Statistical Splits Between Wins and Losses and Assistant Coaches Media

Dolphins football. We cut this thing down to three shows a week in the off season except for in the busy peak times. But on today's show, it's a deep dive Wednesday. We're gonna compare the numbers between wins and losses this year, and a couple of very interesting data points between the two that I was curious to find out about, plus the thin margin for air in this game. We heard from the whole gamut of assistant coaches on Tuesday as well. We're gonna play the highlights from those

media availabilities from somewhere in South Florida. This is the Drive Time Podcast. I'll go ahead and start the podcast here with the assistant coaches media sessions from Tuesday. It was a long one. Getting all these guys on zoom takes longer than it does on the in person meetings. We get through it, and we talked to them one on one with these good questions, and there was all kinds of good stuff today. If you have not done so, all the coordinators will be up on YouTube, not the

assistant coaches. They'll have sound for some of those guys for you here on this podcast. Let's go ahead and pick it up with coach George Godsey, Dolphins co O C and tight ends coach, who was asked about the idea of being more aggressive in the downfield passing game and if the Dolphins had more experience on the offensive line, if they could have done that more throughout the course

of the season. Here's coach Godsy on just that. Yeah, I mean, that's that's where most of them passing game starts. As protection. So, um, whether it's matt Hip that we can do better on or you know, it's it's executing our our job as a protector, whether it's back alignment or tight end, that group's gotta gotta give the quarterback enough time for the receivers to get open too. And and uh, if we're having to get the ball out of our hands because we're getting pressured then uh, you know,

we can't get the ball downfield. So a lot of that plays into how the game is being played and how the matchups end up being. You know, we had some guys in there moving around a little bit. Liam's learning and improving each game. Austin is going inside. You know, We've had some rotation going on at center right side. Seemed to be pretty consistent as far as health wise.

So all those variables take uh take place into calling a play and um, you know, I want to make sure we give our guys the best opportunity to execute that play. So uh protection, depth of route, uh, pattern options for the quarterback of all that goes into any like all our play design as thorough as he always is there with coach George Gods, it's go ahead and

go back to coach real quick. I asked him a question about personnel usage this season, because we talked all offseason long, right about how this Dolphins receiving corps was super deep, and obviously you lose one of the top key guys you're banking on, Will Fuller early in the season. Davante Parker misses a few games. You're at without Jillian Waddle for one game. Preston Williams up and down throughout the course of the season, Isaiah Ford comes back, Albert

Wilson has a kind of fluctuating role. All of a sudden, the depth seems like it's not what we expected back in training camp, and again, injuries and attrition has a way of having that happen. But here's coach Gotzi on the utilization of so much twelve personnel, which led the league by a substantial number this season. With two tight ends on the field, you know, starting the season and Alie Tennis. Is probably a lot of variables that have

come up, whether it's injuries or UM, especially in receiver position. UM, you know, in and out of the lineup. Obviously would have some some injuries there too that people have played. So those guys, like I said, have been a healthy group for the most part, and they're able to do multiple things. Are able to block, They're able to block in line, they're able to detached if we need to UM, you know, and it's pretty reliable group from an assignment standpoint.

So as much as we can use those guys, would like to every time we do these, I always learned something And so just thinking about having these guys every single week here to talk to you on the podcast is so beneficial to the basically what I want to do here, and that's to educate football fans to be smarter football fans, especially when it comes to this Miami Dolphins team. And I'll miss not having those guys every week.

There's they're so informative. And here's coach Eric Studiensville Dolphins co O C and running backs coach talking about the pass or rather the run blocking execution of the offensive line if he felt it's been good enough in recent weeks in this season, and coach, there's more to it than just the offensive line that goes into your running game. Again, I don't, I don't. I don't necessarily think it's just

it's it's not one unit that that's responsible for. There's different runs that runs hit in different places, There's different schemes. So you know, if we're running a toss play outside, that may be a different emphasis on who's the point of attack blocking then if you're running a dive play inside. So to to put the responsibility on on five guys and say that they're the only ones that affect you know, what happens in the run game. I don't. I don't

think that. That's not what we do and that's not that's not the beauty of this game. The beauty of this game is it takes eleven people to be coordinated to have success on one play at a time. That's that's why you play this game. That's why you get involved in it because it's the team concept that's important to you. So it's all of us involved in that, coaches, from the from the diagram and the creation of the plays and the teaching of what we're doing to all

the way down to the players of the execution. But it's not it doesn't rely strictly on one person um for the execution, the success or the production. It's it's the group better. Very informative there from Coach again love hearing what these guys have to say and to us.

Spoke about that and his postgame presser on Sunday about how when you have eleven guys doing a job, if one person screws up, it can send the entire play kind of put and you hear Coach does feel echoing that message and that sentiment there with the question about the run blocking this season from the Dolphins offensive line, how to get the run game going in general, Let's go ahead and spend this thing forward and pick it up here with quarterbacks coach Charlie Fry, who was asked

about the growth of to a tongue of Byloa in his first or rather his second season here as a Miami Dolphin, his first under the tutelage of quarterbacks coach Charlie Fry. Yeah, I think, you know, he's they're showing that he's shown growth in in you know, the way he's played this year. I think as a young quarterback, the more reps you get, the more experience that you get, the more you're gonna be able to take from that the learning moments and the things that happened within that game.

You know, we go over those corrections the next day and meetings, and then you try to apply it to the for the next week's game, and then you get into the you know, the overall picture of the growth and development more in the off season, um and then try and try and take some steps that way. But right now, it's it's the things that happened in the Tennessee game, the corrections that we make in trying to apply those going into this last week against New England.

And you heard coach talk there about how right now it is about the Titans game. And so there was a follow up question about ball security and how to it can approve in that regard, and just looking at some of the numbers here for two of the season, the interception percentage has jumped by a full percentage point from last season, from one point seven up to two point seven per cent. And then we've also seen a lot more fumbles. Last year just one fumble for Toungo

by Loa in ten games played. But this year in twelve games, nine fumbles, nine times he's put the ball on the ground. That's just a little bit too many turnover worthy plays or turnover opportunities, I should say for the opposing defense. So Coach Fry was asked about ball security and how to it can get better in that regard. I thought his answer here was really good about the

mental aspect of all security. I think um obviously a focus of you know, when the pocket breaks down and and and you you have to move, sometimes the initial reaction is to separate your hands. You know, obviously you're getting the ball into a running position instead of a passing position, and usually that's that's where most of the fumbles happen, is that initial break the hands UM. So

obviously you drill that. But the problem is when you drill that, there's there's you don't have that element of life contact, you know, that lot the element of man, this guy's coming to hurt me, this guy is coming to tackle me. So a lot of it is training your mind um more so than than any any type of drill of when there's contact, when when you feel that coming of really putting your body in between the ball and the defender um and and it's more of

a mental thing. And obviously you're gonna drill it. You try and drill everything that's going to happen in the game. But being able to take the drill to the practice to the game is a lot of the mental side. Interesting stuff there from a guy who's played and inclement weather, he came. He was with the Seahawks there for a little bit, so he knows about bad what rainy footballs

and wind and and all the stuff. And ball security of course, a big part of that position let's go ahead and spend this thing forward to the special teams and coordinator Danny Crossman, who was asked about if the Dolphins lived up to his standards so far this season on special teams obviously not, you know, and we be quite honest, we've never met my standards. But you know, obviously this year even even a little bit more so

of not being where we need to be. Well, the list is as long as it as it always is. We need to be better and everything we need to coach, I need to coach it better. We need to executed better. When we have opportunities, we need to be able to take advantage of those opportunities. Um, a lot, a lot to work on. That second portion was a fall up question about what specifically is on his list for things

they have to improve that you heard it. Let's go ahead and go to the defensive side of the football here with DC Josh Boyer, who was asked about the run defense and how they had issues on Sunday with the Titans who rolled up a hundred yards on the ground. I mean, you know, some of it, uh you know, I mean it could be a little bit scheme related

where where we're trying to create negative plays. Uh. Some of it is uh, you know, them staying ahead of the change and you know, staying on track and um, you know, not being able to really get him into situations where they need to throw the ball and um, you know. And then some of it, like I said, you know as scheme issues. Uh, and then some of it is you know, just fundamentals and techniques and um

you know. Um, so those are the things like I said that you know, when you review the film, you try to correct all those and then you get ready to play. Uh. Uh. You know New England who's a very good run offense. Um, And they can throw the ball. They do a lot of things. They're very multiple, they're very well coached. They got very good players. They've got a very good offensive line, very similar to the team

that we saw last week. Um. Uh, their receivers all blocked well, they all play hard, their physical, tough team. They're gonna play for sixty minutes. So again, I mean, we have a big challenge in front of us this week. So um, that's kind of really where our focus is really found. Coaches comment there about scheme things and trying

to create negative plays and the running game was interesting. Obviously, we talked about one of the keys of the game was getting the Titans into those long down distances to get those free hitters, to get those blitz opportunities. Just

didn't happen frequently enough in this game. We talked about that in the All twoint to review about how Miami the Titans game plan allowed them, or the execution of their plan allowed them to get to the part of the game plan where they could really kind of minimize those rush options and get into the different types of conflict like the bootlegs and the rolls and the quarterback runs, all that fun stuff that's fun for your offense, not

so much we have to defend it. Now. Let's go ahead and pick us up here with Dolphins linebackers coach Anthon Campinelli, and you know, I think one of the things I might want to look at this summer is Jerome Baker's just charting his play because of how many different plays he made. Spots are different spots he made plays from kind of a switch from full time MIC linebackers are more off the edge, and that Baltimore game, which of course coincided with Miami's defensive resurgence in the

second half of the season. Coach Camp was asked about Jerome Baker's ability to play multiple spots with selflessness to do that and what he does or what it is about Jerome Baker that makes him able to get better every game and every season. I think he's done a really good job. You know, He's been called upon to do a bunch of different things and he's uh, he's

excelled in a lot of ways. Um. I think he's continually improved over the course of the season, whether it be in the run game, UM, you know, pass coverage and pass rush. Um. So I think, uh, I think people recognize that about him. I certainly do. UM, just in terms of just being around somebody every day, incredibly coachable, humble personality, and I think it's guys like that usually continue to get better. That's a really fun quote to

end that on there, talking about Jerome Baker. From the second level of defense, we move up to the front portion and you guys heard me raving about Christian Wilkins game on Sunday on the Tuesday Recap podcast, and I just can't get enough of what this guy can do in terms of the physicality, the quickness, stack and shed the eyes, the eye discipline, the ability to backdoor play on the front side, just so many things he can do that really increases Miami's versatility, which we know is

a key in this defense and on this team. And I think it also allows him to do what he did on Sunday and play over of the snaps for this Dolphins defense. Here's Coach Clark, Dolphins d line coach on Christian Wilkins. Yeah. I think, you know, credit credit to Christian. His versatility and how he's developed there has definitely helped helped us as a defense. And you know, he can't feel multiple roles, and I would say his willingness to do whatever role has asked to him is

what's awesome. You know, it's it's not um you know, he never second guesses anything we're asking him to do. He goes full speed and he has a real focus on the technique and fundamentals. I think that's where he's made his biggest strides and uh, you know, hopefully, uh you know, we can have a good one with him on Sunday. Glad you mentioned the technique and fundamentals because that one player where I talked about how he locked out of the guard and then tossed him back to

the direction. You just saw everything that you see on those bags all August long in the training camp, and the sweat and the blood, sweat and tears they put out there on that practice field. You see that translate onto the game day field. That's always a good feeling for a player to have that kind of come to fruition without the course of the season, especially now in

your number three for Christian Wilkins. Let's go ahead and take our first break and come back and finish up with two more coaches media and the quotes from Gerald Alexander and Charles Burke's then we'll have a deep dive after that as well. Drivetime Podcast Wednesday edition. Keep it locked right here. Let's pick it back up with Gerald Alexander on this coach's availability Wednesday edition of the Drive

Time Podcast. Who was asked? I asked him actually about how you, as a guy who's played in the league and also coached in the league, on if this week, when you're eliminated from posteas and contention, if you can learn anything about your team and your roster and the way guys prepare, and if the way guys work in a week that has an atmosphere or disappointment from Sunday that carries over if it reveals anything about your team and the character those guys have wanted to ask you.

Because of his experience as a player and coach, here's coach. Yeah, I think in regardless of the circumstances, when you look at just the opportunity that it is to work and play in the NFL, you can never take any of these weeks for granted. You know, there's a lot of work that gets put in, you know for the seventeen you know, guaranteed opportunities that we have to go out

there on the field together and incompete. So, um, you know, whether it reveals character about an individual, um, you know, how don't put that. I don't put a lot of stock into that. I think that every game, UM definitely, Uh, you learn from it and exposes you know, really anybody you know, strengths, weaknesses and things like that. But um, you know, it's just another opportunity for us to do

this together. Unfortunately we didn't do wanted to do this season, um, but we have one more opportunity to go out there together because we know at this point Uh, you know, it's definite ality. I gotta love that answer. That's why I asked him that questions. I would get a good one there from g A and that's yeah, I completely

understand that mentality. In that mindset, you can't preach the one day of time mentality and then have a different week carry more weight than another week earlier or later in the season. Let's go ahead and finish up here with Charles Burks, who was asked about the elements of Noah egg banogenis game that makes him believe he can transition at some point his career to a full time player and have success in this league. Here's Charles Burke's

on noahgo, Well, this is an athletic ability. You know, think he he definitely has tools to be successful in the league, but there's a lot more to that. Not saying that he doesn't have those other things, but it's just not necessarily an athletic skill. There's are a lot of athletic guys that have came in the NFL at that particular position, but there there's more that goes into it. So, uh, it's not just necessarily being a really good athlete, you know,

it's the preparation. Um, it's the instincts, it's you know, the film, it's all of that encompassing that can really change a game and take it to a high level. So there you go. That's the end of our assistant coaches media availability. I believe we'll get the coordinators next Tuesday, and then there will be a rap on talking to those guys for quite some time once the season comes

to a conclusion. But I wanted to go back here now to something Coach Gods he said off the top about making plays to move the football, which then can help you produce points and ultimately score more than the opposition does. And when he said how we've done it half the time and the other half the time we have not, it kind of got me thinking about what kind of deep dive I wanted to do. And so I became curious about differences between the eight wins and

the eight losses. And then I've got to thinking, what were the things that I specifically remember about those games, Things that I can look at besides numbers that I can find on Pro Football Reference or NFL True Media or the Jesus site, g S I S site, Pro Football Focus or what have you. As far as what your resources are next gen. I use that one a lot too, something like how many made in missfield goals do we have compared to our opponent and the wins

and losses? Then also how did teams beat us and how did they fail to do so? So I thought, let's look at blitz rate for instance. That will be one I can chart real quick, So this will be a short segment, but I wanted to compare some things that stood out over the eight game sample size of victories and the sample size and defeats. And we can do this again come the off season with much more

time put into it, much more data and charting. That goes into that one of my fair things to do with football is to chart things, and they always teach you something, whether or not your hypothesis or the opposite or something in between. You always learn something when you

do these deep dive projects. Let's go ahead and jump right into that, but first, real quick, these words back here on the Drive Time podcast, and we are taking a look at the difference and a few statistical categories between Miami's eight wins and eight losses and trying to find out what worked and did not work in the winds and the losses, and we start here with four stats I was curious to look at, and we could pull up rushing and passing and very basic counting stats,

which I did here also for a few of these ones. But I wanted to look at things that you have to kind of go back and peek through the game books to find out exactly what happened. And there's two stats in here that kind of qualified for that, and too that don't, but one of almost field goals, and I became very curious about that, and that was the biggest find for me as far as my hypoth us has went in terms of difference in how wins and

losses were formulated this year by this Dolphins team. And in victories, the Dolphins were thirteen for fifteen on field goals, which is eighty one point three percent. Check that, thirteen for sixteen for eighty one point three percent. The opposing kickers were fifteen for nineteen in the victories. That's seventy

eight point nine percent, so nearly a wash. But when you get to the eight losses, Miami was eight for fourteen this year on field goals at fifty seven point one percent, and the opposition was fifteen for sixteen ninety three point eight percent, so eight for fourteen compared to

fifteen for sixteen. And I think it's the craziest part about that as far as the field goals go, is that all three of the Dolphins buzzer beating losses came on buzzer beater field goals, and in each of those games, Miami missed a field goal and the opposing kickers went three for three, so nine for nine in total. Those small margins, and that's what it comes down to in this league, and so that was the biggest one for me.

But from the victories, the offense on third down was forty six for one ten that's forty one point eight percent. And then in the losses the Dolphins were forty two for one oh eight, so thirty eight point nine percent. Just a few percentage bumps point bump there from the victories and the losses, and of course different quarterbacks played in those games as well, which obviously has an impact

on those numbers. And then in the penalties per game for the Dolphins, in the victories, there was forty six penalties for three hundred and sixty yards. That was five point seven five penalties per game for forty five yards per game, and then in the losses it was fifty four penalties for four hundred and thirty two yards. That's six point seven five penalties for fifty four yards a game, so one more penalty for nine yards in the losses

than in the victories. On blitzes versus how many dropbacks there were for the Dolphins offense, they were blitzed eighty eight times compared to two eight total dropbacks. That was thirty point six percent of the time in their victories. When the Dolphins lost, opposing teams blitzed us eighty six times out of three eight dropbacks. That's a twenty two point six percent blitz right, and a lot of the blitz number when Jacobe Brissette was in this game, we're

in the game, We're way way down. So that was a huge fluctuation there as well. But I found that to be a little bit interesting as far as the Dolphins offense goes. Now, as far as the defense goes, compared to wins versus losses, the biggest differentiator you see here is obviously the third down defense, and of course the third down defense got much better over the course

of that seven game winning streak. In the Dolphins eight victories this season, thirty nine third down conversions on a hundred and fourteen attempts that's thirty three point three percent. In the losses, fifty three for one or seven that's forty nine point five percent and a sixteen point two percent increase in third downs allowed. The blitzing numbers, I'm

sure a lot of you wanted to hear that. One one hundred fifty six blitzes on three nineteen dropbacks in the victories, that's a forty eight point nine percent blitz rate. When the opposing quarterback went back to pass. In the losses, it was one thirty four out of three eleven, so forty one point eight percent, a seven point one percent

decrease and the losses in blitzing the quarterback. But again, those numbers can be skewed a little bit because of the way the game unfolds in terms of, you know, late game situations. It's all situational, so I don't know that one really tells us all that much, but I was curious to find out the difference there, So that was really the key one that I looked at, and

the field goal numbers. I mean that was the outrageous one to me was how field goal successes and failures, And I mean, I don't want to call it luck. I think the opposing team missing field goals a lot of times can come down to luck. But last year the Dolphins were thirty for thirty three and field goal percentage had the first team All Pro this year actually had the lowest field goal percentage of any team in

the National Football League. We talk about fine margins. That's a good area to look at for how the record swung from ten wins to eight and possibly nine wins if the Dolphins can find a victory on Sunday against the Patriots. But again, small margin's big difference. Some others here with some miscellaneous stats and information. The turnover differential

and the victories was plus four. They had two games they won with more than one turnover, the Houston game when they had four or rather five turnovers, and the Jets game they had three turnovers. There was two games without a turnover they won, and they won four games with one turnover exactly, but plus four in the victories in the losses, negative seven in the take in the turnover differential department sixteen takeaways and the wins seven takeaways.

In the losses, the point differential I thought was gonna go a different direction that I remembered back to the Buccaneers game and the Bills game and the Titans game, and that through this entire equation out of whack. But the Dolphins points for in their victories one four. That's twenty three points per game, and their wins as far as points allowed just ninety eight points twelve and a quarter points per game. In the eight victories, that's a

plus eighty six differential. In the losses, they scored a hundred and twenty four point sixty points fewer. That's fifteen point five points per game. And those losses in the points allowed category two hundred and fifty one. So what is that a hundred and fifty three points more allowed in the eight losses compared to the eight wins. That's thirty one point four points per game. That's say two and a half times increase there if my math is right,

which probably isn't. In terms of points allowed per game, that's a minus one seven point differential in the losses, so plus eighty six and the eight wins minus one seven in the eight losses. Last thing I wanted to explore here was the wins at the buzzer at the hands of the Dolphins and what exactly happened in those games.

My point here is again the razor thin margins in this league, and you could do this in a few of our wins as well, where you find four five plays in those games that could have gone the other way, really only to me in the Patriots game. Otherwise the Dolphins were pretty much clear winners and a lot of those other contests. But we start off here with there's three games Vegas, Jacksonville, Atlanta, and we start here with Vegas.

First off, Derek Carr played so damn well in that game, and just to that point, I you know, I wasn't a huge fan of his game early on in his career, but he sure as hell has won me over what a terrific player he has become in his NFL career. But in this game, he hit maybe his best throw of the season on that thirty two yard pass to Brian Edwards under pressure in a tight window, and that

was on second and ten. If you don't get that all of a sudden, Miami has a chance for one of their blitz packages or creative calls on third and tend to get off the field, but instead they convert and kick a field goal. And then the Dolphins drive back into field goal range and had a shot play into the end zone on first down to Will Fuller, and we've seen that call made before, we've seen it

not made before. It doesn't get called. The Dolphins cannot hit either of the next two passes and then convert on fifty yard field goal from Jason Sanders. And then the Raiders again from car to Edwards on a second and fifteen for thirty five yards, and that time was backed up too, with under three minutes to play. You get off the field there, you get the football back with either a chance to win or if you don't,

succeed to tie the football game. But because they hit that Peyton Barber, one more run and they're back into field goal ranch and they hit it at the buzzer and again three for three for Daniel Carlson d that game, and the Dolphins had a missed field goal at the

end of the first half in that game. For the Jacksonville game played pretty good on defense, especially when you consider the fact that Both xaviing Howard and Byron Jones were down in that game, but Jacksonville kicker Matthew Right went three for three in that game and hit from fifty four and fifty three yards in the fourth quarter. He's four for six this year from fifty plus, so two for two in the Dolphins game, two for four Otherwise. He didn't hit two fifty plus yards in any other

game this year. To his credit, he has seventeen for twenty and it looks like he's gonna have a long term solution there at the kicking possession in Jacksonville, but he entered that game over one kicking in his career and the Jags had gone a full year without a made field goal. Just a weird nugget from that game that the Jaguars were able to hit big field goals late in that football game, which was the difference ultimately

in the Atlanta Falcons game. That was the second and the last time the Falcons offense hit thirty points in a game this season, their second highest yardage output and their third highest passing output of the season against this Dolphins defense. That really transformed a week or two after this and the way it ended with Miami having two touchdown drives and offense, a defensive takeaway and a forced

punt in there. Then they come back after all that in Miami gets a lead with two twenty seven to play in the game, and they complete an incredible catch up the perimeter to rookie tight end Kyle Pitch for twenty eight yards, a phenomenal catch by a hell of a player, and that was after he already hit for

twenty three yards. So he piles up in quick succession fifty one yards of offense on two plays, and the Falcons were able to run for a first down on three plays, where if the Dolphins gonna stop on any of those, they're gonna have about a minute and some change to try to navigate the field on the other side and get a game winning field goal from two and the offense, which in that fourth quarter they were moving the ball just fine, but the Falcons run for

a first down, exhaust the time ouse and clock and any chance of answering, and they kick it to go ahead and win that football game. So all three of those games, Miami's missing a field goal and the opposition goes three for three nine for nine in total. Those

small margins there they are. I just think those three games and clearly evident by the buzzer beating ending, but the way they played out, they show you that the margin between wins and losses, the margin between Week seventeen elimination and fighting for division championships and high seating in the postseason, can come down to a play or a moment.

And that's kind of what you look back on each of the last two seasons as you are just one or two win shy of getting into the postseason tournament. Now there are plenty more things, but that's a two day project I did to look into, you know what, where the difference is in the victories and losses. You can look at personnel groupings, ran route concepts, different types of blitz packages and games and stunts and things of

that nature. That's all for the offseason. I just wanted to give you guys a sample taste of that on this edition of the Drive Time Podcast, which has come to its conclusion. You all please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcast, Leave us a rating, leave us a review. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Wingfield NFL. Follow the team across all

Socials at Miami Dolphins. Check out the Fish Tank Podcast with Seth and o J. Of course, our YouTube channel, the Coordinator Media availabilities will be posted to the channel today. You can also find Dolphins Today on YouTube as well as Miami Dolphins dot com for written, photo, video, podcast content. Everything on your Miami Dolphins. Until next time finds up Caroline. Daddy is coming home.