Week 15 Film Room, Dolphins Bills — Tape, Contextualized Stats, Snap Counts and McDaniel Commentary

if what is up? Dolph fans and welcome to the Drive Time podcast, part of the Miami Dolphins podcast Network, covering your team, your Miami Dolphins. How's it going everybody? I am your host, Travis Winfield, And on today's show, we always call this the aftermath or the autopsy, the deep dive from the Dolphins Week fifteen loss in Buffalo. And if my voice sounds a little more chipper than usual on a deep dive after a loss, it's because this tape was very encouraging. And I'll tell you why

in this podcast. Point out the key plays and how they happened, and what Miami did well, what they did wrong on the mischances, and so much more, plus the key stats from PFF and other advanced metrics sites, snap Counts, and Mike McDaniel's Monday press conference. Plenty more to come here from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the drive Time. It's a Tuesday.

We're back full time here with you guys every day the rest of the season, or at least five days a week, and I think we should be getting three consecutive one o'clock kickoffs. We'll see what happens in week eighteen.

But I am excited about this podcast because I just finished watching the tape and I tend to think that outside circumstances or where the Dolphins are not right now, one game back in the a f C East with a sweep over the Buffalo Low Bills, I think they were the better team, and the tape tends to agree

with me. Let's go ahead and jump right in and you can tell me if you agree after hearing my breakdown of this game, I just want to go ahead and kind of track the run game success because as I was going through this tape, there are several plays where the Dolphins get hat on a hat and that's how you wind up running for seven point five yards a clip. The first play is a great example of that, where Connor Williams just buries his man off the snap

on a reach block. And this happens all the time, so defensive tackles want to shoot across Connor Williams face or beat him to a gap that they have him out leveraged to get into that gap. But because of Connor Williams's quickness off the snap and then his work with his hands and the hand strength and his balance, he's able to connect with those guys where he's already you know, out favored in terms of the real estate

that he has to operate with. But then he pulls the guy's chest plate down and gets him to the ground immediately. And there were several blocks in this game where exactly that happened. And unless first play of the game, both the guards hit square it up blocks down the field, Brandon Shell kicks out and seals and to Ron Armstead had a tremendous reach where they throw the button the gap.

You spend that your hips and your butt around into the playside gap wall off the backside, and then from there alec Ingold gets a good lean on or a lead block. I should say on too, Ron Johnson. And this is why I really hope we see these guys again, because I think they're nickel defense. They're based defense against our two back personnel and twenty two personnel at times I think could be super deadly in a January game. And in fact, I think inclement weather would be more

beneficial for Miami if that's how it goes. Stay in the nickel defense. We'll have alec Ingold block your your nickel back all game long and get seven and a half yards to carry. And I typed this after the first play of the game. Then the second play of the game, he goes out and hitch Johnson again and throws him to the ground. So I also wanted to track the number of block out the sun at the second level place for Robert Hunt, who, in my opinions,

having a Pro Bowl caliber year. He's been fantastic and this was his best game. Don't tell me about two fall starts. I know that's gonna get cleaned up. But I'm more concerned about the other seventy snaps he plays in a game. Like if we're talking about two snaps out of fifty seven, the Dolphins played well, Sure, I guess that's tangible, and you can tell from the stat sheeting, But if you look at the AL twenty two, you're

gonna see Robert Hunt playing really, really good football. In fact, I tracked how many second level wipeouts he had where he climbed to the second level on linebackers and took a player out of the play. I had seven in this game. Holy cow. The block on Tremaine Edmunds on

Savan ak Med's touchdown run. He approaches him, gets the initial punch or surge that knocks Edmund's back on his heels, and then Rob runs him right out of the frame like like Michael or in the blind Side and the movie on Disney, not the not the actual blocker, but the Sandra Bullock vehicle. What a game it was for him. First half is still in play, and I had six of those wipe out blocks the second level in the

first half, six of them for Big Rob Hunt. He comes back on Savan's second half nine yard run and gets Edmunds in the exact same way, like he was doing this all night long. He's having a fantastic year, and the run game, on top of good execution, was

just really creative. On the opening play of drive number two, you get Shell to pull and that kind of throws some confusion on the Bill's defensive line because Rob pens his man the three technique to open that gap inside and the six technique who's head up over the tight end or in this case an h back because it's alec Ingold, but he's lined up over the attached player.

He gets caught in the mess right there on Rob Hunt because he's thinking he's getting contact from Brandon Shell, but shells out of there to the back side of the formation, so Hunt winds up ceiling two guys and it's a massive lane for another chunk of yards. That an excellent job winning at the point of attack by Hunt and Shell on the initial alec Ingold third and one conversion. I think that play calling shows you how valuable big Rob is because so many plays in this

game ran right behind him. Just like the alec Ingold conversion. There was a fourth and one on the first scoring drive of the night where they run Raheem once again right behind the right guard and Rob removes his man from the Asian and it's a first down. You want to convert on short yards, saddle up number sixty eight and run the ball behind him. He is elite in those situations. Then we go back to some design elements of the offense and we see a quarters look on

first and fifteen. What does that mean? Four deep defenders who each have responsibility of a deep quarter of the field. So it's a really take away, deep shot type of defense. And if you can run guys by them, that's great. Not many teams can, but when you have Tayrek and Waddle you can't. But this play quarters on first and fifteen, and it's Waddle and Sanders who run a four who run a four man shell twenty yards off the ball with their two routes, they run that entire quarters top

the roof of the defense. They take it and stretch it all the way up to the penthouse, and that opens up where Hee Mostart on a swing route who just had everything cooking like good ball placement here from two on the upfield shoulder allowed him to catch it and stride and not slow down, and that put him in position for a little bit of an inside shuffle step that left Matt Milano in the dust, and then he outruns Edmunds for a twenty yard game in the

first down. Let's talk about Raheem some more, because this was a performance from a Dolphins back that we haven't seen in a while, not just the stats, but the combination of speed and power he displayed. Man, he was good in this game. More designed first, there was a counter or there was plenty of counter in this game. Some inside zone, outside zone, some shotgun runs under center, I formation offset I you know, h back attached mode. Like,

there was so much fun stuff in this game. One of my favorite plays was the achmed second down run

before the field goal to kick the game off. We get great movement play side, but you see the backside Bills defense kind of fold up over the top of multiple wall offs because you kind of get Armstead at the point on the line of scrimmage, you get Robert Jones kind of a little bit further upfield, like two yards upfield, and then Connor Williams is the third man of that pillar trying to wall it off, and the Bills look content to stand there and just wait for

the play to come back to him. And here comes Connor Williams over the top five yards downfield, extending that wall and just forcing them to stay on the other side of the formation having to get around blocks. That was the case all night long. Bill's defenders before finding the ball carrier had to contend with a blocker in front of them and offensive lineman obviously your best blockers. It's a tough way to get run stops. That's why you run for seven and a half yards to carry.

And you also do that with Raheem moster which back to him real quick, that sixty seven yard gallop. He has one of the most impressive runs I can remember from a dolphin's back. First you get hat on a hat across the board, including a devastating climb, and he raced from Connor Williams. Big Rob just stays glued to at Oliver, who's one of the best defensive tackles in the league, and trying his darkness to get off the

block and he can't do it. Shell and Smith get big seals and then here comes Raheem doing insane things. First contact is actually behind the line of scrimmage, excuse me, but he steps through it. Then he's got a safety who's got him squared up. And not just any safety, it's Jordan Poyer, one of the best in the league.

He puts a hesitation step on him that prevents Poyer from squaring him up, and then from there he drops the shoulders but keeps the leg turned driving and at a corner who's coming off of the block from Derham Smith, they both kind of converge on Raheem's outside of his shoulder pads and he keeps the legs churning and runs right through it. Then there's another tackle attempt up around the shoulders. Raheem stiff farms him to space, gets another

broken tackle on Hamlin. Then he runs away from everyone until te Ron Johnson, who came from the other side of the formation, has a deep enough angle to get him corralled at the thirty, but Raheem puts a stiff arm on him and carries him all the way down to the ten yard line, plus the horse caller. I had him with five forced mis tackles there, six if you include dragging the safety for twenty yards, and every yard of that run was after contact as he was

hit behind the line. What a freaking play. That was one of the best plays of the year. I thought the run after the more Stead roughing call was possibly his best, and obviously I was exciting. That's kind of that's disingenuous to say his best because it was the second best. But he's dead to rights behind the line about three yards and keeps the leg driving and gets a from a loss to a gain of four. That's

critical stuff. And me running back. We go back to the quarterback, who goes you know, second behind the run game this week, even though both were impressive. You know, the running game just kind of happened first. But with two of let's go ahead and talk about QB one pretty late into the Tuesday podcast. To start up talking about the quarterback, we haven't done that much this year,

but here we go to uh. I like to track the big plays for good and bad, and not do much of in depth stuff in terms of like the innocuous or i should say, the inconsequential types of plays. And there was a couple of those, but for the most part, two US plays. We're very highly engaged in very high level in this game. I had him for like two or three mistakes, but other than that, a

really good game from the Miami quarterback. After the raheem most start swing pass, we get twenty one personnel with twins two receivers, to the field the wide side of the formation. Cedric's the one, the furthest out waddle the two the next closest in the slot. Buffalo brings five with man free so you have man coverage underneath a free safety in the middle of the field and blitz

up front. It's a double on waddle with trail technique from the underneath corner who runs waddle right into that slant into the middle of the field, safety capping that slam and this leaves Cedric one on one to the field with fordabus White and he runs a comeback route.

And this is the reason I'm talking about this play first is because I think it's where to was game kind of began from the high, high level difficulty and execution standpoint of the game against pressure that produces a big hit right after he throws the football to his hands separate before Cedric has even throttled down the route.

Anticipation was elite all night long. White is an all pro, so he plays it well and comes back down the stem with Cedric, but Cedric boxes him out and gives enough of a target to the quarterback and the ball could not be better on time or better located when he comes back down the stem, hits his man right in the hands and it goes incompletely. It's a big boy throw process over results right, it's not a completion, but pressure in your face, far hash comeback anticipation on

a two man route. It's a great, great throw And that's what kind of got to a go and for the rest of the night. And what I love about to is he'll come back on the next play and get you. You know, get He'll get you after a play goes not his way. Sign of high level quarterback player where you catch your break and you gotta stop on like a drop pass or a misfire on one or two plays, but then you're still alive because the

quarterback is dangerous and any down our distance. First we need to commend to Ron Armstead here and I put it on Twitter. Buffalo brings a delayed overload blitz against a slide protection from Miami. They're gonna keep Torn Armstead all by himself on an island, one on one against the Bills edge rusher, who in this case I think with shack laws in him, and they're gonna slide the

protection to the other side of the formation. But Buffalo has a great call because they have two rushers from down positions to the right and just the one to the left. But they're gonna wind up bailing out and bringing Edmonds and Johnson off of that to Hron Armstead slide position. So you have three on one essentially in this play. And Tahron starts wide two handle his man.

Actually it was Eponessa wasn't lost in It was fifty seven, and you're gonna see Edmunds take his sprint inside of Tehron and you're gonna see Tehron Johnson come off the

outside edge of that. So we guys three guys and he can only block one of them, so he's gonna literally spin into a piarette back into the middle and erased Tremaine Edmonds, who was the most immediate threat coming inside, and as a result, that makes the free erunner on to a a half second later right and then to handles the rest with again fantastic anticipation, an excellent expedited release for the balls up and out before it looks like he has even an opportunity to do so, and

the confidence and accuracy to put the ball into a window that has not opened before he throws the football against that level of pass rush that is high, high level quarterback play, and it continued all night long. They go back to the quarters against empty and to it takes the speed out to Waddle and I think it's a good example of this tape showing good expansion off some of the stuff that Miami did really well early in the season. For that reason, I love this game.

It's gonna, I think, pay big dividends going forward. The third and one sack on the first field goal drive was a great play by to Ron Johnson to buzz the flat on a whip route to Jalen Waddle. They got him one on one and he puts his foot in the ground inside takes it back to the outside. And we've hit that play before. Why open because teams didn't put the additional defender in there. But to Ron Johnson buzzes the flat and cuts off the throwing lane.

Good on Tour for seeing that and not throwing it, because it's a pick six if he does. And then you get Tyreek and surefield blanketed. And that's a spot where you don't mind eating the sack because you're still in short field goal range and you want to see

if something can open up. It did not. It's not really a saccupant on the offensive line, and in fact it's just a sack that It really the same as an incompletion because you lost seven yards and your field goal goes from thirty five yards to forty right, not a big difference. I think the two throws in the end zone just before the second field goal where some of his best work. The first one second and goal from the three, and the initial concept is completely blanketed.

You get Mesh with Ghasicki and Tyreek, which we talked about. Mesh wanted to see more of that. We got it where Hemus to the front pylon to the left, waddle to the back pilon to the opposite side. So you have really good spacing stretching the Bill's defense across the entire end zone. But they covered it very well. So to it makes a decision, I have to make a play.

Everything's covered up here and they make the right call execution for this wise, you know we need a perfect throw to beat it, and that's what to A did. He made a perfect throw. One of his best traits for my eyes is his ability to throw around blind defenders, and that means that their back has turned to the quarterback chasing receivers. It's man coverage, right, but your back is of the quarterback. You can't defend more than the width of your body because you don't know where the

football is. And because of that, you can throw what looks like kind of chancey type of passes, but it's not when you know the defender can't put his hand up there and swatt it down. And so he throws this ball with the defensive backs back right to him, and he scrapes over the top of his helmet, buzzes his tower, and it gives Tyreka Chance, who does have his eyes in the quarterback to put his hands up. And this is all happening through a compromised pocket with

an awkward platform, so he's not set. He doesn't have the perfect throwing motion. It's a really tough catch to make. But like we said, to beat great defenses, you need a better throw, and we got it, just didn't complete the catch. And that was kind of the difference on two field goal drives between seven and three early in

this game. A somewhat similar story on the very next play a first it's a great route by Mike get sicky to execute a natural rub because he shows his numbers back to the quarterback after not putting his hands up on the defender. Keep your hands down at your side. You're not gonna get called for the pick. It creates a window for Tuah. And let's make this abundantly clear, because apparently it needs to be made that way. I thought everyone that watched football knew these basics, but maybe

we don't. I don't know. The quarterback on that throw is trained to take his receiver to the ground because there's nowhere after the catch in the end zone, So why do we carey about that? And putting the receiver on the ground naturally doesn't allow the defense to one tee off on your receiver to injure him too, to tee off to jar the football free. That is how it's been coached since I was playing peewee football. Man, Okay, we all get that good front of the end zone

equals low. Back at the end zone equals high That's basic. I don't know how we don't know that, but I want to be very clear about it. Plus I promise you sure field appreciates the fact that the ball was down there because the opposite type of ball is what we call a hospital ball in the industry, anticipated well located. Well, that's a catch the Trent makes times out of a hundred. We just missed it, and too was dealing man the

non call on the early contact on Tyreek. That ball was a little more inside than it could have been, but because it was out early, it puts pressure on the defensive back to make up ground doesn't get the call. Ball could have been more outside. But I like the anticipation. The very next play, the strike to Waddle for I think it was fifteen yards and we'll talk about Miami's star twenty two year old wide receiver's perspective on this

play here in a moment. But the quarterback though at third and five, uh one hitch hand separate when Wattle is even. And the best part about this is to A is reading the two high pre snap shell because right at the snap, the safety to the field the wide side, which is opposite of where Wattle isn't the boundary. He turns to get depth but doesn't widen to the boundary. So to A knows I have a window to attack

here to Waddle side. And this is another part of to his game that makes me believe his slumps will never last very long, just two games. In this instance, he takes that bit of information and discerns what he's getting from that part of the field that he's blind

to or he's not looking that way. I'm looking left and based on the information I have to the left, I know what's happening to the right, and that safety wheels out to cover the other high safety who stepped down and try to jump anything in breaking to Jalen, so to a process is this having to see it because of that, and he can get it out early. So waddles hesitation step gets him past the corner and the throw is early with arc. Jalen goes up and snares it. It's underthrown by a half a yard by

that's time because of arm strength. Is because throwing deep shots to guys that run four two is very difficult. That's why it happens every quarterback around the league every single week. Perfect not perfect throw, a good enough throw to get a conversion for thirty four yards on third and five. What a play for two of to know to get that ball? They're great play call for the double move to fake the inside where the Bills cheated,

and then go back over the top. We'll talk about Waddles role on that play here in just a second. It wasn't a fifteen yard play, was a thirty four yard player at the plan to attack linebackers in the passing game, both in front and behind them was really well done. Everybody knows that we can really work the ten to nineteen yard range behind linebackers. We've got a mesh down in the red zone early in the game

in the second quarter. Then on third down conversion and plus territory, Tyreek runs his route directly at Tremaine Edmunds and typically be gone behind those guys and thrown in behind them. But Edmonds has an eight yard drop and Tyreek presses right at him and then angles his route back to the quarterback flattening at the first down sticks to catch it and move the chains. The very next play is a dot on third nine to move the sticks to a gets great protection against the blitz and

throws a comeback to the field. Another player I thought he couldn't do right ball is out and on time with Tyreek coming back down the stem, and he makes the catch before the defender can drive on that ball. More instances of timing anticipation being the most important thing for a quarterback back to the offense and the quarterback in the offense. The wattles sixty seven yard touchdown. I think it was nothing short of a master class in

terms of some tendency breakers for the Dolphins offense. Because once again the bill start in this two high coverage. They bring the boundary safety down to rob a crossing

route that's a it's a typical robber call. Safety comes down, tries to take away the backside over out which you get from sherfield and you get from Tyreek to the field side, the same side that Waddle comes from from their three man receivers set three by one formation, and rather than crossing face, Waddle adjust and runs behind him.

It's like a step at the linebacker and then acceleration upfield to a season and once again throws with anticipation, good location, and it's a massive play to bring the Dolphins within two points. That pure wet on the scrambles a nifty move, the same move we saw him do against the Ravens back in Week two. He just got got by the turf Monster after seven yards and then

we go in completion on the next play. It's one of those tapes where if you're not checking the score, you would think Miami's offense is unstoppable, even with twenty nine points. Just a few plays away from a lot more in my opinion, two dozen trip, it's probably first down. They stay on the field that drive. Who knows what happens. The missed deep ball to Braylan Sanders hers so much because it was a perfect ball. I've been asked that

question a lot. Braylon come back and gets a push on the dB, but he didn't have to do that to or through it perfectly upfield. He grows at forty yards from the spot he released the football to the landing point and Braylon's on top of the dB where to A goes to throw, and you see Sanders stop the track he's on and come back to the defensive back and that threw off the timing of it, whites out of position and it's a touchdown if he stays on that track and catches it and stride. Then we

go sack, check down, punt pain. The touchdown past the tyreek was so so so so so so good, so good kind of the theme of the game here to a taking post nap rotation of one player and processing what he does for the rest of the defense. And look, we can't go inside the mind of a player, but just watch this play. You get that similar safety rotation to his helmet is keyed towards one defender, and the movement of that player leads him to flip his helmet back to the other side, all in one motion and

throw the football. That's processing, that's anticipation, that's knowing his movement there means this in the backside. If then there therefore this it's a sure fire away to play really well and post Gaudi stats in this league for a long time. If you can do that consistently. This year he has maybe even better. The Bills show press man with that high safety. The stack to the field side of the formation brings the entire defense up to the line besides that one player and you see two and

make a check at the line. Just adds another layer to it, and you love to see it. You've probably seen this by now, but the first play of the fourth quarter, Gisicky is turned free on a bus for potential eighty three yard touchdown. Catch on third and three. It sucks, but you have to understand the rules for a quarterback in his progression. He had favorable leverage to tie Reek to the sticks on a speed out. That's

your first read. If it's there, you throw it to Ron Johnson played it perfectly, but the Bills busted him. We never got to it more pain. He also had wattle on a backside over when he took a short completion to Tyreek later in the game. It's after the Wilkins and Phillips fumble recovery to from an eye formation, boots and throws short of the sticks to Tyreek. Right before that Smith play for a loss. But man, he had waddle coming across the formation, clear open, naked ten yard.

It's further downfield, possibly run after the catch too. That's the first miss I had from two of this entire game. His first like obviously bad play, the rest was really good. Holy moly. The throw with nine minutes to go in the game, twenty two all or twenty nine, All tied up. Rolling to his left, Tyreek crosses Edmonds on an over

route with the safety bearing down. Nobody's open. Tyreek is hardly opened, and you can't locate this ball in the windy snow any better than he did low so the safety cannot pop Tyreke out in front of him, so he can go get it away from the linebacker and he makes a great sliding catch. Like wow, that was a wild play. They had some high level execution plays in this game, man, And then the location on the Cedric Wilson throw was absolutely beautiful too. And man, watching

it back, what a great recovery from Johnson. When to will let that thing go. It looked like a walk in touchdown, but his effort allowed him to get back and contest and make the tackle. Outstanding catch by Cedric Wilson. The third and twelve play to Waddle was defensive past interference clear his day. White has his hand on Waddles back and you see Jalen's body turn in a totally unnatural way. He's running one direction, his hip turns the other way. You can't do that. It was the hand

of the hip. You see both Tyreke Waddle and Trent Surefield all motion for a flag again more pain. One of my favorite tapes and to his career ultimately, I think gets defined by two or three mrs because the Bill's offense was able to match Miami, but this tape is literally with some great stuff that great quarterbacks do. The entire offensive tape was really good. And to finish that point, the blocking out wide by the receivers was once again really good Tyreek. And you know, he tweeted

that he didn't have his best game. Maybe it was the end zone drop that he talked about, but I thought it was pretty good. On the play that to was scrambled, Tyreek took three defenders with him to the post, which cleared everybody out obviously. Then the next drive, his release in the touchdown catch, what a move you see White try to hit the inside hand jam, Tyreek bluffs to step inside, then gets his feet right back under

him and takes off from there without contact. There's nobody in the league's gonna run with Tyreke on that play. Perfect ball, equal six waddle. The hesitation step to acceleration was on display on two straight plays, and man, it's good to see him back being that explosive after a couple of down week where he just didn't look right to that level of juice. The hesitation step on the deep shot put him in front of the dB in a matter of five yards, and then the deep ball

tracking from there. The way he's high pointing the ball all year long has been so good. Then the long touchdown. His route running is really good. He comes out of the break like he's gonna just cross Pawyer's face and runs right at him. Then he takes one step upfield and jets behind him. The balls out early and it looks like Hamlin has an angle, but few people can erase angles like Jalen Waddle. He just flew right by him. What a special player. Alec ingoldman, what a game for him.

He was going after their nickel number seven and getting key blocks all night long. Remember we talked about them playing their snaps and nickel defense. That's because Johnson is so talented and can insert versus the run. But Ingold had a handful of blocks on him man, including the Savan Akhmed touchdown. It wasn't just the nickel either. He had a block on another Akhmed run where he cleared Epinessa out of the play and it frustrated the Epinessa so bad that he threw Alec down After the fact.

You should have been fifteen. They didn't call it. Speaking of Akhmed. That was some kind of run he had. Rob Jones has an excellent game and an excellent down block on Milano covers him up to the point that you could barely see any read on the play. Then Savan has tomar Hamlin one on one and has jump cut an explosion off that cut into the end zone.

What a run that was. Love the way he pressed the gap and accelerated on his wide nine yard run of the third quarter as well, the whole line was awesome. So encouraged about what's being done by these front five guys right now. Armstead, Jones, Williams, Hunt Shell, great game. I thought Rob Jones had the best grap I've seen from him on the play after the Phillips strip sack. Moster gets a first down run and he reaches Oliver, gets turned into the gap and then finishes the play

by throwing him to the ground. Williams multiple times in the game Hunt we talked about him. Shell had some good kickout blocks to a couple of dicey pass pro snaps. But man, this line is playing good. My last note, I would love a little more wiggle out of the tight end position run after the catch would be nice. At that spots, go ahead and take our first break and come back into the defense on the other side.

We'll go through that quicker on this one. That's next Drivetime podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. It's a Tuesday. We are deep into the podcast, just after the first break, which means you know, we have plenty more to come your way. I haven't been able to keep these podcasts under like forty five, but that's okay. Just means we have lots of notes to get to and we had a lot on the offense, not going to have as much on the defense. But

I think we start here. I'm not gonna get on here and tell you all about the misplays and a secondary that is down to safety five at one position and calling on cornerbacks five and six the majority of the season. You just have to find a way to manage it. That's kind of how attrition in the National Football League works. Once you get to the end of the year. Almost every team has at least one position

group that has been decimated by injuries. If you can avoid it, good for you, and the best teams find ways to overcome it, whether it's more production from a different position or just trying to cover it with your scheme. And Miami, obviously with the Bradley Chubb trade going after more pressure guys that can win one on ones up front have shifted a little bit in that way. And I'll tell you why. The Bradley Chub you know, where is he in the stack? Production stuff? Like same thing

with Phillips early in the season. Just chill, relax, it's coming. It's been productive, just not in the sack category, boy, but early on the play of the Bill's offense going after those you know players we talked about it was costly and it was costly late as well. So just know that we're not going to sit here and analyze it because to me, it's a dead horse. You guys know, I know. I don't think it's constructive when we all

know that and continue to beat that dead horse. Kind of like a certain topic on Twitter that we talked about every single day regarding this team's quarterback. Now you can say, Travis, how did they overcome enough to get enough production to win enough games to get us in and keep us competitive from there? And that's totally fair.

And I think you have to use these last three weeks to make that happen and get the production to win the games, to get yourself in possession to play those games beyond those three, and I do have confidence that will happen. Let's go ahead and start here at the ball off Javon Holland's hands on the opening series of the game, and you can see from the wide angle that he's clearly focused on laying a big hit

to dislodge the football. I have to imagine that's the hardest part about playing defensive back, because you have to assume that every pass is going to be good. Right. In this case, Alan misfired high and by the time Javon had realized it, the ball's coming in sixty miles off the fingertips and falls for a harmless incompletion. Now to finish off that drive, we get a great key and trigger from a Landon Roberts to shut down a

run for just one yard. Then Justin Bethel and Noah Egbonogeny have to contest with a stack and a switch on third and nine, which can cause lots of issues in man coverage. It was an issue against the Chargers last week, and Bethel's reroute and jam On Dawson Knox really disrupt a lot of that stuff. And then Noah Egbanogeny takes a great route underneath to undercut the throw just to fawnd digs and takes away that window. Ball

is high punt team on. I thought it was a great start against a similar look that gave this team issues the week prior. And justin Bethel Man, every time he's out there, he seems to make big place. He had some work in the safety possess and after we talked about earlier with the safety play, you know, giving up some plays, and then Bethel came in and helped out in that spot too, So maybe we see more

of that going forward. And by the way, Buffalo's first touchdown that one uh to the tight end who had never scored before in his career, that was the exact same type of play on the catch or the throw I should say the Tyreek hill in the endzone that did not go complete and cause so much debate, it

was literally the exact same play. The safety is underneath the time Javon Holland and the tight end over the top knows the quarterback knows that Javon can only defend the width of his body, just throws it over the top of his helmet and they caught it. We didn't. But because of perception and narratives, one's a great throw and the other might not be. I guess I don't know. Get the g t FO man. That's kind of how I feel about that. I just love the way kator Co,

who plays screens and plays in space. His work staying wide helped a land in Robert's gay three yard tackle for loss on the opening play of Buffalo's third drive. Christian Wilkins, who was great his Monday press conference, by the way, go check it out on the team YouTube channel. Even when he isn't winning, he's making an impact. There was a drop passed by almost said Dalvin Cook, James Cook,

and they double him and he helps. It helps the center of the Buffalo Bill stay square to Christian, which is a tough place to win as a pass rusher, like you always want to rush one edge of the man, and he basically has to restart the rep once the double team clears, and now he's squared up at the nineteen yard line and by the time Alan hitches up to throw, it's like a beat. Wilkins has driven Mitch

Morre's back five yards. I think it's his technique that's so excellent that allows him to play from behind the pads, play through the power, and pair it with those physical tools. That's how you get elite players. And again Christian talked about in his press conference on Monday, you should go check it out on YouTube. Not gonna play the highlight here,

but check it out on the YouTube channel. That third and seventeen conversion is a good example of how hard this offense is to defend and how tough it's been on the back end this year. We saw Josh Allen go vertical against blitz Is, and here we rushed just four and they get a great pass protection and Alan can just survey and rip or strike to Davis on twenty yard Dick, so he can you know, damn if you do, Damn If you don't, you can send pressure

on he'll throw it early. You get a DPI down the field, or he can stand there and scramble or throw from from the pocket. It's just a lot to ask for. I saw a lot of chatter about Bradley Chubb in this game. This is all you need to know about Bradley Chubb. Dion Dawkins is their best pass protector,

one of the best in the National Football League. A lot of the reps they played against Bradley Chub featured a chip to allow Dawkins to get to his landmark and get set, which doesn't even give him a chance to cross face or have to counter back inside so he can get the depth and the width he needs and settle into his pass set while Chubb has to

restart and redirect after the fact. What else you need to know them that that tells you about the attention they give him, even with Jalen Phillips and Christian Wilkins and Melvin Ingram across this front. And also how about this, We're averaging pressures per game over the last five games compared to fifteen per game across the first nine games. And if you think pressures don't matter, I don't have to tell you, but I've seen way word stuff on

the local news. Better coverage would help the pass rush payoff a lot more. Just please know, continue to be so impressed by Bethel again. The pass breakup was some teach tape that he had stays in phase, gets out of phase on the break, but then breaks on the football and then slices his hand between the two hands of Dawson Knox and jars At Free. There are so many plays and going back to this guy again where

Josh Allen just makes a freaking play. It's tough to get on your guys for that when that happens that play before the end of the half. It's just Josh Allen do and Josh Allen things. And there was another one on a third and four earlier, on that drive with forty two seconds to go, where it looked like Miami would get off and get the football back, you know, trailling by one point, which would have been a huge before the half obviously, and I thought they were mixing

it and disguising it. Well. There was a man free you know, man coverage free safety, single high rep where Bethel was the robber and it's kind of spying the quarterback. But Alan breaks that contain and throws it after an eight seconds scramble. You just can't expect to cover guys that long. So that got them into the end zone. But then after a tough first half, how did Miami turn it around? Well, more mixing, more disguising, just better execution. I think better death in the sect at level on

hooks Hook's own drops. There was a play in the first play where a land and Roberts got to that space. Now a few plays later him and Jerome Baker turned at Dawson Knox free and Bolts covered grass. But it was more prominent than it was not. There was a great man to man coverage on a hitch to Gabe Davis by xaviing Howard on a third down stop where he ran the route for him. We need to see more of that going forward. More open field tackling prowess from kater Co who gets a big stop on a

second down short of the sticks. And then the next player. Wilkins worked off of Phillips's pressure so well. He would stack a two gap type of play, a block where he kind of keeps his eyes on the quarterback and holds the point and keys the land that's created by Jalen Phillips by winning around the edge. Then he quickly gets to the b gap to cut off Allen's escape valve. It's a big reason they got to stop on the second drive and on a third and two where Phillips

drew the hold in a wicked outside pass rush. Wilkins and Phillips teamed up on that play to really make it happen. On the very next play, he twisted with ingram Phillips did and one outside of Dawkins, and the pressure forced Alan to throw on the move and he misses an open Isaiah Mackenzie. That's how pressure can impact

plays without making sacks. Wilkins makes a run stop on the Bills on their own two yard line, more teaching tape from two gapping where he stacks it and gets off the block and makes another big tackle eighty one this year, he is just eight shy of his own personal record from most tackles by defensive tackle in NFL history. Then Kater has a great pass breakup on a rep, A REP and a pass breakup I should say, then Javon on that spy rep coming from depth and getting

Alan to the ground in space. Next play, next series, Steeler beats Docking across his face for a run stop for a three yard loss. Then Chubb gets a pressure on Alan to force a throwaway a deep in completion with really good coverage from both Ignogady and Cohu. Then on third and ten from the negative forty five on the next series, you get more great man coverage in man free and Alan's forced to try a deep shot to a covered receiver from an awkward platform, again because

of pressure from Phillips and Wilkins. Then those two combine on the very next play, Phillip's effort to force that fumble, the hands to swipe, the athletic ability to shorten that angle and turn the corner, then finish the play and the ball bounces right to Riom who does so well to always keep his eyes in the quarterback. And speaking of good balances, man, we get another force fumble on the very next play from Chub and man, if we can just recover that one so close all game long.

Some more individual place here. Zach Seeler played two of the second half second and one just wins instantly. The way he hits those backs when he gets through is so good. He is so consistent, and he either tackles him with the ball or he runs through my past protection and gets the sack. In the quarterback mentioned phillips

hands are so so good. He's dispatching some really good tackles with their initial punch, And I thought Javon showed great toughness and more of that range playing through that neck injury. Some stats for you here too. On twenty plus yard throws was three for four for one nineteen and two touchdowns. Pretty good, Pretty good man, ten of nineteen or ten to nineteen yards four for eight for sixty three so combined on ten plus are ard throws in cold temperature, which I was told back in October

was the next hurdle he had to curse. He had to clear seven for twelve for one eighty two and

two touchdowns. Okay, when he was blitzed eight for thirteen, he was once sacked once, a forty two percent blitz right this game can paired to just three blitz His last time around, he was eight for thirteen, win blitzed for yards and a touchdown when he was not blitzed, nine for seventeen for one thirty six and a score when he was pressured, just three for seven and eighteen yards receiving tyreek two point three eight yards per route ran. Remember two was always good two point three eights a

great for a season. He's over that on the year, so less than his usual season stats and also just five point seven five yards per target, way below his season average. Waddle average just under five yards per route ran. He is insane sixteen point three yards per target, and he leads the NFL with eighteen yards per catch. We'll update you guys on more stats tomorrow. I think I don't want to do it today because this podcast is long.

For the season, I should say Cedric Wilson two point six three yards per route ran, ten point five yards per target. Running backs where he most had seven four s miss tackles, although I think it's probably a higher number. I had him for six on the one carry one after contact, average eight point to nine yards after initial contact. Akmed had two miss tackles forced twenty eight yards after contact.

He averaged four point six seven after contact. We average four team point eight yards running behind the right guard. That was, of course, the sixty eight yard run helped. Running right in general was twelve for one twelve pass pro t Stead, Jones and Williams zero pressures allowed, Hunt, Shell and Smith all had to just six pressures in this game. Very very good defensive pressures. Seiler and Phillips five apiece, Chubb had three, Wilkins, Jenkins, Ingram had two apiece,

and two guys had one. As far as run stops go, Seiler and Wilkins had three phillips, Chubb, gink and Baker and e Rob all had two apiece two guys had one. And then as far as your coverage snaps and yards allowed in the defensive secondary, Kator Cohu and xaviing Howard both played fifty one coverage snaps co who allowed sixty yards, x allowed twenty six. Those are both really good numbers

from your two starting cornerbacks outside. McKinley played forty four snaps, was not targeted, and Javon Holland played forty one snaps in coverage and allowed just fourteen yards. So those are your PFF stature advanced metrics. Let's go ahead and take our last break and come back on the other side and get you up on the snap counts. And here from head coach Mike McDaniel, we have three answers my very good Monday press conference, including him touching on the

narrative around QB one two A tongue of bloa. You don't want to miss this that's coming next Drivetime podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. Back here on a Tuesday edition of the Drift Time podcast, before we hear from head coach Mike McDaniel offensive snap counts, we once again go wire to wire on the offensive line and at quarterback fifty nine snaps for all six of those guys. Tyreek leads the way among receivers, playing

eighty three percent. Waddle played six, so some shifting and moving around there. Sherfield thirty two snaps is fifty percent. That's been pretty common, and then both Cedric Wilson and Braylen Sanders played twenty two percent of the snaps thirteen total. At running back most gets seventy percent of the workload Savan gets, and then alec Ingold played fifty four percent

of the snaps at tight end. Smith has a big advantage over Gasiki in this game, with sixty percent of the work world Giziki played and Hunter Long got out there for ten percent of the snaps. On defense, Cohu and X played all seventy eight reps. Javon Holland usually does, but he missed a few. He played sixty seven out of the seventy eight. Up front, Christian Wilkins gave you sixty nine snaps. Nice but also outrageous. Jerome Baker gave

me the exact same number. At linebacker, McKinley played sixty seven snaps, so he's also in the eighties six percent snap told, just like Javon Holland was seiler again these him and Wilkins man sixty five snaps again, Phillips at linebacker and chub And gave you sixty and fifty six snaps. Duke gives you thirty three snaps, same with a Landing for thirty three snaps, and that was edit. Linebacker at corner key On Crossing played thirty seven. Eggnogny played thirty

three and that was it. There. I'm just reading this list, guys sing with me. Ray Kwon Davis played twenty five, John Jakins twenty three, Melvin gave me twenty two snaps his linebacker spot, Bethel played seventeen. Wouldn't mind seeing that go up. Van Ginkle played fifteen Federal and played eight and then Justin Zimmer played three snaps in the game.

So those are your snap counts. Let's go ahead and get to head coach Mike mcdani know who first told us that Jerome Baker should be good to go this week, because it doesn't expect much more of a day to day situation for him. They're similar stories for Eric Row and Jeff Wilson. They should be back in short order. Liam Eichenberg could return to practice this week. It's more of a if or when, not if with Liam Eikenberg,

he says. And then coach was asked about coming back home to play back in Miami after a three game road trip, and that wasn't really the genesis of what he talked about. But I love what he talked about. And here's coach talking about what he talked about. I mean I kind of knew, I knew what it was. I guess, yeah, you know, I would love the I love the the home stadium. Um, I feel like I've lived in in Miami my whole life at this point. I don't know why. It's just um going to West Coast.

I was like, what is this dry stuff? I hate lotion now? Um, But yeah, I think I think I wouldn't say it was a relief though. Um you know the the point uh of that we we knew exactly what the what the trip was going to be. Like. We knew with those three games um against good opponents. Um, you know, we knew it was a challenge, and you know, we we were kind of excited for that challenge. Um we know exactly what we ended up doing in those three games. So um, you know the that definitely wasn't

the desired outcome. But at the same time, when when I'm talking to the team about and what I think is very important that I really really truly believe deep down to my core, is there's if you're going to lose football games, um, you know, you you should get something out of it. I do think that I just moving forward to make yourself better, to make that purposeful. Um, guys, I think I was very very proud of the effort.

I was very proud of the lack of excuses um that that were made by the locker room, the players, the coaches in general. Um. Because now that I can talk about out in the open, yeah, that's difficult for sure, um times on switches and but you know, everybody has

to go through their own stuff. Uh. But I didn't think I thought they approached it with a severity, um enough to uh, you know, get something out of it, because you're not gonna if you go half in or utilize excuses um uh and you you lose it doesn't really you can just say okay, we'll turn it up, you know, and that, and then you don't really get anything out of it. UM. I don't see that. That's not to say that I see it as like, uh, UM,

I don't know. I said something about asterix last last week about UM there's no asterix in the one lost column about inclement weather. There's also no um asterix for moral victories. So I'm not necessarily saying that as much as I'm saying that, I think we allowed ourselves um to uh to utilize every experience because of our intent and our commitment UM moving forward. And if we choose to do it, and if we we execute all the things UM that we haven't and utilize those experiences, will

look back and say, um, those were very beneficial. And that's the point, because you know, when you go all in UM, you know, and and guys, guys really put forth their UM best effort um under under some challenging circumstances, you can you know, human nature is to kind of like here we go again. UM. But I'm very confident uh in the human beings UM on the coaching staff and the human beings in locker room that uh that that will be happy to play another game, and we

love our home venue. But it's not not exactly like, oh, finally we're home. It's more that, um, we need another opportunity to play football because, uh, this is you know, it's a it's a bad taste that you want to try to, um, try to get rid of. You need some scope. My buddy Mike here says you have to use crasp but I disagree. I say scope all the way, So agree with coach McDaniel. There. Next he was asked about the philosophy of how you approach the end of

the schedule. Is it just the Green Bay Packers? Are we looking ahead to possible layoffs? I think you all know the answer here, but coach gave us a pretty good answer talking about the playoff atmospher. Is this team has experienced the last three I think the players have gotten reps um at what I was concerned about, uh that I really knew we need, which was football and playoff atmospheres. There's a lot of young guys that that it's different when when you have I mean that that

crowd and Buffalo was awesome. It was rocking, It felt legitimate, um and that's the that's the type of environment that is that you get when you build upon UM a season and there's a lot on the line. UM. I think specifically at the end of the season, you look less big picture because with with with the in terms of the only way that you can really do the things that you want to accomplish, you have to give full intent to the next opponent. So I want them

to see one team and one team only Green Bay Packers. UM. What I do know is that game UM matters more than any other game. And I think when you're down the stretch, it's almost like you do reverse. You can talk big picture and talk about the goals when things are far away. When stuff gets closer, it's almost like a UM. You're challenging yourself to be more locked in into the moment then other teams, players, individuals, because a

lot of games are won and lost that way. When you start worrying about things that aren't right in front of you, UM, which happens a lot people. People can UM, you know, start talking what type of this game is this? And you got to do this to this? No, I think you have to learn how it's one game at a time, or you are UM severely punished in this league down late in the season. You have to learn

how to UM fully attack an opponent. UM, because every single team that you play in these months have things to play for UM in one way, shape or form. Whether it's seating, whether it's getting into the tournament or UM, whether it's taking out UH aggressive aggression on you know, whether their lack of involvement in the tournament. It's all UM.

You know, players really are motivated UM and and you don't want to be You don't want to have self inflicted wounds because you're thinking about UM some games after UH the next So I believe there's two games after green Bay. UM. They may or may not be in our division. But I don't know. UM. You guys would have to tell me. Uh, I all I all I think of is I'm like A. I'm like A. I don't know. UH, I'm like one of your guys children. And this time of year, all I think about is Christmas.

Except this Christmas there's a football game, and a football game we need to win against the Green Bay Packers. Let's go ahead and finish up here. With coach McDaniel, I asked him about two as performance and how he felt to have showed himself and responding to a couple of not up to Dolphins standards, not up to two a stairs performance on the West Coast swing, Coach's answer

right here. Coach's answer was awesome. UM, this is this is one of This game was really cool for me because I think I had complete faith in it and and where he was going to go. I think it took or a couple of games he identified exactly UM, exactly what was kind of holding him back to a degree, and again it wasn't but it wasn't by a long shot him that was the reason for losing or you know, that's a that's a collective thing, and UM or offensive efficiency,

that's a collective thing. And all the skill positions know where they played a part in it. But it's what to me that I see that UM is so unique about to ah UM. What he was able to do is identify UM something that he could control, and in this particular game, UM, I saw him completely correct the things that I thought were really holding holding them back in the two previous that that's a very rare thing

to do UM in sports is to have control. UH. Really just the strength the mental strength and it takes to harbor all of the all of the pressure, all of the UM Really how how people just will undress UM every single play or really holds you incredibly responsible or have a narrative flip and in two games after playing however made It's a lot. And I think not too many people are built for that UM And I think we're seeing a young player that is exhibiting that.

That game against Buffalo, he was exhibiting some of the

things that I think make him so unique. And I feel so fortunate to coach him because he UM learned from the two previous games and was able in live speed to UM directly attack those I think case in point, there was a there was a sack in the I think it was the first quarter UM down by the UH being on the twelve yard line that he in game recognized that he hung on number one a little too long and then because of that UM kind of missed two and three, which in the two previous games,

UM it would have really really affected how he played moving forward. UM it kind of reminded me of the Baltimore moment, to be honest, where he identified, oh, I'm forcing something and then immediately has the mental fortitude to to go back and um persevere. There was another one in the third quarter, I believe the first drive of the third quarter, UM, where he's um dropping back and he's hanging on wattle, um, and for a quick route

and they're not on the same page. Which in the heat of the moment, you could either do one or two things. You could get down on yourself because you didn't anticipate what he was doing, or you could get down and wattle, or you can move on to the next play. Um. It was a throw that got batted down like directly, like a di CHEMMI motembo swat. The very next play he threw sixty seventy or a touchdown. So um and I don't know, UM, you can ask Christian what inspires me to, you know, really go above

and beyond for players? Um. You know, maybe it's just seeing his cool sec dances. I transition completely. You just rattled me and I had no idea. I was like what what? Um? So that was a bunch of nonsense. But yeah, who you guys really want to hear from his h number ninety four, the People's Champion, Christian Wilkins. There you go. I think you have to love to hear that from your head coach Mike McDonnel talking about his quarterback, and it sounds like those guys could be

together for a long long time. Alright, that's your podcast today. You all please be sure to subscribe, rate, review, all that fun stuff. Check out the Fish Tank, follow me on Twitter, all that fun stuff. Gonna cut it short because this is a long podcast. Check out the YouTube channel for media availabilities and Dolphins Today. All kinds of fun stuff up on the Sea YouTube channel. Last, but not least, Miami Dolphins dot Com until next time finds up Caroline and Cameron Daddy's coming over.