All right, John, it is year number eight for you, Week number twelve. I just want to know, off the top, how you feeling.
Man. I'm feeling great, Man, I'm feeling great.
You know, just excited to get back to work tomorrow and continue to try to you know, stack some more wins.
Did you know that your game on Sunday was the first game since the merger in nineteen seventy, which is fifty four years ago, that a Dolphins tight end had one hundred yards receiving and two touchdowns in a single game.
Yeah.
Man, it's you know, a cool, cool stat to have, you know what I mean? You know, we uh, you know, as players and competitors. You know, we're just out there trying to just you know, let all the work that we put in show and you know, all ofviously our God give them the abilities, and you know, the statu she just speaks for herself. But you know, trying not
to get too caught up in stats. I found out that stat after the game was a cool stat to have, and you know, it's you know, like I said, man, it's it's pretty dope to.
Be What was that the year you say that was nineteen seventy nineteen seventy. Yeah good a minute.
Wow, wasn't so?
Yeah to I remove Dahlan deep speedways. Peace do hell peas do. From the Baptist Health Studio.
This inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield.
He's got my hands in the playoffs. What is up, Dolphans And welcome to the Draft Time Podcast. I am your host, Travis Wingfield and on today's show, as you heard at the top there, and if you skipped this introduction part of the show, go back and check it out. The beginning part of the John new Smith interview is at the beginning of the episode. I broke up into two parts. That's podcast editing. It's not anything wrong with the show. Just go back and check it out if
you miss it already. John new Smith joins the show. What a weird intro this is. We'll do the week twelve picks and we'll have Kyle Krabs here from the Baptist Else Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Draft Time Podcast. Let's pick it back up with Johnny Smith. I want to kind of go into the anatomy of a big game like that because I'm curious what it looks like heading into the week, Like, do you know you're a big part of the game
plan going into that game. Was it something where they were showing you something early on that provide an opportunity for you to make all those plays?
Like how does that come to fruition?
And that's that's just the thing about the NFL, man, like being in the year, being in the league eight years, you know what I mean? You know, every week, man, it could be a week, you know what I mean. It could look like it's your week, and it cannot be a week, you know what I mean. And regardless of uh, you know what the game plan may look like, you prepare us if it's going to be a week, you know what I mean, and and do what everything You do everything you can in your power to help
your team get a win. So that's just you know it could you know, you listen again, you can come in on Wednesday and see that game plan and you're like, oh, yeah, somebody needs to draft me my fantasy team, you know what I mean.
But sometimes it doesn't go that way.
Whether it may be you know the defense, you know game playing really well against you you know, coverag just took it, took the quarterback a different direction, you know what I mean, just a lot of different things could not be just could not go your way, and you just gotta stay even killed not get frustrated, because it's some weeks where you're like, Okay, like I know, you know, this may not be a big stat week for me, but I'm gonna do everything I can in my power to help us get a win.
And that's just kind of the mindset that I have.
And you know, those I've had a lot of those weeks where you know, maybe I'm like, yeah, it's probably not the biggest game plan for me, but I'm gonna do whatever I can do to help my team get a win. And I've you know, had a pretty good week on the stat line. So sometimes you just gotta just stay even kill man, and and you know, just be patient and just let the game come to you.
If you can't tell my no.
That's Dolphins tight end John new Smith here listen to Baptist Hell Studios on Dolphins HQ and the Draft Time podcast. The full interview on the podcast on Friday, of course, talking to you now for Dolphins HQ, and you know, the last touchdown you scored in the game, or actually, right, let's go back real quick, because I wanted to talk about these celebration I think it was I care if it was your first year, second touchdown in the game, like everybody came over to you and Reek was like
he was fired up about it. And I love to watch the film after big plays and how guys celebrate their teammates. Because to your point, like in the past here it's been two guys that got most of the footballs where you can waddle, but this year, you guys have done a really good job spreading the ball around, and those guys seem to be as invested as ever. I'm just curious what the mindset is across the eligibles, all the skill players, as you guys have so many
mouths to feed. Obviously, like you talk about, it's not going to always be your week, But what's the mindset of those guys when they just come to work every single week no matter what their catches and yards looks like.
It's it's definitely an element of selflessness, you know what I mean. You know, that's why those guys are who they are, you know what I mean, And the players that they are just because they played the game the right way.
Again.
Man, it's like I said, it may not be your week every week.
And there's so many.
Guys on the offensive side of the ball that can make plays with the ball in their hands, you know. And you know, the stat line can be filled up by like six different guys you know, every week, you know what I mean. In the NFL, that's rare, you know, I mean, you don't have that a lot. So we got so many guys man that we can get the
ball too. And like I said, it's just an element of selflessness from those guys and them just uh, you know, being team players and and and you know, you know, they are who they are, you know what I mean, trust me, they uh you know, no, no, they They're going to get their you know, uh you know, weekend and week out. So I'm just excited to be a part of this, this this offense man, with so many great talented players.
Yeah, it's been fun to watch the evolution of getting more guys involved that way. And I want to talk about your second touchdown because first of all, you pulled away from a safe you, by the way, don't to do that. It's some pretty good speed in the open field there, but you were so open. At what point in that play did you know I'm gonna score if I get this football? And then like was it kind of like this feels like high school again where there's a like there's like no one within.
The twenty yards. Yeah.
Yeah, just taking advantage of the defenses, the defense mistakes and obviously blown coverage. Uh seen the Red Sea's part, they try to go zero. Uh man us out nobody in the middle of the field. But you know sometimes uh, you know, guys just get lost and uh, you know, our freed up and just playing backyard football and just put my hand up, just making sure me and too connected odds and we did and hit me, gave me
a good ball. Felt like that ball was in the air for about one hundred years, man, but you know, just made to play and finished it. So it was definitely a big moment in the game for us as a team. And you know, to go up two possessions, so you know, we got it done.
I know coach is big on GPS tracking. Did they get you your miles proud on it?
I didn't. I didn't.
I don't know.
I'm not sure.
It's got to be twenty.
I'm I'm I'm confident it was man. Last year I hit twenty one. Then, yeah, I hit twenty one something, you know what I mean. So, but I actually I had more last year. Mons was sixty yards from the line. It was like sixty one yards from the line of scrimmage, so you know, I was able to build up you know what I mean.
That one I kind of caught it. I don't know where y'all line.
I caught that going on, but probably had like thirty more yards to scamper. So we'll see what I'm pretty sure it's in the twenties.
No, it was the screen path last year, right, Yeah, watching up we got this guy was pretty spy our building. Let's go back to your first touchdown now, because what a like divine moment that was when you throw the ball into the air blindly, right, you just kind of chucked it and it lands with your son.
My oldest son.
Just how you know, my my phone has been going off like crazy for the past you know, like you know, twenty twenty four hours, you know what I mean. It's something that you know, the human brain can't explain. Obviously, that was divine. That was one hundred percent God's timing. If you've seen, like it's some of the angles that I've seen me throw the ball up. I just throw the ball up blindly. I didn't even try to throw it in the stands. I know you can get fine,
you know what I mean. So that's for the NFL. I didn't try to throw it in the stands. But I just threw the ball up. Obviously super excited about you know, us going down there punching it in fourth and one, you know what I mean, big play in the game, a lot of emotion. Just chucked the ball up, and I at the at the time, I didn't know that my family was sitting in that section, you know,
I didn't know. I think it was till later on in a game where I've seen him and they waved and obviously didn't even know that the ball landed near them. But at the time when I threw the ball up, man, I you know, just had an out of body experience. And you know, a couple of moments. I think it was in the fourth quarter when one of the guys came up to me and was like, listen, man, I just gotta text with my girlfriend. Not one of the players. But one of the guy shot Alex mart Man. His
girl was in the stance. She was like, hey, whoever number nine is? His family just caught the ball, like caught the ball when he scored that first touchdown. So I was like, man, that's crazy, that's great, you know what I mean, Like that was insane. But when I found out like my oldest son caughter, that was just like that was just a crazy, like crazy element. Man. Then I saw the videos of the cameras, you know what I mean. I'm like, definitely God's time.
Is the ball on the shelf somewhere?
Oh yeah, that thing get put in the glass case somewhere. It won't be touched, you know what I mean, It be up high.
That was a special moment.
It probably had a picture of my son holding the ball, you know what I mean.
So it was an unreal moment and I still can't believe it.
It's like you said, Deyern invention ways and it's like it's gone viral across social people are talking about it and speaking of that. There was another, like I guess Dolphins twitter vile moment worked two in the postgame press conference's kind of questions about your flag football coaching, right, it's the same son that you're coaching flag football.
Yeah, so I actually had so I got I got four kids, three sons, one daughter. My two oldest sons they both played flag football, so they eight and seventy.
Both they back to back.
So yeah, I had one nine u which is an eight year old, and one seven years which is a seven year old.
And you know I've coached them both.
So uh, we just won two championships and you know, excited and actually had the team in here for Saturday's walked through and they was decided to be run the guys.
So it school was a dope moment.
Are they like really receptive to your coaching? Like, yeah, my dad plays a decade in the NFL. Was like, nah, it's just dad.
So uh, I say this many initially, So it was a point in time was a couple of years ago when it was like, you know, when I I wasn't I won't say I I kind of like around with the idea of coaching, Like they were on the team and I wasn't coaching, but like it was I had to step in one day and I was on the field and it was kind of like Daddy daddy, Dad, you know what I mean, And it was like, you know what it was. It was kind of like I pop into him. So I was like, maybe it's not
for me. So I stepped back. And then earlier this year I kind of got into it, and I was a little concerned about, you know, them, because they're so young. I was kind of concerned about them being able to differentiate, you know, dad from coach new you know what I mean. So, but but they did a great job at it, man, And so you know, all of the all of the puffs on my team, you know, they did a fantastic job. Shout out of Cooper City Optimus Dolphins. Man, we you know,
got it done. Back to back champions So going for three next year, Yeah, definitely for sure.
I can imagine when you're out there watching, like even though it's kids flag football, you're probably like that it's not a good pass set, man, we can we can run a better.
Oh man, trust me.
Like, so I'm the offensive coordinator, so I run the offense, you know what I mean. I'm very detailed, you know, specific, like about you know, just everything, you know what I mean, And I like I have a lot of it's a lot of carryover from Miami Dolphins playbook.
It's a lot of carryovers.
Lucky kids.
Man, they're getting the explosive plays going and this year that they're controlling the football apparently with the multiple long drives. Let's talk about that for a second here with your guys at Bloit. To sustain these drives. I mean, you know, as a person that's watched this team for decades now, I can't remember, you know this many drives that go in the team's thirteen fourteen, sixteen play drives? Has that been a point of emphasis for you guys to try
to be on the field longer? And is that kind of like helping the def Like, what's the idea behind this long sustained drives?
Yeah?
Absolutely, keeping the defense off the field. Man, we know, we know what kind of defense we got and you know, you know, we know that if we keep the ball in our hands and you know, we continue to sustain those drives, it's not nobody can beat this, you know what I mean? And that's not in the arrogant wages, is what it is. You know, with the with the with the guys that we got, with the mind that we have behind the play all in and to be
able to put guys in positions to make plays. And you know, we got we got every element that we need on that side of the ball. So it's you know, imperative that we continue to you know, sustain those long drives.
I mean, we played it, We played a great game, but it's a lot of things we got to clean up, Like even myself, Uh, you know, a lot of a lot of things that you know, I go back and you know, watch the film and a lot of things that wasn't pleased about in my in my play, and a lot of things that I'm going to continue to clean up. So we all have that mindset and we just going to continue to keep climbing man, one game at a time.
It's been really fun to watch the last few weeks, especially with return of too a tongue of boy lower quarterback. And I've seen you go do a couple of interviews and talk about him and how much he means to this team. But I guess I want to find something that maybe we haven't heard about too. If you if you don't, if you have something like that, like what's it like with him in the huddle? And I guess
his command of the huddle here in his fifth year. Like, we know it's his team, he's the leader of the football team. But your first year working with two and what's he been like just in his leadership in the lockerom of the huddle?
What's that like being around to just amaze with it's poised, man, just you know, no matter what point of time in the game that it is, you know, he's he's a guy that, like, you're not going to feel stressed out in that huddle. You know, it could be the biggest moment third and you know whatever game, you know, we need this, you know, guy to have it, you know, whatever situation forth and whatever.
You know what I mean, he's smiling, he's he's.
Making sure guys are ready to go where they need to be, you know, and uh, you know that's just that's his Uh, that's his style of elder you know what I mean. And and uh, you know, guys gravitate towards it and and and uh, you know we're rallying behind him. So I'm just excited to see you know, where he's going. Like he still considered a young player in this league. Man, That's what blows my mind. So you know, he's got so much, so much of a
bright future ahead of him. Excited to be here with him, you know what I mean, and to watch him develop.
As he goes.
Yeah, twenty six years old night watching him on tape, it's like, you know the answer to all the things Defense doing right now. It's it's really fun to watch as a fan and as an analyst. Last question here for you because you know, we always hear coach McDaniel talk about making losses purposeful. You know, adversity is an opportunity and you guys gave yourself funny of about adversity early season with a two and six start. I'm wondering, is there a positive that can come out of that
slow start? Could you take something from that and make you guys better on the back end after two and six?
Right? Yeah?
I mean, man, we take uh, you know, lessons not else, you know what I mean? So we we if you look at it that way, you know what I mean, Like you said earlier, you know, you never you never, you know, look at it and say, okay, this like it's only a loss if you let it be, you know what I mean, Like, how can we get better from it? And I think that's the positive mindset that
we all have. And uh, you know, even like you can go into some games, man, and you're like, man, we played pretty good, but we still lost, you know what I mean, And and uh, you know, it's it's always lessons within that, you know what I mean. You go into some games and say, listen, we won, but we played like we played terrible, you know what I mean.
So it's always it's always that fine line, man, And that's what separates you know, champions, you know what I mean, Like you know, the great ones from the mediocre ones, you know what I mean, Like just trying to find that niche, like what cannot do to get better, you know what I mean. And whatever situation, whether if it was a win, whether it was a low lost, the lesson within that, you know what I mean, Every outcome doesn't necessarily show, you know, the work that was put
in to it, you know what I mean. Kind of going back to what we talked about earlier, as far as like you know, the stat sheet, you know what I mean, Like you can put in so much into the week, have a good game plan, and just may not be a week, you know what I mean. So you just gotta just just just stick with the lessons man, and just stay with it. Don't live in the peak, don't live in the and the and the valley, you
know what I mean. So we just, you know, just just chugging that in one day at a time.
It's been a lot of fun to watch you play so farst Man, Johny Smith, we appreciate you, HQ. Look look out for him on Sunday, another big game coming. I think that was one of the more like chill times I've had with a player, just sitting down, chopping it up. What a great dude Johnnai is and what a great player he's been for your Miami Dolphins so far. First break on the show, we'll come back and pick the games, and then do another break and come back
with Kyle Krabs. Plenty to come your way on the Draft Time Podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Automation.
Week number twelve is.
Underway as the Steelers and Browns played on Thursday night.
Who won the game? I don't know.
It's eleven thirty five am on Thursday right now recording this segment, and I picked the Steelers because everybody probably will. I don't think there's Yeah.
I guess that.
Could be an upset spot, but I don't forecast it happening in this one. Although the Steelers coming off of a huge, massive divisional win, short week on the road, it could be a spot they get picked off in.
But I'm not gonna I can't change it. The hay is in the barn. We took Pittsburgh.
Let's go ahead and fire up the music and get to the rest of the picks here in week twelve, one, twenty one, and forty five. Oh, he's doing it. He's doing live math on the show. One twenty one divided by one sixty six that is a seventy two point eighty nine, So we'll call it seventy two point nine percent winning percentage. That is where we have to stay the rest of the year, and we have to get back on track because last week a bit of a dip. Nine and five are literally are first week since geez,
since week five when I went nine to five. Also had a Week two ten six and a week one ten and six in there. But we have been cruising until that slight hiccup in week eleven.
Let's go ahead and get back to it.
I think this week has some easier games to pick, as we'll go ahead and take the Bucks over the Giants and Tommy Cutlets. There's a lot of teams left in the league that entered the category that I often put teams into, and it never happens this way. Like the Jeff Saturday Colts, for instance, won like I think they won two games under him, and one was the first game that he was coaching, which is that typical the interim head coach bump you can get sometimes and I think they.
Won one later in the year. But you get what I'm talking about here.
It's teams that have made switches or have injured quarterbacks and it has produced a third string level quarterback, a practice squad level quarterback, and AAF level quarterback taking snaps. You have kind of a checked out, veteran presence among the team you have coach. It's probably either you know, waiting to be fired or gonna get fired in a week or two.
There's just teams where you.
Can kind of check you later as you will at this stretch of the year, and the Giants are one of, if not the most team for that category.
I think the Raiders are.
Right there, but the way they compete it against us, makes me think they might get a winner two the rest of the way. But the Bucks will take care of the Giants as they fall on that list, the Chiefs and nine Panthers. The Panthers are kind of in that territory, although I think the Panthers are good enough to beat the other teams in that category. So Panthers are in that world, but maybe the best of that world.
Dolphins over Patriots. You knew that. Commanders over Cowboys.
The Cowboys shoot, they might be above the Giants and the Raiders in that department because whoa Cooper Rush and Matt and Tyed debacle Commander is huge. I'll take the Titans the rather the Texans over the Titans. The AFC South is like the rest of their games are pointless. The Texans are gonna be the four seed, right, They're not going to surpass the Bills, They're not going to surpass the Chiefs. They're not going to surpass the Ravens or Steelers in the North, and no one's going to
surpass them in the division. So it's like, Texans, you have basically seven games of pointless football the rest of the way. Hopefully they feel that way about the game against US in a few weeks because that's probably the biggest game on the schedule in the next four weeks for the Dolphins. All right, So I'll take the Lions over the Colts, obviously, and that's the biggest, one of the biggest games the weekend. If the Colts get that upset,
that could change our playoff odds drastically. I'll take the Bears over the Vikings. Yeah, I am going to go Bears over Vikings.
I think that.
I think Caleb's athletic ability is good enough to kind of beat Flores in some ways with the way he blitz his quarterbacks and all that stuff. I think Flores is still as much success as they've had. I think there's a lot of food gazy there with regards to how they defend top quarterbacks, because every time I watch the Vikings play a top quarterback, they usually get pushed around pretty good. I'll take I'm taking the Raiders over the Broncos. I just refuse to buy into the Broncos.
Maybe this is the s that I go down on this year, is the Sean Payton and bow Nick's ship.
But I just I don't see it.
I don't believe it, and I'm gonna have the Raiders at home kind of salvage one here and get a victory over their division rival. I'll take the Niners over the Packers. Do I feel good about that? Not particularly. I think Mega Mega Man is out for that game.
Nick Bosa is out for that game.
I believe Kittle is back, and then I think they have the rest of their confident of players ready to go in that game. So I'll take the Niners over the Packers. Packers have some big injuries, by the way, coming up of the game against US in just a week from tomorrow or a week from yesterday. I'll take the Cardinals over the Seahawks. I'm gonna take the Rams over the Eagles. I think the Rams are gonna get hot.
Man.
I did the ESPN Playoff Machine and the NFC, Like the wild card race in NFC is no joke. Like there's a bunch of teams that I think are not Lions quality good, but a bunch of teams that are
good enough to like win ten eleven games. Like if we were in the NFC at four and six, I think are we would be totally cooked because I think the seven, zeaut probably be a ten or eleven win team in the NFC, so Rams over Eagles and then Ravens over Chargers on Monday Night Football and in that one, like the Ravens have been in this position a couple times in the past five years where they were like kind of teetering and then Lamar got hurt and they fell off a cliff like that could be a team
that you could look at as an exit from the AFC Wildcard race, as the Steelers would then obviously take hold of the AFC North. But if the Ravens, like if something happened to Lamar or you know, they stack a loss here, like, it's not inconceivable that they could kind of fall apart down the stretch and maybe that's the team that you take over a place in the
AFC playoffs. But I tend to think it has to be an injury to Lamar Jackson because I think the Ravens will win every game they play against a team that doesn't have a top level offense to match Theirs or the Pittsburgh Steelers, because for some reason, those Steelers and Ravens games, it doesn't matter who plays. Like I remember back in the Roethlisberger days, they would have, like you know, he would miss games all the time, and they would have Charlie Batch play and it was still
like seventeen sixteen game. It just doesn't matter. For some reason, it doesn't matter. So that's the week twelve picks. Let's go ahead and take our last break right there. Come back on the other side, and welcome in Kyle Crabs. We have a bunch of fun to have to talk about with this Dolphins offense, the weekend in college football, and much more. That's Next Draft Time podcast, your host
Travis Wingfield, brought to you by AutoNation. It's a Friday, the final segment of the week that we do here on Drive Time, and that means it's time for my good buddy, Kyle Crabs.
Kyle, what's up man?
It's uh we twelve already, which is hard to believe. We get a couple of Dolphins games in the next seven days. I guess when the time everybody's listening to this, So.
Life is good, lots of Dolphins football ahead of us. Still you a little bit under the weather today?
Yeah?
I am.
What gave it away? Is it just the fact that it's November and like, if you have kids, it's a prerequisite.
We just got better as a family. And then Caroline came home two days after that and she like had the sles.
I'm like, here we go again. But it never ends.
Speaking of things that never end, the football season, like you mentioned week twelve already, it goes by so fast, like it's hard to believe it's week twelve, although that's just how time and space works. But I'm curious to ask you this, Kyle, because we've seen over the last four weeks my personal favorite four week stretch in terms of offensive identity and production. I mean, the big plays were fun, the seventy point game was fun. But I just think this mode of offense is really tough to
beat and really tough to corract. My question for you is because at some point, somebody's gonna adapt to it in a way that maybe forces the Dolphins to change what they're doing. And my question for you is do you think that'll happen sooner or later? And then after that, what's next for the Dolphins in terms of this constantly evolving offensive attack and what could be after this approach they're currently executing very highly.
I think somebody will probably it's so point inevitably find a combination of front and coverage in personnel because this is the way the NFL works. That gives the Dolphins problems with what they're doing. And when that happens, I think that's when you come back with your Haymaker and
those explosive plays that everybody's looking for the numbers. If you're going to change the spacing and congest the intermediate and short areas of the field, now you're putting a lot of stress on the vertical elements of the speed with adult which when you have the speed that the Dolphins have, if that's where you're going to leave yourself vulnerable, all of those explosive plays that everyone is sitting around wondering why they're non existent in this year's offense will
magically come back. And that's It's really on the execution and the calls to make sure that you are staying well grounded in what an opposing team is giving you. But they are showing now I think with this ball control style that they have been playing that if you are content to let the Dolphins methodically work their way down the field, they are content to do so and proceed to score a lot of points in relative to the amount of possessions that they have in Again.
I love the efficiency.
It makes you very hard to be And I think my follow up would be to that because we've heard for so long in this modern style of NFL defense that has really reduced you know, quarterback production, scoring and all the fantasy heads are hating it, but I kind of love what it's forced teams to become and how to adapt. And I love when a game is like, you know, twenty to seventeen going into the fourth quarter.
It's a perfect game script to me. But my question is because that whole approach was centered around this idea that offenses will struggle to mount twelve and fourteen play drives without committing the fatal air that puts them behind the sticks, that reduces their ability to then be effective on those long drives when you have an offense that
has so much experience together. We heard two talk about the offensive line on Wednesday and saying like, I feel like I've been playing with those guys for a long long time now, and the skill guys are mostly the same. I mean, everyone besides Malik and Obj was already here. John, who's the one new tight end. The play callers the same, the OC's the same, the coaching staff is the same.
Does the Dolphins offense because of all that, because of their makeup and ability to you know, really execute these drives. Can they then say, well, if you play us that way the entire game, you're eventually going to have a bust like we saw on the Johnny Smith play.
Does it work that way too?
Yeah? I think so. I think.
I think that entire game against the Raiders was a little bit of an embodiment of that, with how they chose to play against Las Vegas and they said, we're gonna maintain coverage integrity, We're gonna play a lot of zone uh, the brock Bauers gouging you with a lot of catches. A lot of that came in, and the Raiders did some nice things moving around. They caught man coverage to create some rubs in some space, but a lot of them were just finding some voids in zone coverage.
And that happens, and then you get down in the red zone and the space naturally gets constrict and you kick a couple of field goals and seat of scoring touchdowns, and that is a cumulative difference in the ball game where then you get to the final five minutes and you have a coverage bust and on the other side of the ball there's a route miscommunication that finally happens
for the other team and it's an interception. Right So, I think that's been the biggest thing for the past month for me, is there's been the procedural penalties have been so clean since two has come back, and I think that's the big thing that if you want to
play this style, you need to not beat yourself. And because of all of the continuity that has existed, and I don't know what other changes they may or may not have made in that stretch of time without two so that when two it comes back it can be a cleaner operation. But maybe it's just time on task and if that's the case, then they should feel really good about what that result is.
I believe it's two or maybe three offensive penalties in the last two games combine.
That's a good way to make a living right there.
The one penalty in the Rams game was on special team, so no offensive or defensive penalties in that entire game. And as we go into this Patriots game, Kyle want to talk about that one a little bit with you here before we talk about the weekend in college football, and also beyond the Patriots game, because you know, to your point, like teams haven't really made those critical mistakes, Like the Raiders didn't turn the ball over until very
late and that's when the game got lopsided. The Rams game, you know, they had a couple of turnovers, but that was the one moment of this four game stretch where our offense was not firing on all cylinders. The Cardinals didn't have it, the Bills had the one down and around the end zone. But I think when you get to these teams, like, for instance, a couple of weeks, the Packer game is such a big game, right Jordan Love. If there's a downside to his game this year, it's
a turnover. So I think that the Dolphins with this style are approaching at one point, you know, down this stretch of games possible like lopside of victory over.
Maybe a good team if that occurs.
So I guess my question is do you share that optimism in the Patriots game and beyond that this team can kind of stay hot and keep things rolling here?
Yeah, I think they should feel very good about their opportunities to continue to operate at a high level because it's not like it's been opponent reliant. There have been opponents in this stretch of play that have measured on all ends of the spectrum from a lot of different measures of defensive success and teams that have had a
lot of success against you in uncommon opponents. And just look at the way the Raiders played you last year, and you know the way that that was a game where it's a final score twenty to seventeen was the final score of that football game before Ramsey has the interception at the end of the game to kind of seal it when they took the deep shot in the final minute or minute and a half.
So yeah, I think.
The only way that they take an interruption, I think is if it they dramatically regress in self inflicted wounds. And there's ways that that can happen, for sure. But you feel pretty good about finding easy completions working through progressions.
I know that's something to a tong about what we talked about this week about like the way that we're running the offense this year is it's not necessarily dialing up a shot with one play, but if we got to get deep into progressions to find free access, that's what we're doing. Like that is that's a beautiful thing. And the fact that you mentioned time on task and the years in the system and the familiarity of it and guys that are new now have that half a
season of doing it. I do feel good that this is the version of the offense as long as everybody's out there on the field that we're going to continue to see.
I'm so excited about it, man. I just wish we had one game out of that hole that was different. I would feel like, like really really good about our chances going forward. I still feel good about it, but we'll see what happens starting this week against the Patriots here at hard Rock Stadium, before the Thursday night game on Thanksgiving against the Packers. But before all of that, Kyle, we have a weekend of college football pouring out for the Washington State Cougars.
It's over.
The miracle run is over. They lost in New Mexico. I'm not going to talk about it any more than that. But what are you looking at this weekend?
My friend, hypothetical Washington College football Playoff scenarios for me.
My guy over here is struggling to just stay alive with whatever he's element he has. And the way you're face lit up when you were able to just crush my Washington State dreams. It is a little bit a little too close to home there, Kyle, But that's what good friends do. So with that in mind, what you got this weekend? Another big weekend in college football.
Yeah, we got to start with Indiana at Ohio State at the Shoe. This is two top five ranked teams in the nation playing against each other. And Indiana a team that has just absolutely caught fire with coach Signetti, who signed an extension already. It's funny you look up and down this roster and they they just transplanted about half of the James Madison roster over with them in the transfer portal, and he's taking like the bones of a Big ten recruiting roster. Is like a middle of
the pack Big ten team. Brought his own talent from from James Madison and then a couple other like key transfers like Curtis Rourke, the quarterback, red shirt senior. He's an older prospect but is playing some of the best ball off any college quarterback in the country and the test that that team has with players who have been productive, but their background has been with James Madison is compared
to a bigger stage in college football. To go into Ohio State and play against a team that's pretty banged up on the offensive line, it's pretty big bummer. Seth McLaughlan. Their center is a fifth year senior, just towards Achilles this week in practice, so that's like a huge loss for Ohio State. They already lost Josh Simmons, their red shirt junior transfer left tackle who was looking like he might be a first round pick. He's already out for
the year as well. So the Ohio States a little picked over on the offensive line, but they got a number of talented backs. They got a star freshman in Jeremiah Smith and Mechabuka is going to be a really good pro player. And then defensively, like Ohio State's got a ton of talent as well. Leathan Ransom at safety is a name to watch. Jttmualu at defensive end, a
heavy handed guy. Tyler Williams as a run stuffer on the interior, so it's ty Hamilton, Jack Sawyer's kind of like the next in line from this Ohio State not the most bendy, not the most explosive, but good length, good hands, and proficient rushing. The passer profile that Ohio State's kind of carved out with some of their pass rushers. So there's a lot of talent in this Ohio State
Indiana game. You can obviously just watch it for the eye test of two top five teams, but you look up and down the rosters, there's a lot of names that are gonna be relevant in April.
Really good stuff.
Man, I appreciate you getting me a caught up on that, because Indiana the team that I haven't had a chance to really tap into this year. Where do you think Rourke's draft stock is at this moment? So he's challenging because he's gonna be like a twenty five year old rookie right and age. I had this conversation with.
Steve Alizolo from over at the thirty thirteen recently an age at quarterback. It's not so much the the developmental ceiling. It's more so like where you are at now, you're expected to be ahead of eighteen and nineteen and twenty year olds because you're in your mid twenties, right, and the return on investment of that. Then you get into a pro career and you have to have the conversation of how long is your physical peak? How long does it take to get to your mental peak? Just look
at it, Tuioloa. I think the way that he's playing right now took five years or four and a half years for him to get to a point where I feel pretty comfortable saying he's playing the best ball of his career.
But that's a process.
Look at Jared goffin Detroit and what he did with was a total flop there at first with Jeff Fisher, and then they bring Himcveigh and he gets the label as the system quarterback, and then he goes to Detroit and lo and behold. Like sometimes these guys, it's just a four, five, six year process of mentally maturing at the NFL level. And if you're gonna do that with a guy like Curtis Rard, you're talking who's going to be in his thirties, right, So it's just an awkward
intersection of age and talent and ability. He has all the ability in the world, but I think that's why
it's a big test for him. I would not be surprised to see him be the first day three quarterback taken, just because if it's not in the first round Day two selections at quarterback are they're high upside, but also like a potential low opportunity or a low return on investment type proposition, because statistically speaking, if you like a quarterback, you think you can start your to draft themorrow.
So I'm looking for Curtis.
Work to probably end up being the first day three quarterback when it's all.
Said, well, that might be the territory that we're looking at, given you know the current landscape of the Dolphins offense and if you are going to draft the quarterback, maybe it is that part of the draft because I think we've pretty clearly defined and they showed you that with a contract this summer as well, the franchise quarterback and to your point, playing the best ball of his career.
Great stuff.
You can find more takes like this on the Lockdown Dolph podcast where Kyle lives every single day, the Locked Down NFL scouting podcast, Touchdown Miami Substack. He's the draft lead for the thirty third team at Grinding the tape on social media, Kyle playing her appreciate your time today.
Man flu game Travis. I'm glad I could delivered.
For game six.
There he goes, and away he goes. Always a fun chat with my buddy, Ka. Let's go ahead and call it a week here, and we have another game coming up on Sunday. It's my wife and daughter's first Dolphins game. Cameron's not going to come out because he's not yet too and he is a nightmare still with everything that he does, so he doesn't get to come to the game.
He's staying home to hang out with the babysitter. But Caroline is coming to her first Dolphins game and I cannot wait to show her what her daddy does every single Sunday. So look out for us. We'll be hanging out in our seats before the game. And saw a lot of you guys before the Raiders game. A lot of fans of the podcast came by and said what's up. Please if you see me, say what's up if you want to, because it means a lot, it really does.
So I appreciate all you guys that stop by the radio booth that catch me walking up the helix or catch me walking around the club level concord to say what's up in the you're a fan, it does mean a lot to me, so please keep doing that if you see me, if you want to. In the meantime, you all please be sure to subscribe to the podcast. Leave us a writing, leave us a review. You can follow me on social at Wingfold NFL. The team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank podcast with my
guys Sethie Juice. Check out the YouTube channel. Brand new episode of Dolphins HQ with the John new Smith interview as well as Taylor Kyle's available on the Dolphins YouTube channel and tomorrow Saturday on CBS Local Miami here at noon, which is the worst TV time slot imaginable. Also Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time. Finn's up, Carolina and Cameron Daddy, He's coming home.