00:00All right, Josh Appel is on the Toyota of Hollywood hotline.
00:04I remind you before we talk football,
00:06best place to get geared up is Canesware in Dave here online at canesware.com.
00:12Josh Appel does play-by-play nationally for the NFL on Sports USA.
00:17He'll be on the call for Texans-Ravens this Sunday from Baltimore.
00:22Will the Ravens continue their demise in front of Josh Appel's eyes?
00:28Yes, we'll find out on Sunday.
00:32I want to talk Dolphins, though, Joshua.
00:34I appreciate you joining us.
00:36What do you make of the Dolphins' win last night?
00:39Did they turn some sort of corner?
00:41I was saying at the beginning of the show,
00:42the Jets were so bad and so undisciplined,
00:45and a bunch of people were texting in and chatting in the chat room like,
00:49hey, don't dismiss the Jets that much.
00:52Like, the Dolphins looked all right,
00:54so I'm wondering when you watch the game last night,
00:57they come out with the dub.
00:59Were they, I don't know, turning a corner,
01:01or were they the beneficiaries of playing a really bad Jets team?
01:05Well, first of all, it's great to be with you guys,
01:07and I happen to love a Spire, a very good Spire, a big Spire guy,
01:13and honestly, I'm not rushing my favorite things.
01:16Solana did not know that there are four Spires surrounding Hard Rock Stadium.
01:22Did you?
01:22Yeah, of course.
01:25You know, if you go gambling, like Churchill Downs,
01:29you know the online gambling, a lot of people use TVG or whatever,
01:32but there's Twin Spires.
01:34Twin Spires is a big horse race in gambling.
01:37There's a NASCAR team called Spire Motorsports also,
01:41although I think they're out of business.
01:42Regardless, I don't know what to make of last night.
01:46I mean, the Dolphins still gave up 400 yards.
01:48They were outgained by 100,
01:50and I know the Jets had a lot of self-inflicted wounds,
01:54or as Brees Hall said afterwards,
01:56teams shoot themselves in the foot, we shoot ourselves in the face.
02:01They had a million penalties.
02:03The Dolphins got away with a couple as well.
02:06That may have changed some drives.
02:08I've seen this narrative going around about the fumbles with the Jets,
02:12but, like, the Dolphins had to force the fumbles and recover them also,
02:15so credit to the Dolphins for forcing some turnovers yesterday.
02:21It never felt like the Dolphins were going to lose last night.
02:25Like, it seemed like they were in control for the most part.
02:28I did have some flashbacks to the Tennessee Monday night game in 2023
02:31with three or four minutes to go, and the Dolphins up 14,
02:35and the Jets getting the two-point conversion at the end.
02:39Tua was fine.
02:39It was nice to see that Darren Waller contributed right away.
02:43I liked that they're playing to use him.
02:45I thought Jalen Phillips looked good, but, again, like,
02:49Brees Hall, great game, over 100 yards from scrimmage.
02:53Justin Fields, I thought, was the better quarterback last night.
02:58Really?
02:58It's a nice one for the Dolphins.
02:59Yeah.
03:00He was 20 of 27.
03:02He had over 300 total yards by himself.
03:04Had that incredible run on fourth and one.
03:06I thought Fields was the better player last night out of the two quarterbacks.
03:10I think the Dolphins were fortunate that they played the single most undisciplined team
03:16that maybe I've seen in the last five years in the NFL.
03:22Tyreek injury.
03:23Like, we talked about this on the show before.
03:25When the Dolphins play in prime time, it's never a normal game.
03:29There's always something drastic.
03:33Something drastic.
03:35And this was Tyreek Hill's leg being twisted in the opposite direction.
03:39And as you said last segment, I agree with you, especially because the money isn't guaranteed
03:45next year.
03:45I feel like we've probably seen the last of Tyreek Hill with the Miami Dolphins.
03:50It's a nice win.
03:50The Dolphins can be two and three after next week.
03:52And we're having a whole different conversation.
03:54But I think the Dolphins were fortunate to play a team at home in the Jets that is just
04:00incredibly, incredibly undisciplined.
04:03When you say Justin Fields was the better quarterback, I know two of his stats weren't
04:08impressive.
04:09And there were a lot of opportunities for the Dolphins.
04:11I'd mentioned earlier in the show where they forced that third or the second fumble on Justin
04:17Fields.
04:18And it's around midfield.
04:19They're up 10-0.
04:20They have an opportunity to go score, and they just couldn't execute their offense the
04:25way that they wanted to, to continue moving the chains.
04:28But was there anything you saw from Tua yesterday that you didn't like specifically?
04:34Because, look, again, 177 yards, 17 completions.
04:38It wasn't like Tua won the game yesterday.
04:41He was fine.
04:42But I wonder, like, were there any major takeaways regarding Tua's game yesterday?
04:46He didn't turn the ball over, which is the first time this season that he's
04:50protected the ball.
04:51I thought he moved around very well.
04:54The last couple of weeks, he seemed to be a little more active in the pocket than he
04:58had previously, even going back to last year.
05:01He's just fine.
05:02But you're not paying for just fine.
05:05It was good enough to win last night, and it was good enough to put up 27 points.
05:09I am bald, Cat Lord TV.
05:14Sorry, I should, obviously, people, not everybody's watching the stream.
05:17There's a comment, not sure why, but I thought Appel was bald.
05:20Definitely sounds bald.
05:22Most people are not watching the stream, but it's a cute little family who is.
05:26Well, I should still acknowledge what people are saying.
05:29But yeah, I mean, again, this goes back to the larger conversation around Tua.
05:33He was fine yesterday, but you're paying him to be a lot better than fine, and there's
05:39still instances.
05:40I remember one specific play where he bought time, got out of the pocket, rolled to his
05:46right.
05:46Jalen Waddell was standing all alone by the sideline, and Tua skipped the ball like it
05:51was a 12-yard throw, and he skipped it to him.
05:54It's just like, I'm just, it needs to be better than just fine.
06:00I mean, I'm surprised by that take.
06:04I really am.
06:04I'm not going to lie, because I thought Tua played the perfect game that he needed to
06:09play last night.
06:11Yeah, he wasn't bad.
06:12Like you said, you never felt like they were going to lose the game.
06:15He did not turn the ball over once.
06:18He was hitting Tyreek all over the field.
06:21I mean, what about Darren Waller?
06:23Is Chris Greer and Frank Smith, probably, and Mike McDaniel, are they going to be proven
06:29right by saying, yeah, we're not going to pay Jonu, and we can plug and play any decent,
06:37you know, good-sized tight end and do what we did with Jonu?
06:42I think if you look at Jonu's numbers in Pittsburgh right now, I think they're all right.
06:46Yeah, he just hasn't done anything.
06:48They don't target him.
06:48They have a lot of guys to get the ball to.
06:50I think the Dolphins would probably use him a little bit differently than the Steelers
06:53are, but if Waller stays healthy and they target him, what, three times yesterday, mostly
06:59in the red zone.
07:01I know the first catch was right around midfield, but if they're going to use him like that and
07:04try and keep him healthy, protect him, I'm all for it, man.
07:07If you're getting in the end zone like he did last night, A+.
07:10It's just I don't want to make any sweeping judgments about the move when it's only been
07:14one game and he struggled this much to get on the field in the first place.
07:18I hope that it works out, and I hope he stays healthy.
07:19And it was great that he contributed the way he did last night.
07:22I mean, over one and a half catches, over 11 and a half yards, hit halfway through the
07:26first quarter last night.
07:29I had to mention this when you asked the first question.
07:32The Dolphins ran the ball well again last night.
07:34The run game for this team has rebounded very well.
07:39Yvonne HN, MVP of the team so far this season?
07:42Oh, easily.
07:43Easily.
07:43Like, hands down, right?
07:44Yeah, I don't think it's close.
07:46Ollie Gordon is a difference.
07:47He makes magic.
07:48Jake, Ollie Gordon, they weren't giving – I said the hell with Ollie Gordon because now
07:51you've got Darren Waller in the red zone.
07:54You know, Ollie Gordon can hit the bricks now.
07:56No, but they give you Devon HN, and man, he makes magic when he has the ball in his
08:04hands.
08:04I'm just in love with that.
08:06Did he turn a corner?
08:07I saw someone write about that.
08:09It may have been Chris Perkins in the Sun-Sentinel.
08:10Like, did – or I think it was maybe USA Today, and it was reaction, overreactions, and it
08:16was, did Devon HN turn a corner last night?
08:20Is he, like, now an elite back?
08:23Well, I don't know about you guys, but the quality of the field surface when anybody tried
08:28to turn a corner last night, I was holding my breath.
08:30Yeah, it was weird.
08:31That was – guys were slipping all over the place.
08:33Happened to Ollie Gordon a few times, so I'm glad that HN stayed in one piece.
08:37But, yeah, I mean, look, he's been, arguably, besides Tyreek Hill, like, the most productive
08:41offensive player the Dolphins have had since he's been in the league and when he's on the
08:44field.
08:45He is such a weapon.
08:46McDaniel loves using him in so many different ways.
08:48We saw him in the slot a lot last year.
08:50He's playing less there this season because, until last night, they were a little healthier
08:54at receiver.
08:55But they still throw it to him a ton out of the backfield, although last night was only targeted
09:00what, twice?
09:02Which, for him, is wild.
09:04But he still ran for 99 yards and a touchdown, averaged five yards a carry.
09:09Yeah, I mean, he is a bona fide number one back in this league right now.
09:12I just wonder what the mileage will be like because of his frame.
09:16They might just be getting as much out of them right now as they can before, inevitably,
09:21and this is not through fault of his own, it's just how they use him before his body
09:25eventually breaks down.
09:26I would imagine they're just trying to get as much out of him as possible right now before
09:29that happens.
09:30So, it just, Appel, correct me if I'm wrong, it sounds like, you know, you obviously weren't
09:35very impressed with the win yesterday, and I get that because the Jets just looked awful.
09:39They look catastrophically bad.
09:41But do you think there's any way for the Dolphins to use this?
09:45And it's tough because you lose your best player in Tyreek Hill, but as momentum moving
09:50into the season where you can kind of point back to this victory and say, hey, that was
09:54a turning point?
09:55Or are they just good enough to beat really bad teams and they're going to look the way
10:00that they looked against Buffalo and against New England and Indy when they play good teams?
10:05In other words, like, is this going to turn into something?
10:10Or did they just beat a really bad team yesterday and they're capable of doing that?
10:13I think it's that.
10:15They beat a team that they're better than at home.
10:18They took care of business.
10:19But I think the big takeaway for me, after the first game, obviously, we made a ton of
10:26noise about Mike McDaniel and how quickly this thing was going to go south.
10:30I think you have to give a lot of credit to him and to this staff for how this team has
10:36still played hard for him in that New England game, going up to Buffalo last night, getting
10:42the win like they have not given up on Mike McDaniel.
10:46They have not given up on this season.
10:48And I think that says a lot about how the team feels about their head coach and the staff
10:53that he's put together.
10:54Um, whether that translates into like an actual run here, I don't know, but forget about a
11:01run there in Carolina Sunday.
11:03Yeah, they could be, they could be two and three through five games, which if you told
11:07me before, do you think they beat Carolina?
11:09Do you think they, they, they build off last night, go to Carolina, get themselves a road
11:15win.
11:16They are road favorites.
11:17They're minus one.
11:18If we are even just, if the dolphins are even just the team that we think is good enough
11:23to beat the bad teams, like you go to Carolina and you beat Bryce young, uh, McMillan, their
11:29first round receiver is a really good player.
11:32Chuba Hubbard is a really good running back.
11:33The dolphins run defense has not been great.
11:36So I'm a little worried about those two, but the Panthers defense is not good.
11:41I know they shut out Atlanta a couple of weeks ago, but we saw what Drake may and the
11:48Patriots did to them on Sunday, 42 points.
11:51I did the Panthers Cardinals game in week two and yeah, Carolina made it close at the
11:57end, but they played themselves out of the game by the middle of the third quarter.
12:00They were down 27, three, like they're just not a good football team.
12:05And if the dolphins don't go up to Carolina and win, I mean, that is, well, are you discounting
12:11though?
12:12The loss of Tyreek Hill though?
12:13I mean, you're talking about an, I mean, again, I'm singing Devon HN's praises, but Tyreek
12:20Hill no longer being a threat out there completely changes their offense.
12:25It does.
12:26But I would also say like, he hasn't been the threat that he was in 2023.
12:32They don't target him down the field anymore, except for the ducks that Tua underthrows by
12:3615 yards, Jalen Waddell is supposedly a number one receiver Malik Washington.
12:43We know that they love, I would imagine they'll get creative and trying to use him more.
12:48I get HN more and maybe we see HN more lining up at receiver again, like we saw last year,
12:53maybe Waller keeps giving them not two touchdowns a game, but at least enough production where
12:59in the aggregate, maybe you can at least make up for it.
13:02Um, yeah, I mean, it's a big loss, no doubt about it, but like they should still have enough
13:08to go to Carolina and beat that team as road favorites.
13:12Again, if they, if we think that they are as talented as they are, and we think that even
13:17at their worst, they're like a six, seven, eight win team.
13:21Like that's one of those games you win.
13:24Somebody texts in Westbrook.
13:26Akine has been the invisible man out there.
13:28Not if you had him over one half reception last night.
13:33It was you.
13:35I think, I think I counted him as a big red zone threat during training camp.
13:41And I think that might've been his like third catch of the year.
13:44Just need one.
13:46Josh Appel have a good call this weekend in Baltimore.
13:49And I'm guessing we'll see you next week for the Panthers opener on Tuesday.
13:53I sure hope so.
13:54And by the way, I might have to play defense for the Ravens, Brandon, Noble, and I both
13:58might have to suit up because the Ravens are, we think the dolphins have it bad injury wise.
14:03The Ravens are legitimately missing seven of their 11 starters on defense.
14:07I would probably tab Brandon Noble before I would you just, well, why do you say that
14:13a hunch, just a hunch that I have.
14:15Thank you, Josh Appel.
14:16Thanks, Josh.
14:16Appreciate you guys.
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