Drive Time: Dolphins Raiders Week 11 Preview

Drive Time Podcast. First order of business. It is Thursday night football and another good one we got here for you guys. The Commanders are.

partly cloudy, no rain, ten mile proor breeze. Should be a beautiful day for football. Come on out and watch the boys lay it down. I am so excited for this game though, because you know, it's funny. I talked about this in the show last year, going into games where we were two touchdown favorites or more. I would opine if this is how it feels when you become a really good team, where it's like, oh, this is probably going to be a win.

about that. And you know what do I always say on the show, here the NFL can change in a blink, man, What you know about a team this week might be totally different next Wednesday or Thursday, whatever day it is. And here we are one year later, and I am so fired up to go back to the press box where I was thinking, like, they're gonna beat the Panthers, they're gonna beat the Giants, They're gonna roll the Patriots

here at home. Now, I am so excited to get one of those teams at hard Rock Stadium with our

guy under center, that we are supposed to beat. And again, it's not a guarantee, it's a guarantee, but I've seen this team dominate so many of these games, and I've seen them win just about all of them, sands the Titans game last year, which of course was a major blow simply put, just for the flow of the week after playing a bunch of gut wrenching games, three of those being tough to swallow, losses that easily could have

been wins. And if they were your six and three right now, you're talking about the AFC East as a possibility. Even with the sweep against the Buffalo Bills, Digress well actually would have won one of those games, they'd be one game worse and you'd be a game back with a split in the division.

to was the most important position, the quarterback. Like they didn't get a free agent signing outside of Gardner Minshew and go Koog's for sure, but it felt like they were kind of waiting in the draft and never got their guy in a class that saw five guys go with the top like eleven picks of this year's draft or thirteen pick whatever it was. But you know, is Gardner Minshew the long term solution. No, he's like a spot starter. He's like a twenty eight best quarterback in

the league. Now he's not playing that good either, so maybe it's even lower than that. He's throwing six touchdowns and eight picks in eight games and seven starts. He's been benched three times, once for aid and O'Connell who's out for the year, and once for Desmond Ritter who arrived less than a month ago.

They did make the playoffs in twenty twenty one, but it was like it was one of those you know Dolphins Matt Moore teams, and they got like beat by

the Bengals pretty handily. And on wild card weekend, I think they score a touchdown lates make it close, but like ten and seven wildcard round loss eight to eighth the year prior seven and nine and nineteen, four and twelve and eighteen, six and ten and seventeen, and their last great season was in twenty sixteen, a twelve and four campaign, but Derek Carr broke his leg in the penultimate game and they had to go into that playoff game,

their first in fourteen years with a backup quarterback. So they're basically like they're you know, they look at Dolphins fans like you think you have it tough. Let's go ahead and get into this year's team in their offense specifically.

in Joe Philbin and North Turner two. I don't know, man, We'll probably stay brief and focus more on the personnel

because I just don't know what's gonna look like. Well, I shouldn't say that totally because he was an OC for three years in Washington under Ron Rivera, who decided he wasn't good enough to coach there and he got fired off to twenty twenty two season, where he joined Josh McDaniel's staff in Vegas for twenty twenty three as a passing game coordinator, the role he stayed in this year. This is why these soft resets don't work. Man. You can't do like bits and piece and parts? What bits

and pieces and parts? Because you wind up bringing back Norv Turner like he's an offensive consultant. Then I remember him for the two years with Ricky Williams here where it was like hey, run Ricky right, run Ricky left. But he also had various influences all over the league,

across multiple systems. His original influence was the Don Corriel air Coriell attack, which you know, how funny is this The description of the air Coriell has forced the defenders to cover the length and width of the field entire league, which is basically the goal of every single offense in modern football, which is usually how it goes. You know, what was once innovative eventually becomes the norm. How do you attack this scheme? We don't know what it's gonna be.

semi pro? Where something to the effect of, you know, as this coach is running the players through the point of like throwing up on the court when it's the fourth quarter, you're too tired to think. You know, I want you to know this play at the back of your whatever. I think it's coach Carter. You know there's too many mother f and snakes and this mother from playing Samuel L. Jackson Tangent's aside, like this is where his podcast is going to go today, Guys like I

don't got much for you by way of substance. I do, but it's going to be a blowout Tangent aside. You know, that's that's sort of this approach. And I found some literature on a Commander's website where they interviewed Ryan Fitzpatrick, and he said that Scott Turner refused to adapt his system to his players. Either you fit in or you don't. That's not coaching. And it takes the quarterback, he said,

two full years to learn that system. Fitz was the quarterback there for a year when he got hurt opening day. But you get the point. I don't think it's realistic for the Raiders to expect to implement some multi layered scheme that sequencesn't evolves as we go for this game, even with the long week off, the two weeks off, that is just not how it works. Like they don't

go through OTAs for the hell of it. They're trying to bank reps to build into the summer program, So trying to implement a full sale change approach in season is not going to be easy. So if I had to project, I would say they implement some concepts like all right, we're gonna run freaking you know Sale, you know, go run Sale, go run dagger, you know, go run slant flat like, And that's to me, that's going to

be their offense. And it probably limits the line of scrimmage autonomy that Gardner Minshew has to build off of this game. And quite frankly, I think the Dolphins have the exact type of scheme to not just slow them down, but to really take advantage of the newness. I mean, they confuse Matthew Stafford last week has been a lead for sixteen years and in his current system for four years.

Gardner Minshew two weeks into a system is not exactly the same, and that takes us into the Raiders Big three. On offense, Number one is to make Minshew make complex reads and decisions on every drop back. Do not make it easy on this man. Make him make twenty five difficult reads in this game. And the loss of Kendall Fuller makes it a little bit tougher, But man, I think we have the depth now to combat that, especially with this competition. You know, we'll have Kendall back in

time for Green Bay. I imagine I think he'll be good to go by that time. But that's all the matters to me is I don't care if he plays this week or next week. But hoping the same can be the case for Bradley Chubb, at least for that Houston San Francisco matchup, because I do think we'll win three of the next four and the one could be Green Bay. If you win all four of them, you kind of have some house money going into the final

four games. But Houston San Francisco could be the deciding two week portion of the season and that's why I want the key players back for But in terms of the guys we do have, I think cater has probably been the most pleasant surprise for me this year, because I thought last year was tough and I thought he really struggled to start the year, but he's really bounced back, and I think it could be because how he's being used, and it speaks to his level of buy in and

the job of Anthony and Weave are to recognize his versatility and put it to use. And that's really true

of the entire defense. I touched on this in the All twenty two episode, how impressive it was how many different looks they were able to get to from the same pre snap presentation, and with Javon playing what I thought was his best game of the year and wasn't a high bar, but saying for Jordan Boyer then Ramsey doing what he does every single week, I think there's a really good opportunity to pile up some takeaways in

this game because of a couple of reasons. First, Minshew's game at Washington State was playing with exceptional timing and rhythm in Mike Leach's air raid offense. But that mastery is like twelve plays deep on.

hard time readjusting to. And I think there's been a lack of comfort with what he's getting this year from this Raiders offense because he's bailing on clean pockets all the time. There's a clip against the Chiefs and a critical fourth down in the low red zone where he like just runs into a sack. It was one of the weird plays I've seen from a quarterback this whole year, or where he holds the ball and passes up available

reads in the progression. That's why I think that like this offensive corner change is not going to be helpful, Like, Okay, it's going to get better with a new verbiage, a new system, And that's where I think, you know, it

could be a collision course. I think his pocket management has been awful, and the Dolphins do as good of a job as anybody else of making the pocket muddy and confusing you with where the rush lanes are coming from, and then just playing through some of your guys with peer power with Zach Seeler and Kalaeis Campbell, while also flashing unexpected defenders into passing lanes that shouldn't be there.

I think you can make an argument that no two plays whatever makes sense to go back to back, make Minshew make these complex reads and decisions on every single drop back in this game. They have the most giveaways in the National Football League. You should continue that theme. It's nineteen get make it twenty three. Let's go ahead and take our first break rate there, come back and finish up the offense. We'll also do the Raiders defense and how tow it can attack those boys next Draft

Time podcast. Your host Travis Wingfield right to you. I don't know. Big thing Number one for the Raiders offense was to make Minshew make complex reads every single drop back. Number two is Bowers and Mayor. It sounds like an injury settlement firm who advertises heavily on the five o'clock news it's my money and I want it now, or all the local ones down here in South Florida call Steiner and Ryner at eight five.

really important in this game. Well, it's important as it can't be, and it kind of plays off the first key in terms of constantly changing the picture. I just can't get enough of how Javon Holland was used in accordance with Cater Kohu. I think you can create matchups that way, but you also have this is this the reverse card and Uno the queen on the chessboard. I'm talking about Jalen Ramsey and where I think that having Ramsey's shadow anybody serves as to sort of sort of

diminish what makes him great. Think fangioll eat your heart out. I also think that there are teams where it makes sense to do more of that, like the Chiefs with Travis Kelsey when he was better than he is now.

I think the Patriots make up a receiver with not having a receiver on the team with Hunter Henry making tons of sense, and here I think it does too, though I do think Jacoby Myers is one of the more underrated receivers in the NFL and has but he has the body profile that Ramsey typically matches up well with the bigger body receivers, but also I think cam Smith has the game to match up that way as well.

So whether you're re routing trail technique and pass off what we saw from various alignments from Cup and Nakua on Monday night, I think this all coincides with point number one. But the point is the tight end position is the crux of the offense. Bowers has eighteen more catches than anybody else on the team. He has a buckfitty more yards than anybody else, and he's tied for a second on the team with touchdowns. It's two but him and Mayer, which mayor is not for sure going

to play. He's coming off the IR this week and he was out with a personal reason. I don't know what that is. But hopefully he's okay, but he might play this week, he might not. They are thirty second and rushing twenty seventh and passing twenty ninth and off total offense and twenty fifth in points. And I mentioned the rushing there. That's thing number three. Just keep that ground game part, keep it in the garage, keep the cover on it. Don't give him the keys, don't even

put in the ignition. Don't even look at it. Don't even look at me. I mentioned the thirty second ranked rushing attack, and watching this tape, it is not like an isolated issue where you can clearly point out one thinking back that that's real, that's causing all these issues here on this earth. Ted Wynn, who is on the show tomorrow, did a great breakdown on Coach Paint where he showed a bunch of reps where the assignments just

either aren't properly communicated or coached or understood. I don't know if the issue is because they would consistently, you know, like they would have rules they would break. And by that I mean like you'll get a double team where you have a guard and a tackle attach with you know, the guards supposed to play off the outside shoulder and a climb to the second level and go attached to

a linebacker. And then here comes the tight end who attaches to that same linebacker that the duo block or the combination block is supposed to get off an attack, and it leaves a linebacker on the other side of the formation, just like like you know, the did I just get drafted meme? Like he's doing that, Like, did I just get a free run to the BA gap with no one to block me but the running back? Like okay, cool, easy fill and tackle for a two

yard game. Now we're second and eight and now Minshew has to go run around in the pocket again, and this is impaired because if they're in those third and long situations frequently, the takeaway ops are gonna you know, what do they say about adversity, It creates opportunities, Like there's gonna be plenty of adversity for this Raiders offense and plenty of opportunities for this Dolphins defense to present

themselves over and over again. And my ideal game script that I would like to see, you know, complete performance in a true blowout that really gets the steam rolling here in the right direction. And I feel like that could really inspire confidence because again, it's just been such

a grind the last like five or six weeks. You know that the two tight losses, the big win, the tight loss in Indye before two is return, the tight win before the bye, and then the two games without two of the like set football back thirty five years.

Like it's been a lot of stressful football here in South Florida, and I think if you can beat them handily upfront on early downs, and the offense stays efficient and maybe creates a little more plays and plays a little bit cleaner than they did on Monday Night, the defense can turn this thing into a runaway by getting them into these obvious passing downs several times in this game.

The Raiders run game success rate is thirty second in the NFL, in a full ten percent points lower than the thirty first ranked team, So keeping them down in that regard shouldn't be a problem, and it would go a long way towards making everything.

left tackle, but he's beatable. And then Thayer Munford has been in out of the lineup all year long, but when I watch him, he's got a ninety three point five pass block efficiency score and the reps where he gets beat, which is a lot.

it's bad, man, it's really, really, really bad. And guess what, let's go ahead and pivot before the break here because defense it ain't a lot better either. Things have changed with the injury to Christian Wilkins. We will not see him this week. He's on IR and will not have his window opened up before this game. But as Patrick Graham, who coached Christian here his rookie season, that calls the defense. So we know a lot more about this system than

we knew about the Las Vegas offense. You'll get some heavy fronts, some of the same stuff we talked about from us against the Rams, with the bear and tight front. Where they go, they'll go, you know, three defensive tackles over the center and guards and play their walked up linebackers down off the edge and try to clog those interior gaps and free up your runners to sprint to the perimeter off the edge like a Devon Diablo or

Robert splane. Now I'm doing some more background on coach Graham, and I'm literally reading a blurb about his Belichick influence and his first order of business is to find out what the opposition does well and take that away. So I think you can safely assume we'll see plenty of you know, three high looks, you know, cover three, cover six. I think we'll see minimal blitzing and forcing us to do what we've been doing in and taking the profit

all the way down the field. And with you know, all of those influences in mind, it's kind of hard from a structure standpoint to classify it. Like if you look it up on True Media, they have it as sixty percent Nickel, eight percent diamond zero out of either base package. And that's because they unleashed defensive backs kind

of like nobody's business. Like last week they had seven defensive backs play more than thirty percent of their snaps, So you get plenty of like dollar and a half dollar coverages with seven and eight defensive backs in the field and like a divine Diablo who plays like a hybrid linebacker safety role. And then not to mention, with no Christian Wilkins, they're trying to find enough guys and they're basically filtering in more defensive backs to replace their

front seven that is awfully, awfully thin. And so I don't know, man like you'll get Amoba looks that we saw from Brian Flores back in those days, from Patrick Grhant back in those days. So the communication has to be good, but it has been good upfront, and their ability to bring rushers from different alignments I think is probably their best aspect of their defense and how it can create opportunities for Max Crosby, which of course is going to be a key we'll talk about here in

just one second how to attack it. I mean, when the Rams had success on baron tight fronts, it was successful play fakes with Stafford on the boot and finding those crossers, and we saw Tua really add this throw on the move element to his game that could show open this game. So our ability to get the ball on the edge and then create some of those opportunities for ourselves and both the running pass game I think are there against this Vegas defense.

toss and force us to bubble on the edge, and it created a lot of negative runs and runs for no gain. And they also will consistently buzz from two to high three looks like that means, you know, drop two or three safeties back and change which of those safeties comes down and plays that like fifteen yard hook coverage role where we love to feast in the middle of the football field. Not that dissimilar to what the Ramp did on Monday Night Football with some TENPA two

elements as well, getting linebackers running. Vertical safety is running downhill. They're trying to find ways to populate the middle of the field. That's why Miami's ability to throw the ball to the perimeter like the League Washington play or I don't know, the Wattle sail route that he dropped like. Those throws are so critical because teams will typically give us that area of the field because they want to

spam the middle of the field. And part of that is the Raiders propensity to play man coverage, especially when you get behind the sticks, and we've seen two in this offense hit their verticals against those looks, even with brackets on Tyreek, and especially if you can make them play pressman cover corner and miss, especially if that's in the boundary to your X receiver with no safety help over the top. I think I'll see the return of the home run ball for the Fins offense in this one.

I have two bold predictions for this game. I'm not willing to say who it is or when, but I think we're gonna get a fifty plus yard touchdown pass in this game, one of those deep shots to Reek or Waddle maybe Obj. I don't know if you want that Bowl prediction. That's what I'm gonna go. The other one is I think we're gonna get four takeaways off the Raiders offense. That's my my two Bowl predictions, which tells you where I think the score is gonna be.

Let's go ahead and take our last break right there, come back and do the other two big things to do for this Raiders defense or for this Dolphins offense against the Raiders defense. We'll also tell you what's at stake and predict the game with the keys to victory. That's next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Autnation. Thing number two for the Dolphins

offense against the Raiders defense. Make them play left handed and they're you know, that's not like to of left handed, but like if it was two am, they can play right handed. One of the best aspects of the Patrick Graham defense is the ability to disguise coverages. Again back to that Ted winner, They would make switches on the fly with adjustments through their top safety Trayvon Merrick, who's a very good player from TCU for in game situations.

Like you'll hear Ted explain this on the Friday episode, but they essentially flipped their rotations from weak to strong because of how the Dolphins attacked them with some of those incuts, those intermediate incuts we.

the way you will with the third safety. So they've not been shy at all about bringing out droves of cornerbacks and playing four or five six cornerbacks at a time.

Ted said on our interview that the linebacker depth has been a concern outside of Divine Diablo and Robert Spelaine, and there's some hesitancy to put the linebackers on the field beyond those guys, and that kind of has you thinking about how can you force him into that or for force him to play, you know, left handed against that look if they don't want to go with their

deep personnel groupings. And it reminds me of the Bill scripts against that Nickel exclusive defense and how alec Ingole can sort of be the solution to that with his ability to go block cornerbacks off the edge all day long.

to eight yards. And then for Graham, his challenge will be do I stick with what we do well because that would go against the principle of attacking what the opposing offense does best, but it would also get more players out there that maybe aren't his best. It's kind of a it's it's probably why they stink man, because

they face that all the time. They just and also like I think we should play a lot sharper on offense because Tula can clean some things up, but also they don't have the athletes to prevent some of the big plays the way the Rams did, where we got some guys in space and they were able to rally up and make plays and prevent the explosive of the backside. And I don't think they've played that disciplined either. So I think Miami's gonna get their explosive offense really going

in this game. And to do that, number three eyes on Crosby every single rep.

if given enough one on one on one opportunities. Now I doubt he sees those, given how we saw this coaching staff, and really that's how every offensive coach would approach a player of his caliber, by how they prepared

for him on hard knocks. Last year, Crosby typically plays off the offense is right, So I think that you know slides that way and then trusting your best player on the offensive line in to Ron Armstead to block an island off the other side is probably a pretty frequent look we get in this one or some of those players where they pull like Lester Cotton around the backside and have him go help on the you know, tight end and double team that way, you know, and

just have somebody attached to your right tackle all game, whether it's a tight end chip or running back chip, and just make him go around two guys or make him the unblocked defender on you your zone options in the running game, and just various ways to do this, like just take care of Max Crosby. It's really the only concern I have in this entire football game. What's at stake here the entire season. You have to keep winning.

If you lose this game, it's over. And I think a blowout could do a lot for the team Psyche. So that makes me want to just go in here and just early man first draft touchdown, get a takeaway, making fourteen zip in the first quarter. Let's go into halftime like twenty four to three, and just have a fun second half. My range of outcomes, it's just a straight gas blowout dog. A one score game would feel like a loss it wouldn't because I don't care. We

just need wins at this point. But with how I feel about this matchup and where I think this team can go, we talked about a lot last year.

course of the year. This feels like one of those spots if you want to if you want to be that team, which you have to be to go seven to one here down the stretch and get into the playoffs, this is a team that you should beat by a lot of points. So I think we get three or more takeaways. I'm gonna call it four. I think we score early. I think we run the ball. I think that we get after minshew. I'm gonna go thirty eight to fourteen fifty yard touchdown reception from somebody or and

four takeaways and a four possession wins sound good. Keys to victory make Minshew make very complex reads every single time he has the football. Number two identify raiders, coverage disguises. Just let's just not turn it over as well, it'll be nice. And number three key on Brock Bowers and Max Crosby on either side of the football. That's my

time under thirty minutes right there. Well, we're gonna get it right in one second for a preview podcast tells you how much I just didn't really care about this team.