taking the cheese and that's where you can hit your big explosive passing plays. They're allowing twenty eight

point eight points per game. They've allowed seventeen touchdowns. Those are both the fourth most. A bad formula for a Dolphins offense that is cruising right now. They play a lot of soft and off, keep the roof on the house and hold opposing offenses to the seventh least YAK with the combination of just seven point four average yards depth of target. So they do a good job of limiting big plays and tackling well, not in the tackling numbers, but as far as YAT goes, they prevent it from

being too bad. You might have to take the longer route here, you know, more plays to get your points rather than the quick explosive drives, especially without eight chan back there. But who knows we do such a good job of taking teams out of their comfort zone. I would never say I expect the opposing defense to dictate any terms here. For the Miami Dolphins, they blitz twenty one percent of the time, again similar to our rates, because again the defensive structure here is similar. We are

at twenty two point seven percent. They do get pressure on twenty percent, and again that's a lot of Brian Burns doing what he does best. I always like our interior three that we have going right now because of how well connected they are playing inside and Connor Williams just has this penchip man for going over and helping either guy at the guard position to find work in the pass protection game. So then it comes down to

finding a way to contain Burns. Would make a lot of sense to help him there, but again, we so frequently see the scheme create so much indecision for the edges and wind up utilizing aggressiveness against them to get the overplay. And then you have an answer for that. Gosh, it's fun covering a team that is very smart offensively, So who the hell knows what coach has cooked up, But I trust him to do whatever it is he's gonna do. I mean, why would you not. So that's

the Dolphins offense versus the Panthers defense. Let's go ahead and take a break here and come back on the other side and do Panthers offense first, Miami defense. That's next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. Sunday Sunday Sunday Dolphins hosts the Panther and Bryce Young comes to town for his first visit to hard Rock Stadium, and we take a look at the matchups here, Young against a trio of safeties

and Holland Elliott and Jones. I've loved the way Elliott has kind of molded into the lineup here after that first game thought we missed him pretty badly against the Buffalo Bills in Week four. And the receivers that they'll throw against Xavier Howard and Cater Kohu and Eli Apple and Justin Bethel and maybe Camp Smith, who the hell knows. They are. DJ Chark at sixty nine percent of the workload, but that's because he's missed some time. So when he's healthy,

he's their go to guy. Jonathan Mingo is a rookie who's played sixty percent of the snaps, and then Terris Marshall has played fifty one off the perimeter, but you go inside the slot. Adam Thielen has played ninety one percent of the total snaps, but he is a seventy seven percent slot guy. Hayden Hurst, a tight end who I love a whole bunch, plays fifty six percent of the snaps, and then Tommy Tremble plays twenty five percent of the reps. That's their skill group. We'll talk about

them here more in just a moment. And then on the interior, like I said, they're down to left guard three. I think it's gonna be Cad Mays at that spot. Otherwise, the right guards a former college tackle in throck Morton is his last name, and then Bradley Boseman's the center.

He's a good player, but the guard position has been shaky for them, as has the tackles in Aiki Kwanu and Taylor Moten, who go up against potentially Jalan Phillips, Bradley Chubb, Andrew Van gingkld Manuel Ogba, and then the running backs. Miles Sanders gets fifty four percent of the workload versus Cuba Hubbard's forty one percent of the workload. And if you're looking for variety, and we'll talk this is a theme here in this part of the podcast,

there's just not much there. They run eleven personnel eighty seven percent of the time, they run twelve personnel nine percent of the time, and that gives you what five percent left. The next highest grouping is oh one personal let's say four wide receivers, one tight end set, basically

your spread offense. That's two and a half percent. They've been trying to find the right mix of options for Bryce, and you know, Frank Reich recently said that he regretted not having Terris Marshall a bigger part of their game plans. So I think the natural assumption there is that we get to see more of him now. Their wide receiver corps is the opposite of ours. It's big bodies who try to win contested jump balls. At their best, Theelen has been the go to guy, and you know it's

pretty obvious they pump the ball to him. He operates primarily out of the slot. But the root of their issues to me has been threefold from what I can see on tape. Number one, Rookie quarterbacks typically don't see things as quick as a veteran, and that looks to me to be the case on offense. I think you can see it in their pre snap alignment issues. They are the most penalized team in the National Football League forty one total flags. They have the most pre snap

infractions with twenty three. When I watch them on tape every week, you see some frustrating body language out there and typically form number nineteen. First, they run a ton of screens. Ask yourself, why why would Denver do that? Travis it's Carolina, but Brian Windhorse Meam lives on why would they do that? Remember when Adam Gase gave up on Ryan Tannehill back in twenty eighteen, in that game against the Colts and refuse to let him put the ball in the air with a lead on like third

and six plus. You kind of get some of that here. I watched three games and on multiple occasions Bryce Young forgets the play There was a screen pass against Minnesota where he takes a five step drop and then remembered mid snap it was a screen. Then he like threw it and put his head down like he was frustrated at himself and just accepted that he's gonna get an ineligible man downfield flag because you can't do that in

the screen game. It just doesn't have the full compliment of the offense yet, Like they are not into the back pages the way that we are. There's no real checks, so what you see is kind of what you get. I don't believe there's a vast knowledge of the playbook in terms of, you know, wrinkles and adjustments and things. You can kind of understand why the structure of the

offense is the way that it is. You can just see it by the number of times they go directly into a bad look like we're out number counted here to the strength, but we still run the ball into it. Doesn't make much sense. I'm not sure if he doesn't have the autonomy or he's just not there yet. I tend to lean towards the ladder, but either way, the result is a very very staggedant offense. You are interested, go watch the Vikings game and how Brian Flores cooked

up a plan against these guys. Simulated pressures can create splash plays for your defense, and I think we get some that this weekend, which means lots of blitzes, lots of guys in lads scrimmage. Flores, you know, zero blitzes really confused him. They brought seven against six to get a scoop and score in that game where they just did not account for the extra rusher. And when you're hot like that and you have a free runner because there's more guys than you can block that are coming,

you have to throw the ball. And he doesn't always do that. So, like, you know, I just don't think he has a feel for what he's looking at in terms of potential, you know, confusion from what the defensive coordinator wants to do to confuse him. His pocket management at best has been chaotic, I would say, bluntly, probably just terrible, So I think that Fangio is going to have a chance to show him something simple rotate to complex,

and that's where I get to some predictions here. I think we're going to get multiple interceptions here, make life miserable on Bryce Young. I expect us to double our pit count in this game, go from two to four, if not more. That rhymes. That's kind of my bold prediction here. I think we'll change the picture post snap. Young will predeterminedly make throws that we have guys waiting on. And if I'll get hyper specific here, one of two

things is gonna happen in this game. Cater will get his first pick of the year in coverage against Adam thieland Fland and Javon Holland or Javon Holland will jump one, maybe both, but at least one of those is gonna happen. They are just really struggling right now in past pro as well, especially on the interior, and doesn't help that the quarterback bells on good pockets and tries to create like he did in college. You just can't do that.

And I understand why he's not trusting of the pocket because it hasn't been there hasn't been a lot of pocket integrity for him to work with. Injuries play a huge role in that. Again, down two starters and the interior swing guys also down. They were just struggling bad

at the left guard position. And I actually noticed that the guy that was out there, Zavala, was struggling with the same things that made Zach Steeler so effective, like push pull, grip strength, power moves, and arm over swim moves.

But we'll see it can't be any better, right, So the pressure numbers allowed for these guys at Kwan who has twelve, Zavala, the left guard was at tw but he's going to be out for Caid Mays who has four and sixty five pass blocking snaps, Boseman ten, throck Morton six, and then Taylor Moten eighteen off the right side. That's a high pressure number yielded there. There just hasn't been a lot of connectivity on that offensive line. In general. The pass pro doesn't look to me like it's currently

operating as a singular unit. You know, Moten has really struggled with speed, and I'm curious to see, you know, either potential matchup there, whether it's Jalen Phillips back into the fold or if it's a heavy dose of Andrew van Ginkel off that side once again, because the tapes that I watch, the things that give him the most issues are speed, but also speed to power, and that's

like Phillips's best move. So it's something to keep an eye on there if we go, you know, matchup wise, if JP goes fifteen versus their right tackle, could be a fun potential takeaway option there for Miami with a good strip sack of something. And then third, I mentioned it earlier, they just struggle to identify a hierarchy among the weapons because the separations. It's like twenty twenty one Dolphins. Man, it's been bad. Twenty twenty Dolphins. Let's not put Waddle

in there. All five of their targets are under three yards average separation. In order of top separation, it goes Marshall, then Hurts Hurst, sorry, then thelan then Chark and then Mingo like charged. That low surprises me. So perhaps we can generate some tight window throws and get some hands on footballs. Just want two picks this year. Would love to see that change. And again, Thielan's the engine of

the offense that it runs through. So I'm looking for a big game for Cater Kohub because I like his matchup in that spot. In the slot, the most frequent thing they do successfully is get in breaking routes over the ball from outside leverage corners. I like how much we saw Holland play the hook zone last week, that kind of five to eight yards over the football. Maybe he can intersect on some of those throws again, jump out and take it back for six. Maybe. I'm very

curious to see how they match up. But like I said, thelan's the go to guy. I want to see Cater inside and then on the outside. Like all these guys are big, physical players, which are the players that X matches up the best with, Like Darren Waller. Right, X was very good against Daron Waller in that Giants game. I expect X to have a big game here as well. So there you go. That's the defensive breakdown. What's at stake in this game. It's a copy and paste from

last week. NFC opponents have these smallest impact in terms of tie breaking scenarios for playoff implications, but still each win and loss counts the exact same. Right by the column standards not by the tie breakers, but wins and losses all the same. You're at home against a struggling football team with a big primetime game next week. I think it's a good test for truly adhering to the task at hand, the day at hand. Don't look ahead. A win gives you five and six starts. That's impressive.

It keeps you on top of the division, it keeps you at pace at worst with Kansas City at top of the conference, and it gives you a chance if you get If you get it, you go on the road next week because like you can. You know, like in college football, for instance, they always build up a big matchup, like a big SEC matchup, right and then someone loses the previous week to a power a group of five school. It's like, oh so much for that matchup.

You're in a position right here to go get your cupcake, Go get your win, and then you can really prove yourself and change the narrative that has falsely developed around you in terms of you're a fraud against big teams. They had one good team this year. Well, I digress. The Chargers are a good team. I'm not doing that argument here. We got blown out by the best team

we face so far. I get the idea there, but to call them frauds and say they can't beat good teams, give them a chance to play more good teams, Here's what I'm trying to say. And you get a chance to set yourself up for that situation with a win here in this one. I also enjoy the playoff probability leverage charts. Essentially, what are your playoff odds if you

win or if you lose? A good example of the NFC games having the smallest impact is that our playoff odds increase by just two percent based on these models with that win last week over the Giants, so it'll be the same this week. We stand to gain three percent from our current eighty two percent playoff odds, but a loss in the wrong direction it goes fourteen percent backwards. So that's what's at stake. You have more to lose than you have to gain here, and that's kind of

how these games go, right. My three keys to victory identify Brian Burns, Derek Brown, and Von Bell in every single snaps their game wreckers. Contain them, don't give them takeaway or sack opportunities. Make sure you have doubles when you need them, when you have deep drops. Make sure that von Bell's not, you know, falling off into zones that he shouldn't be in. Just key those three guys every single snap. Key number two. Keep the Panthers offense guessing.

Change the picture post snap, and you're gonna have lots of success because they don't have answers and wrinkles and adaptations to what their original plan is. So keep the offense guessing. And then three is take what the defense gives you. I think you're gonna get soft and off and very conservative defense here. And their structure is kind of like ours. Limit big plays, rally and tackle. They haven't done that a good job of that, but that's the structure of the defense. Try to win in the

red zone. So take what's there, run the football, stay on schedule. And then the areas of concern versus areas to exploit. I don't think these are necessary when your two touchdown favorites. So we'll return this segment next week against the Philadelphia Eagles. My prediction here thirty seven to six.

I don't think they'll get anything done on offense. I think they stand to make us sustain a little bit longer drives comparatively, which reduces the potential of forty burger by a little bit, But no reason to think we cannot execute. I think we'll see some short fields, maybe even score a touch on defense, but I have three takeaways, a bunch of sacks, an efficient passing attack, and a good running game and cruise into the winner circle as the game begins to look lopsided and then gets out

of hand by the early third quarter. I thought my forty four to ten last week would have been freaking perfect if not for the pick six. That's my time. We'll have a Panthers beat writer on the podcast tomorrow. I have not yet identified who that is because I am sending emails much to no avail. So let me know if you know someone who wants to do my podcast for the callant of Panthers. Will also have Kyle Crabs on Friday, and then Daniel Oyafusi of the Miami

Here will talk Dolphins defense on the Friday podcast. That's gonna be my time. You all please be sure to subscribe, rate, review all that fun stuff. Follow on Twitter at Winkfold NFL for all the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the Fish Tank podcast with Seth and Juice. Check out the YouTube channel for media availabilities and Dolphins Today is so much more, and last, but not least, Miami Dolphins dot Com Until next time. Fins Up got on on Cameron, Daddy's come and hol