Drive Time: Dolphins Bills Week 2 Preview

Published Sep 11, 2024, 9:00 AM
The biggest matchup in the AFC East gets renewed with the Bills coming to down for a primetime showdown. We’ll break this big game down with the key matchups, the schemes, how to attack, the critical areas for the Fins to win and much more.

To on the Move Dallan Jeep Speedways, Peace to Hell. From the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield. He's got my hands in the playoffs. What is up Dolphins? And welcome to the Drivetime Podcast. I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show, the damn Buffalo Bills are coming to town for a Thursday night primetime matchup. We're gonna break it all down and tell you how the Dolphins can get to victory by breaking down the Buffalo scheme. The three keys on either side of the ball, the three keys to victory. I'll tell you where they're strong, where they're vulnerable, everything you need to know ahead of kickoff tomorrow night. From hard Rock Stadium from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Drivetime Podcast. Hard Rock Stadium could be full of some mouth breathing Buffalo Bills fans that came down last year for the game, and they make that pilgrimage each and every year, but I think this year might be a bit different. It is a middle of the week game, It is an early September and from my knowledge, I don't think there have been quite as many secondary market ticket sales for Bills fans, So hopefully we only get about eight thousand of those wonderful folks down here with US eight to fifteen kickoff on Amazon Prime and local CBS Miami wfor the weather for the game, no sunshine, so I don't need to call Osha Buffalo eighty four degrees a thirty percent chance of rain. It'll be hot and hut and muggy and humid. Almost said huggy and mumid. That's not words, but that's what the weather forecast calls for on Thursday night. Let's go ahead and get to know this team. Don't have to do it for very long because we know about the Buffalo Jills. This used to be a copy and paste segment, so not much had to be changed here, but there is some change for them. The constants, Josh Allen and Sean McDermott. McDermott came one year prior to Allen a playoff season with Tyrod Taylor. When they lost a playoff game ten to three to the Blake Bortles Jacksonville Jaguaws. They go to Josh Allen four games into twenty eighteen, and he had those accuracy issues still at that stage of his career. They missed the postseason, but have not missed them ever since then, as Josh Allen has figured out those accuracy issues and elevated himself into a clear position in my opinion, as the second best quarterback in the National Football League. Ten wins, thirteen, eleven, thirteen, and then eleven more last year, after a six and five start, they earn six and six start. Rather, they rattle off five straight wins to close the season. And if they just call Kadarius Tony onside the Dolphins their division champs, I digress, But they have one trip to the AFC Championship Game in twenty twenty, the pandemic season, the brutal, brutal thirteen second game. Again, it's those same Chiefs in the Divisional round one year later, and make it three straight Divisional round losses. Now with the Bengals in twenty twenty two and those Chiefs again in twenty twenty three, hang the banner. Well, not yet, I guess, but a lot of the main stays from those teams are now gone. Josh Poyer is here, Micah Hyde retired, Trey White is in Los Angeles to Fon Diggs isn't Houston, and he arrived back in twenty twenty when they really took off. Mitch Morse is now in Jacksonville, and Leonard Floyd is with the forty nine ers. All of those players made plays across the National Football League. Really stands the guys that didn't play, which was Hide and Trey White. It's a lot of change, an entirely different looking Bill's team, and yet can anybody legitimately say they're going to win less than double digit games this year? I don't think. So let's go ahead and get into the weeds on this matchup. Beginning with the Buffalo Bills offense. I went through their scheme and wrote down some numbers from last year, but I'm not sure how applicable it is because they changed a lot. So let's go ahead and take a look at the changes here. So this one game this year, they ran the same number of plays from eleven personnel as they did in twelve personnel. It was thirty eight percent of the overall plays. They ran a sprinkle of plays from one personnel, which is basically their way of getting all these let's call it what it is, mid receivers on the field at once to just give them a different look, so they have more variety than they have in years past. But I don't want you to get this twisted because they are their bread and butter. Their team identity on offense has kind of developed already in my opinion, based upon the Joe Brady games from last year and what we saw in Week one against the Cardinals. But they ran a lot of snaps and heavy personnel. A sixth offensive lineman comes into the game on ten of their snaps in the game on Sunday, So to me, that says like Anthony Walker time. I don't think a Walk played more than a handful of snaps in the game, if at all did even play. But I think getting into more traditional like four to three pasckages or you know, bear fronts or three like you're gonna be running lots of seven man boxes and eight man boxes against this offense. I think I think that'll be the plan because they run some of those packages that basically go six to zero line, two tight ends, one back, one receiver like it is Downhill gonna go ahead and condense their gaps inside and play straight ahead and try to bound you into a pulp. Maybe you run some big Nickel and Marcus may get some more run out there, or maybe even Elijah Campbell. You need more punch when they go to that. But thankfully, I love the way our backers and that includes Walker and Brooks and Long can match that physicality. But if you go back to last year with Stefan Diggs, it was pretty much what you would expect from any offense across the National Football League sixty three percent eleven personnel. They were in twelve personnel just eighteen percent. And I wrote this before the Jacksonville game, this should go way up, and it did. It went up by twenty percent in their first game this season. They also ran twenty one personnel last year five percent. They don't run that two back personnel because they got rid of their fullback RPO. Offenses tend to not have that unless you're Mike McDaniel and you can cook on both sides of the skillet. As it were last year, teams played them in too high coverage fifty percent compared to single high forty three percent, So basically an even split that leaves you with seven percent zero coverage, and I think that's not a terrible idea against Josh Allen, provided you don't miss on the rush. Anytime I can get the ball out of Josh Allen's hands in two point five seconds, that's what I want to do. Because he's not a precision passer. He is not a sea and rip it type of guy. He is a let the play develop, break some tackles, scramble and create and make big plays outside of structure. He can play inside structure. I'm not saying he can't. But if I can get him playing inside structure in the pocket all night long, that's what I want to do. Like I'd rather not have Steph Curry shooting threes, I'd rather have you dump the ball into Draymond Green to have him shoot fifteen footers. They're time to throw perfect example of that. Two point eight eight seconds last year was twenty sixth slowest I should say, what's the freakin word there among starting quarterbacks thirty first overall, which again is the strange dichotomy and why I still don't think I understand the idea behind the Joe Brady offense and their influence, because his entire schema comes from the LSU days with Burrow and Chase and Justin Jefferson and was a terrass Marshall who was the third receiver on that offense. Now trying a freaking blank how embarrassing. Regardless, doesn't matter. They run this RPO like quick game, but that's not Josh's game. So it's so strange against the blitz. Last year, he was thirty five percent of his dropbacks he was blitzed, I should say, at seven point six yards per clip, at sixty four percent completion, ten touchdowns and three picks, just eleven sacks compared to thirteen sacks when not blitzed. So I think that I don't I don't really know. I think the way is here. I kind of go back and forth. Fangio and the two games last year blitzed him thirty one percent and forty five percent, but he did torture on some of those plays. But she also got some takeaways out of those plays. So I don't really know what the plan should be. That's why Anthony we we mixed the big bucks. That's why he's a lot smarter than I am, and why I just think, well, i'd think he's a great defensive coordinator, But yeah, that's his call. I do think that Diggs is freelancing last year caused some of their spacing issues, and they kind of got away from that in this game. Like it was more clear to find about where the ball needs to go, get it to the open man, spread it around, and just kind of, you know, pick your spots and choose where you can go with the football rather than trying to force it one hundred and fifty times into the same guy. But structurally, I just, you know what, Quite frankly, the only thing I like about this offense is kind of Josh Allen. I like the tight ends. I like the running back, but structurally and the skill group outside, I just don't love it. Man. There's not a clear understanding or commitment to like clear outs versus the actual in progression routes. The way this offense asks Josh to read out the middle of the field and play from off base throws and out of timing and rhythm is exactly why they had those long goals last year. And quite frankly, in the first game, they scored a touchdown early on in the game, but they went several drives without moving the football all that much. And it was a continuation of what you saw last year. That's why they were down by fourteen points early in this game. I don't think it matches with his skill set, and I'm quite frankly kind of blown away that he was kept in that position and they didn't go after someone that had more of a mind for what Josh excels at. Anyway, there was that massive shift when they went from Dorsey to Brady. You know, they run this RPO middle of the field concept and it wants him to play more instructure on that first read. I thought that where they got in trouble last year when they did was compressing things a little bit too much with routes that wound up too close together, and that's kind of the design of the offense. I think some of that was, you know, Dig kind of doing his own thing and freelancing, but also this conceptual belief of utilizing all five patterns as options opposed to having more clearouts and more front side tied to backside timing to give Josh the processing he needs, one should tell you about the next route and the progression. Don't get me wrong, they definitely run clear outs like dagger. Your concepts like Dagger who doesn't. But I think that was the major shift, and it took them a little bit time of time to adapt to that new system. Now they've had a full off season and one game of time together to adapt and it was it was good. I mean a lot of the offense was basically just Josh Allen playmaking. And it's why it's why I like our matchup between the numbers with the addition of Jordan Brooks and Jordan Poyer and Marcus May to add to what we had last year, not to mention the two interior guys that can help you kind of play light because of their ability to to gap in both Zach and Kalais and to also get Josh to the ground when they get a hold of him, opposed to him shaking off you know, sacks from smaller bodied rushers because this guy weighs two hundred and fifty five pounds. So how do you attack it? Going into it a bit there? But I want to play further off of that, I think you have to play static, and by that I mean just kind of react to what they're doing because that quick game, you know your rush does you know good Alan pulls the ball back and fires it in behind you. But also if you rush and he tucks it, then you're chasing him on the back foot. But if you mirror and maybe even utilize a spy, then you can get a little bit more ability to match him, opposed to showing him your move like he adjust and if he beats you, you're out of the play. We can't have that. And the reason I think the receiving Corps desperately needs a vertical threat, and maybe that does become Curtis Samuel, is that I think you can commit another hat into the box and contend with that. I'd be happy to do that. I'm kind of happy to let Josh try to throw these vertical shots to Keon Coleman and Mac Collins and even Curtis Samuel Khalil Shakurz the one guy I worry about. But if he wants to take deep shots to the other guys, I'm happy to play fifty to fifty ball and go rebound. Basketball's all dicks. I don't think that skill group is just going to be able to do it. So does that look like a lot of cover one challenging them to connect deep mug the a gaps and keep a spy or rusher to contain Alan. Maybe maybe if they hit one, maybe you get out of it. But I think they have to prove they can hit that deep shot. It's not that far off the twenty one Ravens game. Like I talked about, Lamar Jackson missed that first deep shot in that game and they could never find the answer over the top to that play. So they also have a new center who's working with new working with Josh Allen this year. Connor McGovern kicked inside. They're on a short week, it's a different scheme. I have no doubt we can get Alan off the top of his drop without options, but how do we play from there? That's where it'll be one on this side of the football. Before our first break, Let's go ahead and dive into the big three versus the Bills offense number one. You've heard me talk about it for twelve minutes. Now, don't let Superman don his cape. Everything is centered around the quarterback, even last year with Diggs, not a ton of separation of the passing game or offensive creativity. It just doesn't stress or conflict you the way Jacksonville did. For instance, I thought Jacksonville had a lot of cool route concepts where they would stress like Jordan Poyer as the backside safety and run a seam to his right and run a takeoff to his left and he has to make a decision and the underneath cornerback's out there to help out. Not tons of layups or well defined throws in this offense. Their big plays come from Josh Allen creating with both his arm and his legs, and if he's off with the accuracy, then they can go into these massive roles for a quarter sometimes a full half. I mean we saw it in Week eighteen last year, and that's where you have to, you know, put up points offensively and get them behind the chains, get them behind the scoreboard. If he's on, you just have to try to outscore him, which is kind of the nature of the Beast against these top quarterbacks in the league. So how do you force him into the off night? I think it starts with how you generate pressure and force him out a rhythm of that one hitch timing. You know, we covered his blitzes. I went back and looked at his blitz splits in good games and bad games, and there wasn't really a clear outlier. It was inconsistent across game plans. I think if you squeeze the middle of the field and see he has a deep threat he can rely upon because that used to be Digs. But again I don't know who that is. I don't know who it can be this year. As for the pressure ability, I don't think you concern yourself all that much with trying to confuse Deon Dawkins. He's seen everything and he is one of the best players in the league. He can squeeze to widen and help pick up outside delays and cornerback blitzes. And I thought our delayed blitz game on Sunday was kind of what got us in trouble early on in the game. I would, however, test that new center in Connor McGovern. He was a guard last year. Mitch Morris is a big piece inside. We saw him on Sunday with the Jags, and I think these mugged up a gap pressure looks we have can cause that confusion and do it. See what he can do and what he can handle and force Josh and those quick throws. That's the perfect way to get this quarterback out of his game. He does not want to catch rock and throw. He wants to scan, run around, create and make the big play after the fact. So you know, with how some of our guys get off the snap, whether it's chop or if Mo Kamara plays or email, then I think that with how we've seen the ability to condense, you know, phillips or chop inside, with how we've seen this team blitz their defensive backs in the preseason, and I guess one game in I feel like your best bet is to do it from the front side and force Alan to flee towards his left, his best protector, and in a position where he his creating, he takes him to throws back across his body. Now he can hit those, but I'd rather have that than him moving to his right right. And it also puts that left hand front facing in some trouble if he gets hit there. This is going to be a theme this year. But I think the addition of Jordan Brooks is such a force multiplier in the middle for his ability to blitz and play coverage. And then you've got all these safeties who I think might be a major key here, and I'm thinking specifically of Ployer in May. And it's got to be better on Thursday than it was on Sunday. But they're both just so good at bridging that area between a second and third level, and I think from there they can disrupt the middle of the field passing lanes off those RPO pops and also provide some type of spy work from depth on Josh Allen in the running game. This is why I would call a ton of cover one and just dare them to throw deep and if it's not there, then you've got Josh Allen trying to create against a fast defense with good middle of the field defenders, perhaps you can flag him down from there. It is so so integral integral that you have good rush land integrity against this guy. We saw the Chiefs in that Thursday open essentially mere Lamar Jackson like rush up field and the minute he gets off that hitch, then you step up and redirect back inside with him. We have to have that mindset. I think if they try to play rhythm one hitch passing game all night, we'll do just fine. But if he gets off the spot, that's where the game hangs in the balance. I would load up David Edwards, Connor McGovern and Osiris torrents inside with games and green dogs and just leave their tackles one on one because beating them just gets Allen in a creative spot anyways. Or you send that blitz from the slot off the blind side, get your pressure off the right organically and force him to peel back into that run blitz. You know, save this for a big moment in the game, maybe after he hasn't seen it for twenty year, so snatch. But you have lots of options to try to create confusion on this Bill's offense, and I think going after the interior offensive line is the best way to do it. Let's go ahead and take our first break right there, come back on the other side and do points two and three on the offense. We'll get to the Bill's defense. That's all Next Draft Time podcast your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation, previewing Dolphins and Bills in a massive matchup at hard Rock Stadium. We've done the intro, the scheme on offense, and one thing to take a look at on the Bills offense, of course, it's Josh Allen. My second of the three big things is to commit to stopping James Cook. Both in the run game and pass game. Again. Kind of went on this already, but I think this is done by adding an additional hat into the fit. But also be completely aware of Cook as a pass catcher, because they love to sneak him out up the perimeter and pick a backer to try to get over the top. And so if you do, you go into if you get in demand free, that's a tough route to cover from there, and with Josh's running ability, man, that's always a dangerous proposition. So I feel like you play more zone against these guys for those two reasons. You also want to mix it up well, I don't know, because then you can't, but some those you can do fire zones. But this is a tough matchup. Man. I get confused by this every single year. You always want to mix it up. But I think you can get the run game sorted that way. Josh Allen scramble ability, those quick hits, by playing that extra hat in the fit, zoning things off, and really committing to rush lane integrity, all of that should allow you to control gaps in the running game, and man, that is so paramount here. If you start forcing second longs, if you take away the run game. You make all the things we've already touched down so much harder for them. That's where I like David Long to be a mesh point disruptor, Jordan Brooks to be a spot drop middle of the field expander in this defense, and both of them on blitzes to show the Bills those A and B gaps are not open with the run or escape patches for the quarterback. And if we win our rushes off the perimeter, there's also no escape patches in that way either. It's crazy how intertwined I think this plan has to be to stop these guys. If we can play lighter, which calls upon Zach and Kalais to do the job of two gapping not getting washed against a new look interior offensive line like kind of happened to Zach a few times in the game on Sunday, then I like our chances to get all of this accomplished. A lot of my keys. Really. Number three is the tight end centric offense of this Buffalo Bills team I talked about in the open. They increase their twelve personnel packages by twenty percent already in game number one. I think their best options are the back and then the two tight ends with Cook, with Knox and with King Kid. Though I do think that Shakira is right there. They have four good options among their eligibles. For my money, those are my top four priorities. But their ability to get heavier personnel and operate from these condensed formations and add gaps in the running game because of you know, that is what makes us offense so challenging, especially when operated by a cyborg quarterback. That's what you're going to get. But Knox and King Kaid are one of the more unique tight end tandems in the national football I don't think either of them are plus run blockers, but I think there are plenty good enough when you consider their receiving skill sets. King Kid can really stretch you in the middle of the field. Man. That's why I like you know one and three variations in coverage as the best option trying to limit those guys by capping them with trail defenders. I keep coming back to the same players in this game down the middle, with Holland factoring into the fit as well. But I also think that Jalen Ramsey as a possible tight end eraser isn't a crazy idea by any stretch. We saw him do it last year on Kelsey in the Chiefs game, and I think you can solve some of your issues created from their those balanced twelve personnel looks where you have a tie down on either side of either tackle that creates two more gaps in the running game by doing some of that with Jalen Ramsey. Ultimately, I just like our ability to have options, because options means you can mix it up, and the best way to get a quarterback playing out of rhythm and off time is to have options and mix it up. Additional parts on their offense, I mentioned Dion Dawkins Spencer Brown got a contract extension to really good pair of bookends. They're off tackle. We didn't mention JP and Agbach, Chop or Bell or Kamara for that matter, but I do think those guys' ability to move around and create matchups inside and force pressure in there is a critical part of the game. Now, if we do that, we have to be concerned with Curtis Samuel on jet sweeps off of the run and counteraction from James Cook. Fun fun matchup here. Let's go ahead and pivot quickly into the Bills defense and their scheme. We've known for a long time how this goes right. Almost never leave their nickel defense. They want to play variations of zone and try to disrupt early and run into capped looks to remove the vertical game from your offense. They do give you some chances to run verticals to the boundary. I saw Christian Benford defending Marvin Harrison Junior on those, but Harrison looked like slow as hell man, like he couldn't move in that game, and that was an easy cover for Benford. It invites the run a lot, but it has you know, a terrific interior defensive line play between Oliver and Daikwon Jones. There's no Matt Malonaldore anymore. But it's the same look. Even when Taron Johnson exited the game, they went with Cam Lewis in that spot and he did the exact same things that Taron Johnson did, so they're not going to change. Last year, they were eighty five percent Nickel on first and second downs. Nickel and Dimon even split on third downs. That's what they run. They run nickel and dime and nothing else. There was no down in which they played a four to three more than three percent of the time. They just don't do it. It's nickel and dime defense. Too high on sixty percent, single high on thirty six percent, and they'll zero you up four percent of the time. I doubt they do that against the Miami Dolphins and these receivers that we have so expect too high expect middle of the field access. That's going to be I think a key for the Dolphins to find those soft spots in the zones. And I really think with the Miami's ability to run all that motion, all that backfield action, all the eye candy and false keys, I think with the change in players in that part of the field with Cam Lewis, with the potential of running out there, you know, a cornerback converted to a safety and those dime looks and you know backup linebacker play behind Matt Milano, I think you can create some space and create some you know, false steps and open hook zone shots from Tua. With all that this offense does so well now they do a marvelous job of mixing their coverages. They have a terrific spread last year against Cover two, three, four all around twenty percent, then a small drop off to Cover one and cover six fifteen percent of each. They have the occasional two man or zero rep. They mix it up very well. Sean McDermott has been doing this for a long time. He has a deep roll decks of plays that he can go to. Now through one game, it's more of the same. Forty eight of their sixty plays where in nickel, the other twelve are in dime and ten of those dime PA plays were on third down, one on fourth down, So it's nickel on first and second down, dime on third down unless you're third and short, mostly from off positions. So can you run the screen game? We saw Miami go quick game all game long. I imagine that they're going to do that early to try to tire out that Bill's offensive defensive line in this weather on a short week. I would be very surprised if we don't see a lot more screen action to just kind of get things going and get the offense ahead of schedule. Hopefully, maybe you pop one, maybe you get that backside safety cutoff, and this time eight Chan scores the long touchdown provided he plays in the game, but force him to come up and tackle you know, John Umlik. Eight Chan right, if those guys go throw it away from the help side, away from Tyreek and waddle like, you have options to do that, right. I do think our personnel is much better equipped to go get them this year when we're healthy. But you know, we had some drops in that game. We had some indability to separate in critical matchups. In that Week eighteen game a year ago. We did run the ball, but we got away from it as well. And we'll we'll talk plenty of h chen here, but you know, I think this f position the Dolphins went after this offseason with both alec Ingolds in corporation and John OUI Smith's in corporation and running some Tanner Connor in the game on Sunday for three snaps was also intriguing to me that it was a message to the Buffalo Bills, like, you want to play your too high structure with press, bump and run or off coverage on those on those positions as well, and you want to do it with light boxes and a slot cornerback in the game is basically a will linebacker. Well, here comes alec Ingold Downhill, here comes John Us Smith, Here comes Julian Hill in the running game, who also gives us, you know, some pass game options. I would not even touch eleven personnel a single time in this game. Stay heavy, stay big. They're always They're also going to try and rob our crossers or show you know, middle of the field open with too high structure. If they fall into that, run those seams, run those posts, run those you know Week three, twenty two, twenty two shots Jalen waddle down the middle of the field. If they fall off and play those crossers that cover six, cover three variations. That creates gaps in the intermediate width part of the field, the sideline part of the field, the outside part of the field. Then we just throw deep corners and wheels, maybe even a you know, off of mesh spot where you run a couple of meshes inside spot route behind that wheel to the running back. We saw the Dolphins hit that the corner route to Jaalen Wattle for the first down on the opening or the first touchdown drive of the game. The deep crossers the two big plays. If they run six and three, that's going to be open for you. I think Miami has some options here. They also love to come up and challenge and play man free on third and medium in short that could be shot playtime. Think about the Jets game last year. You had two third and shorts against Sauce and DJ Reid. You took it, you got vertical, and you hit big balls to both Tyreek Hill and Jelen Wattle. So I just feel like, God, I'm talking myself into it again. Man. I think the way the Dolphins match up against this defense that just does not have the freaking bullets anymore, I like our chances that way. How do you attack it? I think you start with the running game. By nature of their pre snap presentation, you get a size advantage and sometimes a that's advantage when you do that. We saw it back in that twenty twenty two game up there. We saw it in the first half of the finale last year. We saw it in the first quarter of the Week four game last year. I actually think you can play it a lot like the Week eighteen game last year on third downs that you face where maybe you don't have early down success because well, one we'll have Waddle this time, and two John who was here and hopefully better than Week one and three. I think eight chan is obviously a more versed option in the passing game and as a runner two. But I think you have to make them come down and play the run game. I think you motioned the crap out of them, and nobody runs more motion than we do. Get Tua as much pre snap information as he can gather, and I wonder how well they'll be able to disguise against us with all those new parts, with losing critical elements of that defense in Johnson and Milano. That was such a strength of their unit, with all the stability they had back there. So run out some of those two man concepts, be it switches, be it vertical crossers, be it dagger, whatever it is. See how connected those stafeties are going to play with those corners. Let's go ahead and jump into the top three here against the Buffalo defense, starting with number one. Run them out of light boxes and nickel and dime looks. I mean, we've talked about it. Man, if they're going to run cam Lewis out there as this quasi linebacker, you have to go get him in the running game. You mean, if he's in the fit and you can create that option and then have overplay off of that where he kind of cheats downhill and you pop in passes behind him to John us Smith or Tann O'Connor. You just have to take advantage of cam Lewis. You have to go after that guy. Having Reagan Waddle demands that you play, you know, a split of three, and that creates room underneath. If they put that three high safety look, it creates room underneath for Devon and Johnny as well. Hell, we saw Devon damn near catch a vertical route in a role that I imagine that you know, Jalen Wattle takes back over in this game that he wasn't there for in the Week eighteen game last year, and that's going to create inside routes for again Devon against their linebackers and safeties that are getting run off. I think this is a massive eight chan game, provided we get a look at him after not really practicing all week. I always go back to that twenty twenty two game when up in December, when we ran really with Alec Ingle leading the way at will all night long and moster had like we think we had like almost two hundred rushing yards, and that was before we had Julian Hill and John new Smith, who I think expanded your passing game options with that new battery down the middle of the field with DeMar Hamlin, Taylor Rapp, Torel Bernard over hide Poyer in Milano. It's a new defense there. And if they if they congest that area of the field, if they flash robbers down the middle, you know what we have that we didn't have week eighteen Bothreak and Waddle, and Waddle was coming back from an injury in the Week four game. So the last time we had those guys, we scored twenty eight up there and had the fourth quarter lead that we just couldn't quite finish. And that's where I think their losses in the middle are additions from a chan Wright Smith and Jeweling all those guys. That's why I think this is a critical area of the field to win, really on both sides of the football. We also saw them try to vacate safety help in that game against Reek and he won a press swift from Tradevius White from a long touchdown pass from Tua in that game. We also had that deep cross concept in that game that produced a sixty five yard touchdown to wa I think we're best equipped to get back to get back to that in this game. Then we've been since that game in twenty twenty two, and that bleeds into our next point, which you're gonna go ahead and take a break and come back and do things two and three. We'll do the range of outcomes, what's at stake, all of that, and a heck of a lot more here on the Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. We've covered the one thing for the Dolphins offense to accomplish in this game. Let's get to things two and three rate here. Number two is taking shots against bump man free. They don't play a ton of man. They don't play a ton of bump, but when they do, I drink dosukis. They do it almost always in third and short medium. They want you to they want to threaten. They want you to threaten them deep. They want to drive downhill on those plays and basically say you're not gonna run vertical, You're gonna break this stem off, I'm gonna squat and drive. It's a lot like how the Jets playoffs with Sauce and reed, and if we hit on top of those guys, we can do it against these guys. I think on a hot September night. Maybe the conditioning on a short week in the humidity, you might be able to spring one and that can change a football game. We saw it on Sunday, and if you get it once, especially early, it changes the way they defend you. Also, now I think Rasull Douglas is one of the best cornerbacks in the league. I thought Tarren Johnson was as well, but he is going to be out of this game. And I really like Christian Benford too. But you also have Freak and Waddle right, and you go into every game feeling comfortable about those guys' ability to beat anybody, and they can win no matter who lines up across from them. Shoot, we've seen them consistently get on top of those two cornerbacks of the Jets. I just think if you have third and three from your own thirty two and they roll coverage up tight and they don't have safety help on Waddle or Hill, that's daring you to hit a seventy yard touchdown. Utilize the most precise downfield passing game in the league. To say you want to press without help on those guys. Bet if you're wrong, it's a sixty eight yard touchdown. Because last year we saw them squat and drive and get those breakups, and it gets us off the field and gets the ball back in Josh Allen's hand. If they play it that way, I am more than happy to let Tua go after and go down swinging. I'd go down trying to hit deep shots against single coverage against Rereacan Waddle, then trying to force you know, tight window throws to Bracks and Burrios, but getting around that physical coverage and the bumping of Douglas Benford and all the guys. I keep saying Taron Johnson, but he's not there. That's why the run game, the motion, the misdirection are big keys here, and Number three is always having a plan for at Oliver and Dake one Jones. I think the you know, Douglas Johnson combo was the strength of this defense, and this is the one b to that strength. I love the way both Tistaid and Austin can handle their business off the edge in one on one situations. I'm very glad that Leonard of Floyd is gone because he was one of the best on that team. But if you can consistently erase their new best in Greg Russeau with one of those two tackles, everything else becomes a lot more simple, more black and white. And another reason I love the option to run from two wide receiver sets, be it an extra tight end or a back or an F then you can call for more six man protections and just keep your back in for protection more. And you can do that, and you can do what this offense is best at in creating backfield action, misdirection and play action to get those guys moving sideways, especially with our outside running game. And that's why I think Raheem, Devon, Hefe Jalen are all big parts of this game, all three, all four of them really, if you can stay in that package and just stretch these dudes and make them exhausted by third down rushdowns because of the weather, the quick turnaround and the fact that we have are three or four deep with Jeff Wilson there at this position, you know to consistently make these guys run wind sprints to the perimeter, which only serves to magnify those things we talked about before. In the middle of the field passing game. It's all there for you. And if you keep it in third and manageable, they never get to pin their ears back, but they will get a couple of those chances unless you play a rare perfect game. And that's where I like sneaking your tailback up into the A gap and slide to help with one on one, bringing split flow wham action in there with the aforementioned tight ends and f like, you have different ways you can attack this. It's why I'm so damn bullsh on the Dolphins this year. They just have so many options, especially when they get guys back additional parts on defense. Didn't mention von Miller, but he's just not really It just hasn't really been a big part of this team. What's at stake? I mean the AFC East right, to me, it's really about providing a chance to go sweep the Buffalo built. I think if either team gets a sweep in this series, it's going to be a rap on the division the way it was last year. For the sweeping team to get two wins against two good teams in five days, then he have extra time for that long trip out west against a Seahawks team that I think is going to struggle to get off to a hot start this year, and then Titans and Patriots, Like, man, you win this game. You are in a great position to go into your bye week at five and zero like that is. This is such a big game. We gotta get this one. We just got to get this one. My keys to victory Number one, stay in your two back and two tight formations and create and exploit matchups with your diverse offensive groupings. The key is the key. Just do that. Go buck wild with your f usage, get them out there, get two of them out there together, force him to adapt and play light. And I love the way we can attack them with our vertical shots with max pro against I think is a bad safety crop. Gosh. I like our matchups in this game a whole lot. Number two. Win defensive matchups down the middle Zach and Kalaya's first their interior line, Brooks and Long versus Cook, Hall and Poyer May versus Josh Allen, Knox and King Kate. Gotta win those matchups. Number three. Commit to your outside running game, even if it's not breaking the big one. I promise you. The last thing three hundred and ten pounds defensive tackles want to do is run all night to the perimeter. In miserable September, Miami weather, the range of outcomes for this game. I don't think this game has any blow up potential. To be honest with you guys, I think either side a ten point win. Another direction is like the max here. I love the way we match up, but history and Josh Allen have humbled me in that thought. I think we can shorten the game and get after them with the run game and have more outlets than we did back in week eighteen, hopefully hopefully with eight chans involvement in that way, if he can play in the game, that could leave three way goes inside. And it was you know Braxton andt Cedric. Now it's John wu Now it's the Penguin. Now it's cheated because of our ability to be flexible in twenty one, twelve and twenty two personnel packages and they're very bad safety tandement opinion. I think we win. I think being at home on a short week is a massive advantage, especially them having to do it and whether like this, I don't care if it's nighttime now, if we fail to run the ball, if we don't exhibit rush Land integrity, then I can see them getting a thirty one to twenty one win over US. I don't think it happens, but it is a possibility. I think this game is closed in the fourth quarter, and I think there are better depth and conditioning for the environment and hardened callust developed mindset from last year, the last two years really allow us to get over the hump and beat them in the fourth quarter. Dolphins twenty seven, Bill's twenty three. That's it, that's my time. We're coming back tomorrow with Sal Capaccio from the Bill's sideline reporter. He's a sidelineport for the Buffalo Bills. We'll also do the game picks and get to some questions and answers from coach and players and break those things all down. That's tomorrow. In the meantime, you will please be sure to subscribe to the podcast. Leave us at ready to leave us a review. You can follow me on social at Wingfield NFL, follow the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank podcast with my guys Seth and Juice. Check out the YouTube channel. New edition of Dolphins HQ is live for you all right now. We had a short episode this week on the short week, but I got in some film breakdowns. If you were fans of the Lockdown Dolphins Podcast when I was in the big chair and doing the the video breakdowns on Twitter. You will definitely want to check this out and last, but not least, Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, Finns up, Carolyn and Cameron Daddy's Coming Home.

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