Drive Time: Dolphins Show Out in Primetime, Roast Rams 23-15 - podcast episode cover

Drive Time: Dolphins Show Out in Primetime, Roast Rams 23-15

Nov 12, 202436 min
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Episode description

A victory Tuesday edition of the podcast has Travis recapping all the action from Monday Night Football as the Dolphins win in Los Angeles. Key moment breakdowns, five big picture takeaways and much more!!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Speaker 1

To on the move, going deep speedways Peace do hell peas from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.

Speaker 2

This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield.

Speaker 1

He's got my adnds in the playoffs.

Speaker 3

What is up Dolphins and welcome to the Draft Time Podcast. I am your host, Travis wing feldon on today's show.

Speaker 2

Don't it just feel good? Don't it just feel good?

Speaker 1

Waits twin win win win win. Yeah, everything goes win win, win, win.

Speaker 3

And that's exactly what the Dolphins did on Monday night football in a primetime spot against a good football team, a red hot Rams team that had won three straight coming in. That was the conversation of this team that could pop up in the second half of the season and go on a tear and be a problem for the rest of the teams in the National Football League. But tonight, the Miami Dolphins were not the rest of

the National Football League. They came out and gave the Rams their best punch and took it to him wire to wire with a twenty three to fifteen win on the road in prime time. Let's go ahead and get to the five big picture takeaways. The game script and a heck of a lot more from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.

Speaker 2

This is the Drive Time podcast.

Speaker 3

Maybe it just feels good to get a big dub. It feels good to do the radio show with Seth and OJ after a big win, to walk down the stairs there at the iHeart Studios into our cars or out to our cars, I should say, after a victory, because we haven't had that opportunity very many times this season. And despite all of that, your boy is feeling awfully,

awfully optimistic about where this team can go. Because I think you didn't quite get the complimentary nature of this team tonight that you had seen earlier in the year, or maybe that we had been striving four all year, because it does feel at times like this team trades off. You know, here's the offense playing their best ball, here's

the defense not playing their best ball. And next week, for a fun surprise, we'll twist that up on you and make it a barn Burner game down to the wire, which is kind of how the National Football League works. But as a Dolphins fan, you'd kind of like to see him put it all together for a game. And I do think that time is coming, because what do we get on Monday night that we haven't gone the

last two weeks, A swarming, swarming defensive effort. As the Dolphins hold the Rams to just one for ten on third down, they keep them out of the end zone, and they hold them checking the yards here to three hundred and twenty seven yards of total offense. They were three for twelve on third downs. I should say they're one for ten. At one point. They got two in that final drive when they kicked the field goal that I thought they should have thrown into the endzon one

more time. But I digress from that point. And the total stats from this game Rams twenty first downs Miami fifteen Dolphins. This is where the game was won. Six for thirteen on third downs versus three for twelve. Neither team went for it on a fourth down. Miami only had two hundred and thirty eight yards of total offense in this game, just one seventy one through the air sixty seven on the ground. The Rams had the three to twenty seven, two fifties seven through the air and

seventy on the ground. They did run fifteen more plays than Miami did and some turnovers in the middle part of the game kind of impacted that a little bit. But the Dolphins give it away twice, they get it back twice from the Rams that both teams got after the quarterback. Three sacks for the Rams, four sacks for the Dolphins up front. And here's maybe the best at

of the entire game. The Dolphins had one penalty, and it was a special team's foul on on sportsmanlike conduct for not coming back into the field of play soon enough, which Seth and Ojin I were talking like, why is that a fifteen yard penalty when holdings only ten yards. We're not going to get into the rule book and the whys of what that is, but it's the only

penalty the Dolphins have on the entire night. No offensive flags, no defensive flags, and when you do that, you put yourself in position to to win a lot of football games. That's exactly what happened here for the Dolphins. We kick it off opening drive. How great was that? By the way, five plays seventy yards took three minutes off the clock.

I missed those quick touchdown strikes and it was what you saw last year, the great drive starter on the glance to waddle for twenty yards where they run riek down the middle of the field and that attracts, you know, a deep third player to basically get some deeper depth and to create the opening that Wattle ran into for that glance for twenty yards. Then you get a couple of negative plays, or rather one negative play and an

incomplete pass that creates a third and thirteen. But Tua, as he did all night long, and was what kind of the story of this game. He was five of six throwing on the move, he was seven for eight throwing outside of the pocket, and those were for some big explosive plays. And it kicked off early where he attacked Lione Scrimmage after getting away from initial pressure, initial surge.

And granted, he is not Tuscaloosa Tua anymore, where he's going to be making all those moves in the open field and dutch ducking and dodging and moving around guys to you know, create big explosive runs. But he can move around enough to put himself in better situations to attack with his arm, and that's exactly what happened on this thirty six yard ball to Waddle where Wattle got turned free, and it was because two was able to create extra time with his legs after initial surge and

initial pressure and get up towards land. Scrimmage didn't cross the line of scrimmage. We don't need you running. On third and thirteen, Tua, he finds the deep throw down the field and hits him. And then you come right back with Malik Washington for eighteen yards on that end around with a great block down the field from River Craycraft, some good work off the edge from the tight ends as well as Kendall Lamb who filled in for Austin

Jackson in this game. And the Dolphins are on the board three minutes of the game, seven zip, and they come out defensively quick three and out for the Rams where they get pressure off the edge from Emmanuel Ogba and that forces Matthew Stafford to throw this like looping screen over the top of him. And who is there besides mister Weiser himself, Zach Seeler, who cuts this play down for a ten yard loss, and it ruins the entire drive because you forced check down, rally up and

tackle on third down. And what a perfect start for the Dolphins. But then it's not so perfect from the offensive perspective, a three play drive that goes six seconds, and it was two disjointed throws were to a threw to like receivers that weren't ready for the ball or looked like it was some sort of miscommunication where the ball goes to like just a space on the field

that's not occupied by a Miami Dolphin. And you know, Juice has mentioned this a few times during the games, even the postgame show, how sometimes it looks like the Dolphins have multiple routes into the same area of the field, which I know it's not designed that way because that's literally what the coaches work, you know, one hundred and twenty hour weeks to do, is to create spacing on offense.

But it's happened a few times and you start to wonder, like, can we get better spacing on some of these routes because eventually you're gonna run somebody into a pick. And there was a play where Waddle took an inside release and then threw an out to Johona Smith and it brought the cloud corner into that part of the field. Like, have to find a way to create better space, And that's why I thought happened on this drive just a

three play, no yard, six second drive. That's where you get hit for the fifteen yards and an unsportsmanlike on Sir ran Neil for not getting back onto the field, and all of a sudden after your touchdown and then three and out start, the Rams are trolling by a touchdown and have the ball just a yard shy of midfield, but the defense once again three plays minus nine yards and a buck thirty off the clock. And I wanted to point this out because I talked about it heavily

on the pregame show. We saw our first bare front of the night, and you get basically free runs from the linebackers because ninety two ninety five that's Banninito Jones and Zach Sigler and ninety three Kalayis Campbell didn't give an inch of ground. And for those that didn't listen to the Thursday pregame show, a barefront is just a head up over the guard, tackle and guard. You're essentially trying to reduce the number of gaps in space. They have to run off those inside gaps by putting more

bodies up front than they can handle. And we got that, and then you get a sack from Klayus Campbell. This or rather a bat pass from Klays Campbell, I should say that creates a third and ten. And then in comes Chop Robinson for his second sack in as many weeks, and he plays the five technique and it looks to me like they try to run a game off of that, but it also speaks to CHOP's quickness and how they

want to create situations where he can have space. Because on this particular front, Kalaias Campbell was the one technique, but he was to the left side of the formation, and Chopp was the only hand in the dirt rusher defensive lineman that was lined up on the right side of the offensive center. And you did see Campbell loop off of the slant inside from Chop initially, but Chopp got there so quickly that he just got up field and pursued the quarterback and gotten down for a sack

and wins that way. So I think that Chop there's still some things in his game that has to be cleaned up. Obviously he's a rookie, but he's coming on man, and I wish we had our full array of guys out there, because I think that Chop in that kind of third role behind JP and beach Hub fully healthy would maximize his skill set. But maybe you're getting a baptism by fire where he's learning a little bit quicker

than he would have otherwise. And I think you're seeing the fruits of that labor show up here little bit. So they'd ato get the football back, but they go six plays, sixteen yards and punt it back after four minutes of possession, where it was again. I saw some complaints about the Dolphins pass run game a balance, but like, what did you want.

Speaker 2

Them to do?

Speaker 3

Because it was basically consistent runs into the wall for like one in two yards and created these third down and longs all night long. In fact, on the six conversions the Dolphins had, their average yards to gain on those third downs was nine point eighty three yards. Now, luckily, your quarterback made some really good plays on situations to cover up for the lack of run game and for some of his own errors earlier in the game, which we will get to. But the running game early on

it wasn't working. You ran the ball twenty two times for just sixty seven yards. Like I like a coach that sees that's not working, that way and we have this great passing game, like, let's do that instead, Like it's nice to have the balance, but if it's not there, it ain't there.

Speaker 2

So they punted the ball back.

Speaker 3

And this is where Tua, you know, had thrown a nice little check down the Raheem Moster who made a man miss at the sticks and converted and moved the chains and that it felt like a big play because the crowd was ramping up getting behind their defense. But then you go right back to the running game and

it's a negative play. Is right has to bubble outside of a good edge by the Rams, And like you might look at some of these plays and be like, oh, the Dolphins offensive line, it was their fault and to your point, to your credit, like this was a step back for the Dolphins offensive line.

Speaker 2

I will caution against this.

Speaker 3

It is very difficult to replace players in game in the system and get the same production. I think we saw it for the Rams. And this goes back to Austin Jackson missing the game as well, so you were down your right tackle. Kendall Lamb comes into the game, but at least he had all week to work at that position. But Lester Cotton playing left guard for Rob Jones, who left the game with an injury and did not return.

Like it's tough to get offensive lineman on the same track that quickly, and that's why I think the Rams had some issues up front because they were working back Steve Avila and Jonah Jackson, who were a big draft pick last year for a Villa, a big free agent acquisition for Jonah Jackson, but both those guys had missed serious time for the Rams this year. They get them both back in and their offense looked disjointed, and I

think that that's a big part of why. So the Dolphins offensive line gonna have to find a way to get some of those things corrected, because we'll see what the report is on Rob Jones, and we obviously know Austin Jackson is going to miss at least the next three games, as this was the first game before going on IR. The injury is not believed to be season ending.

But Austin Jackson was playing so good, and I think that his familiarity with Liam Miikenberg was help helping Liam play some of his best ball, because I thought Liam kind of got beat a few times tonight in this game. We'll do more on that in the All twenty two review on the podcast later tonight, because it's Tuesday morning to and talking to you right now, we'll have the

All twenty two breakdown Tuesday evening for you guys. So that drive is a punt, the Rams take it back and then Anthony Walker gets a pick his first as Miami Dolphin five plays sixteen yard drive three mens eleven seconds off the clock. They get a couple of first down runs to take them right back into that midfield stripe area. But then I thought that, you know, we haven't done the play before the play very often this podcast since we haven't won many games. But there has

been a couple of options within this game. But I think this is the best one because Anthony Walker again behind one of those tight fronts. I don't know if it was Barret tighter Eagle, it was basically guys jammed in trying to force this inside zone and man gap scheme. The Rams can pare off each other so well into different types of runs in the back to bubble and

take his track elsewhere. Walker works behind that big front and shoots in there and with a great key and a great trigger and creates a third and seven, which then creates a klay As Campbell batted pass that creates

an Anthony Walker interception. I feel like we've batted so many balls this year, and we did get the Cater Kohu pick in the Seattle game off of a batted pass, but I feel like we've sent so many footballs right up into the air and they just always seem to harmlessly fall to the ground.

Speaker 2

Not this one, though.

Speaker 3

Dolphins get off the field on a big time interception and turned out and paid off with a field goal on the other side, a five play, twenty two yard drive that takes two minutes off the clock, a fifty yard Jason Centers field goal, one of his three field goals of the night, two of those from fifty plus to help a Dolph and get into the win column. But we got our best surge of the night on this run at this point, with an eight chan inside run and he spins it back and hits a ten

yard run. And then Jalen Wright comes into the game and it's like, Oh, it's going to be more of him, which you kind of recognized early on because Raheem Moster was returning kickoffs and didn't get a single carry in this football game. He would have a huge conversion on a third nineteen pass play. We'll talk about that here in a moment. But Jalen Wright comes into the game

and it just wasn't really working for him. We saw Tanner Connor take that lead block around the outside and jialen Wright hit the lane and had a good run on that play. But for the most part, you were trying to replace, you know, alec Ingold's production. You're trying to work in new offensive lineman. The tight end position is still kind of work in progress in terms of their blocking game. So maybe not the best work by the Dolphins offense, but they found a way to get

twenty three and a big win in this game. Obviously, on this play or on this drive, I should say, they create a third and two at the plus thirty one yard line, and like the Cowboys stadium white thing is a big deal right now in the news, and Waddle like was convinced that he he lost this ball

in the Cunner didn't see it. The ball goes right through his hands, and I thought it was one of two was best throws the night because it was third and two and you run this little curl route at the sticks, which is where the defense's attention usually will go.

And Tua like pumped and then hitched and like looks like he wanted to throw that curl to Tyreek, and it created the space as that cloud corner who could have sunk back into that coverage wound up driving up the field onto Reek's little curl route and that creates the sale in behind the little flag route in behind Tyreek for what could have been a fifteen to twenty yard conversion to waddle and been a first and ten in the red zone with a seven to zero lead. Instead,

he drops the football. We kicked the field goal and go up ten zip. The defense pays it right back off with a five play ten yard drive three mints off the clock where you get a great tackle on special teams by Saran Neil and Chang Tindall to cut

them down at the sixteen yard line. Ramsey makes a great play and the flat with a tackle coming from depth to get that play to the ground, and then Cater Kohu and Kendall Fuller had one of my the ferret plays the entire game where they swing this ball out to Cooper Cup and you see cater motion like stay outside, I got inside contained for you get the outside contained.

Speaker 2

And they get Cooper Cup.

Speaker 3

To the ground right away and get off the field the very next play, and then the Dolphins to get the ball back with a ten point lead, and they throw a pick where Tua just first of all, Jared Versus dumps von A Chan for a five yard loss where they tried that little motion rap with Julian Hill, but he overruns the big gap on the motion, and I can't blame Julian for that. I don't know whose fault it was. I don't care about fault really as much as I know some football fans do. But either way,

he overran that gap. Whether it was timing of the snap or whatever it should have been, he just wasn't in a position to make that play. Jared verse beats him inside. It's a big loss, and then Tua throws like this fade away where you can tell he clearly thought that the linebacker that was mugged up just wasn't going to be part of the equation. And he peels back into that hook zone and makes an easy room service pick, undercutting the wattle.

Speaker 2

The throat to wattle. I just don't time.

Speaker 3

Two made a couple of those throws in this game, and it seems to be like a primetime thing, man, like he ain't doing that on Sundays.

Speaker 2

So I don't know what it was. It was just weird.

Speaker 3

And then the worst part about that was like, dude, get off, get out of the way. I don't let him score a touchdown, Like, you don't have to make a tackle to We don't need you.

Speaker 2

You don't have to do that, brother.

Speaker 3

So I don't know, Like I appreciate his commitment to, you know, being a football player and play into the fullest, but like, I don't want to see Two ever put a head on anybody ever again. So that was scary, but we've survived it. And then the Dolphins get the ball right back because the Rams fumble the football right back and Kendall Fuller recovers it. And by the way, how great was the block in the back call in the Rams, because maybe that changes the play call, maybe

they go in and score earlier. But because of that, it's a one play, three yard drive where Kendall Fuller falls on a fumble. Dolphins get it right back and then they lose it right back on a four play negative three yard drive where I too threw again another nice ball, and Tyreek on that little drag route where he got on the move and in space and threw the ball right on the upfield shoulder leads him into a twelve yard run. After the catch, we lose some yards,

and then it's third and thirteen. Jared Verse once again slants in with a power rush and Robert Jones gets ran over, loses his anchor, and then TWA does not put the football away. They get the strip sack and they recover. It can't have that happen, but Miami bows up on defense again, allowing a thirty four yard field

goal after a six play twenty yard drive. Short play short play than we bow up on a really nice third down rush that made Stafford Hot throws into a well rotated coverage as Jordan Poyer flies up and is there for the stop. It's incomplete anyway, but I just love the way Miami blitzed and rotated to fill those vacancies from those blitzers all night long. So it's ten

to three Dolphins. They punt the ball in their next drive five to play ten yards, and it's more of the same and two, it runs himself into a sack after getting into positive yardage, and I'm thinking, like, man, he was moving to his left, there was room there to roll, and he just like peeled back to his right and got ran right into his sack. And it was terrible decision making, and he put himself behind the

chains and they have to punt the ball back. They do get a good punt from Jake Billy down to the nine yard line. The Rams take that drive eleven plays, fifty four yards and score a field goal on that drive. Before that drive, with two minutes and thirteen seconds left in the half, the Rams had fifty four yards and

two turnovers and no third down conversions. They do get their checkdowns and some runs after the catch to create a fifty five yard field goal there before the half to make it a ten to six Dolphins lead at the break, just like it was last week in Buffalo. Let's go ahead and put a pennant right there, come back on the other side and do the second half of the game. Five big picture takeaways all that. Next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto'tation.

Speaker 2

So it's ten to six.

Speaker 3

The Dolphins have this narrow lead, and you're probably thinking to yourself, like, how are they going to find a way to let this game go by the wayside as they have the last three weeks, really ten point leads over Arizona and Indie. In the Buffalo game obviously not going we wanted it to, but this one didn't go

that way. And it kicks off in the second half with a missed fifty seven yard field goal, a nine play thirty one yard drive, and again it's more of this like, you know, effort to Nakua for eighteen yards, they're starting to reset the line of scrimmage, you get two or three yards of pushback and then downhill leading

from the running backs. I'm thinking like, ah, this this kind of has that game script that I'm a little bit terrified of, where they could just like milk things and you know, mount these second half drives that we have allowed the last couple of weeks.

Speaker 2

But that's not what happened.

Speaker 3

And part of that was because they blew a snap and sent it over Matthew Stafford's head and that was kind of the case all night, and it was kind of nice to see somebody else have those issues because it seems to really only plag us, but Jordan Brooks is back there, who damn near had himself a pick six and a ball that got deflected. Damn Near gets this scoop on a fumble, but he winds up falling on Stafford from the twenty eight yard line back to

the forty one. They do run a second downplay and get two yards, and you figure they're gonna put themselves back in position to go after a you know, a better field goal opportunity, and they do that with a little screen. But we're right there and cam Smith shuts down the nakoua screen for like a two yard gain and forces this fifty seven yard field goal where if he got five more yards, maybe the kick is good.

Speaker 2

But it's not. It's no good.

Speaker 3

And the Dolphins go down and get their cell, get themselves a touchdown to take a seventeen to six lead on a six play fifty three yard drive. And this is where Lester Cotton checked him, and I was worried about the offensive line at that point.

Speaker 2

But they get some.

Speaker 3

Positive plays, put themselves some plus territory. They get the second down, the shot play on second and eight, where I thought, like, okay, two is gonna wide up and take a shot. But the Rams defense played the shell all night long. They weren't gonna let anything get over

their head. And he wisely takes the check down the durham smythe which creates a third and three, and you get this really good process, that's really good decision making to throw the ball right off the end break to John new Smith, who then catches it and just gets rolling. And why I was so pumped to sign this guy.

A thirty three yard run all the way down to the one yard line, broke several tackles on the play, and then they dial up this really good play design where they've run this pistol run off the weak side of the formation behind the receiver crackback or down block that you've seen so many times from that nasty split when the receiver's in tight to the formation. They bluff this all the way to a play actions and Reeke

goes for the block. He bluffs it, he deeks it and just kind of turns out to his left, shows his numbers with the quarterback and the balls right there, easy pitching catch.

Speaker 2

Dolphins touchdown.

Speaker 3

The Rams answer with a fifty two yard field goal, on an eleven play thirty nine yard drive. They got their first third down conversion of the game in this drive with four and a half minutes to go. It's Cooper Cup on that sick one handed catch he made with Cam Smith in pretty good shape right there. Then you get Ramsey blanketing Pokinakoula on a deep shot.

Speaker 2

Ran the route for him.

Speaker 3

But then they get completions in nakua back to back plays to get to the edge of the red zone. But then the Dolphins defense just kind of like said not today, like dou shall not pass brother a Deshaun han tackle for loss on second down. This was the other play before the play that I wanted to put in here, but the turnover for Walker and it being him on both plays kind of made that easier for me. But Deshaun ham blew in there. It was like second

and three on the verge of the red zone. They're about to go make this a seventeen thirteen game or maybe seventeen fourteen. But he blows in there, gets a big TfL and then the Dolphins get this really well time blitz where Javon Holland comes screaming off the edge. Might have been the best Javon Holland game of the year, I think in this one. And you could hear Matt Stafford check to Louis Louis Louie, which typically is a slide to the left, and we backed out. The pressure

to the left, brought the pressure off the right. They had no one to block Javon Holland. He comes in clean for a sack and they kicked the field goal

seventeen to nine Dolphins. And this is where it's like the game kept going one score two score one score two score and credit Miami's offense a thirty seven yard field goal on this particular drive, eleven plays fifty one yards, took almost six minutes off the clock, and it began with the great Liam Flop, who is one of the greatest instigators in the entire national football the Liam Miikeenberg. He will start stuff and create that reaction and I

love watching him do it. That's kind of his personality in general. It's my favorite thing about Liam, quite frankly. And it takes us all the way out to the forty five yard line. Then we get ourselves into a third and three at the plus forty eight after two yards to John who win five yards for an eight chan run where eight chan runs the arrow right into the arrow route would say, and Tua hits him right upfield on the outside shoulder for a big first down.

Nice little shake by eight hand to get free. He's been a weapon as a receiver for this Dolphins offense. Two of them nearly gets picked off throwing the rail to tyreek where that could have been a killer man. It could have been you know, any points here makes it like, puts you in a pretty good spot and we need more yards and they burn a time out after that, and it's not looking good. Second and ten at thirty eight, Tua takes a sack on a four man rush and it's like, wow, this is back to

that second quarter again. The negative players are stacking up. But then the play of the year for two a third and nineteen, just like the National championship game at Alabama, takes the big sack on second play on second down, makes the big play on third down. He wheels out of the sack, spins out to his right, and throws the ball back across his body a slice, a little dump throw to Raheem Moster who's free, and he rolls

for twenty five yards. Great play by him and Raheem to get us not back into field goal range, but into scoring territory. Then we get ourselves A couple of runs sets up a third nine to twenty one yard line, and they were behind the chains and couldn't convert their two yard play for Waddle. A thirty seven yard Sanders field goal makes it twenty to nine. The Rams answer back with a field goal of their own to take

it right down the field. Chunk completions to cup In Nakua and we lose Cater Kohou for a snap, but luckily he's back into the game, and you can see them going after our banged up secondary because Kendall Fuller had to exit with a concussion or concussion protocol, I should say. Nakua gets twenty three yards right after Cater goes down working on Siran Neil, and then we hold in the red zone and this is the point where

there one for ten on third downs. Dolphins got three consecutive incomplete passes in that part of the field and force another field goal twenty twelve. And then I'm thinking to myself, you have like this is your forminut offense. You have to go score. Like we've seen this too many times over the years. The Dolphins have a like a two score lead and there's like, you know, ten minutes left. Its defense, offense, defense, you have three chances to win the game, and too often I have felt

the offense has been very conservative in those spots. After the defense allows to score, you give it back to the hot offense. They go down to score again, and you lose the game. And this one, I'm thinking, win the game, offense, go win the game. And they do eight plays thirty nine yards four minutes. Jalen Wright starts the game in the back of the drive in the backfield and he gets two runs for four yards. So not great, but I think he's your closer in the

long term, so I like the idea. And then Tua makes this big time off script, off platform on the move throw to Odell Beckham for a first down, and that fired the troops up man. Everybody's celebrating, pointing first down, probably thinking about a nice flight home after a victory. Then a better throw to Malik Washington in the turkey hole that cover two hole up the sideline, rips the shot right over the defender's hands for seventeen yards and

puts us into field goal range. And then they get one more not one more first down, but they get enough yards. They get four more yards to put themselves in position, and Sanders connects from fifty yards his third field goal, second from fifty plus. The night the Rams go down kick their own field goal, which I thought

was really weird the third and ten play. I get kicking the field goal when it's like, you know, forty seconds left and your thirty five yard line, but when you're thirteen yards out, like go for the touchdown.

Speaker 2

I didn't get that one at all.

Speaker 3

We get the stop and then we get the recovery on the on side kick, and that's your ballgame. Dolphins recover it and win twenty three fifteen. They're now one and a half games back from the Broncos. I believe it's the seventh seed in the AFC. We have dates with the Raiders and Patriots at home coming up before a Thanksgiving trip on Thanksgiving, believe or not against the

Green Bay Packers. So hey, big big win tonight, boys, big win to put yourself back into position, to have a chance to have you know, a rally and cry to go on a miraculous run. It had to happen tonight. Maybe it was a week too late. I think it's not. I hope it's not. But you had to have this one tonight and you got it, and I'm excited about it. We'll talk more about that and the five big picture

takeaways on the other side. Draft Time Podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation my five big picture takeaways for the dolphins twenty three fifteen win in Los Angeles. The rams Is missed opportunities early, but you didn't miss him in the second half. And this is kind of a tua tweet a Tua dua wor's to a segment eighty five percent completion in the second half or one hundred and twenty yards. It's nine point two three yards per clip, a touchdown, no picks, and

a one hundred and thirty passer rating. And they had points on every single drive except for the end of game neel down, which is the best formation you can call.

Speaker 2

I mentioned it earlier.

Speaker 3

Miena Chimes tweeted out the two was five for six for eighty yards on the move. He was seven for eight when it come to when it came to throwing outside the pocket, so he was clicking in all those all those cylinders and had this offense cranking after a first half where opening drive looked pretty damn good, but they held the ball with a ten to lead three times in the first half and couldn't move the ball

in those situations. We also had a third and three drop that would have been first and tended at the fifteen yard line for Waddle. Then Tua had the three drive sequence where it's pick fumble, big sack, poor decision after poor decision after poor decision, bad ball security, and we had gone two games without any of that. But those drives were all opportunities to put this game not away, but like three scores away is pretty good for a

defense that was playing their butts off. And I was just thinking, like, where's the consistency from week to week with this stuff? This is the stuff I don't want to see from the quarterback. But then he came back and had that second half. They convert on that critical third down with John Wui Smith rolling, they score on the next play. They convert a third and nineteen a half for the bad sack that puts us back into field goal shape for a two score lead at that

point of the game. The Rams made it a one score game three times. The offense responded all three times to push it back to a two lead.

Speaker 2

And then the third downs.

Speaker 3

I mean I mentioned earlier six for eleven on third downs in this game conversions of three, six, eight, ten, thirteen, and nineteen yards. That's nine point eight three yards per conversion there on those third downs, So big time stuff.

Speaker 2

They're from your quarterback.

Speaker 3

And again, like this is we'll talk about us here in one second, but like finding ways to win games in different ways, I think when your quarterback can convert third and longs, that can erase a lot of woes in the game. And we saw it consistently from two in this one. So missed opportunities early, converted on them late is takeaway number one here for Dolphins over Rams. Number two is I thought this was a step back in terms of the trench play. I've been praising this

offensive line for quite a while now. I think the Rams played it really well though, because like there was a play where they shut down an eight chan run for negative five where Aram Brewer tried to pull and they just like met him where he was in the backfield, didn't let him get around the corner an angle up field. They just went and shut him down and got knocked

back that way. They got surge all night long. They know how to play our polars and our rat blocks just kept meeting us where we were at on top of reset and the line of scrimmage in multiple ways. They also confused our pass protection. I thought a few

times or just flat out overpowered us Versus. Is that you guys headly talking about him in the podcast Chops coming on, But Jared Versus is so freaking good and his power rushed like he's going to be defensive rookie of the Year, and he was able to get our guys flat footed and then run through their chests couple

of times, and that showed up. So I thought the trench play against a surprisingly prett damn good Rams front all of a sudden was a step in the wrong direction, and with injuries on the offensive line, it'll be further test as we go forward. Number three is the defense looked just like it did before it lost Zach Sealer and Cater Kohu. And I'll never throw a game on one player or one play. I think that's not how

you do it. Although I thought the last couple of weeks, if we didn't drop a pick against the Cardinals, if we didn't hit Keon Coleman in the head, I think those results would have been different. But I also think the results would have been different if you had Zach Seeler in both those games because of the flexibility and the just overall attitude and brute strength, but mostly the flexibility of what he adds to your defense because of

how thin we are off the edge. Been talking about this, you know for weeks now the Dolphins are so thin with Phillips and Chubb and obviously Shaq retired before the year began, and you know, you're just at that position. And because of Campbell and Sealer's ability to play so many spots, to play the those big fronts and stretch those guys out and get more from Deshan Hanna, Banino Jones like it allows you to stay alive, which is

what the Dolphins defense did tonight. On top of like forcing the issue, I thought the rush games and blitzers were really well timed up with the coverage. They would rally to those vacancies in the back end, so it was well connected and communicated, and again they held the Rams at a first without a conversion on their on their you know, ninety percent of their first ten attempts in that position. I got the big fronts I was talking about, and the mix of rush and coverage with

the ability to show sim pressure. That big Javon hollandsack was a blitz that had sim pressure off the other side. That drive at the end of the third quarter where Stafford makes that Louis check and this is haul and play, just big time stuff to keep backing them up in big spots. One other thing that I love the most

about this game was the defense's physicality. Where I thought they just tackled really poorly the last couple of weeks, it seemed like they were dialed up an extra gear in this one, and guys weren't falling through tackles for extra yards. We were the one forcing the issue and pushing ball carriers back, clawing for every inch in a must win game.

Speaker 2

I love to see it.

Speaker 3

The impressive thing here the offense turned it over twice and set the Rams up with the plus thirty six and plus forty three yard lines, and the Rams only got three points off those two drives, so great job by the defense all night long. Number four, how about an explosive offense. How about a third down offense, and how about a game closing offense that's a part four, A, B and C. Twenty yards thirty six yards than nineteen yards on the opening drive.

Speaker 2

I love it.

Speaker 3

I want to see more explosive offense because if that goes along with good ball distribution, we can be an absolute nightmare for every team we face the rest of the way. Again, the offense responded to all the RAMS scores. That's a good way to bounce back. The third down offense was nails, especially at the quarterback position, and those answers at the end of the RAMS scores you close it out. So really across the board, good job by

the offense in the second half. And then my number five takeaway is I was just I don't really have a take from this, but I thought that the coaching

changes in one instance for sure was rewarded. But we saw Anthony Walker again in for David Long Junior, who's working his way back from you know, some ailments and whatnot, But it's more of a performance based decision there for Walker, who played really good in this game, and that was you know, that's a testament to the coaching staff for recognizing someone you know, maybe more ready for that role and stepping up into that role and playing well where

Hee moster, you know, getting punishment. I should say, I don't know, that's probably the wrong phrase to use, but you know, he didn't see a carry in this game after some really big fumbles the last few weeks. And then Malik Washington's role has been elevated to go along with his great downfield blocking. He's getting more footballs and

making plays with it. And not to mention for the offense, you know, losing Austin Jackson ahead of the game, Rob Jones goes down, no alec Ingold, So a huge faction of your offense and the two back personnel they love to run is out. I mean, Tanner Connor ran some of it, but you could tell it wasn't Alec out there tonight. So that was all good to see. And

I'll just leave with this. I think that when you can win different styles of games, that's how you can advance the furthest in this league and make the biggest impact in terms of being contenders. And we have seen this defense has won you a couple of games this year in terms of the production they gave you. I think the offense has done the exact same thing, and this one it was a bit of both. But I think that the Dolphins can beat you with the running game.

They can beat you in the deep passing game. They can beat you in the intermediate passing game. They can beat you by the ball control, make your quarterback go, make some plays on the third down style of game. They can get after you with their blitzes and their sim pressures and their occasional four man rushes and create They've shown you multiple ways to win games. They have to find a way to put it all together and be that team each and every week because they don't

have any room for air at this point. Probably lose one more game if you want to make the playoffs, I think that seventh seed would be probably ten and seven probably get you in because right now the teams I think are going to compete with for that spot. I don't think we'll have head to head tire breakers on you. I tend to look at the Chargers the Bengals. Well, let's say the Chargers and Steelers get the five and six spots, cause I'm already given the Ravens the AFC North.

It would basically the Bengals, the Colts, and the Broncos for that last spot, and I just you guys know, I don't believe in the Broncos. They're five, five and five right now. Yeah, you're a game and a half back of them. So they're five and five. The Bengals are four and six and have some tough games coming up, but they're the ones that kind of scare me because Joe Burrow's playing like an MVP this year and the Colts are going the wrong direction, So hey, man, win some games.

Speaker 2

I mentioned this in the podcast.

Speaker 3

I think if the Dolphins actually after this whin, I believe the Dolphins will go into Thanksgiving playing for the seventh seed if they can find a way to beat the Packers, but first have to beat the Raiders, have to beat the Patriots. We'll get to all that coming up here in the meantime. That's gonna be my time. I didn't throw in the coach McDaniel audio. I wanted to play on the show because it's like two o'clock in the morning, and that's more editing and more just time,

so go check out his press conference on the YouTube channel. Also, please be sure to subscribe, rate, review the show, follow me on social at Winkle NFL, the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out my guys Seth and Juice in the Fish Tank podcast. Check out the YouTube channel for those media availabilities. I thought two was great again his postgame presser and of course Dolphins HQ and last button, not least Miami dolphins dot COM's up.

Speaker 2

Next time, Fin's up. Colan can't ring Daddy Just coming home.

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