The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Local Hour: The Best Game Of The Weekend

Episode Date: September 15, 2025

"If I kick my dog, he'll kick back. Trust me." So, the Miami Dolphins stink. And Tua is cooked. And Mike McDaniel tries and fails to take responsibility. And Tyreek Hill is not the same. And the de...fense is abysmal. And Greg wants to fire a coach. But other than that, things are going GREAT. Today's cast: Dan, Greg, Zaslow, Chris, Billy, Jeremy, and Mike. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:01:36 Mike, you know I have one rule to live by, right? Don't place parles on multiple long shots. Don't say a game is one when it hasn't hit triple zero. Always drink your Yeagermeister ice cold. That's the rule. Everything else is merely a suggestion. Everything else? Everything else.
Starting point is 00:01:52 Wearing clean underwear every day. Well, that's just a personal decision. Brushing your teeth. Obviously smart, but not a rule. Never pee-pee on an electric fence. Okay, maybe there are two rules. But the one that is 100% that I insist on completely, Yeagermeister must be drank ice cold.
Starting point is 00:02:08 Or don't drink it at all. Damn, that's cold. Exactly. You're finally starting to get it. Drink responsibly. Yeagermeister liqueur 35% alcohol by volume imported by mass Yeagermeister U.S. White Plains, New York.
Starting point is 00:02:22 Woody, what was the best game of the weekend? The game that I was at, coincidentally, Dolphins, Patriots. Chris, what was? was the best game of the weekend? The game I was at Cyclones Warriors Friday night. Really? Yeah, it's hard to disagree with that.
Starting point is 00:02:37 Mike Ryan. Best tie in highlight history. Mike Ryan, you're not going to say, surely you're not going to say the same thing, and surely you're not going to say the University of Miami game. Well, since that's off the board, it wasn't a game that I went to, but I was locked in on all like 80 plus points of Texas A&M, Notre Dame. That was pretty good. Jeremy, what was the best game of the weekend?
Starting point is 00:02:57 The game that I was at, Marlins, Tigers, game. two. Eleven innings, Troy Johnston walk off his second homer of the game. You kidding me? Billy, what was the best game of the weekend? Oh, Dan. It's been since 2016 with the Don Schuilar Trophies back at FIU, the Shulah. Congratulations.
Starting point is 00:03:15 I can explain my game for you. How the hell can you guys not have Cowboys Giants on your list? Well, you didn't go to the Shulah Bulls. Cowboys Giants, Russell Wilson just had a career game and lost. Let me tell you about my game. my game, though. It's Lebitard show versus Ray Lewis. Yeah. Wow. You put the kids to bed. Did you get in his
Starting point is 00:03:35 face? Well, you don't even bring the kids because I'm drinking the whole time. Oh. It was a draw, wasn't it? Best draw and highlight history. But it was a comeback to it. Was Ray there? It was. I mean, there's just Shadow Show. We'll devote 15 minutes to it later in the show, right? The best game of the weekend was Cowboys and Giant.
Starting point is 00:03:52 Definitely, Tennessee, but the highlight game went. Come on. Guys, Marlon, Tennessee has never been George, Matt Johnson, Heardt. He said, right, but he's about to go back in the first of a game for mine, right before that
Starting point is 00:04:07 home. And now he's in the big least in the Q-O-Will and the area. You know, they call Stuart Johnston way, the least of it, because it was a really really good. Matt and Garland and Lovon came out and it's really a good.
Starting point is 00:04:22 It was a good. It was a little bit. They were sitting in the other day. But his family were lying on their head. They came out in that half. There was a lot of their ass. Right out of the cat. And he still put on
Starting point is 00:04:35 21 points in the third quarter. Fourth quarter, they got to continue to the battle. It's not going to happen. There's a headman for people. They'll be there. They'll be there.
Starting point is 00:04:47 It's over starting to get away. And they jump down to more than half a lot. And they say, That don't need a trophy is not leaving South Daytona field at pit bulls
Starting point is 00:05:01 you're right here and it is coming home and it is and then they rip that right off that trophy and they stop the shit out of it
Starting point is 00:05:13 you because that's what you do in the shulip off the helmet and you destroy the opposing team's helmet and you rip it off the trophy and that thing's not going anywhere for a year. This episode is supported by FX's The Lowdown, starring Ethan Hawke. Allow us to introduce you to Lee Raybon, a quirky journalist slash rare bookstore owner slash unofficial truthseeker, who's always on the tale of his latest conspiracy.
Starting point is 00:05:43 This time, his most recent expose puts him head to head with a powerful family that rules Tulsa, meaning only one thing. He must be on to something big. FX is the lowdown, premieres September 23rd on FX. Stream on Hulu. Mike, you know I have one rule to live by, right? Don't place parlayes on multiple long shots. Don't say a game is one when it hasn't hit triple zero. Always drink your Yeagermeister ice cold.
Starting point is 00:06:11 That's the rule. Everything else is merely a suggestion. Everything else? Everything else. Wearing clean underwear every day. Well, that's just a personal decision. Brushing your teeth? Obviously smart, but not a rule.
Starting point is 00:06:23 Never pee-pee on an electric fence. Okay, maybe there are two rules. But the one that is 100% that I insist on completely, Yeagermeister must be drank ice cold. Or don't drink it at all. Damn, that's cold. Exactly. You're finally starting to get it.
Starting point is 00:06:36 Drink responsibly. Yeagermeister liqueur 35% alcohol by volume imported by mass Yeagermeister U.S. White Plains, New York. Football is back, Jack Oh my, we're waiting for so long We're so damn excited that we put it in a song Don't need no checkdowns
Starting point is 00:07:04 Give me big hits and quarterbacks Keep your fantasy team from falling off the tracks Football is back, Jack Whether on the ground or through the air When the chips are down And you throw a prayer When your team is primed and on the heart It's four than ten you refuse to puck
Starting point is 00:07:35 When the shoulder pads and helmets crack That's how you know That football is back, Jack Let me hear you say Football Football is back, Jack This high is wild and out of control And we're going to ride it every week
Starting point is 00:07:58 Until we reach the Super Bowl Don't need no checkdowns Give me big hits and quarterbacks If you say this game's the best I'll say it's a gag Football is back jack Football is back Who forgot to turn on the narcissist cam
Starting point is 00:08:38 so that you could see how delighted Greg Cody was watching himself lip-sink poorly? Yeah, really bad. I don't know where to begin. today on what was the most important thing from yesterday. I think it's going to be Joe Burroughs injury. It might be the chief starting 0 and 2. I'm going to get some nominees from you guys in a second. But first, can we just eliminate the games I don't have to talk about from yesterday to make this a little bit easier because that one o'clock window was crack cocaine. Did you guys notice in the one o'clock window? Any of you noticed this? I throughout it was watching and I was
Starting point is 00:09:15 like, what's weird about this other than the nine, nine games? There's something weird about this. And I couldn't figure out what it was. I just sort of felt it. And then they gave the stat on television. The Giants and Cowboys haven't played at 1 o'clock in 20 years. Really? They've never been, yeah, I couldn't figure out what, like, I'm like, this is nine games, and that part's confusing to have this much going on. But also I couldn't figure out what looked wrong. And it's that the Giants and Cowboys are too. biggest markets and important to ever to moat like that. And I thought they played the best game, although I'm tempted to say Jacksonville, Cincinnati, because that is as inexplicable
Starting point is 00:09:57 a loss I've ever seen from a team that was better throughout the game that did just the assortment of things that the Jags always do to lose games. But what games can I eliminate? The Cardinals, Panthers, get out of here. Sunday night football sucked. Yeah, bad game last night. Out of here. good though. Atlanta Falcons. I disagree. I disagree. I say Minnesota's got a quarterback problem, but we'll figure that out as we go. See how Steelers wasn't very good. Well, that one's got some interesting stuff, though, and I'd eliminate Ravens Browns before I eliminated that. I'm tempted to eliminate Bill's Jets, but I can't for a couple of reasons. Just
Starting point is 00:10:35 a couple. One, and I know you guys have seen this before, but it bears repeating because it's a little bit crazy that Josh Allen is this. is a human being. Sauce Gardner had him lined up unblocked from the blind side. Josh Allen knows he's so big that he just spun out of it. And Sauce Gardner looked like a toddler trying to tackle the upper body of Josh Allen. To see a quarterback spin away from a blindside unblocked corner who's got him squared up and hits him in the back of the shoulders.
Starting point is 00:11:11 And to see the size of that roll out just in a little bit. in that game, explain to me again why the bills are going to own that division because none of the teams in there compared to the bills and the dolphins are about to start 0 and 3. But also in that game, a worthy stat of the day if we were doing that today. The bills have now won the turnover battle with Josh Allen, who was super reckless at the beginning of his career, 24 straight times. It hasn't happened since 1966. They're the best team ever with Josh Allen and quarterbacks for the most consecutive times, almost a couple of seasons of they always win the turnover battle, and it's just not something I could have seen coming three years ago.
Starting point is 00:11:55 Look, I don't have skin in this local market game when it comes to pro football, but we fire in a coach or what during this show? Thank you for that, because Zaslow, on Twitter, was going crazy yesterday. Why do I even do that? I don't lose sleep in the dolphins. I don't. Like, that emotional part of my fandom with the Dolphins does not exist anymore. I lost that a while ago.
Starting point is 00:12:19 This team beat it out of me, all right? But it's two weeks in a row now that, like, I'm melting down on Twitter with this stupid team that I know is terrible. Why am I doing this? Well, hold on, because Greg Cody has a different opinion than you. They're so stupid. But you are tweeting nonstop during the performance, pathetic performance from Tua, same story, nice stats throughout the the game and then with the game on the line, he was horrendous. There it is. Under 1.5 drives until
Starting point is 00:12:48 the booze come down, cash is in. Tua is terrible, completely cooked, horrific team, says Zaslow. All facts, by the way. I mean, like, I'm melting down, but it's all facts. How about A. Chan, stay in bounds. I mean, Tua led him perfectly to a game storing drive, and A. Chan, no spatial awareness runs out of bounds, cost the team the game. That was crazy. You're so... You have to be wondering where his safety is on this rock. Yeah, because I'm sure they
Starting point is 00:13:12 They would have stopped them when they got the ball back. That would have happened. So hold on. Greg, I know you have a different perspective on this. A. Chan has been great. A. Chan has been great the first two weeks of the season. A. Chan has been great at the goal line the first two weeks of the season, but that was rather inexplicable.
Starting point is 00:13:29 Those touchdowns are hard to come by except in the Pittsburgh game where a Pittsburgh kickoff returner decides that he forgets the rules and should have been fired on the spot. The touchdowns are hard to come by. and A. Chan stepping out of bounds there is as clumsy as an athletic person. He had so much room. Didn't Antonio Brown have this happen to him one time in a hundred-yard kickoff return where he stepped – he would have won the game in the snow, but he stepped out of bounds at like the eight-yard line,
Starting point is 00:13:55 and you're like, that's just clumsy. There was no one who was going to do anything to him there. Brandon Marshall did it one time with the Dolphins like 10 years ago, just inexplicably just kind of stepped out of bounds. It was no one there. It happens. It's not like he did it on purpose. But I'm glad to see that Levitard was able to rent that plane.
Starting point is 00:14:11 What did it cost you like just under 2,000, I heard, right? Like 1900 or something like that? Banner's the first home game of the season. Patriots go right down the field and score. That defense is going to be historically bad. That is not a good Patriots offense. That's a bad Patriots offense. I know that 14 to nothing touchdown, or I'm sorry, 12-0 because Borales was trying to help
Starting point is 00:14:34 the University of Miami and the City of Miami. make it 12-0. That second touchdown. Oh, you think there was some shadiness going on there? I'm, uh, well, hold on a second. Time to throw away all journalistic credibility and get reckless. Here is something we like to call reckless speculation.
Starting point is 00:14:54 Yeah, you're good. You're good. Borgalis, outside of Carlos Huerta, was the best University of Miami kicker I trusted the most. To see him miss two extra points, that close was super confusing to me. But the touchdown that made at 12 nothing was a thing of beauty.
Starting point is 00:15:10 Drake May lobbing a little parabola over there on third and long to make the catch. The Patriots, I was watching, when I'm watching this game, I'm thinking to myself, my God, everything that's happening in this game is exactly the things that happened to a coach who's under it and going to get fired because at the end of the game, they're just a little less disciplined than Braybill's team. They do the stupid things of the false start, the delay of game. You put it in second and 20. You can move.
Starting point is 00:15:40 And here's the thing about this. This one is the one that really hurts. I know that everyone is focusing today on the lack of discipline on the last drive. The greatest advantage that Miami's supposed to have, the only way they beat Josh Allen, is to exhaust him in the heat. At the end of that game, when they're tired, is when their discipline supposed to go. When they're tired, it's not supposed to happen to you when you're training all offseason in this heat. The advantage is that this season is over, Greg.
Starting point is 00:16:10 They're not going to rebound from O and 3. I dare you to counter it, Greg. Greg, they're not going to be the team that rebounds from O and 3 to make the playoffs. And by the way, it's going to be O and 3 that they lose by 50 in three hours. Hold on a second. That game hasn't been played yet. We don't know what's going to happen Thursday. Well, Buffalo's won 13, 15 of the last 17 meetings, so I don't like their chances on a short week.
Starting point is 00:16:31 But not to play the voice of reason here, but somebody has to, okay? at 0 and 2 I don't write them off yet at 0 and 3 I don't write them off yet although realistically if I'm a betting man of course I'm betting against them making the playoffs at 0 and 3 they obviously played better yesterday than in the opener it's a low bar
Starting point is 00:16:50 they couldn't do any worse than they did at indie but I think Tua to Tyreek looked more like 2023 than they have the past season plus except on the one bad throw that Tua made that he needed to make He only had five in completions, but two of the passes were backbreakers because Tyreek Hill is wide open. Took himself out of the game on an important drive.
Starting point is 00:17:13 He was so frustrated because Tua missed him when he was wide over. On that long completion, he horribly. It was a terrible, like the 47-year completion was actually a terrible throw. And he had an interception in the first quarter called back because of a penalty that had nothing to do with the interception. Right, but the interception didn't come. But it was an awful throw to start the game. Tua didn't have a great game. a much better game than in the opener.
Starting point is 00:17:37 I thought Tua's performance was encouraging. The problem is the defense is so... How can you do that, that? I don't want to do this and just jump down your throat, but, like, he looks so rattled in the pocket. Even on the plays that go well, he just is like... I don't know if it's all the concussions he's had,
Starting point is 00:17:53 but he just, like, he's frantic in the pocket. With Amex Platinum, access to exclusive Amex pre-sale tickets can score you a spot trackside. So being a fan for life turns into the trip of a lifetime. the powerful backing of Amex. Pre-sale tickets for future events subject to availability and varied by race.
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Starting point is 00:18:32 Don Lebertard. All right, we got to go back out there. big wake him up oh he doesn't want he doesn't want to be bothered anymore now it's getting tense because he didn't need that as a result he needs something that happens you can we bother are we bothering you right now turn on your microphone my microphone's on stugats paint the scene the paint the scene is i got to go to work good night this is the dan lebatar show with the stu gats Hold on, guys, because five incompletions, 300 yards, and he could have won the game at the end. And I understand.
Starting point is 00:19:16 And he has never looked this bad. I am not disagree. I love Tua, but he has never looked this bad. He's cooked. I'm not disagreeing, but if you guys are making this about Tua, give them that point total all season and watch them lose all the games because the defense cannot stop anybody. Like the Patriots are really bad offense. Daniel Jones now has two games, two Colts games, and two Colts games, with no turnovers
Starting point is 00:19:40 and no punts, twice as many of those in his Colts career as Peyton Manning. As Peyton Manning, Daniel Jones did this to the Dolphins right down the field with an offense that appears to be good. The Patriots just did it to the Dolphins with an offense that is empirically bad, one of the worst in the league. Here's the thing, though, and I got some of this on Twitter from Dolphin fans yesterday where I'm angry with Tua, and I've been a Tua guy. I'm angry with Tua because I know what I see,
Starting point is 00:20:09 and this is a quarterback who is not any good anymore. So I'm angry about that. But here's the thing, and I feel like you just alluded to it as well. The Tua thing is so much, yes, there are several reasons why this team is terrible right now, but the only one that really matters is Tua, because the defense can be terrible. Guess what? They could fix that in the next year.
Starting point is 00:20:29 The coach can be terrible. guess what? They could fix them next year by firing him. If Tua's terrible, there's no fixing it. Like, it's a major, major issue. So when I talk about Tua being bad, yeah, there's a lot of other things that are really bad with this team right now. But long term, we can fix those things. If Tua is terrible, there's no fix. Yeah, Tua was not terrible yesterday. He was actually pretty good. The defense lost that game and special teams lost that game. If you think Tua and the offense were to blame, yesterday? You didn't see the game I saw. The defense is terrible. They've had 15 series, opposing series this year and allowed 13 scores. In 15 series, they had two stops. Hallelujah. The defense is awful. The cornerbacks are awful. The offensive line was awful before it became injury prone. Those are the Achilles heels of this team. The past defense led by bad cornerbacks and the offensive line that can't have a running game. A. Chan can't run the ball yet.
Starting point is 00:21:29 he's done very well coming out of the backfield catching his screen passes so that pads his stats but they're an egregiously flawed team but yesterday Tua and that offense were not the problem they outgained the Patriots. All right I appreciate Greg's perspective here because it's certainly more interesting
Starting point is 00:21:47 than all of us being like this team's garbage fire everybody but we can see that you're a little bit more bullish on their chances and the season's not over but that was still a really bad loss to a team that no one. I mean, maybe some people have pegged the Patriots as a sleeper team, but the Dolphins entered this season with a hope and expectation that they would be better than Mike Vrable's first year in New England. Yes. Okay, you had banners flying over the stadium. We set the scene up perfectly. This was as toxic as it's been around the fan base in quite
Starting point is 00:22:17 some time. They have that performance. They lose the home opener. Should something be done about this team, either front office, head coach, roster move. Does someone, does someone pay the price because the fan base has found this start unacceptable? Yeah, there's no doubt that they expected to be 2 and 0 right now. And they were favored to win yesterday, albeit by a point in a half or two. There's no question that it's been a major crash, a dumpster fire of a start. Somebody will be fired if it continues. Being midseason?
Starting point is 00:22:54 It's possible. Answer his question, though. You're not there yet. Answer his question. one pays for what's happened so far. After two games, no, I'm not there yet. The reason that I'm stopping you is because of a couple of things. One, you say that's their Achilles heel. They are simply an Achilles heel. What isn't an Achilles heel for this team? Go ahead. I'm waiting. They have above average receiver room. Two is coming off a good game, no matter what you say,
Starting point is 00:23:22 a 317-yard game. You cannot say, but you can't say the two is one of the strengths right now. The whole team, I... Did you say great accuracy? Yeah. He missed like four passes. Like the deep one, the one over Tyreek's head in the middle of the field and he's wide open. He missed a total of five passes. No, no.
Starting point is 00:23:38 He had five incompletions. And they're protecting him even more than they've had to protect him. It's not a good thing when against that team at home, okay, you have no margin for error. Against the Patriots, no margin for error. You have to do everything perfectly. Part of the problem with the architecture of this team is that it. it has to do everything perfectly. Everything has to come out quickly. Everything has to protect Tua. When you say they're Achilles heel, they are an Achilles heel. When I compare that to
Starting point is 00:24:08 the University of Miami game, I am not prisoner of the moment when I say that is the most balanced football team. I've seen at the University of Miami in a long time. The dolphins are the opposite of that. Flaws all over the place. Flaws we can all know and a historically bad defense, okay? Daniel Jones has started his career with no punts in a game and no turnovers in the first two games. That is historically good. The defense of front seven is passably okay. Chubb has two sacks in two games. Let's fine tune it. It's the cornerback play that is a killer. It's the offensive line that is a killer. When you say they have an Achilles heel everywhere you look, that's not accurate.
Starting point is 00:24:56 They have a quarterback you can win with. They have a better-than-average receiver room, even though they botched their tight-end situation. And Greg, you think something about the quarterback that is less certain than just about anybody right now. Okay, but they're headed into this game against the Buffalo Bills, which Dan already highlighted. They look like an absolute wagon. We said this was basically a Waterloo game for all the powerful players in this franchise.
Starting point is 00:25:20 They are not favored to win this game against Buffalo. Do you look around and say, this is the right group of men, either in leadership positions or on the field, to be like, yeah, okay, we can save our season here against the Buffalo Bills. Because if they didn't win that game against New England with a way that the tide was rising around them, how do you think they can figure it out for Buffalo? Well, Zaz speaks for the fan base. I know he does.
Starting point is 00:25:44 And I speak for myself. And what I think is that, and I've said and written this forever, so this is not new from me. If the Dolphins don't make the playoffs, they have massive changes. Greer gets fired, McDaniel gets fired. That's a 99% certainty. The only question is when? After the bills, which everyone expects them to lose, they have a home game against the Jets, and then they play at the Panthers.
Starting point is 00:26:11 If they come out of these first five games, 0 and 5 or even 1 in-4, I think there could be a firing, an in-season firing, which is uncharacteristic. It hasn't happened in years. I don't think it's what Ross wants to do, but I think by five games in, the toxic surrounding this team will be too much to bear. I want to go back to Tua for a moment here and something that you said, because obviously, Tua was a lot better yesterday than he was in week number one. But, you know, you mentioned how Tua's performance yesterday was encouraging. We're not in year number two with Tua. Right.
Starting point is 00:26:51 This is year six. Yeah. He made the Pro Bowl two years ago, I'd remind you. But he also looked a lot better two years ago than he does now, which is the concern. Like, he does not look like he used to two or three years ago. And I think that's why people are saying he doesn't look good because he doesn't look up to the standard that we have set for him or that he's set for himself. That's the part, Dad, that's frustrating for me is it seems like you're just like, I made this prediction. So no matter what I see on the field, I'm just going to say it technically not done yet. It's what I'm seeing because I'm with you.
Starting point is 00:27:21 They could have won yesterday's a game. They could be one-on-one right now. I don't think anyone's really arguing, like, yes, this team could be a 7-19, but what I'm seeing from Tua, that it doesn't look like it used to. Something seems off with him. You don't see that? Greg is reasonable, and he is applying the perspective. You can almost all around the league for somebody like the Chiefs today, if you want to.
Starting point is 00:27:42 You can talk yourself into something. The thing about the dolphins that makes it hard is, after week one, nationally, everyone in the country was saying that's the worst performance that there was week one. It's the way that they are losing. If you're a coach in trouble, those two games are the disaster and what do
Starting point is 00:28:01 you need at the end to be one and one? You need your $250 million quarterback to once. Give you a game winning drive where you trust him. Either that. Because I don't have a lot of those, Greg. I don't have a lot of at the end of the game when everything's not perfect. Hey, too, do it in two minutes now. Do it quickly. Everyone
Starting point is 00:28:17 knows what you've got to do. Do it. Give me all the ones you've got of Tua leading marches down the field. I got the Ravens game where they scored the six touchdowns. That's a comeback that I remember. But give me all the ones you got that make you at the end of that game yesterday, do something different than what I was doing. I'm like, that game's lost. I don't believe Tua will go down the field.
Starting point is 00:28:36 I believe this team will do something to short circuit. And then they did all the things to short circuit. No, they did the drive. And then they did it do the drive because he was out of bound. Like we saw it happen. And then they're like, you know what? Forget what you just saw because he was six inches out of balance. So, yes, they get the 60-yard play, the fluky play from A-chan, which is about the only thing they can do.
Starting point is 00:28:54 Dump it off and see if A-chan can do something in the open field. And he's been really good as a receiver. And Billy's not wrong. This might be an entirely different conversation if A-chan stays in balance. But he didn't. And when he didn't, you saw a false start, delay of game, second-and-twenty. And you're like, they're going backwards. They're going to try and get 20 yards.
Starting point is 00:29:13 Now six yards at a time. That's how they're going to get the second and 20. They're not going to go down the field. it's going to be six and seven yards and they're going to put me in a situation where I'm watching two on fourth and seven and I'm like they're going to do something wrong here and then they do I want to play this sound of McDaniel after the game because he tries to take responsibility while blaming other people and this is a minute here of him trying to be the head coach and taking responsibility but not ultimately I look at absolutely everything falling on me so I don't see you know that that's the responsibility of the head coach that you go into knowing that That being said, I'm very frustrated with, you know, collected, you know, there's some basically coaches and players that did not execute communication in a very dire period of the game with the game on the line.
Starting point is 00:30:05 Our communication and our substitution was not up to par. And ultimately, that is my, you know, I hold all responsibility for all things. Specifically, the penultimate, fourth down, was there a delay and decided to go for it, getting the play call, breaking the... That's kind of where the frustration lies for me. It wasn't deciding that cost us or a late play call, which that happens at times, but this was not one of those times.
Starting point is 00:30:37 Not a deciding problem. He's basically just like, just so you know, this wasn't a decision thing. The decision was made and it wasn't executed properly. Also, so that everyone understands, I'm ultimately responsible for everything, but I'm I'm also going to give you a list of all the things that everyone else did wrong, but you can come back to me because I'm the head coach, okay? So ultimately it falls on me. But everyone else, not a good job.
Starting point is 00:30:56 Oh, this is it, the day you finally ask for that big promotion. You're in front of your mirror with your Starbucks coffee. Be confident, assertive, remember eye contact, but also remember to blink. Smile, but not too much. That's weird. What if you aren't any good at your job? What if they dim out you instead? Okay, don't be silly, you're smart, you're driven,
Starting point is 00:31:17 you're going to be late if you keep talking to the mirror. This promotion is yours. Go get them. Starbucks. It's never just coffee. Hit pause on whatever you're listening to and hit play on your next adventure. This fall get double points on every qualified stay. Life's the trip.
Starting point is 00:31:35 Make the most of it at Best Western. Visit bestwestern.com for complete terms and conditions. Don Libetard. I may take it one step further. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You're getting sexy about the moments. Go down. We haven't even gotten.
Starting point is 00:31:51 Stugats. Jason Sanders, you're unnoticed. Yeah. Oh, wow. Oh, my God. What in spite of him. Oh, wow. I love you, Duke.
Starting point is 00:32:05 This is the Dan Levitar show with the Stugats. So you were saying how you were just throw it to A. Chan and hopefully he makes something happen, right? which is basically what was going on in the game yesterday. Like every positive play was HN kind of making things just happen. So I decided to look up HN. He had 92 receiving yards on eight receptions. Do you want to guess how many yards after contact he had? Oh, okay.
Starting point is 00:32:30 So how many yards total? 92 total yards. I like this game. This is going to, after this, we're going to have a fun little experiment. Okay, I'm going to go 84. 84 yards after contact of his 92. Do you want to guess, Craig? How many yards after contact?
Starting point is 00:32:44 Let's say 58. 58. of his 92 were yards after contact, Dan? I wasn't listening to you because I was asking Chris to cut sound, and you knew I was doing that. You saw me doing that. Dirty move, really. I didn't know.
Starting point is 00:32:57 Okay, Mike McDaniel. Let's play the sound. He had 92 yards receiving how many yards after contact? I'll just tell you, 102 yards after contact. What? Yeah. What? He had more yards after contact than he had total yards receiving.
Starting point is 00:33:11 Well, let's give Tua the credit for all those yards. I was telling Chris Cody to play this sound because as this banner flies over the stadium and you lose that way, this is how Mike McDaniel sleeps at night. Absolutely everything falling on me. He's just like looking at the ceiling with one eye open. Absolutely everything falling on me. All right, I got a take. Someone needs to pay.
Starting point is 00:33:36 I'm not buying this. Look, you probably can't fire. Absolutely everything falling on me. You can't fire the head coach short week. Actually helps him here, despite we know that they're all going to lose that game. No, the move to fire the coach is Friday when they lose 40 to nothing. Okay. You fire the GM. Here's why. Every time I look up, every time I look up and check out the Pittsburgh Steelers, I see Jalen Ramsey making an impactful depoy type play. And I hear
Starting point is 00:33:57 you guys talking about how bad the Dolphins defense is. And I look up every time in black and gold, and I see that guy making a play. Also, Miami Dolphins tight end room. Two catches, 20 yards this season. It kind of seems like Janu Smith and Jalen Ramsey would help. And that was a very bad trade very early on fire the GM. You mentioned, you mentioned, yeah, Zaslo's in on fire everybody. Yes. And Jeremy's whispering to me that this is going to be the second coach that Tua gets fired because, as we mentioned, it's been six years.
Starting point is 00:34:30 Yeah, I mean, look, ultimately, like, Brian Flores looks right. Like, he didn't want to go to Tua. He believed that Ryan Fitzpatrick gave them a better chance to win. Chris Greer basically made him play Tua, and ultimately, given the offense where it was at, they were a worst team when Tua was on the field. Then Mike McDaniel hitches his wagon to I'm going to make Tua better. Now, ultimately, like, the real elephant in the room is the reason this guy looks worse is because his brain is scrambled. Like, you don't process this quickly after however many concussions. But at the same time, it's about the hitch you would stop talking.
Starting point is 00:35:09 No, actually, I'm trying to hit reckless speculation, but it's. not working. Dr. Tesh made a good point. Well, he just said his brain is scrambled, and I guess we can assume that. He doesn't look the same, but also his offensive line stinks. And, and... Look, you're making a bunch of bad decisions, right? Like, isn't that processing? I think so. I've made a lot of bad decisions in terms of how I've done the analysis of his entire career, because brain scrambling as an ingredient is not something we've had to do before very much in quarterback measurements. But yes, we're all doctors now. And when he misses Tyreek Hill and he was Drew Brees percentage-wise last season. He's the most accurate quarterback McDaniels ever seen.
Starting point is 00:35:53 The most accurate quarterback many of us have ever seen. And now there's more inaccuracy. Now we're all doctors and it's not his arm. It's his brain. And I don't know because it could be his offensive line. It could be that he and Tyreek are not the same as they were. If it wasn't but 18 months ago that that throw to Tyreek in a training camp was proof that to a can't throw the deep ball. That was 18 months ago. Even if ultimately to put the brain stuff aside, right? Like you make the comparison to Drew Breeze. You make the comparison to Drew Breeze.
Starting point is 00:36:24 The reason Drew Breeze was this elite all-time quarterback is he was reaching those completion percentages in an era where no one else was. Now you have these dynamic quarterbacks like Lamar Jackson, like Josh Allen, like Jalen Hurts, who ultimately are reaching the same completion percentages, but doing all of these other things that Tua physically cannot do. And that's the disparity. He could statistically continue to be this guy who only throws however many incompletions. But if all he can do is dink and dunk around the field, you're not going to be successful. It's not the same offense as it was a few years ago.
Starting point is 00:37:04 I understand like the offensive line is not very good right now, but man, they were picking up third and ten like it's nothing. And now it's all dinking and dunking. And look, I get it the offensive line stinks, but if you're a quarterback in your sixth year and you were the number five overall pick, the expectation needs to be a little bit higher than things are going to go well only if the surrounding circumstances are perfect. But, Zaz, it's worse than that.
Starting point is 00:37:30 Because when Chris is saying they can't fix it, they can. They might have the number one pick and they can fix it with the number one pick. But they've tied up so much money in this that they no longer have the greatest advantage that they had in the to a window, which is they had value at quarterback cheap. Now it's not that anymore. Now it's expensive and you don't trust it and you don't trust it at the end of games. And I will remind you that point total. is sufficient to win an NFL game. That defense is historically bad.
Starting point is 00:38:07 They haven't gotten to the tough offenses yet. Like, the Colts look improved. I'd like to see a pass rush against the Colts. I'd like to see Daniel Jones bothered a bit because I haven't seen a whole lot of that. He looks a lot different than he did with the Giants, obviously. Their skill guys are better,
Starting point is 00:38:24 but I haven't seen him bothered a whole bunch, a whole bunch, and I haven't seen the Dolphins defense bother anybody. They're not, to have two stops, going back to last season, going back to the end of last season, it was like 15 consecutive drives where they were allowing points. It's historically bad, Greg, and not the tough offenses yet. Right. So I am sort of wondering why we continue to blame Tua for this loss, because as you say, it falls on the defense and special teams. I would have loved it if Mike McDaniel in his postgame talk had said, hey, by the way, I just fired my special teams coach.
Starting point is 00:39:00 because guess what, we probably win that game if we don't give up a 90-yard kickoff return touchdown. Also got a punt return touchdown. Yeah, right before that. Right. And then they have the momentum and the stadium's going crazy for the first time all day. And they give up that kick return touchdown, inexcusable. I would fire the special teams, coach. I think also a place where someone like me comes after Tua in that spot is we know what they're paying him.
Starting point is 00:39:26 He's established in this league for long enough. It is a fair expectation, Greg. Correct me of them wrong. It is a fair expectation for that quarterback who this team has invested in to have two, not even one, two opportunities with just a couple minutes left to the game. It took 40 minutes and two weeks of badgering, but we've gotten Greg Cody to fire someone. He came home after a bag day of work. He kicked the pet dog, but yes, he fired a special team's coach. He fired a special teams coach.
Starting point is 00:39:54 There you go. If I kick my dog, he'll kick back. Trust me. That's who everybody's flying banners for right now. You have just appeased the fan base. I don't know what you guys wrote off this game as though they've already lost the bills. You know what we saw yesterday for the first time? I don't know if you guys caught this.
Starting point is 00:40:09 Josh Allen is human, and he bleeds human blood. He dinged his head. He had to leave for a couple plays. Did he break his nose? I don't know. He's back like a play later. The guy's not a human. It looked like he broke his nose.
Starting point is 00:40:21 Yeah, he had gauze in his left nostril. He just said he was human. The thing that I am concerned, about. I don't know what the point spread is going to be in that Bill's. A million. Twelve and a half. It's going to keep going up. I like Miami with the points. Of course. You're Homer Cody. The thing that's troublesome about the first two games
Starting point is 00:40:45 and what I keep saying is a historically bad defense, they haven't played the stars of the league yet. Jonathan Taylor, like they haven't had to stop somebody who's actually impossible to stop that that's a defense that's a sieve even though the great players on offense the best that they've played so far is it's Jonathan Taylor that's the best that they've played against so far well he's pretty good but I'm not no I'm just I'm saying that when the when those corners have to start covering receivers gotcha that are impossible to cover right that and tight ends that are impossible to cover you guys said you guys just said the dolphins miss John Hussmith. Yes, they do. And I also saw a different Miami team. The college one doesn't seem to
Starting point is 00:41:31 need a tight end at all. They're not doing anything with a tight end, but they've improved all those receivers. It's not just for Strepo running around out there anymore. I think Carson Beck targeted 15 different receivers and the message boards are like, we forgot about the tight ends. I mean, the Royal looked pretty good last year. And then you see what Cam Ward does. It's not about the numbers. I don't care how many points they put off. What a throw from Cam Ward. It's seeing guys around the league. doing things. They tell you don't throw across your body, Cam Ward.
Starting point is 00:42:00 I want one of those. I want a Cam Ward. Sure. You want everybody except Tua. Tua is out of the pocket a couple times today? And it's like, I'm doing the opposite. I'm like, oh, no! Like, I hate this.
Starting point is 00:42:14 Greg, he's awful with the game on the line, Tua. He's awful. And like, if we were to go back and look at the stats, what he is late in these close games, I'm sure they're going to tell us. He's awful. That part is empirical. That's not, it's not.
Starting point is 00:42:26 Right. It's not. You go ahead, even as Homer Coney, name all the game-winning drives of Tua, you remember. I don't catalog those kind of minutia. You're going to take a quiz. No, no, but I will say this. We're picking a weird time to get on Tua after he had an appreciably better game than he did in the opener. If that's the Tua with a couple of touchdowns and one interception and that. Greg, Greg, you need your $250 million quarterback to win you some games. It's literally his job. In games of the defense is terrible.
Starting point is 00:42:55 It's literally to his job. When you're paid like that, I'm sorry. Back off. I've told you, I'm mad. He fired the special teams coordinator. I'm not mad at Greg. He gave you something. I'm not mad at Greg.
Starting point is 00:43:07 There's going to be a scapegoat. Before they fire Greer and McDaniel in season, there will be a scape. Slow X out of here. Of the order of the special teams coach. You broke him down. You've been attacking the man for 25 minutes. I'm not mad at him. 25 years.
Starting point is 00:43:24 You made him the projection. of the establishment Miami Dolphins. Relax. He fired somebody. The only reason that I'm doing this so that, you know, I've always tried. You guys know this about me. I'm not the person who hyperventilates two weeks into a season. Yeah, you are.
Starting point is 00:43:43 Not usually. But now you are. But because, Greg, it's not that. Watching the games. It's not that they lost. It's not. It's the most catastrophic ways to lose. we haven't even gotten to the part where two a misses four games because something is like we haven't
Starting point is 00:44:00 even gotten to the part where the skill guys get hurt like that the season is over after two games and I don't think I've ever said that in my dolphin in covering the dolphins in years that you thought they were going to be like not even the one in 15 season I don't think I've ever said at oh and two oh no this is so calamitous they've got so many problems of the kind that you can't get over, including if you don't trust your quarterback and don't trust him late. I put it low on the list. They can't stop anybody. I think the most inexcusable part about all of this, though, is everyone saw this coming headed into the offseason. And that's why everyone was like, you need to replace Greer. And then as soon as the season ended, like the next day, Stephen Ross came out and
Starting point is 00:44:46 said, you know what? Everyone's safe. Everyone's coming back next year. And then the entire offseason went by with no adjustment seemingly except downgrading by trading away players. So this shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that this is how this is going. I mean, Greer, look, we know it's no playoff wins, his entire actually existence with the organization, not just as general manager. It's going to be another head coach that he hired, another one that he hired, fired, and he gave the quarterback $200 million, and it has proved to be dead wrong. How do you, and the rebuild is in year seven now.
Starting point is 00:45:27 How do you survive all of this? Greg, this stuff. You don't. You don't. The both of them are going to be fired at this continues. I'm just not ready to fire everybody after two games. I think that's the fundamental difference here. I don't disagree that it's a dumpster fire right now and that they look really, really bad in two key areas,
Starting point is 00:45:45 cornerback and offensive line. The only difference is I don't want to fire. People right now, and I was half kidding about the special teams, because that would have been so... BCCNU and Unimproved Dan Levitar show with the Stugas. Gamble on by Traffkins. Nothing good will ever... Just predict 0 and 17. Get on the record with that.
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