Drive Time: Dolphins Sluggish in Another Defeat, Fall to Titans 31-12

for your Miami Dolphins. They fall to the Titans at home thirty one to twelve, to fall to one and three. We'll talk about the stats, We'll go over the game script and do the five takeaways from this one. From the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Draft Time Podcast. As you were very abundantly aware of by now, the Dolphins statistically came up short in this one and looked just rough the entire

night doing it. Let's go ahead and cover some of the stats in the thirty one to twelve loss to the Titans. As the Dolphins convert just thirteen first downs compared to Tennessee's sixteen, they go two for twelve on third down. That's one week after going one for twelve on third down, so progress. The Titans were also just two for twelve on third down. In fact, the Dolphins defense has now held opposing offenses to just twenty three percent conversions on third down. That is best in the

National Football League. Crazy right. The Dolphins did pick up another fourth down in this game, third first in a while. They went one for three, which improves their mark on the year to two for fourteen on fourth down. The Titans were one for one. Dolphins gained just one hundred and eighty four yards. In fact, through the first three and a half quarters had less than one hundred yards. In this game, they got seventy eight through the air one oh six on the ground on fifty four plays.

The Titans got one oh two through the air and one forty two on the ground on sixty two of their own plays. The Dolphins and Titans both had one turnover. The Dolphins took two sacks, They got Will Levis or rather Mason Rudolph to the ground once, and the Dolphins again with double digit penalties ten for ninety eight. Tough to win football games when you play that undisciplined up and down for multiple weeks in a row. Let's go ahead and go through this game script, as ugly as

it was. It began with an Emmanual Ogba interception dropping back into coverage, and I started off with the Dolphins defensive line kicking the Titans offensive lines, but which I thought would be the case all night long. Zachs either had a couple of wins, a retrace and a double team.

That drive did get extended on a Jaln Phillips low hit on the quarterback after he literally chucked the right tackle both cleats off the ground and then fell into the quarterback's lap, and that got him a fifteen yard penalty. JP also exited the game with a knee injury and did not return. He looked very frustrated. So on top of a tough result, one of your top guys goes down for what didn't look like a great injury. We should know more as time goes along. Mike McDaniel did

not have an update for us after the game. That was a seven play, twenty eight yard drive. They converted a second and seventeen to DeAndre Hopkins who was all alone in the hook zone, which is an issue that I don't really know how to parse it out, because you know, zone coverage is what zone coverage is, but it seems like the one bugaboo I've kind of had with this defense instead of on top of, you know, the big running plays, because I think by and large

the run defense has been good. It's the big running plays that have gotten them. Is these easy hook zone throws that seem to be easily convertible, especially a second and seventeen to DeAndre Hopkins to kick this game off. But then because of what this defense can do with sim pressures and peeling different guys back into the hook zone, Emmanuel Ogbah finds himself right in front of a Will Levis pass and he catches it with his well, his junk and then his knees and then his ankles and

eventually hangs onto the football and gets a takeaway. And Miami comes out and goes screaming down the field on their own right. Three plays, goes to Waddle to Tyreek and then to eight Chan for a couple of first downs, and it looks like, all right, here we go. This is the offense we thought we had all year long.

And I was excited about the first rep from Huntley, a little pivot off the pistol action the fake toss to the right, He spins back and fires that fifteen yard or so glanced route to waddle the pop pass to Tyreek for a big game. Then a Chen has a positive carry play The hits right, but then it stalls because Huntley's backwards pass is dropped by Tyreek Hill. He doesn't chase half of the football the Titans do.

They recover it. Luckily, the rest blow it dead because it would have been a touchdown six the other way, a fumble sixthy the way I should say if they had let that play a play out. They don't, but they get the football back and the Titans go three and out. Three plays nine yards two to twenty two off the play clock or the game clock, I should say. And Anthony Walker gets the start in this game and made his presence fel I thought pretty routinely with some

big collisions. Now I'll watch the tape and get a better feel for what the defense did on the hole in this game. But I thought he had some good b gap to big gap run defense, which is kind of what I thought he was as a player coming here. Storm Duck gets off of a block and makes a stop on a screen pass for a no gain, and then Will Levis's scramble just does not get enough yards

after great effort from the entire Dolphins defense. But really Kalais Campbell who runs him into this bubble off the side of the line of scrimmage and he cannot find the first down marker and also injured his shoulder on that play, and Mason Rudolph eventually took over and Rudolph threw for like eighty seven yards in the game. The Dolphins go three and out after that three plays minus four yards. We run one for short, then throw one

to Tyree to set up a third medium. Then we turn the free edge rusher for a sack, which I gotta get on this because I keep seeing, you know, I love. I think Simon Clancy is a very bright person, a very good football mind, but he keeps on harp on Austin Jackson, and particularly on that play. Brother, that was not Austin Jackson's fault on that play. That's all I'm gonna have to tell you right there, because that

was a scan inside. The number one rule in pass protection is pick up the interior rushes first and leave the outside to be the one that comes free. If you have to let one, which if you're five man pass protection, which they were on that play because Jalen Wright, unless he got the assignment wrong, he just ran a route, did not show any interest in staying in pass protection. And if you're five on six, the guy you let come free is the widest person out. That's what happened.

Huntley did not throw the ball on one hitch timing, took a sack. That's how it goes. It is not Austin Jackson who took the entire responsibility, which is what he's supposed to do. And he kept saying the RD and key will not go up against running back and pass protection. No, but you can turn the outside guy free in any protection schemes. That's a pretty one to one basic thing that we talk about there. So I

just pushed back on that sentiment hard. Either way, who cares because they the results the same Titans get a fifty three yard field goal on their next drive, a riveting nine play twenty one yard drive where Rudolph came in for Levis Oguba, had a stack and shed TfL He sipped through the split flow kickout and got down on the tackle for a loss. But then they convert a third down, give up the hook zone beyond the six.

Once again, Klas Campbell blows through for a sheds of block and makes a TfL and then a chunk play on second long. We've just had this like the issues I've had so far this year is there has not been a lot of juice off the edge, and like Jalen Phillips going down does not help that. Emmanuel Ogba has had some up and down showings, but by and large, like not gonna blow by guys as a one on one pass rusher at this stage of his career, and

Chop Robinson had a rough start to his career. So it's just been not great at a position where you lost Shaq Barrett, Bradley Chubb should be coming back pretty soon, I hope. And of course watching Andrew Van Ginkle star in Minnesota makes it tough as well, but just a tough group off the edge. I think you've kind of struggled to get your true four man pass rush home with that, and that's been the one real knock I've had on the defense outside of the explosive plays in

the run game here and there. But that's the one thing that I think consistently shows up on tape that has not been good enough. And then Seeler makes a big play to say a huge game. It's this massive gap opens up, but he makes the play, and then storm Duck beats a block and gets a tackle on

a third and six screenplay. They kick the field goal, and despite all this mess offensively, it's only three notth and Dolph or Titans until Miami goes back to turn the ball over on downs four plays twenty three yards. You get a fifteen yard roughiing call and Ard and Key on their side of the ball, and then the first I love the sequence where it's first two plays was an inside zone run then a gap run. Cool.

I like that give me more variety in the running game in terms of your scheme than its quarterback power. And that sets up a fourth and one and then they go jet sweep to Tyreek and it gets strung out for a loss. I love the sequence until that fourth down play. But then it's also like we ran the full back dive the last seven times and that didn't work. So it's just been this slog that seems to be no matter what they do, what they go to, it burns you time and time again, and turnovers on

downs and midfield. It's putting your defense at a disadvantage, especially a defense does on the field all the time, because the offense cannot do anything. It's impossible. And the Dolphins were one for eleven at that point on fourth downs and short fields continue to leave for points for the opposition. Here it leads to a Titans fifty two yard field goal after a nineteen yard drive that covers seven plays, four straight runs, two first downs. That kind

of gashing you there a little bit. Then they get hit for their own holding call that brings all the way back and then we get a great play in coverage from I think it was Jordan Brooks that made the play to break up a pass on third down to force the field goal. They go up six to nothing. The Dolphins get their own field goal on a ten play forty four yard drive and it starts with a lugerious sneed taunting call. Then Jalen Wright gets an eight yard run with a full head of steam off a

Julian Hill block off the right edge. Okay, here we go again. That's the offense. We know we're cranking off the edge in the running game. The ball goes into plus territory, two plays, stall out for a third and ten play, and then Huntley runs for eleven and a first down. So we're cooking with gas at this point. Then the Titans bring pressure off the right edge, the big gap opens up in that man coverage look, and he can exploit that for a first down run. That's

where you get excited about his game. But beyond that, that was pretty much it. He threw deep to Tyrek and double coverage, and he required Cheeta to break the pass up. Just keep us alive for a field goal opportunity. And then third and six from the plus thirty yard line, you throw a speed out short of the sticks to waddle and then kick the field goal. Understand that that's what happened. Titans lead six to three at that point.

Titans go four plays twenty four yards and punt the ball back to the Dolphins defense after Jalen Phillips rejects a pass back in the face of Will Levis, and you're thinking, okay, down by three, two minutes to go in the half, you might have a chance here to go tie the game, maybe take a lead. Instead, it's a three play, six yard drive and one where Tyreek was opened for an eighty what was an eighty seven yard touchdown, but Huntly threw it like three miles behind him.

He had stacked Lugarious sneed for like a two yard separation down the field. You gotta hit those in the game like this. Then a quarterback draw into the line on third and ten and it goes on second ten. Then an eight chance screen for eight yards, and you punt the ball right back to the Titans, who go four plays nineteen yards and they throw a shot right in off of Storm Duck for fifteen yards from Nuke Hopkins, and then a second down, some pressure on second down

from Seeler and JP forces a throwaway. And then third and six you get a stop on the Dolphins defense from a Jordan Brooks coverage play, and then kalay Is Campbell blocks the punt, and then Duke Riley. I don't know what the hell happened here. I don't know what

he's thinking. He tried to jump on the football in the middle of the field after it was blocked, and the Titans damn near got the ball back, but luckily the Titans touched it first, and then the Dolphins go right back to another three and out, and you're thinking, oh, well, that was our second chance to get points, and now

we didn't do that. So let's give it back to the Titans after a thirty yard Jake Bailey punt, which seems like every time we need a big punt there it goes off the side of the foot out of bounds. And this was after we had snapped a ball through Tyler Huntley's legs and we had I legal ships going on,

just an absolute tire fire out there. Titans get the ball back and then throw one right over Cater Kohu for twenty six yards, who continues to just kind of react off the top of the route, which is on a good way to play defensive back, and it's gonna get you beat. It's gonna get a bunch of big yards. It happens here, and all of a sudden, after all of this, it's nine to three Titans at halftime. Let's go ahead and take our first break, comeback on the other side and do the second half of the game.

We'll do the five to ten was at the end, get the hell out of here and call it a night for you guys. Here. Drift time podcast your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. Nine to three halftime score. I'm sure there's not a lot of confidence being inspired across Dolphins fandom or even maybe the locker room at this point, even though the Dolphins get the football with a chance to go take the ball down the field and take a lead with a touchdown drive, but instead

it's a three play, one yard drive. We finally get an in breaker that looks good and Waddle drops it, and then third nine, nobody's open protection seems to get confused. Huntley gets hit as he throws and it's incomplete and back to the same old Titans take their next possession and go three and out three plays minus three yards. What a fun football game, right, Kaloys Campbell splits a double team and then shows this whole tackle for a couple of plays to create a third and five situation.

And then I loved the sim pressure look where they brought Jordan Brooks off the b gap and then Javon Holland kind of like green dogged it right behind him and came a little bit delayed on a blitz and the guard went to pick up Holland and that freed up Brooks who put a hit on the quarterback and finished for the sack. And then you get a big Brax and Buriers return and what do you do? You go five plays, ten yards and you kick a fifty

six yard field goal. Defensive holding to kick off that drive put you at the plus forty one yard line. Then it was a four yard loss to eight Chan a three yard run for Tyreek and then quarterback power on third and eleven, Titans league nine to six. Then the Titans go down the field for a touchdown and that was pretty much the end of it. Where on third down Kohu just seemed to lost track of where

he was and gets flagged for a DPI. Again, he does it every time every coverge snap they throw to him, he's facing the wrong way or pushing the guy and it's just can't play that way. And then to make matters worse, JP gets hurt, throws his helmet off in frustration. Looks like he might miss some time after that one, just based upon his reaction, and then Tony Pollard breaks one. They run right at Chop Robinson. After JP comes out of the field, it comes off the field. You get

bad angles from the cornerback in safety. He's out of the gate for forty one yards storm duck chase. I thought Javon Holland kind of wpped it around the front side as well, and then they go for six on the wild cart on the wildcap and Zach Seeler closes down the mesh point and this is you know, he played so good this game, in the last game, and

really his entire career has been a great player. But this play kind of confused me because they run the mesh point and the motion's going away from from Sealer, and the running back that could pull it would maybe go up to the right, I can see that, but he like the main gap that he could threaten was the B gap up inside, and Sealer like closes down the mesh point on the outside and it creates this easy angle cut in for Paullard to just go off of the inside shoulder and take it right into this

wide open B gap where the pursuit wasn't there because I don't know, I don't know what they were, you know what spirits were like at that point, he cuts it up touchdown. Titans go up by ten, and that was like way too much to overcome right three plays minus seven yards. In the next drive, we fake a toss, look for the n break, it's covered up, and then Patrick Paul loses the edge and Sebastian Joseph Day obliterates him for a sack loss of ten. That's the end

of the drive. Titans get it back and go six plays, eleven yard yards and kick a field goal over fifty one yards that makes it nineteen to six. It was a couple of two to ten yard runs from Tony Pollard that put them in position for that, but then Jialen Ramsey had a TfL. They made a stop on

third and eleven to create that field goal. Still down by two touchdowns, have a chance to get back in it, but then it's four plays, eight yards, turnover on downs, three plays, get nine, then fourth and one and Devon a. Chan has been great this year, right, but the decision making and the gaps and the ability to hit it up in between the tackles just hasn't been there in

the last couple of games. And I know OJ McDuffie's getting pretty fired up about how guys are trying to go wide and run things around the outside to pick up an extra yard where if you put your nose down and get an extra three or four yards that could be more beneficial. I thought that showed up here. In fact, there was a still shot of Huntley pointing to the gap that he should have taken it. He

didn't go that way. Turnover on downs leads to another twenty seven yard drive that leads to a field goal for the Titans twenty two to six. The Dolphins get it back and score a touchdown. Yeah, they even had ilegal shifts like three times in the drive that they overcame, so that was cool to I guess. And then they scrambled in for a touchdown for Tyler Huntley to make it twenty two to twelve. And then I went to the radio booth and the final score was thirty one

to twelve. But I don't you know, there was the safety that I didn't even see that I didn't see that happen. There was the the free kick punt on side kick thing that was not legally done, and the Titans ended up paying that off of a touchdown of their own. They become It becomes the first game they scored thirty plus points in for the Titans since the last time they played us in twenty twenty one, so that's a fun little bookend on that. Let's go ahead

and take our last break. I'm not gonna play any soundbites. I I don't care right now. Let's just keep rolling and get the heck out of here. The five takeaways next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield round to you by AutoNation. Five takeaways here. I think generally a blanket over the top of this just to say the offense has been an absolute problem through the first four games.

I mean, it is what it is. They had seventy seven yards on offense and three points in the first half, and everything just feels like it's impossibly challenging to accomplish. They had just three yards in the third quarter. So I guess rather than doing a blanket basis, I'll just separate some of these. But I mean, lifeless on offense. That's the top takeaway here. We did the stats already. On the season. We have forty five points in four games.

I mean, we scored seventy in a game last year in Week two, we scored thirty six in Week one, thirty one in Week five, forty two in Week six, thirty one in Week eight forty five and week you know thirty four, and Week twelve forty five and Week thirteen thirty and Week fifty like those days are gone. Brother through three corps. We had eighty four yards in the game, which brought us to a one thousand and forty on the season. That's two hundred and sixty yards

per year last year. In our first four games, we went five thirty six, three eighty nine, seven to twenty six, three ninety three and four posterity five twenty four and four to twenty four in the next two games. It's kind of crazy. I think about how much can change in just a short amount of time, and really the personnel the only difference there. Yeah, you're down Raheem Moster.

I know Ron Arms is not out there, but it's really kind of the quarterback position right because Reek, Waddle and eight Chan are all out there, three the top playmakers in the entire game. You have a different offensive line on the interior. But you know, even with those changes, I never would have told you we'd see games like this in this offense, a bottom and three offense and points and yards, it's tough to swallow. It's tough to

go backwards this way, but here we are. My number one takeaway is the turnover on downs problem needs to get resolved, whether you convert those or just stop doing them. Because you're one for ten on fourth down coming into the game you filed, and another one that led to points for Tennessee. You failed two more later on. Our total turnover on downs is now up to twelve on the season, or no eleven failures. Three of those were in the second half of the Bills game when it

was already twenty one point deficit. So I forgive those, but you've given them twenty seven points on four games. A touchdown per game off of turnovers on down and the yarde of those scoring drives has been a fifty five yard touchdown, a forty nine yard touchdown. This is Jacksonville is the fifty five The forty nine yard touchdown was the first play at James cook In that drive and gets Buffalo and the Seahawks last week after you failed to punch it in, they went ninety eight yards.

On the other side. We keep seeing the defense like play pretty well for you know, three quarters, and then they just kind of buckle at the end, because that's what that's what happens in this league. You saw it to the Jets all year. Last year, they had gave up a nineteen yard field goal drive and a twenty

seven yard field goal drives. Like hard to win games when you're gifting points like that, and they do it every single time they go for a fourth down except for one, right, Like it's happened every time we did kick a forty two yard field goal? What after getting just four on third and six and it was fourth and two in scoring range, Like that's where I didn't get that one, because if you're gonna throw it short of the sticks, then you should probably go for right.

I don't know. Second takeaway, the protection looked like it was playing with the quarterback that just got here. Huntley took that immediate sack with Austin Jackson. I don't want to, you know, go any further into Ocieity broke it down

for you guys. But those are the kind of things that are gonna happen with a new quarterback, Like he doesn't necessarily know where his hot is, where his slides are where, Uh, how to you know how to get the ball into that replacement position for that blitz you see a lot of these top quarterbacks play against the blitz, and like I always say, when you're watching a game, because for some reason, football games are broadcast in this in the snap shot where you only see like the

second level the defense and into the offensive backfield, and then when they snap the ball, they zoom in further for some reason and don't show you half of the play that's going on down the field. When a quarterback like catch rock and throw or catch one hitch timing, stets up and throws like, it's usually the completion, right, if they have that conviction in their red, it's usually a good thing. It's when they hitch and double clutch

and run around they make mistakes. And when you see a quarterback do that, it's it feels like obviously easy when you're watching that happen, but it's not. It's like part of the pre snap chess match. Those guys play. And that's why I think Tua is so damn good at this game. It's why I think, you know, I don't think Josh Allen, I don't think Patrick Mahomes. I don't think any of these quarterbacks are good players without having that fundamental core of their game it's the most

important part. It's why Kurt Warrant tweeted about this after the games on Sunday, like, weird, how Andy Dalton and Joe Flacco in this game full of elite athletes can go out there and ball out. And He's right. It's because the most important thing is playing from the pocket. And for a guy like Huntley, who I was excited about the scramble ability, about the added run game element, and I still am because it's very early. I mean, I'm not excited about it. Let's get that out of

the way. I'm not excited about seeing anything right now. This team does because they have to kind of earn that trust back. But it is an added element that he offers to the offense and what you take in the interim as he learns the offense. This intricate, heavy worded verbiage offense is that you might not get what you want from an actual offensive passing game, structure, execution standpoint,

something you have to deal with. So there was a similar play in the second half that started that way as well, just not seeing the hot and that costs you a big shot across the bow because when you have six rushers against five protectors or seven against six. You can't block them all. The quarterback has to find that one, and I thought we saw that play out in the game here on Monday night Tuesday morning. Now number three is just the freaking operation, dude. The fundamentals.

I mean the three illegal shifts in the one drive, ten penalties for ninety eight yards. We had a snap that rolled through the quarterback's legs at one point, and that was an legal shift on that play. I mean the Reek drop and fumble and then to not go after it. There was a deep shot that he didn't get connected on later in the game and he walked off the field. Was actually on the field for that pun Day punted away whoever it was. I think a long Bailey punt, like I don't know, just the energy

in the body language was bad. Waddle has that drop on the drive started letting the ball get right into his body. The Duke Riley play just like wow, dude, you know wow. The fourth takeaway is I believe the run defense just kind of got worn down. And I can't say that I blame them because it's tough to defend every two minutes when you can't get a first down on offense. We've seen this in the past. We saw what Jacobe Brissett back in twenty twenty one, like,

it was the same thing. The defense played fine, but the offense continue and you just put them behind the eight ball. They had fourteen runs the Titans did on their first five drives that gained three yards or less. So even if they averaged three yards on those plays, which they didn't, that would be what twenty eight times fourteen. I'm no a mathematician, that's oh, shoot, forty two yards on fourteen runs, like, that's a winning formula. That's not

successful offense. And a lot of those were losses and no gains too, so it's more like fourteen for like twenty five yards. Really, that's a lot of plays you're throwing in the trash. As an offense, they were doing just fine, but man, you keep flooding the dam, eventually it'll break. They were at one hundred and thirty rushing yards when it became a three score game, so they did get theirs late, but some of those ted twelve

yard pops. That forty yard pop by Pollard came towards the end of the game, and I thought that was you can put that on the offense. That's how I feel about that. Takeaway Number five is the third straight installment of we are in trouble. I said this after the Week two game, and that was before the two injury. I once did this job in twenty twenty one with a seven game losing streak, A one and seventeen. We've seen this team go one in fifteen some seventeen years ago.

We saw this team strip this thing down to the studs in twenty nineteen to play some horrendous football that season. Remember those first two games against the Ravens and Patriots that year, we went through a run where the offense, if an aptitude, hit what I thought was all time lows in twenty seventeen with Jay Cutler and Adam Gays and that offense, but fellas I suspect, we were in

trouble after the Buffalo game. And I am not sure right now that you can point to a game where you feel good about it going in now that will probably change. It's a long season. It always does. Maybe it doesn't, and so maybe it finally does go. How twenty nineteen was supposed to go, I don't know. I really don't know. I can tell you this, I just can't invest emotion into it. At this point. Your stars aren't showing up. There seems to be zero urgency. Where's

the dog mentality we talked about all offseason? And get these important players and they can bring that in just all these things I thought we saw with this team. I mean, I'm going to go zero for freaking twelve on productions of this team. I'll strikeout four times. Put the golden sombrero on me. Dog feels like it's getting close to start overtime. That's all it is, we baby, So there you go. I cover it all. I don't blame you if you don't want to go on that

journey with me, but hell I'm here. I'll do it. So come along if you want to. If not, that's fine too. Let's go ahead and call it a podcast. Subscribe, rate review if you so choose, on Apple, Spotify, wherever get your podcasts from. Go ahead and leave me a rating, leave me a review. You can follow me on social at t wingfold NFL. Follow the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the Dolphins YouTube channel for Dolphins HQ, my brand new show that is not doing as good as

I want to because this team is. It came out right when teams started to fall apart, so that's not great for us. Check out the fish Tank Podcast with my guy Seth and Juice and Last Button not least Miami Dolphins dot Com. Until next time, Finn's Up, Caroline and Cameron, Daddy, He's coming home.