Drive Time with Travis Wingfield begins.
Now let me check your pulse if you're not of.
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, as fast as Week one came and went, we are onto Foxborough. We are previewing this Sunday night football showdown against rival in New England. Key matchups, keys to victory, critical stats. These games are fun to preview when you're excited about your team. From the Baptist
Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Drive Time Podcast.
Maggie Ah.
The New England Patriots once again once a thorn in our collective side. The Dolphins have recently flipped the script in this series though. We are looking for a little bit of payback after a Week seventeen lost just nine months ago that almost kept us out the postseason. The Patriots are in year three, Posts Brady, and it's been an adjustment. Actually Year four twenty twenty one, twenty two, Yes, year four, that first year they qualified for the postseason.
And then had a rough go in the wild card round up in Buffalo. But I think that season that mac Jones had as a rookie gets a little bit lost in the weeds. After a really tough experimental year last year under a variety of coordinators and play callers that could not be identified and had no previous offensive experience in Joe Judge and Matt Patricia as they attempted to implement a wide zone system despite no coaching history or player history in that system, and it just never took.
Eventually they reverted back to more of a man gap concept in the running game, but through some injuries and up and down play, it was a challenging sophomore season four Mac Jones, and we saw lots of frustration on the sidelines after many three and out and turnover level series. The reason that he was a first round pick was the same reason he found success in that rookie year. He sees the field very well. He throws a pretty
accurate football, He's a good decision maker. More on him in a moment, but he's obviously the marquee talking point when discussing the post Brady era. After a run of eight consecutive trips to the AFC Championship Game. With three rings over that span, and of course sixth total in two decades. It's hard to fill the shoes of Brady,
but Belichick is still doing what he's always done. And look, it's not a secret to say their draft classes have not developed a ton of star players that constitute Pro Bowls, all Pro second contracts. But you often need to look at the entire body of a roster building concept to get a feel for how a team is at constructing the roster. And at the bottom line, Belichick year in and year out, develops a defense that performs. Now can he develop an offense is going to perform? That's the
big question here in the post Brady era. But the defense every year is good, and they did it again
last week against the Philadelphia Eagles. Last year eleventh in points allowed, twenty twenty one second points allowed twenty twenty seventh in points allowed, and that was after being top ranked in twenty nineteen, which was Brady's final year, obviously, So while the offense undergoes this transformation tries to find its identity, it's the same story on defense, a secondary driven unit that employs more six seven to eight defensive
back packages than anybody else and gets production from every avenue of roster acquisition. The same unheralded defensive line that deserves to get way more praise is pretty much intact Lawrence Guy Dietrich Wise, these guys have been there since the Clinton administration.
That's a joke.
They imported Devon Godshaw a few years ago, and Christian Barmore's arguably the best among the hit and one of their best draft hits in recent years. They pair that with the elite pass rusher in Matthew Judon, with supplementary pieces like Josh Ucea and what looks like another Hit and Keon White in the second round out of Georgia Tech. They're twenty five and twenty seven since twenty twenty, that
includes the playoff loss. They're off to an zero to one star in a very difficult AFC East and AFC in general, and they're going to give the Dolphins their best shot in primetime in front of their home crowd, in a game they know they have to get to avoid falling to zero to two with a home divisional loss, and both games at home for that matter. Not quite the same number of storylines as we had last week on the podcast, but certainly not short on them either.
Let's go ahead and get to those key storylines. Now.
Some of these are going to give some crossover into the matchup section, so we'll avoid getting into too much numbers and tell of the tape on some of these. Let's go ahead and start here. The Dolphins are four to zero against New England in games started by QB one, and just like we saw in Week one, these wins typically occur when Tua is at his best in the
fourth quarter. I can think back to the twenty twenty game when he extended a third down play in low red zone and rushed for a game clinching touchdown, and the twenty twenty one opener delivered a strike to Devonte Parker for a first down when they were backed up on a second and twelve play and the Patriots needed just a field goal to win, had all three timeouts and a three and out there pretty much puts them into field goal range, but he converts, the Dolphins, run
the clock out and win the football game last year wasn't quite the same game script, but he did hit a critical pass for Yachtse on fourth and eight to Jalen Waddell right before half to give Miami a commanding seventeen to zip lead. Next storyline, minimal possessions every time these two teams meet. Will that change with a new defensive coordinator in Miami and a new offensive coordinator in
New England. A kin to the first storyline, these game scripts tend to follow the same well script every time. Both teams have these methodical drives that shorten the number of drives that each team gets in throughout the course of a game. Both teams play really strong on third down offensively, but even better in the red zone defensively, and you wind up with these seventeen to sixteen finals
for the opener. Last year, I did a study and found that Dolphins and Patriots games going back to twenty twenty when Brian Flores really arrived with his new defense here, but not twenty nineteen because that was kind of a wash of a year, But these games average two point two possessions fewer per team than league average going back to that season. Last year's opener was similar, two possessions fewer for each and the Week seventeen game did not
have the same track. But we're also down a couple of quarterbacks in that game with an in game injury,
throwing a wrench into the entire thing. Now, what happened in twenty twenty the second year of Brian Flores implementing his defense and the eventual Josh Boyer promotion in twenty twenty one, who stayed on in twenty twenty two when Flores was let go, and we saw that game plan have some success allile the first Buffalo game last year where they dared Josh Allen to stay patient and take a profit in the short game, which led to a lot of defensive snaps, but just nineteen points and frankly,
multiple balls within our player's hands that could have turned into sacks and fumbles and picks just didn't secure and make the big plays. It did hold the Patriots to seven and sixteen points, and seven of those points offensively came on a pick six for the Patriots a year ago. But now with Fangio in the fold, will that change. I'm pretty curious to see if it does or does not.
Another element of that is the addition of Bill O'Brien, an offensive minded coach who has seen a ton of different systems in his time with Houston, Alabama and now creating the twenty twenty SETH three Patriots offense. He's operated that deep dropback, slow developing type of system where Deshaun Watson would big play hunt in Houston Gross. He's run the quick RPO game at Bama. A little bit of
everything here for Bill O'Brien. We'll get to their tape in the next segment, but real quick, some numbers on their approach. In Week one, they pushed the ball downfield more than league average, at fourteen point eight percent on twenty plus yard throws, the same percentage of throws in the intermediate fourteen point eight percent. Comparatively, Miami threw eighteen percent on twenty plus yard throws and a whopping thirty
one point one percent to the intermediate. Miami's a little bit different than most teams as far as their success. Jones was three for eight on deep shots with fifty two yards, but both were touchdowns or both touchdowns came on that the ten to nineteen yard throws, he was four for eight with fifty one yards and the third touchdown. Ironically, his interception was in the short passing game zero to
nine yards. Last year, Jones threw fifteen point two percent of the time twenty plus yards downfield and fifteen point six so not much of a change, and their success was some both years as well. And for posterity, Jones's average depth of target and time to throw in twenty twenty three has been eight point three yards and two point three to eight seconds compared to eight point two yards, which is obviously almost the exact same but two point six ' nine three tenths of a second higher in
twenty twenty two. Again one game sample size, but I think it's worth mentioning in terms of differences we could potentially see change the common game script these two teams tend to follow when they meet. Will it be another twenty to sixteen game? I hope not, but it's possible. Can the Dolphins build on their Week one success in pass protection against a front that typically generates issues for
their opponents? I could not have been more impressed by how the Dolphins processed on the offensive line Sunday in Los Angeles, and a big part of that is Mike McDaniel's system. And what I said all year last year and really all offseason this season, and why Chris Greer tells you you guys are more worried about the offensive line than we are because Mike McDaniel built this roster around his vision for two A strengths and getting the ball out quick and his system that keeps rushers at
bay with so much eye candy and false keys. Do we understand that yet? Can we possibly get that through our skulls collectively? I'm not saying you guys don't, but there's a cognizantee out there that does not get that through their minds. Yeah, it's important to have good offensive line play and getting good solid one on one protection
and true drop back situations on third and lungs. It's important, But for the majority of the game, a reason why this offensive line keeps to a clean is because of what McDaniel doesn't schematically and how quick two it gets the ball.
Of his hands.
So why not put your resources towards guys that can maximize that in the back end When you minimize your offensive line play, can does that make sense? It makes perfect sense to me. Maybe I'm taking crazy peals, but I was impressed by how they processed on the O line on those true dropback spots and third long guys were finding work they were passing off, they were chipping and attaching to blocks to help out guys when they didn't have work getting games picked up. The stunt slants
and twists just really good work all around. Nobody has a more expansive game package in terms of stunt, slants and twists than Bill Belichick. That's designed to create confusion in your pass protection scheme. And for the quarterback, he's liable to blitz a lot or he might not. Either way, there will be simulated pressure looks. So how this team processes a lot of creativity upfront from Belichick and company really fascinates me. Next storyline, former Fins and Pats meeting
back up again. Parker, Gasiki and Godshaw, Barrios, Bailey, Win and Bethel some more recent than others. Gasiki, Bailey, and Win. We're on the field for that Week seventeen game last year in opposite uniforms.
Parker in year two in New England.
Godshaw has been there since twenty twenty, similar timelines for Barrios and Bethel. Lots of familiarity here in division. Not as much coaching staff carryover as there once was, but it's always fun to me to watch who can have a good day against their former team, and then the Dolphins run defense gets a second straight test. The Patriots didn't find a ton of footing on the ground in their first game, but falling behind sixteen to nothing pretty quickly,
we'll do that to you. They have big bodies up front on their line, particular clearly and tackles Trent Brown and Calvin Anderson. Can they seal off lanes like the Chargers did, or will the Dolphins bounce back and fit more hats into gaps and stop the running game. Tyreek and Jonathan Jones is our last storyline here. Going to save the meat of this point for the matchups. But Jonathan Jones has had as much success against Tyreek as
any corner he's gone against. They've doubled Tyreek, whether it's the Patriots against the Dolphins or Patriots against the Chiefs. Going back to those days, really fascinated to see how Tyreek does after a two hundred and fifteen yard day against a cornerback who isn't one of the top corners in the league, probably top fifteen or twenty, but for some reason he manages to handle Tyreek. And a lot of that has to do with how they help him there.
I do think they're going to help him big time and have a good chance for Jalen Waddle to get a whole bunch of one on one coverage in this game. Let's go ahead and take our first break right there and come back on the other side and talk about the offensive production, the matchups, all the key stats, and much more. That's next Draft Time Podcast, your host, Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. Dolphins Patriot Sunday Night,
NBC eight point fifteen kickoff. Check that eight twenty kickoff up in Fox Burroughs supposed to be a fifty five degree night, a nice cool, crisp fall evening in Fox Burl. Let's go ahead and talk about the Dolphins offense versus
the Patriots defense. And now we can actually do snap counts and workloads since we have a game worth of sample size, just one, but still a sample size nonetheless, So the Dolphins offense, you guys know, Toungueo I Loa versus Kyle Dugger and Jabiro Peppers who played eighty eight percent of the snaps at safety no more Devin mccordy this year, and then Adrian Phillips their third safety played
a quarter of their snaps. Defensively, our receivers going up against Christian Gonzalez, who played every single snap in his first game as a pro. The rookie out of Oregon, Jonathan Jones mentioned him talking about going up against Tyreek played eighty percent of their snaps, and then Marcus Jones played thirty six percent of the snaps while inside in the slot. Miles Bryant was on the field for sixty seven percent, which matches up perfectly with the nickel package.
You typically run about three quarters or two thirds of the time on the interior offensive line. You guys know when Williams and Hunt versus Godshaw and Wise, who both played sixty two percent of the snaps on Sunday, Barmore played just over half at fifty six and Lawrence Guy played forty seven. Same cast and crew there it's been for a long long time, the tackles versus the edge? Will it be Armstead? I tend to think it'll be Kendall Lamb. We'll find out, though. And Austin Jackson versus
Matt Judon who played three quarters of the snaps. And how about this, Josh Ucha played thirty six percent and Keyon White played thirty five percent, So not a lot of edge rushers on the field in this game. Those guys collectively playing about three corps of the snaps together, while Judah plays that by himself. So plenty of packages where there's just you know where whys or guy plays
the essential edge position. And then running backs versus linebackers most certain Auchmed and we'll see who else is active for the game. But Bentley played every single snap. Juwan Bentley, the middle linebacker, July Tavia plays a lot of snaps this year fifty six percent, and then Mack Wilson down to fifteen.
So those are the key players.
A fifth defensive tackle, Daniel Ukeley played nineteen snaps. That was thirty percent of the workload. And this is kind of part of their Cover one structure. They will fit every gap in the run game and you must execute hat on a hat and your back has to make those guys miss one hundred and nineteen snaps. For the top three guys that they play, that's basically the same
workload as Wilkins, Seiler and Rake one Davis. Then the nineteen for Ukla makes one hundred and thirty eight snaps for the defensive tackle, so plenty of defensive tackles, plenty of dbs because they had three hundred and thirty seven reps for dbs in that first game they played sixty six totals. That's five point one dbs on the field on average per snap. That was the most in the
NFL in Week one. What does that tell you Maybe the outside running game against all those bigger bodies that you can seal inside and get corners and safeties having to tackle out on the edge against Raheem most are having to go around blocks of one of the best wide receiver blocking team in the NFL in the Miami Dolphins.
That's going to be a key matchup there. Speaking of that cover one, the Patriots use a variety of personnels in their defense thirty four defense eleven point five percent of the time, but they also have a forty three package they run five percent of the time, so in base for sixteen point five percent of the time. They run their nickel lower than most teams at fifty six percent because their dime defense is ran twenty eight percent of the time. That's where that high variance of defensive
back snap counts comes from. And I was curious to see what the Eagles did. If this was matching what the Eagles did, or if the Patriots set the tone said this is what we're going to run. You guys do what you want to do, and they were able
to defend. The Eagles run a lot from that twelve personnel package against nickel and dime, but the Eagles were in eleven personnel for eighty four percent of their plays, which means the Patriots would match some eleven with dime personnel, and the fact that the Eagles couldn't run on that is a good sign for the Patriots defense. Can Miami find their success in the running game a lot on
third and long of that dime defense? But they also played dime thirty seven percent of their second down plays, which means they're not just playing it in obvious passing downs, because if you're ever doing that in non third and long situations, you invite the offense to run the football. And you have to wonder if we see more of that. Given our weapons and the ability to stretch the field.
With the best downfield passer in the National Football League, I think you sort of can dictate the terms with our second highest frequency forty eight percent to operate in two back personnel. Just think alec Ingold with him in the game. They either have to bring their base package on the field and then you get some interior matchup against guys like you know that aren't coverage specialists like
Juwan Bentley, Mac Wilson, Julyny Tevai. And that's what we did against Los Angeles and we're able to give Kenneth Murray Fitz he had a horrible game, Alohi Gilman had a rough game, Eric Kendricks. All three of those guys combined for eleven completions allowed and one hundred and seventy one yards. We did get big numbers on the perimeter for really a perfectly productive day. But in this particular instance against that Patriots Cover one defense, you might not
get those opportunities. So if they don't adjust and they keep those sub packages on the field, now they're lighter against the run. This is why I think I love Miami's flexibility against anybody on their offense, with the ability to dictate their own terms. From those twelve and twenty one personnel groupings, you still feature ridiculous speed with explosiveness from ten to seventeen. That allows you to run and pass. Then you start thinking about your eleven personnel groupings with
Azukama and what he can do from the backfield. It's a lot to prepare for. And the Patriots ran a lot of Cover zero against the Eagles with tons of split safety, you know, two high safety structures with lighter box counts, which again encourages the run. I think it will be the case again with split safety, but probably not Cover zero. What about on the front end, how will they find ways to pressure Tua? Well, they blitzed Jalen Hurts and the Eagles at twenty five percent. That
was seventeenth most in the NFL. NFL average last week was twenty eight percent, so just below the average. The Chargers blitzed Tua on eighteen dropbacks, that was forty percent of his workload, and he paid it off with twelve completions at sixty seven percent one hundred and sixty six yards. That's a nine point two per play average and a touchdown pass. He also got the football out in two point three seconds on these plays, so he saw it,
he dissected it. He dominated last year. The Patriots blitzed him in that week one game at a nearly identical rate forty three percent, and it was much more effective just nine for fifteen eighty seven yards and no touchdowns or picked so five point eight yards per pass at sixty percent clip. Now, that was the first game for TUA and the entire offense in the new system, and quite frankly, I thought that game ranked like eleventh in
terms of tua's thirteen total games last year. And for posterity, they blitzed Teddy twenty two percent and Skyler just eight percent. You don't have to blitz to confuse a rookie that doesn't see it very well in that Week seventeen game. Going back to twenty twenty one, though, they blitzed to a forty five percent in the Week one game and just twenty seven percent in the Week eighteen game. I think the conclusion here is that the blitz probably it's
probably coming on Sunday. Let's go ahead and circle back to that, because I want to talk a little bit more about their system. Lots of press and bail two men in pass coverage that we saw the Chargers run.
That will they go with that?
I wonder how they'll contend against our motion and how they react to that short motion wrinkle that you all saw by now on social media. Saw lots of two man, some inverted two, some quarters, some bump and run, but also off coverage and the aforementioned bail they also called cover three. I think there's a vulnerability there on that cover three off coverage for us to get that look where you run the vertical route and then run the high cross that McDaniel calls it a deep over route
into the vacancy. The Eagles missed some chances on throws in that regard, and then in the running game, they played a lot of really tight fronts in the front, pinched their defensive tackles and collapse the edges, and then
asked the dbs to rally on the back end. That's why I think our play action game could do some damage and impacts not just their front against the passing game, but also allow us to hem them in and get the running game off the perimeter and get our cornerbacks rather our running backs matched up against their cornerbacks as tacklers. And then Jabrill Pepper's a guy to watch out here for here because he had a great debut this season
as a Jack of all trades. He had a forced fumble, really good coverage on DeVante Smith on a deep ball. I'm just really curious to see how they match up there. They also played the sixth most man coverage, So will we see more man I tend to doubt it, but who knows. The Chargers played the second most man against US in Week one at forty eight percent, and that
did not go well for them at all. But then again, neither did Zone and again, Belichick is known for his ability to change looks to craft a game plan that's a complete departure from something they did the previous week or maybe even the entire season. But this is also why I think Tua has had more success against Belichick than any young quarterback of the last twenty years, because
he excels with his eyes and reading the field. It's a fun matchup in the Dolphins offenses on the field with Tua at the controls versus this Patriots defense, which of course is called by Belichick. They also ran the most single high in football last year, and they ran it seventy two percent of the time on Sunday, which was also the seventh highest in the NFL. That's their bread and butter defense since forever single high man coverage,
but the flxibility to mix it up. You know, last year nobody had a higher passer rating against single high than TUA and then the Chargers ran just forty five percent of the time, which was twenty fifth most in the league. So they had their two high structure man coverage underneath. Will the Patriots go with that, Will they play that single high man coverage, will they go more zone.
I'm just really curious to see what Belichick does because even though they do what they do well, it's what we do well passing against single high coverage.
Fascinating stuff.
Let's go ahead and hear from Mike McDaniel on how the Patriots employ a defensive system that I don't want to call it archaic because they're so good at it, but it's just not ran across the NFL that frequently anymore with all these two high structures. But how the Patriots run that single high safety look so efficiently it.
Is amazing to me, and I hope one day I could even sniff sniff this. It's amazing that the orchestration of the defense is so consistent, so fundamentally consistent and sound the strain, very very detailed, and the leader of the ship was at the same job when we were all like, what's an iPod Like, that's so, I mean it is, it is not. And and the coolest part about what they do is it's not. It's not because they're entitled, because they are. It's because they work at stuff.
You can really see it, and they're and you know, they have very strong, inconsistent technique and fundamentals that you can tell that from the top down and all the coaches on on the defensive side that uh, it's non negotiable two uh, and then they work together. So I think they are unique in what they do. And that's a testament to you know, from from an x's and O standpoint, one of the one of the founding fathers
of this generation of football, you know. So it's it's pretty cool to watch great challenge and that's what you want. You want to be challenged. We can week out with different things because again you're preparing to try to be the best version of yourself against the best teams when it matters most.
So, if they do blitz a lot, if they run a lot of sub packages, what are the individual matchups to watch. You have to obviously start with Austin Jackson at Matthew Judon and how they find a way to contain him. I think it's gonna have to require a
lot of help. As much as I love Austin's Week one performance, Matthew Judon I think is better than what he faced last week, and he has the arsenal of rush packages to maybe get Austin, you know, try to attempt to get him off of his technique and hopefully Austin can stay true to that and get that matchup one because if you win that one, you know, Connor Williams against bigger interior defensive lineman like Christian Barmore could be a mismatch there. Those are two places to look
for on the offensive line. And then I think Barrios's ability to uncover quickly is going to be a key in terms of the passing game. Also, I think Durham Smith is playing really smart right now. I love the work he did on that broken play on the fourth down conversion. He's playing patient and smart within the release or within the offense, I should say, to get his chips and releases really timed up well to Tua. I think that's a key, and how he attacks the edges
both in pass pro and as a receiver. I think the running backs in this game against the linebackers, you know, Jeelani Tavai and Jawan Bentley and Mack Wilson, I think there's a chance there for some high volume against those linebackers start running backs. But you also can never count out Tyreek and Waddle because we talk about matchups here. There's not a matchup for either of those guys that
I don't like. In the past, the Patriots have doubled Tyreek even when he was in Kansas City, like literally two players over there bracket inside outside, force him to try to go vertical or find a way to win otherwise. And Jonathan Jones usually is one of those shadow guys tends to have good numbers against Tyreek if they go this way. If they do, you might get Waddle on
rookie Christian Gonzalez. I really like Christian Gonzalez, but a rookie on Jalen Waddle, if that's the matchup they get all game long, I would say Waddle's gonna have a buck fifty in the game. That's kind of one of my strong predictions in this one, Wattle goes off. If if they give Tyreek the detention that I think he deserves as well, that's the offense. Man gonna be a fun matchup. I expect Miami scored some points. Can we
hold the Patriots defense down? We'll find out next here on the Draft Time Podcast to your host, Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation, one side of the Football down here on a preview Wednesday edition of the Draft Time Podcast. Let's go ahead and get to the Dolphins defense versus this Patriots offense. And you know by now who the Dolphins lineup, Holland Elliott and potentially Brandon Jones some more. This week we'll find out against Patriots
quarterback Mac Jones. The receivers on cornerbacks ex and Cator against Kendrick Bourne who played ninety one percent of the snaps and Keishan Boute who played sixty nine percent. Rookie six round draft pick Apple and Bethel. As far as your slot inside cornerbacks against Juju Smith Schuster fifty four percent to Mario Douglas forty one percent. And then your tight ends and how they match up Hunter Henry eighty percent and Mike Kaesicki played just forty one percent as
Patriots debut. This next part is the one that I like a lot. Wilkins, Steeler and Davis versus Antonio Maffei, David Andrews and City.
So two rookie backup guards.
They're filling in for Cole Strange and for Michael Onwenu, Phillips, Chubb and Ogba up against Trent Brown who did not practice on Wednesday, and Calvin Anderson who's filling in for the injured Riley Reef. And then Baker Long and Van Ginkel among your linebackers against Ramandre Stevenson who played seventy two percent of the snaps and Zeke Elliott who played
thirty five percent of the snap. So Douglas was in the slot ninety three percent of the time that he was on the field and Juju was fifty five percent, while Kendrick Bourne was seventy five percent outside and Keishan Boutet ninety eight percent out wide. So they kind of have more declared roles there, which I think allows Miami to pick the matchups they like. Quite frankly across the board.
I like Kendrick Bourne's game, but I'm not taking any Patriots receiver against any of these Dolphins cornerbacks, I just think we match up well across the board. There where I think you might have a mismatch is on Hunter Henry as he is a little more versatile than where Mike Gasicki lined up. Eighty eight percent of gasiki snaps were inside and Hunter Henry spent just sixty five percent inside, so he can go inside and out.
And then DeVante.
Parker, if he plays, we'll see, we know how he goes with the injuries. He plays most of his work inside as well. No fallback for the Patriots offense this year in comes Bill O'Brien and they don't utilize you know, Yakub Johnson the way they used to, but that did not stop them from utilizing two back sets over one tenth.
Of the time.
So Elliott and Stevenson out there together. Overall, they use eleven personnel sixty four percent of the time, twelve personnel fifteen percent of the time, and twenty one personnel with the two running backs no fullback twelve percent of the time.
And then they have a seven.
Point eight accumulative cumulative percentage between oneh three thirteen twenty two that's basically that's a spread. Look the one three is that's three tight ends with no running backs. It's a crazy package. Thirteen personnel is obviously one back, three tight, and then twenty two to two back in two tight, so they have a lot of variety. This roster is constructed as as such. Now I'm curious does this change
when they get Parker and Taekwon Thornton back. That remains to be seen, as you could make the case at a pair of rookies, you know, Boute and Douglas sixth rounder and undrafted being your number two and three options could be why there was so many two back and two tight sets. Nothing against them, they've had good camps
and preseasons for all accounts I've heard. But you have to wonder if you're putting together a game plan, is that more instructive to the idea that they want to be in those groupings or that they want to utilize some of the depth they have at running back and tight end because Zeke and Gasiki, you know, maybe you have the players they used to be, but decent number twos there to try to get your best players on the field either way across the board, besides Hunter Henry,
I like the Dolphins matchups. Here, let's talk about Mac Jones against the blitz. So last week against the Eagles, they blitzed him eleven times and he was ten for eleven with seventy six yards.
Efficient but not explosive.
And this is a team that's not built for yak two hundred and four expected yards after the catch for the Patriots last week, and that's what they got. Two hundred and four yards after the catch might get sicky across the board. Not a lot of plays after the catch we made there. Mac versus the blitz last year, in total, twenty six percent of his dropbacks he was blitzed, he completed just fifty four percent for six eighty nine that's only six yards per pass, five touchdowns, and four picks,
So lots of mistakes. Versus the blitz against us last year in two games thirty nine percent of his dropbacks he was fifty seven percent with one hundred and eight yards. That's only five point one per pass, two touchdowns, and a pick. So it seems like blizzing is kind of
the way to go. Our blitz versus Herbert thirty one percent of the time it didn't have a lot of dropbacks, but he was seven for ten for thirty six yards and that's only three point six yards per pass and one touchdown there for the Los Angeles quarterback against our blitz. Before we keep going here, let's go ahead and hear from Mike McDaniel on what he's seen so far from Bill O'Brien in one week of installing the Patriots.
You can tell there's some good relationships going on there. There's you know, uh the uh you know, Bill O'Brien's always done a really good job and I think they're you know, doing some things that you can tell when there's some connectivity between coach and quarterback. And there's stuff
that he's playing very confident in. So it's a you know, when the it's a good litmus test when the quarterback's playing better generally everyone is because they go hand in hand, uh, And he's he can only be successful if his players are in the right spots doing the right thing. So there there's definitely some tempo going on. There's there's some different formations, there's you know, there's different ways to attack it, you know, similar to what he's done in the past
two degree. But then there's new things. So you know, the crazy thing about NFL Sundays is then you could just come to work on Sunday and he could have five wide receivers, no running backs or tight ends every play. You know, you just don't know. There is some unknown in that regard for what they're doing. You have one team that is known on how they want to attack, but outside of that, you know, well you have to defend everything. So it'll be a good challenge for us.
As far as the Patriots offensive line goes, they had good showings in week number one from two trusty veterans and Trent Brown David Andrews both allowed two pressures on just on sixty pass blocking snaps, so really good averages there, but the other three not so much. Calvin Anderson filling in for the injured Riley Reef so for the injured on one now and Mafi for Cole Strange in week one Anderson and so five pressures apiece and Mafi seven pressures.
This is essentially a Jalen Phillips, Zach Seeler and Christian Wilkins's matchup.
I think you guys understand what we're going with that.
I think ideally, though, you limit early down running plays. You trust Xavier Howard, you trust Cater Kohu to win the matchups against a perimeter group that is one of the worst in the NFL on paper, And really emphasize getting a hat in every gap against the running game, because if you can generate third and long, that's an opportunity to tee off on this quarterback and create some negative plays and some takeaways potentially, So tackling Stevenson, getting
each gap fit, those are some big keys this week. Also, keep an eye on Kendrick Bourne because he's just the one guy in that room that I think is really capable of beating you.
So some things that we heard this week.
Patriots receiver coach said that budde and Douglas looked like guys playing in their first games. They were drifting on some routes. Those will get picked off if they don't get it cleaned up. This week, Mac Jones's eye manipulation and poison the pocket are impressive. He will take some hits, but he did take sacks on blitzes where he would double clutch. And if you overload and doesn't get it out hot, there's no ability to create off script there,
so find a way to create those opportunities. They ran a lot of duo which had success against Miami last week. That's two double teams where they didn't climb off that first level and double the second level, and a lot of that runs through Faro Brown is a really good edge blocker for the Patriots.
Keep an eye on that guy in their running game.
They also ran some counter tray, which is where guard and tackle both pull out together. There's a lot of athletic ability on the offensive line to get to those spaces, so Miami's eye discipline is going to be key in this one. They will do some of that same run action on pass plays where they pull the guard to steal the backside edge. So our keys have to be locked in at linebacker and on the defensive line. The Patriots, you know, the weapons they have on the perimeter, they
just couldn't separate very often. And this week I think Jones has to kind of win with tight windows, especially in true drop back passing form. So good chance for the Ballhawks to get their hands on some footballs and then dead feet in the pocket for the quarterback, you know, changing the pitcher and disguising what he sees pre snap and forced me to beat you post snap. When his gets off that first read, the feet tend to slow down.
And I wonder if we get more aggression blitzing the quarterback in this game, because it was effective in Week one and for the Eagles against this quarterback as well. My keys to victory force Mac Jones off the spot. When he's able to go through his reads and get the ball out on time, he's very good.
But if you.
Speed him up and force him off of his spot, the complexion of the offense looks a lot different than when it's in rhythm. We mentioned the blitz numbers earlier. That's why this is our first key. He might be the most for lack of a better term, immobile quarterback, and it's an offense that cannot afford to get behind the sticks. I do think we'll defend the run better this time around.
Number two.
Run the Patriots defense out of their man coverage by winning your one on one matchups and of course against double teams as well. They have the most single high man based defense in the NFL. Against an offense that has the weapons to make you pay in man coverage, Tyreek's ability to win at the line last week just put the Chargers in such a bind. And even with the help in those two man looks, Tua's ability to manipulate the defense with his eyes, shoulders, hips, feet, all
of that. If he and Tyreek and Wall will play like that again, the Patriots will have to adjust and then against zones, you know Tua's anticipation and our speed. That's not a fun task either. I can see that being a key really all year. Teams that can successfully go man and mix it up have the best chance, but it's a tall order for everybody. Number three contain the Patriots front. For two decades, the Patriots have had a front that does not get enough recognition individually, but
it collectively is always downright good. They do sometimes have the star of the group like Chandler Jones or Richard Seymour, Evince wilferk and that would be a Matthew Judon right now, but wise guy j White Barmore. There's a lot of continuity, a lot of talent, a lot of football intelligence there, and they'll find ways to generate pressure and be fundamentally
sound in the running game. They'll get their wins, but don't let them stack up wins consecutively and keep that defense on the field because they want to make you play short profit football, and I trust to to be smart with the ball as well.
Some areas to attack.
Again, their starting guards are out, it's time for Wilkins and Steiler to have a game of utter dominance if they help with backs and tight ends, and maybe we can ratchet up a blitz a little bit. I just think the Chargers have a great, big center and a right guard who played really well and a left tackle who's awesome, and the Patriots don't have here really across the board except for left tackle. If Trent Brown plays, they were better inside, they were better on the perimeter.
I think Miami can really break things down here by Wilkins and Sealer just giving it to inexperienced guards, more man coverage, and more blitzes. They just don't have the bolts on the outside without Parker and Thornton in the game.
Not that they're major line shifters anyway, but they ran Douglas and Boudet out there for a combined one hundred and ten snaps, and it was clear they had two late round UDFA type of players playing one hundred and ten snaps offensively, I think this is just what we're gonna do. If we can execute it, nobody can stop us. We're in a nice position that way. That said, the
Patriots defense is pretty good. I'm not really sure where I put my rabbit hat here, but my thinking is that this could be a big running back tight end slot game, and Tua has to be a lot more patient. We run as much two back personnel as anybody, and so perhaps the key here is getting the Patriots in those base looks that they don't want to be in, enforcing Bentley to buy j and MATC. Wilson to cover
when they don't want to do that. Yeah, actually that is that's the move to me areas of I love the offensive line performance last week, but this Patriots front I think is better than the Chargers.
I just do.
I think we saw how long in the tooth Mac looks. I think Bosa played really poorly, as much as I you know, as much as Austin forced him into that. He just didn't really have any creativity in his rushes and he had poor footing all day. Judon's a game wrecker. Don't let him do that. Bar More can be that too, wise guy White oo J. They just have a workman like mentality with guys that keep coming and will operate well as a singular unit and be smart and physical.
You know, you have to match that to keep two upright and just let him continue to ball. The run defense, I think until it's not you know, is a concern. The Patriots lack explosive weapons and a quarterback does not allow us to commit more to it than we did last week.
I think this week you can.
So I think you might trade off, you know, one or two shots on a one on one fade route that allows us to get an extra hat to the party in the running game. And I'm more than willing to take that chance because last year we did that and they went after Key on crossing and they got him a few times.
But I think now with ex cater and Apple, that will not be the case.
So there you go. That's your preview podcast for Dolphins and Patriots. Tomorrow, I'm going to have the great Mike Reese on the podcast to give us the Patriots perspective. And then Friday, I have a very special episode with Jeff Darlington.
You do not want to miss that.
Plenty to come your way here in the Drift Time Podcast. In the meantime, you all please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts from, leave us a rating and leave us a review. Follow me on social at linkld NFL. Follow the team at Miami Dolphins, check out the fish Tank podcast, check out our YouTube channel for the cinematic recap, Dolphins Today, Drive Time and fish Tank content and media availabilities, and
last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time finds up Caroline Cameron, Daddy just coming
