Week 5 Recap - 5 Takeaways from Dolphins 40-17 Loss in New York

Drive Time with Travis Wingfield begins. Now let me check your pulse. If none of them? What is up? Dolphins? 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 know how it's going, but I am your host, Travis Winfield. And on today's show, a tough loss in the Meadowlands, the Dolphins fall forty to seventeen to the rival up in the a f

C East one of the five takeaways. And here from head coach Mike McDaniel from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Drive Time Podcast. So a day most of us, as Dolphins fans, would like to forget, as the Dolphins dropped one to the Jets forty to seventeen, and a game that I don't think anybody saw coming. The War of Attrition certainly stacked up on us. Let's go ahead and get to the stats here, as we do every single week on the podcast, Miami. Look,

this game wasn't that lopsided. The Dolphins had nineteen first down Jets had twenty one, five of eleven. On third downs for the Jets, Miami four of eleven. Both teams failed to convert on fourth down Miami oh for two, the Jets o for one. The Jets had three d and twenty two yards of offense Miami to the Dolphins one through the air, one seven on the ground to New York's one eighties seven through the air and one

thirty five on the ground. Miami did run six more plays than the New York Jets, sixty two to fifty six. The turnovers two from Miami and done for the Jets,

two sacks from Miami, two sacks for the Jets. The Dolphins eleven penalties for one oh two the Jets five for one oh five, and time possession was just a minute apart, twenty nine oh two to thirty fifty eight, So close game all the way to the fourth quarter, right, you kind of saw it turning point there as the Jets put up three consecutive touchdowns after the Dolphins missed the field goal that would have put them ahead with just over thirteen minutes to play in that fourth quarter.

After a good answer to the Jets after they go up nineteen to seven, Dolphins get a touchdown at the end of the half, come out of the break, score field goal, out of the locker room, getting the football first and give the defense like forty five fifty minutes of real time rest, and then they got the football back a couple of times and the offense could not capitalize,

ending with some mistakes. They're right towards the end of the third quarter into the fourth quarter before the missed field goal, where things just kind of went in the other direction. So not the Dolphins day. Let's go ahead and get the five takeaways from a game that was not the Dolphins day, and the number one takeaways that just too many big errors in critical moments. I mean, that was the story of the game. Right. We know

there was multiple other factors. The Dolphins had to have a kind of thin margin for airy because of that, and they did not excel in that area. And just you know it started here exaving Howard, tried to get loose, tried to get going today, couldn't get himself ready to play. So he was inactive coming into this game, already down obviously Byron Jones on the pup. So going very deep into your cornerback position there. Teddy Bridgewater gets injured in his first snap of the game and has to exit

the game. The good news is though he passed all the concussion protocol or the concussion tests, and he had to exit the game based upon the new concussion rules about the spotter seeing him stumble after the fact, and that's what coach McDaniel told us after the game. So he has to exit and Skyler Thompson comes in. You get the grounding call on that play for a safety which he gets hit as he's trying to throw the football.

I kind of thought that was a protection against that rule, but they wind up ruling it two points for the Jets to Ron Armstead that he gets injured. So now you're down another big key piece of this team, and the Jets get the three penalties, uh two penalties. That should say from back to back face masks that were went from negative fourteen yards to positive thirty yards. That's

not a good way. It's heart of the game. And then they blow a coverage the Dolphins due for a seventy nine yard play that winds up results I'm in a touchdown. So you just start off the game twelve to zero with a cavalcade of mistakes that continued throughout the course of the day. Tackling wasn't good enough. We'll talk about that. Um let's see the false start. When you're down there in field goal range late or early in the fourth quarter, I should say, where your first

second and five back to second and ten. Then you get a drop pass on the third down play and or the second down play, I should say that would have been a first down inside the thirty yard line, down by two points with the football driving there in the fourth quarter, that's a killer. You wind up getting five of those yards back to make it a fifty four yard field goal. You then missed that obviously, which

you know, that's when the game turned. Like we talked about so many instances of you know, players kind of running into each other or getting rubbed by themselves or the Jets rub routes. They ran, creating some space in the short areas and the flats to take advantage of some off coverage from the Miami Dolphins, getting the ball out of Wilson's hands quickly, not really giving him many opportunities to put the ball in position for the Dolphins to take it away, which has been such a hallmark

of this defense. Just one pick through the first five games this year, and it was the opening series of the season back against the Patriots. You know, that's something we've been grown accustomed to with this Dolphins defense. As the takeaways, it's just not there right now. And the Jets staying and kind of third second short and manageable was was a big part of that, I thought in

this game. And then late we get the past protection breakdown where we get some bad ball security as well in the pocket and it turns into a fumble, and that's kind of when the route went on. Dolphins down, seven team, quick turnover, and all of a sudden, it's a three score game. They're later well, it's a six team point game, but by all you know, intents and purposes, you had a long way to go there towards the

end of that game. So I thought there was a route to victory at the way the run game was cranking some timely throws here and there, some big place from the receivers and drawing some flags defense making a handful of critical stops. But you know, I listed how many was that twelve mistakes that we talked about or ten ort twelve mistakes. It's just the margin for air in this game is way too thin to do that, especially when you're down a handful of really good players

in terms of injuries. So next man up mentality got to have that, gotta play better, and you expect to get a better production, better performance even when you are shorthanded. And takeaway number two is that you just can't do that when you're down those guys. I mean, we know two was not out there for this game. Teddy gets knocked out of the game on the first play of the game, which you know, obviously is a tough situation.

I think what Skyler Thompson is able to do as a player, and you know, he loses his status once he enters the league and makes the roster right, But he still is a rookie, seventh round draft choice who came in there and I thought showed himself to really kind of show you what he's about in terms of some of the physical skill sets. He had the really nice third down conversion play where he scrambles and is going to the ground and completes it to Jalen Waddle.

But I mean, you're gonna expect some bumps and bruising, some hiccups and them some growing, some areas for for growth and opportunities for learning with the young quarterback like that for the Dolphins to stay competitive through you know, three quarters and change with that situation going to the quarterback three I mean in the past, you know, we've seen the preseason games these teams have played for years and years, right, Like, the third string quarterback typically is

a guy that is either practice squad or trying to kind of float and find a spot, and then you know, you play him in the fourth quarter of the preseason games and then you don't really hear from them for for years or even ever again because the talent disparity at that position, how difficult that position is to play, to have three guys in your roster is certainly a great thing, but still at the end of the day, like down two quarterbacks is a tough thing to overcome.

So no tou, no Teddy all but for one snap Exabing Howard doesn't play in the game to Ron Armstead exits very early in the game. Tyreek Hill leaves the game late. We obviously know about Byron Jones, a key piece on p up Austin Jackson was out. So you're down both your opening day tackles very very early on in this game. Again, it gave you a race. These are thin margin for air and we just saw the Levy break in the fourth quarter, and you can't play that way when you have you know, five six key

pieces of your team uh not available to you. Takeaway number three tackling and penalties. You know, the Dolphins entered this game with the sixth most mistackles according to Pro Football Reference in the league, and you know, you're kind of thinking, like that's something we can clean up and we'll start to finish some of these players that were so close on defensively, but it just wasn't the deal.

It went the opposite direction. You know, we saw some space on the outside talked about the rub routes saw a couple of times players getting lost in coverage, like the seventy nine yard touchdown or not touchdown catch, but seventy nine yard reception uh down to the one yard line to Breece Hall, which is essentially a seven point mistake him getting behind the defense there and nobody running with him. We don't know who that is, but either way,

you just can't have that happen. We won't have the updated numbers until tomorrow for you guys, but we know it's not gonna be pretty both from the mistackles department and yards after contact category, especially with the way this

game is going right now. We'll get to that in our fourth takeaway is you just have to be sharper in the tackling area if you want to compete with the way kind of the game is shifting more towards ball control, and you know, being able to sustain drives against defense is a takeaway deep shots and then obviously the penalties. I mean, with all these things going against you today, the last thing you can do is beat yourself.

And it started off early in this football game. A six yard loss on a tackle for loss and an eight yard sack. Both of those negated with face mass penalties. It's a thirty yard turnaround on top of the fourteen yards a forty four yard turnaround, so that is worth points. The seventy nine yard bust it is obviously worth points.

A drop past going into the red zone potentially right before miss Field goals three points, So you're living points on the board really in every single quarter of this game. You're just not gonna win games in this league doing that. So tackling and penalties and mistakes and being down players

part of those three takeaways. We'll go ahead and take our first break here on a quick version of the Draft Time Podcast, kind of putting these notes together for you guys, trying to get the show out quickly for you so we can digest it, move on and get into the next thing. Those are your three takeaways here off the top. Let's go ahead and take our first break and come back on the other side and get to takeaways number four and five. That's next Drivetime Podcast,

your host, Travis Wingfield. Brought to you by Auto Nation. Week five recap edition of the Drivetime Podcast. Your host Travis Wingfield. We are brought to you by Auto Nation. Three takeaways are in the books tackling and penalties. You can't win a game with the mistakes you make when you're down x amount of players, and the first takeaway big errors and critical moments. The fourth takeaway is that

we have to get back to complementary football. You know, we praised the way this defense played through the first really three and a half games, and you know, again injuries factored into the second half of the game last week too, But the way they stayed in games and rallied and kept coming against a bunch of good quarterbacks and good offenses and some of the most high powered attacks this league has to offer. That's how you have

to play it in today's NFL. And you know, the way coach manages games or end of half situations, I should say, has really been a stroke of genius for two reasons. Number One, he's not giving the other team a chance at the football, like we are calling last possession when you get the football with you know, two minutes, three minutes, even four minutes left, he is basically saying this is the last possession of the half. Whether we score or not or fieldlore touchdown, They're not getting the

football it gives us an advantage that way. And then number two, he's not just not giving them the ball, he's scoring touchdowns with it. And the way they manage those games to basically put the Dolphins when they succeed in these situations into you know, balls at the twenty yard line with thirty seconds left, like we can hit a couple of past plays and potentially score, and by the time we do it, there's what four seconds left in this game. They've done the last couple of weeks

as well. And the reason you want to imagine it that way is because football players and especially like quarterbacks, and you go back to the Chiefs and Bills in the playoffs last year, Mahomes and Josh Allen in scoring in thirteen seconds to end somebody's season. Football players and quarterbacks and for particular are just more talented now than they've ever been. And the league is more geared towards offense than it's ever been. I don't think that's a

surprise to anybody. There's another emphasis this offseason about illegal contact, right, So obviously points are you know, a premium for this league to to get points on all their games. So defenses and reaction to that, and we've seen. What's what's funny about the whole thing is offense is really through the first four weeks, which we'll see how it is, you know tomorrow after week five is all wrapped up.

Through the first four weeks, offense, like points per game, yards per game is all really scaled back for the lowest figure it's had in quite some time. And these defenses playing these two high shells and forcing opposing offenses to patiently drive the field and take what the defense gives you and don't always have the luxury of these

deep shots that you want to get. You know, your splash plays, you're quick to your quick change plays, your game changing plays, and suddenly not making mistakes has become an even bigger part of the equation. And you know, going back to the first three takeaways, Dolphins just weren't up to you know, they weren't up to it in

this game. So I was interested in that, especially after Coach had this to say in response to a question he was asked after the game about targets for Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle and the style of the game

the Jets wanted to play on defense. Here's Coach talking about how the Jets came out in this game, and a big part of this in a big factor of our fifth takeaway, the running game is because of this here's coach, you know, we kind of they kind of knew, uh that you know, in the long term UM scheme of things that we were until we start being a little more productive in the in the run game. UM, there's gonna be some uh, some disadvantage in the past game.

So they went into this game kind of knowing that their their targets UM might be minimized early. UM. But they you know, to their credit and the type of players they are, they want to be on a UM winning football team. And you know that you have to UM offensively, you have to be able to run and pass, not just pass. So UM obviously that's you know, they're huge component of UM are our offense. UM. But to say, uh that that their touches were equating to UM our

offensive productivity, I don't think is uh necessarily correct. The the you try to take stuff that the defense has given you, and they were, UM, it was obvious from very early in the game that they were going to play the past until we proved otherwise. So I don't think. I can't remember a first or second down UM single

safety defense until the second half. Um and uh and then uh there was a little we had to pull uh tyreek um at the end he got stepped down pretty hard, so um that kind of hurt his cause

in the second half as well. I thought that was really cool to hear coach talk about that and just kind of give us a peek behind the curtain as far as what the he saw from the Jets defense and no first or second down single high safety looks until the second half there, and how that allows you to get more traction in the running game, and how he said basically, you know, almost in a way confirming this point about the complimentary nature of this team, what

they have to do to get back to their winning ways and being more complimentary to earn some of those downfield shots in the passing game, get the running game going, and all of a sudden you get that balance, and then you're very tough to defend because you know, if you can run the ball like you did today, get the deep passing game go like there is though both those things work together, all that works together for the offense, and then the offense works together with the defense and

the special teams as well. And so that's all to say that you can help the defense out by just playing better offense. We talked about it in the rough start last year, right, the defense stacks up a few stops in a row, but we can't go score on the other end, and eventually the opposed offense does begin to find points. It would go a very long way for the defense if the offense got back to its efficient ways that we saw in the first three games

of the season. Where on third downs in those first three games at fourteen of twenty eight and they were sixty six percent with four of six fourth down conversions and average twenty seven point six per game. The last two games on third down percent at six of twenty one, that's almost half the production and over two on fourth down and sixteen points per games, so eleven points less oven points six points less per game with the lack

of efficiency and was due to the defense. Well, the first three games they allowed twenty point six points per game, in the last two games thirty three point six points per game. So you have to get back to complementary football. And then also includes the special teams because again forty three yard kickoff return. Today, we had a thirty five

yard punt at one point. We did have that great punt that pinned them at the seven yard line to back them up and got that up on defense, and Brandon Jones had that big sack on Zack Wilson for a seven teen yard loss. So that's how it all kind of works together, right, But you also miss a field goal again, So special teams, offense, defense, everybody can do their part to get back to complimentary football. It's gonna be a big key for this team going forward.

And our fifth takeaway, we talked about it. The running game does get rolling, and then the kind of be product of that is the Tyreek Hill. He for sure is him, right, And I talked about Tyreek Hill that way because of the thirty four and twenty seven yard pass interferences that he drew in addition to the production he had as a receiver, which today was seven for forty seven. So really he comes close to a hundred

yards and new factor in those. I mean, you're not gonna put it onto stats, but in terms of the offense moving the ball through Tyreek Hill, he's responsible for largely, you know, nearly a hundred yards with those two plays. Waddle also got downfield for a thirty four yard DP I called on him. So those guys are able to make plays even when they're not, you know, lightening up a scoreboard that way, and that helps with the running game, right.

We then get deep and what does where he most do but go for his first one hundred yard game was a Miami Dolphin and score his first rushing touchdown as a Miami Dolphin. The touchdown that he ran in was absolutely beautiful. Great great blocks by Trent Sherfield, River Cracraft. We saw Tyreek Hill excuse me, and Jalen Waddle both

had really good blocks in this game as well. Like the entire receiver's room, as you heard coach talk about their their understanding of a team game, the nature of a team game and not being worried about your targets or catchers or yards. That's a big, a big piece of evidence for that in the way those guys blocked most are had another fourteen yard run where he broke two tackles like these are the kind of running game productions. If you can get that, your offense can you really

start to click and hit on all cylinders. Twenty three yard run on the opening drive of that second half, and he had a hundred yards with about two minutes to play into that second half, six point three yards per carry, eighteen for one thirteen. The touchdown run the twenty four yard was the long one on the game, and Miles Gaston had a six yard run on the

second and seven he goes four for nine. Couple of negat of plays there as well, but there was just there was well executed runs throughout the course of the game, especially going through Raheem Moster, who just showed you what he can do. Let's go ahead and hear from coach McDaniel about what kind of player Raheem most is to finish up our fifth takeaway, It's a pretty simple formula. UM. You know, you kind of have an expectation, especially when

you've been UM as a coach. You know, you see a front, you see a coverage, and you know the play UM, so you know the pieces of it that UM are tough in terms of blocking and UM so you know kind of how much you can the runner is going to get until there's contact. What's been cool seeing um Raheem the last couple of weeks is his yards after contact, the ones that aren't really UM, I

don't know what you'd call it sexy. It's more like those lean yardage where you turn a four yard game into a seven out second and three as opposed to UM second and six, huge difference. Those are Those are the things that I think UM have really stood out. UM where he's got where he is at with this game. UM. I know his teammates feel it, and UM he he's

earned each and every opportunity gets. It's a great point by coach talking about going from second and seven to second and three or you know whatever the differential might be there from that forward lane because we talked about

in the post game show too. That conversely for the Dolphins defense, the same was also true because you so often have the Dolphins defense flying through and you know, making a potential play in the back slips out of a tackle, or the receiver makes attack broken tackle on a screen pass, or a quarterback gets out of the rush, and you all of a sudden go from you know, second and twelve to second eight. The percentages changed for

every single yard you have to go. It's it's like in baseball when you know the picture starts off account one and oversas oh and one and the abiding average and ops and all that stuff is reflective upon the count.

Same deal here. Oh, it's the devil's and the details, right, And I think coach talking about that and how important that it is and getting that uncovered here from Raheem can be a really good way for the offense to get back to more complimentary football, and then by nature of that, the entire team playing more complimentary football as well. Let's go ahead and take our last break and come back and do the play before the play, give me some additional notes, tell you about some teaching tape, and

we'll go ahead and get out of here. That's next Drift Time podcast, your host, Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. It is the recap podcast for week number five. The Dolphins fall forty to seventeen against the New York Jets. Let's go ahead and do the play

before the play which came. I had a few options here, but I think it has to be the play before the fourth down stop because the Jets are driving with a chance to go up by multiple scores in the third quarter, and the Dolphins get a fourth down stop on an incomplete pass for Garrett Wilson up against Nick Needham.

But the right before that was a third and two, so that the Jets go from their own forty three yard line gained three yards on first down, they get five yards on second down to put the ball at the forty five yard line of the Miami Dolphins, and then it's a third and two play for Breese Hall and Christian Wilkins stacks that thing up and makes a stop for a one yard game, which puts the Jets in a long fourth and two and they wind up missing.

It's actually Corey Davis, it wasn't Garrett Wilson on that pass attempt to the side there. So there was a few of those, and that was a big one that Christian seems to make on a weekly basis stacking guys up coming off blocks. He also had a play before the Brandon Jones seventeen yard stack to stack a play up where he was kind of the only guy there to make a play, So I guess Christian Wilkins is

kind of the guy right now. I also had Raheem Moster on the catch and run before the Smith quarterback sneak or tight end sneak touchdown run where he catches that ball and finds the pylon just stepped out before that. But I think the third and two stuff by Christian Wilkins is our play before the play, although that is, you know, by nature of that segment kind of a winning type of segment, but we do it every week here.

The teaching tape was Brandon Jones on the Zack Wilson sack because not only did he stay on his feet on a pump fake or the quarterback and an athletic wanted that bootlegged out to the naked side of the field and then the change of direction to put your foot in the ground and get back up field and

then finish the tackle and secure him. I mean, he gets out of your grasp there it goes for my potential seventeen yard lost to maybe a gain or you know, best case scenario for the Dolphins is a no gain an incomplete pass, but he makes sure it finishes that play.

And it happened last year in the game against the Jets two down here in South Florida, down here in Miami Gardens, where Wilson had just extended to drive with a third down scramble where he shaped off a shook off a sack attempt, and then Brandon Jones comes up and makes a big play, a negative play to essentially get the Dolphins defense ahead of the chains and winds

up getting off the field there. So he's teaching tape with his staying on his feet, pursuing the quarterback and the change of direction skills quite often for Brandon Jones. So I thought, I had a really good game today for the Miami Dolphins, and I wanted to make a mention here of the way the Dolphins kind of manufactured a touchdown on that first touchdown drive the third and one deep shot to Tyreek Hill that draws the thirty four yard d P. I just love that, you know,

I was. I was calling for, you know, quarterback on the move action there they decided to go for it all and take a shot up top. They get the DP I flag because you're, you know, put the ball and the opportunity of your best playmakers. Tyreek Hill certainly qualifies for that. I thought that was an awesome call. The end around to Tyreek to get yards where he puts his foot in the ground, splits the part defenders. Man, he is he is special with the ball in his hands.

We saw it on that play. Then you get the twelve yard touchdown run, the jet sweep handoff working off similar motion, and lots of end a round stuff they were doing out the course of the game. Just a well manufactured touchdown drive there that I thought was worth putting in the notes here. It was gonna be part of a takeaway at one point until the game went

the way it did in the fourth quarter. So some positives competitive for the first three quarters of the game, you know, awfully, banged up, awfully against the odds down to your third quarterback, and he I thought competed his butt off as well. So some good, lots of bad lots to work on. We have a game next Sunday. That's always the beautiful part of this league, of this game,

as there's always a game next week until there's not. Obviously, the Dolphins have plenty to work on and get corrected as they fall to three and two with their second straight loss after the three and no start. I know nobody wants to be in this situation. We all kind of thought four and one, with three and o in the Division, four and one in conference was a great way to start but it's a long year. It's a

long season. You lose games you expect to win, you know, I think most of us thought the Dolphins had a chance to win this game. Every year it happens. So don't get two down. It's one game. We'll be back next week and hopefully get back in the win column against the Minnesota Vikings. So all twenty two review podcasts will be on Tuesday, and then we'll turn the page to the Vikings on Wednesday and look ahead to that squad.

In the meantime, it'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 Wingfield NFL fall the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the Fish Tank podcast, our Spaces show, the international podcast across the network, our post game show on five sixty tons of content daily for

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