Week 4 Recap - 5 Takeaways from Dolphins 27-15 Loss in Cincinnati

pass this day. Drive Time with Travis Wingfield begins. Now let me check your pulse if not far of what is up? Dolphins And welcome to the Drive Time podcast, part of Miami Dolphins podcast Network, covering your team, your Miami Dolphins. How's it going, everybody? I am your host Travis were building on today's show the Dolphins fall in Cincinnati to fifth team on the Thursday night primetime game.

Here in week number four, we'll get the five takeaways, including some updates on QB one two, a tongue of byloa where this game fell by the wayside, and we'll do the play before the play teaching tape moment, give you some stats and hear from head coach Mike McDaniel, all of that in a heck of a lot more from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.

This is the Drive Time podcast. I want to get to the takeaways here pretty quickly, but we'll go ahead and breeze through the stats from the game here real quick. Dolphins lose twenty seven to fifteen, the first loss of the season four the Miami Dolphins, despite having more first downs sixteen than the Bengals. Third down was a key area in this game. Miami too for ten, Cincinnati eight for fifteen. Both teams o for one on fourth down.

Miami had three seventy eight to Cincinnati's three seventy one total yards. Pretty even in passing, pretty even in rushing sixty plays to sixty three plays, Pretty even across the board that third down metric and then this metric right here. Two turnovers from Miami the two picks and none for the Bengals. Kind of the difference in the game. Because time of possession also very even. Both teams had six penalties forty yards on Miami seventy four yards on the Bengals,

and one sack for each team. So those are your stats. I want to go ahead and jump right in, excuse me, very early here on Friday morning into the five takeaways and number one, where do you start besides the impact of losing your quarterback, your leader to a tongue of vy lower. We saw the sideline, the entire Dolphins sideline come out onto the field after a very scary moment there with two down on the field, the stretcher comes out. He would leave in an ambulance to the hospital nearby

there nearby the stadium. But the Dolphins contingency and the support and the impact you saw, I think was was very telling about how this team and this organization views that quarterback and that young man, and how we're all

obviously pulling for two h for a quick recovery. We saw a coach McDaniel walking off with him for a few steps when they had the stretcher moving towards the tunnel on the field, and he was kind of with two of their in that moment, patting him on the chest and kind of, you know, giving him some encouraging words. And he also mentioned in his postgame press conference, which

we have some sound bites for you guys. Uh in that arena that too, was asking about where coach was when he was down on the field, And I think that says a lot about the relationship those two guys have developed, and like it kind of warms my heart, but at the same time kind of breaks my heart because you know, watching that game in the green room, it's not about us right at all, obviously, but for me,

Seth and o J, like the mood was gone. It didn't really you know, football was kind of an afterthought at that point, thinking about you know, that young man and the injury he suffered. So that was tough for us to overcome. You can't imagine how tough it was for the team to overcome. And that's what Tyreek killed Jalen Waddle. Jalen Phillips mentioned it. Phillips had a great quote after the game saying, our entire job is compartmentalizing things, so we try to go out and do our best

to do that. After the injury. Tyreek Hill had mentioned uh in his some interviews after the game that people were asking about Tah throughout the course of the second half, which obviously you can't just turn your mind off and your empathy for your brother, for your teammate, so that obviously was on the forefront of their minds, and Jalen Waddle also alluded to it several times about how much he was sneaking about his brother out there who went

down in the game with the injury. But the good news again, Mike McDaniel confirmed afterwards on his postgame press conference that Toa was in fact discharge from the hospital and traveled home with the team. That's obviously great news. Let's go ahead and hear from coach on the impact of losing the quarterback, losing the character like to a tongue by Loa to an injury like that. For me,

uh yeah, I think a lot of people struggles. I know me personally, UM, that's you know, if I didn't have a job to do for the organization and the rest of the players, UM, and I didn't have that that, UM, I don't know, obligation in in my mind, yeah, I would have tapped it. It's not something that um is comfortable for anybody, and um it was. It was not a situation that you want for any of your players

or or your team in general. Some scary stuff. I'm just glad that that it worked out and man, he was making some real nice throws in that first half before the injury. So to looking forward to you getting back, man, get well soon. Thinking about your number one, let's go ahead and move to our second takeaway from the game, which is the defense to me is looking awfully familiar from the ones we've come to know and love here the last couple of years for your Miami Dolphins. And

you obviously can't remove plays from the equation. But after that opening drive the Bengals had going down the field, what was the third trade game of Dolphins alloted opening drive touchdown, So there's something to work on for the defense. But the next nine team plays game just sixties six yards. Then you had the touchdown drive. You had the big pass to Tee Higgins for the touchdown on a third down play. That was a crucial, crucial moment in this game.

So those plays happened. But I think outside of that, you had a lot of good stuff, and you put a lot of heat on a good quarterback, and you held a good receiving corps. You know, says a couple of big plays. You know, Boyd got his touchdown or

his big play. Late Higgins got his big play, but outside of those, I thought Miami one rep after rep, and I think that maybe the overall title of the takeaways that the versatility of this defense at all three levels and the multiplicity of it and the ability to execute multiple looks in a game, a week to week game plan is very evident, and I think we'll take this team or has the potential, I should say, to take this team a long way because they basically have

shown you they can play a plan for whatever quarterback, whatever offense they face. And sure, Lamar Jackson went crazy. He's done that three times this season already. You know he's off to an m v P type of start.

Josh Allen made plenty of play in the game against the Buffalo Bills, and then in this game against Dolphins, had there, in my opinion, a great defensive performance in that game, and then in this game for large large chunks of the game, holding the Bengals offense back after you know, an offense that went crazy last year all the way to the super Bowl. But the versatility of

it is the big takeaway here. And we know about the cover zero looks, the blitz is, the Sky's packages, the five oh front, all the stuff they do to get simulated pressure, to bring it to back out, to confuse the quarterback, to change the snap pre snap to post snap. The man coverage, we know about all of that. We know about Javon Hollins ability to race out of the line scrimmage and get back into Cover three, Cover one,

like whatever the case. Maybe we know about that, but you don't often see a lot of two man looks, and that's I think what you saw plenty of in this game tonight. And the man coverage underneath was so so good throughout the course of this game with X, with Needum, with Kator Cohu, and it really helps to have, you know, I think the two safeties back their drive the potential of that package. And just remember it's not

Cover two necessarily. You mean you can run that, but it was a lot of to man where you have two high safeties and you're playing man coverage underneath, different than Cover two where you have zone underneath. So on top.

This is a variation of zone and man. So I thought there was good looks and that even the big place to Tee Higgins where it looks like X maybe took like a look back for the ball and he was pointing to his eyes like maybe he couldn't see the football in the air, but he was right there in in phase to make a play on that ball. Higgins winds up making the play and it goes very long touchdown for the Bengals. But outside of that man,

they were they were all over these corners. The coverage was marrying up with the pass rush very very solidly. And I just think, you know, X had the injury late, I had to leave the game and and didn't come back. You know, we'll see about Byron Jones availability going forward. Seems like we've covered uncovered a pretty damn good player in kater Cohu. Nick Needum continues to play at a

high level. Feel pretty good about the depth at that position here with ten days off and getting ready for week number five and going forward with that secondary and all they can do. I mean, you know, Brett Coleman, the great YouTuber the film room who does the bootleg pod gas and tons of other content for multiple UH teams and sources and things of that nature. But he had a good threat about Cover two and how it's

forcing teams to play different than they want to. All these easy chunks that teams used to get because of you know, one higher or man coverage or man free, whatever the case may be. And now they're getting taken away because you have those two high safeties and you have to play a more you know, patient style of football, and that can increase the likelihood of mistakes. This Dolphins defense showed you they can play a really good too high safety look in this game, and I thought it

was very effective for the majority of the game. Again, outside of a few plays. It allows them with those safeties and to really rotate the way they want to and disguise that coverage. They pressed so well up in the line of scrimmage in this game. They filled gaps really well against the blitz and and run fits. I mean, what was the Bengals rushing on that and they go ahead and pull that number up real quick. I think they might have had a couple of decent pops. But

Joe mix sixty one. That's two point five yards per carry. Joe Burrow had five for six. Some r G p Right had one for nothing. So the Bengals rushing average tonight right around two yards per carry. It's pretty good defense there from the Miami Dolphins. We even had that one uh again, the one that X beat. You had the two safeties that were on one side of the field, taking away Jamaar Chase and you get your best best corner um you know, nex Avian Howard and that one

on one matchup, Like that's a new look. So just Josh Boyer having all kinds of things that he's going back to, very confident in this defense to keep this thing rolling. I think we saw really this this defense the last couple of weeks take a step, you know, in the direction we expect him too, as far as the talent and coaching they have with what we think they can possibly be. That's a great sign to see. And getting a chance to watch Javon Hall and do his thing live on the All twenty two was was

so cool. We always see we watched the tape every week, but on Prime Vision you get a chance to actually watch tape live in the game and just seeing him, like the play on an outside run the middle of the third quarter, the rotation I mentioned earlier, He's in the wrong side of the field as far as where the run goes. He comes all the way over from depth and cuts that thing down for six or seven yards.

Just such an important player in this defense for not just capping deep rouse but cutting down some of those running play wins the offense has and taking them from long long gains and making them just medium games is a big part of his game. How about Eric Rose played down in the box talking about the safeties. He was all over the place making plays against the run, sticking his face and they're again screen passes and things

of that nature. Nick need Him had a great rep on t Higgins on a deep ball where he pinned him to the sideline despite the fact that he had motion to deal with and to come all the way across the formation. That was an impressive play. Kator Co who had an awesome pass breakup in this game. So the secondary I think just continues to really show you what they can do. And then upfront, I mean the

short yard defense. Every game at this point they make something happen, including another fourth down stop to get the ball back to the offense. And what a team stop that was. Jerome Baker a solid edge, Zach Seeler beats a block, Eric Rowe pulls or just you know, fires and goes right downhill and gets in there into the backfield. You get Javon Holland and Nick need him finishing off that player on Joe Burrow scramble to set up a

fourth down play. Just continue to make big plays. Well, we'll go ahead and break down that goal line stand here in just a minute for a later segment. And then, you know, the offense at one point in this game, after the defense kind of kept rising to the occasion getting the football back and and held on three plays from the three yard line and in had a fourth down stop by Eric Rowe in the second quarter, the offense and the second half kind of hit a speed

bump a little bit. With two three and outs to start the half. You get the sixty four yard pass to Tyreek Hill down the middle of the field to put you in the intoe the five yard line, and then you go three and out from there and don't score. After getting the ball at the five, you wind up getting to the two and don't score from second and goal from the two or third and goal from the to another three and out and then the interception there. So it just kind of became too much, I think

for the defense at the end of the game. But I'm so encouraged what we saw the last four days by this Miami Dolphins defense. That's takeaway number two. We'll go ahead and take our first break right here and come back and do takeaways three through five. That's next on the Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought

to you by Auto Nation. Take Away number three here on a Dolphins fifteen Bengals twenty seven Week four loss at the hands of the Cincinnati Bengals, we're taking a look at the five takeaways from the game here on the Drivetime podcast, and take away number three is just too many mistakes to beat a good football team. Let's go ahead and start here with head coach Mike McDaniel, who I thought had a phenomenal answer about the mistakes

made that eventually cost Miami this football game. UM. When you lose games too very good teams, UM, you know, you can always point to that. You know, we we lost the turnover battle, and we're kicking field goals as opposed to trying to score touchdowns. UM. As on top of that, we had some third downs we um, including the third and one I think in the fourth quarter third. UM. Yeah, yeah, there's situational football that UM we had been executing. We

did not UM. Today and that, and you you don't get freebees or you don't get passes, and games against good teams, you know, so um that the point of that is um only. It only means anything if you can learn from it, if you can get better from it. And that's what I'm gonna be challenging the guys to do, because that's that's what will happen in UH in games against good opponents. If you don't don't take advantages of those opportunities, they win those situations and you lose, You'll

lose the game. I mean, that's most games in the National Football League right It comes down to how many players can you make in the critical moments? And for tonight last night, I should say for the Miami Dolphins just wasn't their night. The last few weeks, it was their time. So that's kind of how you measure a team, was their ability to perform in those moments. Wasn't there night on Thursday night? And we saw, you know, to

relitigate it, you know, blocked field goal. That's obviously three points that you could have possibly had you missed an extra point, there's potentially four points. We dang near blocked a point of our own, but it looked like we just missed it on a fly by attempt as Elijah Campbell came through and dang near got that ball off

the foot of Kevin Huber, but it just misses. Good job to not run into the punter on that On that plot though, we've seen plenty of good out of the special teams, but the punt block or whatever you wanna call it last week, the kick return and week number two and the ones we just mentioned, you know, that's like coach said, there are fine margins that can

cost you football games. Luckily, special teams made some plays in response last week with the block field goal of their own, and Thomas Morris has a great free kick and coverage on that last kickoff of that game or or free kick i should say after the safety and overcome that stuff for the win was not the case last night. Also dropped a touchdown pass on third down

in the corner of the end zone. That's a four point difference right there, and then again couldn't score from first and goal from the five yard line, and then second and goal from the two and third and goal from the two after that. So mistakes against a good football team tough to overcome. Takeaway Number four is the offensive line and run game. I think the offensive line played really well, but I think the run game kind of found some magic and some mojo in this game.

You know, after Raheem Mostart popped that run on the eventual Bridgewater interception possession which went for let's go ahead and find the ards on that, I was thinking to myself, I'm gonna have a segment here talking about how this Dolphins fat team found another way to win a football game, because I expected him to run the ball down the field and go get that touchdown and close that on defense.

Obviously that was not the case, but I mean on that particular drive, you start that thing off with the twenty five yard ripped from Raheem Moster. Some of those inside toss plays they run, man, he just gets gliding downhill and once he does that, he's tough to stop and give him the head of steam. And the way this offensive line opened some lanes for him. I mean

the rushing in this game from Miami. We we gave you the numbers earlier, but it was on a lot less carries where he most at fifteen for sixty nine. Uh Teddy had the eleven yard scramble, chased just five for six and Tyreek one for minus minus one, but four point six yards for Raheem Mostert and kind of got him cranking a little bit in this game. I think that could be another big factor for this team in this offense, to just add another l meant of something they can go to when they need it, like

you saw in this game. And then on the offensive line, the past protection continues to be just so dang good. I mean, whether it's the scheme creating pockets the play action looks, or just flat out executing sliding protection one way or the other, hitting double teams, using backs and tight ends. I mean, they've had so much time for these deep shots to develop or taking. We saw plenty of them in this game on Thursday, and a huge part of that and a huge credit goes to the

offensive line for the job they have done. Connor Williams is phenomenal. He is through four games. I have really enjoying watching him play. We have, you know, we talked about it every Tuesday on the All twenty two review, but having the twenty two tonight, the space that he covers to get off the way he turns out guys out of their gaps. He is playing such good football right now, and so is to Ron Armstead. Man. I know, like the it's an entire collection on the offensive line.

The group as a whole is getting the job done. But those two guys, those two newcomers, those two veterans, man, what an impact they've had and how good they are, and just the technician aspect of it there get it off the smart of the positions. Really good stuff there from Toront and Connor Williams. And we'll go ahead and give some credit and some love to Greg Little, Rob Hunt and Leam, Mike and Burke for what I thought was another good job by the offensive line. Really has

been that way for a few weeks now. To start the season off takeaway number five, just something that I noticed, and Coach actually addressed it after the game, and that's why I kind of wanted to bring it up here. We'll go ahead and start with Coach to kick off

this fifth takeaway. But it was the operational issues that have kind of plagued the Dolphins offense a couple of times here the last couple of weeks, spending time outs early in the half, so that the end of the half, you don't really have the time out in those back pocket. Let's go ahead and go to the head coach Mike McDaniel, who addressed that after the game. I think that is UM, you know something that that you don't want to run

away from the frustration. I think that the you know, you have to you have to experience this in some in some part too to really go after all the little details that it takes UM to win NFL football games. So it's very frustrating. Do you feel, UM, like you you wasted an opportunity, UM to play toe to toe with a very good team and potentially beat them. But

that's the point. It's not supposed to be easy. And UM, if you're if you're wanting to UM, you know, play teams like this on stages like this, you have to UM you can't do some of those things. Otherwise, UM, You're you're gonna end up on the side of the stick, on the short side of the stick. But UM, to me, it's incredibly frustrating. UM with good reason, and that's part of what we do UM in professional football. And you

do one or two things with it. You either use it to make you make you get better or you live with things that you can't change and UM get worse, you know. So our plan is is to learn from it, um and move forward. Uh you know. And the only thing you can do, really to me with losses is make them purposeful. And how do you make them purposeful? Will you? You have to get you have to be

better from it than had you won the game. So that's the way I'm going to approach it with the with the team and UM, so far they haven't done anything, but UM answered the bell whenever I asked them. So I feel confident that we can get that done. I mean, yeah, you heard coach say right there. He feels confident, then get it done. And so I obviously feel the same way.

And they'll get that stuff corrected. But it's a couple of games now where the time out is being used a little bit too early up against the play clock there with the operation getting the calls in. So coach mentioned it, thought it was a good thing to bring up. They're in close here on our fifth takeaway, last break, we'll come back and talk about some additional stuff here. We'll do the teaching tape of the game and the play before the play which is kind of supposed to

be for wins, but I thought this one was really good. Here. We'll do that next here on the Drift Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation, closing out the Week four recap podcast, taking a look at Dolphins and Bengals and obviously much more on our minds than just the football game. To a Tungule Voloa, thinking about him and the injury he suffered in the game on Thursday night, hoping he's back real soon, getting back to, you know, doing what he does best and

what he loves to do, play in football. And uh, if I had a six takeaway here, I think it would just be Tyreek Hill ten catches for a hundred and sixty yards, the concentration on the sixty four yard bomb that kind of got the offense of juice. I mentioned there was a pretty stagnant period there for the Dolphins and that was the one play that got them going, got them the lead there late in the third quarter.

Dang near stole this game despite all the y'ads going against Miami there in the game, which would have been obviously huge and would have loved to see it, but instead it's not. It's a loss and opportunity, as coach said, to uh to be purposeful and to find a way to get corrections made and get this team going back into the Winter Circle next week against the New York Jets. I love the playmaking by Teddy Bridgewater on the scramble.

O J and Seth were talking about our quarterbacks and athletic ability and um, you know, creating space for those guys to make moves. Then Tyre not Tyreek, Teddy goes out and makes that play and we were just like loving it watching that play in the green room at

the radio stations. That was cool to see. I love Trent Sherfield blocking on screens are just blocking in general, That dude, such an underrated aspect of of what I think is a good football team and a guy that has to be a guy you have to have on good football teams are players like Trent Scherfield. And then I will uncover some more gems on the All twenty two review, stuff like you know, the offensive line play the defensive line. Christian Wilkins I thought again was fantastic.

Zac Seeler made some plays. Jalen Phillips I thought was really really good talking about the defense and the verse of ality. They show man that Jalen Phillips kicking inside to that three tech position and rushing and just running right by a left guard like he can do so many different things for you on that defensive line, the outside linebacker position that he typically plays, just plays all

over the formation and makes tons of plays. Got his first sack of the year tonight, and his pass rush win rate is actually well above average if we go to ESPNS metric, and that just hasn't had a chance to finish those sacks yet. But I feel like they're coming.

As we saw in this game on Thursday night. The play before the play, I did have a kater cohu and I think it was a Javon Holland tackle to slow up Joe Burrow just short of the sticks before another stop on third down to force a Bengals field goal. But towards the end of the game again another fourth down stop for this defense or I should say third down to make a make them kick the field goal with Jordan's or with a kicker McPherson, the guy that

was a rookie last year out of Florida. But the play before the play was the second down stop with a land and Roberts and Christian Wilkins. You see Wilkins take on a double team and you see the left leg as the right guard push is him and tries to get movement on him. You see the left leg come off the turf and that means all the way all the balances on his right leg and he just anchors on that thing and puts that left foot back

in the ground and holds the point. And that allows a land and Roberts, who was absolutely incredible in this exact role. Short yardage downhill, go blow up, run play, go knock out a blocker, gets your way into the running back or to the backfield and meet the running back back there. That was some kind of play on that second down. Then they did it again on third down two to get the field goal team out there.

So that shortyarde work saving points like that consistently a man is going to be a key for this football team. They do it every single week. And then my teaching tape goes back to Connor Williams the way he fires off the snap. It's been a coaching point for Mike McDaniel and the staff all summer long all off season long about firing off the football a key to this offense, and Connor Williams embodies that the way he can make certain blocks of that center position after snapping the ball.

It's just not something a lot of guys can do. So it's a very valuable aspect to have, you know, double the point the play I'm talking about in particular, Actually I should say I thought I was just talking in general, but my notes here and say, hey, Travis,

talk about this one play. It was a five yard run by Raheem Most where he doubles Rob hunts Man and gets movement on him like a solid gap, and then climbs to the second level and walls off a linebacker and just pushes him right past the pursuit of the play when most are cut up off of his butt for a nice little five yard chunk there. It's really impressive watching him on that wide view. I wish every broadcast that did that wide view on every game

so we can see this stuff all the time. But man, he just makes so many big plays and he's such a such a unique center to have. He's a really valuable asset for this Dolphins offense and this Dolphins football team. All Right, guys, that's gonna be my time here tonight, Shorter podcast. We're having all twenty two podcasts coming your way over the weekend. I'll go ahead and dive into

the tape. I'm home alone this weekend. We'll not home alone with a little girl, and we're gonna be watching tape together and getting you guys a podcast out um in the meantime, So keep an eye for that. We'll have more to cover this game. No post game show stuff tonight. I didn't get the audio sent. Plus it was a little bit down in the post game show from being honest because it's a tough topic to cover and with that two MM, we're thinking about you, bro.

Like the biggest takeaway from this game is we just want number one to be okay thinking about two A toungo by loa on this night. Football can be a tough game sometimes. We've learned that on Thursday night in Cincinnati. Alright, that's gonna be my time 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 at Wingfold NFL. Follow the team at Miami Dolphins.

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media availabilities and Dolphins Today. I'm a big part of that with Kimmy B Kimmy Bell, so'll check us out on the YouTube channel as well as a cinematic recaps are always obviously great. Also some press conference content, fish Tank content, Dry time content, plenty of stuff for you guys there, and last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot com until next time. Fins up, Caroline, Daddy's already home. I'm when I come to bed right now,