Discussing what the Miami Dolphins victory vs the Falcons means for the future of the team (if anything at all) and how the Fins finally found success.
00:00So, Josh, the Dolphins team we saw Sunday afternoon that was clicking on all cylinders.
00:06Did it come together or were the Falcons just so bad and had such an off week?
00:12Like, I'm trying to figure out what I saw Sunday from the Dolphins.
00:16I think that that Dolphins performance is obviously closer to what we expected generally from them this year.
00:25Not that they're going to go out and win 34-10 every week, but something resembling that.
00:30Like, obviously, that's the best they've looked this season.
00:33It's a nice win.
00:35I don't know how much you could take away from it from a Dolphins perspective other than it was a good performance.
00:39And in a 17-game season, you're likely going to have a few games where you look the way maybe that people thought going into the season.
00:48To me, in watching it back, the Dolphins clearly were like, all right, Kirk, you try and beat us, and we'll focus on everything else.
00:59And they were able to shut down Bijan Robinson.
01:03Obviously, no Drake London helped as well.
01:06Kirk Cousins is just an unplayable quarterback right now.
01:10He just is.
01:11And that played in the Dolphins' favor.
01:14This Falcons team is weird, right?
01:15They've got a couple of really good wins, including the game at home against Buffalo, but they also went on the road and got shut out, what, 30-0 by the Carolina Panthers earlier in the season?
01:26And now they have this performance against the Dolphins, who came in with only one victory.
01:31So I don't know.
01:32The NFC South is maybe the most bizarre division in football every year.
01:38The Bucs are obviously the best team in that division, but everybody always ends up finishing within a game or two of 9-8, and it comes down to the end.
01:45I think the Bucs are probably going to separate themselves from everybody else in that division, but it's just an NFC South thing.
01:50Those teams are weird, and I think the Dolphins ran into Atlanta with everything working against the Falcons, favoring the Dolphins, and the performance showed that.
02:01And I'm with you.
02:02Defensively, I just call Kirk Cousins' booty.
02:05There was no evaluation.
02:07He couldn't.
02:07He was sailing throws.
02:08He can't move.
02:09Like, he's retired still getting a paycheck because they gave him all that damn money.
02:14But offensively, I was kind of almost frustrated because the game plan was actually very intelligent.
02:19They were in I-formation.
02:20They were running split zones, simple runs, setting up the play action, kind of what Tua thrives in.
02:26And it took you until week 8 to get back to that and not just go, you know, five wide and do this shotgun stuff.
02:32Like, I don't know if I should be frustrated or happy that they finally are going back to what Tua thrives in.
02:38Well, not only that, but they adjusted to and started using the extra offensive lineman Brunskill quite a bit, and that obviously really helped.
02:47There have been games over the course of Mike McDaniel's tenure with the Dolphins where they start the game off running the ball really well and just flat-out abandon it.
02:56And to his credit, they stuck with it yesterday.
02:59I'm worried long-term about what's going to happen to Devon Achan because that dude feels like he touches the ball every other play, and that body's just going to get run down pretty quickly, it feels like, with the amount of touches he gets, not only in the backfield, but when they line him up at receiver as well.
03:15But, yeah, this Dolphins team is capable of running the ball.
03:18Like, Aaron Brewer had a phenomenal game as well, and that's a signing that not many people talk about because it's not a sexy signing.
03:25Nobody cares about the center unless they're terrible.
03:28Aaron Brewer is a really good player in this offense.
03:31You got a good game from Savanaya at left guard, too, but probably his best performance of the season.
03:39I would hope that they will stick with what they were able to accomplish on Sunday in Atlanta because as bad as the Falcons have looked on a couple of different occasions this year,
03:51that's still statistically been one of the best defenses in the NFL this year, and the Dolphins operated really, really well against it.
04:02I think the question, I'm glad you brought up run skill, Appel, because I was reading in the Miami Herald the analysis of why it ended up working,
04:10and we know Tua's best when he's able to have the established run game, and then he can play in that play action, roll out of the pocket at times.
04:17We saw it in the Malik Washington touchdown. The question is, now that the Ravens can prepare for it, despite it being on a short week, will that work?
04:24What will they do now to try to counter the Dolphins having the two tight ends set, whether or not Julian Hill's back?
04:32What happens when the other teams are prepared for it, and Miami then is lacking a run game again?
04:38Now what? Are they still prepared for Tua to go out there on short rest and make plays?
04:43I don't know the answer to that. Well, it was such an odd sight to me, because the middle of the field has been taken away from this offense going back to last season,
04:52and the performance on Sunday in the passing game resembled everything that we saw in 2023 and in 2022 when things were really clicking.
05:03But I think with the way the Dolphins are able to run the football, it makes the defense have to respect another aspect of what this offense does.
05:12I would imagine they will try and run the ball again and go with a similar game plan against a Ravens defense that I don't think is as banged up as they were when I saw them a few weeks ago against the Texans.
05:22But even when they're healthy, it hasn't been that great of a defense.
05:26So I think it's another opportunity for the Dolphins to build on last week.
05:30I just I've seen more bad than good from this team this year, as we all have.
05:36And I'm not really sure how much we can take away from that Falcons game and say, yeah, this is going to continue.
05:42I don't know. But at the same time, I hate that we're doing this because I've come on here and just completely dogged them the entire year.
05:49They are what? Three stops away from being right in the thick of everything in the AFC.
05:55I mean, they were all they were also a Jack Jones punch away from being winless.
06:00Like, I mean, you can play. No, definitely. I'm just saying. So I don't know what to make of this team.
06:05It's it's fitting that they are in some ways very predictable, also very unpredictable.
06:14Well, I had asked Crowder and Solana at the beginning of the show, like, is everyone prepared?
06:19One week from today is the NFL trade deadline. And I don't know what's going to happen Thursday night.
06:24My guess is it's not going to look like the Falcons game.
06:26But who knows? That was the Dolphins team I expected to see on a weekly basis.
06:31Are Dolphins fans ready for what the NFL trade deadline might bring?
06:37Are Dolphins fans ready to maybe move on from Devon A. Chan and Jalen Waddell?
06:44I mean, it could happen.
06:47I think that they would have to have for those two particular players, their socks knocked all the way off.
06:54But it could happen. It could happen.
06:55I mean, if you're a team that's a running back away or a receiver away there, there could be teams that are desperate to fill those needs with those guys.
07:04I think it's way more likely that we see one, if not both of the pass rushers, Jalen Phillips and Bradley Chubb dealt.
07:13I wouldn't be surprised if we see Matthew Judon shipped out of here as well for whatever they can get for him.
07:17Was he inactive or he just didn't play?
07:20Inactive.
07:21Yeah.
07:22Yeah, that hasn't worked out, to say the least.
07:26Shades of Jordan Poyer.
07:28What?
07:28Yeah, I mean, look, it's the reality of what the position the Dolphins are in and pass rush seems to be like the most popular position right now that teams are trying to address, whether it's because of injury or just flat out teams don't have the horses at those spots.
07:48And the Dolphins happen to have two of the better guys that will be available on the market.
07:52Now, the other aspect to this is I know you can't really think about it this way, but it's something that I'm sure a lot of people are thinking about.
07:59Chris Greer and his future, like this is the guy that's going to be making all these moves.
08:04That's going to put them in a position for this offseason moving forward.
08:07That's the awkward spot that they're in.
08:11You're not not going to go and scout Lenora Sellers like they did a few weeks ago.
08:15You're not not going to try and make these trades and quote unquote make the team better moving forward because you're currently in these positions right now.
08:23You have to do the job.
08:24But like the likelihood of them having the job after this season doesn't seem all that high.
08:31So that's an interesting aspect of the trade deadline coming up as well.
08:35Well, you could have a lame duck front office that is trying to make these deals and swing these deals.
08:41I think that you'll see one or both of these pass rushers shipped out of here.
08:46And I wouldn't be surprised like if someone calls on Minka Fitzpatrick.
08:49I know they signed him to they reworked that contract before the season, but I could see him being a name that gets moved as well.
08:55I'm disappointed in the I know it's difficult because it's a lot harder to get integrated into a new team in the middle of a season.
09:00But the hockey trade deadline, the baseball trade deadline, the NBA trade deadline, it's so much more active and it's so much different than the NFL.
09:09I wish the NFL had as active as a trade deadline as the other three major sports, because it's some of the one of the more entertaining couple of days every year.
09:18And Josh, it's a conversation, maybe after a 24 point beatdown to talk about moving the coach, because I think he's still not going to be here in 2026.
09:27But if they were like people were asking for them to get rid of McDaniel, Greer, both.
09:31Is it better, like you're talking about at this time of year, if you're doing a trade deadline, just making decisions to have a lame duck head coach or interim head coach to have moved on with nobody there or still have the guys in place that messed up your roster already?
09:48I mean, right now, I don't think like the lame duck coach matters all that much.
09:52I think to to Mike McDaniel's credit, I know Cleveland didn't necessarily look like that.
09:56But for the most part, they're still playing hard for him, not not that, you know, they shouldn't, because they've also got to extend and do what's best for them in their career selfishly.
10:05But you've seen teams.
10:07I mean, Crowder, you talk about the Cam Cameron season all the time about how nobody everybody was tuning him out at the end.
10:13And I'm sure there's some of that in this Dolphins locker room.
10:15But I know Joe Rose was talking about it yesterday.
10:17I think about how the performance on the field does not demonstrate a team that has tuned out their head coach or stopped playing for him or stopped giving effort like Cleveland.
10:30You could maybe question it, but even Buffalo after the tough start to the season, they go in there and they lose by a score.
10:37Obviously, we know how the game ended.
10:38They're playing hard for Mike McDaniel still.
10:41I think hockey might have said, I think you think there's a better chance that McDaniel keeps his job versus Greer at the end of the year.
10:46If it's a choice between the two, if only one can go.
10:52See, you're already saddling a new head coach, hypothetically, to a tongue of Iloa for at least another year if they can't move him.
11:01And now you're going to saddle a GM that's coming in new with the same head coach and the same quarterback.
11:09If you're going to make the move, you're going to let go of both guys.
11:12No, no, no.
11:12But that was the conversation where Crowder said, if one of the two is going.
11:16I would see McDaniel.
11:17I think I think Mike McDaniel is going to be a really good offensive coordinator wherever he goes next.
11:21I really do.
11:22John Michaels yesterday said he'll take him in a second to be the OC in Atlanta.
11:26Hey, we're we're running out of time.
11:28Josh, what are we seeing with Shohei Otani?
11:30Is this a once in a lifetime baseball player?
11:33Without question, nine plate appearances last night and he reaches base nine times the four walks, obviously.
11:39But like, it's not like these little seeing I single little Texas league, a teenager here and there, two home runs and two doubles from this guy.
11:48He's impossible to get out.
11:50Oh, and by the way, he's going to go throw six innings and give up less than three runs tonight and strike out everybody.
11:54But it's remarkable, right?
11:56It's remarkable.
11:57He is an alien.
11:58So how how do you stop him?
12:00Is it just walk him?
12:01That's it.
12:01You can like you can't stop him as a pitcher.
12:04Obviously, you're going to have to face him.
12:05But as a hitter, you have to just walk him.
12:08Beam him.
12:09Beam him.
12:10Well, I mean, that's the same.
12:13No, no, no.
12:13Teach him a lesson.
12:14Don't just walk him.
12:15Get his get his confidence up.
12:17Hit him in his thigh.
12:18Yeah, I think that'll really help is making him a little more angry for the next time he does the bat.
12:23Yeah, so the thing with the Dodgers is you walk Shohei Ohtani, you get him on base.
12:28Oh, here's the other nine figure player they have right behind him, Mookie Betts.
12:32Good luck with that.
12:32Oh, you get Mookie Betts.
12:34Oh, there's Freddie Freeman lurking in the background.
12:36Oh, who's who's hitting sixth in this order, seventh in this order?
12:40Teoscar Hernandez, another hundred plus million dollar player.
12:43And then if the guys at the bottom of the order, Kike Hernandez and Tommy Edmond, these guys who are just regular major leaguers, good role players.
12:51You think, all right, we got a little breather here.
12:54One of those guys gets on, the lineup turns over, and you're facing all the big guys again.
12:58It is impossible to beat this team.
13:00How much do you think this Shohei game-worn jersey is worth after last night?
13:06Wow.
13:07I would say at least.
13:10I mean, what's he making this year?
13:12I know it's all deferred.
13:13Not that much, right?
13:14It's all deferred.
13:15I think he's only making two million each year, next year, and the following year.
13:18I think that's a good number right there.
13:19I think that's worth two million.
13:21You want to make me an offer?
13:23Will you give it to me?
13:25No, I'll sell it to you for the two million that you just said.
13:28It's pretty cool, right, to have this?
13:30Yeah.
13:30Probably the only one.
13:32I think you're wearing it, too.
13:33Definitely one of the few.
13:34He got it from last night.
13:35Yeah.
13:36No, no.
13:37Don't be silly.
13:38That's ridiculous.
13:40All right, Appel.
13:41Have a good call on...
13:41Well, actually, we'll see you Thursday at Funky Buddha, and hopefully everyone will come out
13:47and join us Thursday night, a little watch party.
13:49Have a good broadcast with Solana on Thursday.
13:52But again, you can hear Josh doing play-by-play Packers and Panthers Sunday.
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