What does a Miami Dolphins victory on Thursday against Buffalo look like? We take a look at both sides of the ball and explore what points of emphasis could be big in producing a winning effort in Week 2 of the 2024 season.
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It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. This episode is brought to you by FX's American sports story, Aaron Hernandez. From executive producer Ryan Murphy comes the first installment of FX's American sports story. The limited series charts the rise and fall of NFL superstar Aaron Hernandez and explores the disparate strands of his identity, his family, his career, his suicide, and their legacy in sports and American culture. FX's American sports story, Aaron Hernandez, all new Tuesdays on FX. Stream on Hulu. We're driven by the search for better. But when it comes to hiring, the best way to search for a candidate isn't to search at all. Don't search. Match with Indeed. Ditch the busy work. Use Indeed for scheduling, screening, and messaging so you can connect with candidates faster. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsor job credit to get your jobs more visibility at indeed.com/lockdownnfl. Just go to indeed.com/lockdownnfl right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast, indeed.com/lockdownnfl, terms and conditions apply, need to hire, you need Indeed. You are locked on dolphins. Your daily Miami Dolphins podcast. Part of the locked on podcast network. Your team every day. All right, Miami, welcome to another episode of locked on dolphins. It's your team every day here on the lockdown network. I'm your host, Kyle Krabs, a lifelong Miami Dolphins fan, host of locked on dolphins co-host of locked on NFL scouting. You can find our shows on YouTube or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast, Timothy Cap to our every there's because it is your team every day here on the locked on network. We don't just say it. We live it today's episode of locked on dolphins is brought to you by prize picks. Go to prize picks.com/lockdownnfl and use code in all lowercase lockdown in the fell to win $50 instantly when you play $5. The Dolphins playing tonight. Quick turnaround for the show reminder, you'll get a post game show from me. You'll also get on the podcast feed a post cast, which is a live stream that happens on lockdown sports Miami with Greece. And he will give you the reactions as well, but I will have my own post game show tonight reacting to the dolphins game against Buffalo in week two, doesn't get a lot bigger for the dolphins from a narratives perspective than this football game. Buffalo has had all the success in the world against the dolphins in the last five years. The quarterback dynamics with Josh Allen, he's had rousing success against the dolphins and as tired as I am of talking about it, I would hope every single player that's in the locker room is tired of hearing about it. And it is time for the dolphins to take their next crack at doing something about it. And I think you can look on both sides of the ball. There's some matchups that I think are going to be pivotal for the dolphins in this game. Some things that what can the dolphins do. I think when the dolphins have the football, that's where we'll start. Where he most is out, Mike McDaniel confirmed that yesterday, the Von HN sounds like he's going to work out before the game to test. He's already posted on Instagram on his Instagram page, a hype sizzle graphic for the game. He practiced yesterday. He wasn't in a red non contact jersey. It sounds like he moved well through independent periods. There's a lot of optimism that the Von HN is going to go for the dolphins and that's huge because that gives you the other element to speed. I think the two speed guys that you have in Tyre Killenjill and Waddle is outstanding. But if you can have a third element to create horizontal and vertical stretch on every play that those three guys are packaged out there together, that allows you the optimum amount of stress that you can put on opposing teams. Now, without Rehean Mostert, that's a tough break. But I think about Jeff Wilson, I think about the success that the dolphins had at the end of the game against Jacksonville against a talented front running downhill, running power concepts, running at you, challenging you between the tackles. If Rehean Mostert is going to be out and it's going to be Jeff Wilson and it's going to be Jalen Wright and I think Jalen Wright can handle that workload and have overlap with Jeff Wilson knowing full well that the dolphins are playing a defense in Buffalo that plays effectively a 425 base. They don't match personnel, they don't have a bunch of different personnel groupings out there, they might rotate guys in and out, but they're going to play with five DBs on the field. They're going to play a nickel and their nickel is out for the game. So that puts a lot of pressure on Cam Lewis as the nickel. And I think back to the game, the second game in 2022, and I mentioned this at the end of the crossover, but I don't want to do extrapolate on it here a little bit. The dolphins in the first game against Buffalo, that season in 2022, the game that they ironically won, they did not win time of possession. They did not possess the ball. They did not make it a shorter game. They forced Buffalo to drive the length of the field and not make mistakes and have methodical drives and locked up in the red zone a number of times. And Miami was able to hit some chunk plays, but then also was able to, or was not able I should say to when they got the ball back after the turnover on down, since I had their own five yard line, they couldn't run the ball save their life, right? And I know that's kind of the narrative around the dolphins and meeting able to run the ball and they can't do it. They showed you they can run in a variety of different ways. I think you'll have probably some more perimeter success running the ball against Buffalo than you would have had against Jacksonville Jacksonville. Their safeties are big, long, prototype, physical guy, Cisco's a striker, Antonio Johnson is a striker. They got Darnell Savage, who's a first round pick, who can hit, then you get these big physical guys on the edge. Buffalo's edge guys don't quite have the same mass and power in the run game and Von Miller and Greg Russo, who's a big, big body guy, a lot of length. But if you're working with angles and speed to the edge, I think the Jacksonville guys were a bit of a tougher draw. Now they have more speed down or on the second level with Terrell Bernhardt than what Jacksonville has. But nevertheless, now you're looking at Cam Lewis is the nickel, looking at the Marhamlin and Taylor Rap trying to run from depth. They're not dynamic players, right? And that's why I think you do think back to when the dolphins played Buffalo the second time last year, they found ways to create explosive plays with speed on the edge. And then you go back to the second game they played in 2022 and they found a lot of different ways with formations and shifts and motions to put Taren Johnson as the compromised player in the core, in the box. Can you do some of that with Cam Lewis? Because that should be an even greater advantage to your offensive game plan. And if you can do that and you can live in that world and you can live in heavier personnel groupings, especially if you want to rotate and you want to keep jail in the water and tirey kill fresh and you don't want to run them a ton and you don't want them playing a hundred percent of the snaps, I'm cool with that. But do that with the recipe being, we're not going to play a bunch of 11 personnel and run Braxton Barrios out here for 30 snaps against Buffalo. Don't do that. Come out here and have it be Julian Hill and have it be Alec Ingold and have it be Devane and along with Jeff Wilson or along with Jalen Wright. Durham Smythe as a blocker, I'm cool with. Let those guys be the players. Create the condensed formations and then you can use your speed to get on the edge. And then if you want to have your receivers that are your two star receivers to be a piece of that puzzle to run vertically, if they're going to cheat down, then you can do that and if you don't want to do that, then you can come downhill and you should be able to challenge that. They're not going to play with a nose tackle, but they, Juan Jones and Ed Oliver are very good football players, but if you could work doubles on them because you've got doubles on every player on the line of scrimmage because you got two tight ends in the game. That's what they did with some success down the stretch against Jacksonville. You should be able to do the same because I think Eric Armstead and Ed Oliver are probably comparable players from a spectrum of how good you are as an interior defensive lineman. Now, they're different. Ed's a little bit more quick-twitched, but if you're double teaming a guy and he's between the two of you, execute up front, execute your double team, you should get even more movement. They, Juan Jones, a good player, but if you're double teaming him or if you're back blocking him because you're pulling in some of your creating some angles, but if you're just going to run the zone, you better be darn well sure that you've got winning combos on the edge. I think there's more favorable combos to run on the edge against Buffalo than there are than there were against Jacksonville. So I think you're going to have a little bit more of a run menu, but I want to attack and I know Cam Lewis had a lot of tackles against Arizona. With all due respect, it's Arizona. I want to see you do it against us because I look at Jacksonville and what Miami was able to do it towards the end of the game against Jacksonville, and I think that's more of a close one for one than your backup nickel going against Arizona and getting tested in the ways that Miami is capable of if that's how they choose to build their offensive game. And I do think this is a game you're going to want to try to have some level of control of the clock. Now granted, Miami ended up winning up winning time of possession against Jacksonville because of how the end game sequence played and Jackson only played, I think, seven, eight offensive snaps in the fourth quarter. Can you play that game for a 60 minute game? Can we not make this 35, 33? Can we make this a little bit more limited possession type thing? You can borrow some pieces of inspiration for the win that you had at home against Buffalo in week two in 2020. I guess what was it, week three, 2022. For somebody to go to the length of the field, they're, they're not, I don't expect they're going to be a big fireworks offense this year. Now, Josh Allen's still absolutely capable of hitting home runs. There's a whole of the conversation about what you do against him. We'll get into that next, but from the offensive perspective, now I think you have an opportunity to get out on the edges. And if they're going to over commit and stuff the box, the plane to edges, let's run down a hill on them. Let's put more gaps out there. Let's run counters. Let's run power. Let's run lead. You showed the ability to do it now build out on top of that. And then you can build out different looks off of those run packages that have really not been a core staple of what you do. So is that the, is that the big wrinkle this year? Is there more of a diversification in your run game and the concepts that you run? We're all waiting to find out what it is, other than just the Von H and cash and passes. We'll see what Thursday gives us offensively. Now defensive matchups to attack and look at that's next here on locked on dolphins. Make sure that you stick with us. 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What I can also feel is the bind that the superstar quarterback that you have to account for in Josh Allen is going to put you in and nobody knows it better than the dolphins with Josh. Josh made a lot of plays happen with his legs against Arizona. Went back and we watched all the plays in which Arizona pressured Josh Allen. Go to chose to live on the edge a little bit and I think that's the thing that you're going to have to do. You're going to have to call some uncomfortable coverages and you're going to have to try to disrupt the timing and then you're going to have to be really disciplined after that happens to prevent big plays. So what does that look like? You're probably going to have to play some cover one. One safety on the roof to help clean up any vertical stuff but it's going to be a guy that's got to have some range that's probably going to be Javan Holland in those cases and you're probably going to run and run some five-man pressures. You're going to want to try to get a free runner, ideally not from depth. You run from depth against Josh. He's going to have too much space. He's going to put a move on that guy in the pocket or outside the pocket. You're not going to make the tackle. He's going to get outside the pocket and if you're playing man, man coverage, then he's going to run for 25 yards and if you're playing zone coverage, you're going to get sucked up and he's going to throw the ball right behind you or right past your head hole. Both blitz from depth. If you're going to pressure, I think you need to pressure with the intent of showing pressure. Play games with the center. I thought that a gap integrity, particularly on the right side of the offensive line, there was some opportunities for Arizona where they kind of stressed you with Osiris Torrance playing the right guard spot and Connor McGovern at center. Those guys really struggled individually with certain elements of the game. Torrance was called for three penalties in the game and I thought Connor McGovern got turned around on more than one occasion with where I'm stepping and helping and somebody expecting me to be there or not be there and then you're getting free runners through the A gap or he's dropping off to go help somewhere else and then the guard on his other side, which is David Edwards, doesn't have the angle to pick up the block. So playing some man coverage and saying, look, we got Jalen Ramsey. We got Kendall Fuller. We got Kate or Kohu who is at his best in man coverage. You got safeties that can cover Jevon Holland. You got Marcus May, you got Jordan Poir who I think is probably best to be a second level defender in this game specifically, unless you're going to play true to high zone and have him read and process Josh's eyes because he feels like he has a beat on when some of Josh's tells from practicing against him every year for all the years that Josh has been in the league. If that's the case and you want to try to do that, okay. But I would try to play matchups and I would try to play one cover one, which is one man for so man free. I would try to bring five man pressures and you have to rush the upfield shoulder of Josh out because if you rush the midline or if you rush the back half shoulder against Josh, he's going to step up. You're not strong enough to pull him down and then he's going to get into his exit ramps off the, off the outside the pocket. This is the kind of quarterback that you want to have to force to go backwards. Now he has the arm strength to do it and he's still going to have the athleticism to get outside the pocket more often than not. But give yourself a chance and don't rush him on the midline and don't rush him on the backfield shoulder. Arizona could have three more sacks on Josh Allen. If they rushed him with integrity and understood the angle that I'm coming in on is too steep to the center, to the goal post that we're playing against. And Josh is just going to slide. He's going to put a hezy move on me and slide and step up and then he's up and out. And then he breaks contained and that's where plays break down and that's where he's most dangerous. So rush the upfield shoulder, please. If we see a free runner that goes scorching by him because they don't break down and Josh just kind of slides in the pocket and then it turns into explosive play and we'll pull my hair out and I work real hard with my own hair loss treatment plan that we were talking about just a few minutes ago to get my darn hair back. I'll pull it out if we watch that. So as I think about the rest of Buffalo and them offensively, they are a little bit of an unknown because of Joe Brady, but there's a bigger proof of concept than there was against Ryan Nielsen's defense with Jacksonville last week. Brady had the offense the last half of the year and I think what is very prevalent is they want to win on first down and run the football on first down. They like to run the ball. They did not take a lot of shots down the field in this game. Josh could have had one late in the game with them up trying to kill the game and put it out of reach and he threw a check down underneath the tie Johnson and the ball was dropped and it was incomplete and they had a runner against man coverage thrown up the mailbox and Josh didn't see him. The only shot they did take was an extended play within the pocket where Josh kind of double hitches up tries to throw a big post to Marquez Val the scantling and he misses the throw because his formation or his foundations off because he's moving as he throws the football. The big mystery for this game is Josh Allen and his hand. He has an injured left hand and it happened when he landed on his hand during a scramble for a touchdown against Buddha Baker late in the game. You've seen pictures and videos of him in practice. He's got his middle finger and his ring finger or tape together. He's wearing a glove. A tape his hand, it's some kind of hand injury. Can you force Josh when he runs? Can you attack the throwing hand to force him to put the ball in the other hand? If that's the case, can you then punch the ball out? Can you great turnovers that way? Is there some way in which you can plan how you're going to try to load rushes to force him into more compromising situations with that left hand? Just know if they get up in shotgun and they run jab motion from right to left, he's probably not going to catch the ball and hand it off because that would require him with his left hand with the injury that he has to extend the ball for the exchange. I don't know what that looks like. That's up to much smarter people than me, the people that actually do this and work in the building to figure out, but that's the X factor for me, and that's what I'm looking for. Can they find ways to make that be a variable in the game? If they do, I think that boosts your chances. I also don't know how much quarterback run game we're going to get. They like to run a QB power and pull the tackle around and get Josh downhill. Are you going to get a lot of that? If you're going to get a lot of that, can you put big hits on him? That's up to David Long, Jordan Brooks, Jovan Hyland, Jordan Poir, whoever your nickel is. That's up to those guys to get the hits if they're going to choose to run him and hopefully make him feel uncomfortable so that he can be just off down the stretch on a handful of plays that may be big plays in the game, provided you score enough points. Have some final thoughts. We're going to get into that next year on this episode of Lockdown Dolphins. As we prep for week two against Buffalo tonight, stick with us. You've heard us talk a lot about Fandall America's number one sports book. Right now we have something a little different for you. It's all through September 22nd, so you get about a week and a half. All Fandall customers can bet $5 and get a free three week trial of NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. 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I wish, I wish it wasn't quite as lopsided between these two teams in recent history because I would sit here and I would point to short week at home, extra prep, early season for extra wrinkles for dolphins, injury to Josh Allen's non-throwing hand, injury to Matt Milano, injury to Taren Johnson, no Stefan Deggs, Florida humidity, if not now a week night game, if not now when, if not now when. And I want to believe because the dolphins, they gutted that defensive death chart. Patricia Wilkins is gone, Jerome Baker is gone, Xavier Howard is gone. And those were some of the faces of the last iteration of the dolphins defense that has kind of been the core and staple players for the Josh Allen territory over the dolphins. In their plays, they're very different players like Kendall Fuller, very different skillset. I think he and Jalen Ramsey can combine to have very contrasting strengths in matching up and trying to match personnel if you're going to try to play main coverage and match personnel against Buffalo. Colleis Campbell versus Christian Wilkins. I'm not going to see here and say that you won't miss Christian Wilkins tonight. And the thing that Christian seemingly did better than anything against Josh was get under his skin. I don't know that you need to do that. I would rather you just beat him and win the game. But you felt the Colleis Campbell presence early on. The Colleis Campbell presence was early in the run game. And that's a player that can be drawing assignments against Osiris Torrance. I think that's the potential to savvy rep opportunity. Osiris Torrance kind of kicked Christian Wilkins, but the first time they play. Wilkins got him back the second time they played, but if Wilkins can have that kind of exchange across two games with Osiris Torrance, can that be a matchup that Colleis Campbell and his size and his length and occupying throwing windows, even if he's not getting home? Because I don't expect them to get in a phone booth and Iso and tackle Josh Allen, but can the length in the pocket, around the pocket impact the quarterback? You should be able to turn him free. And then with Jerome Baker versus Jordan Brooks, we didn't really get into a lot of that with the defensive plan and how to rush Josh Allen. But there's a height weight speed element with Jordan Brooks that did not exist with Jerome Baker. Jordan Brooks, a bigger player and he's a faster player than Jerome Baker. So if you're going to mug those guys up and you're going to turn somebody loose and you're going to drop somebody out, can he take shallow and kind of sit in the middle of the field? I don't want to say serve as a spy, but be an underneath hole defender who then can convert into a pursuit player against Josh before he gets outside can take. But you still have coverage responsibilities if the back releases that is not putting that player in a one to bind. I want to believe, I want to believe this is the game that it happens, but they need to prove it. They need to go out and win the football game and I don't care what it looks like. If you tell me that the Dolphins take care of business and they beat the Bills at home to move to 2-0 and then have a week and a half rest before you go play Seattle and then you're home against Tennessee and then you're playing against New England and then you have your buy, it will be celebrated accordingly. It will not be a small accomplishment because of all of the narratives around the football team. Can't be good teams. Can't beat the Bills. And those things are said for reasons because that's the path that you've taken to get to this point in time. And I hope this is the time for us to change that narrative. But it's up to them tonight to play inspired in the way that they're capable of and not start slow the way that they did against Jacksonville. We'll see what happens. Kyle Krabs, you can keep it locked in. Right here on Lockdown Dolphins, it is your team every day. I will be back for post game show tonight after the game. Greece will have the postcast on Lockdown Sports Miami. That postcast will also show up in the Lockdown Dolphins YouTube feed. So don't panic. We see podcasts. It's not for me. It's the postcast. We'll have all your coverage for the Dolphins after their week 2 contest against Buffalo tonight here on the Lockdown Network. It is your team every day. Talk to you all again soon and go fans. You can listen to this Lockdown podcast and free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. 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