The Dolphins welcome the Falcons back to South Florida for a game that counts in the standings after a preseason meeting in August produced a 37-17 win for Miami at Hard Rock Stadium. The game followed two joint practices across the street at the Baptist Healthy Training Complex where Brian Flores and his team got a firsthand look at the Week 7 opponent.
On Friday, Flores discussed the Atlanta offense and the challenges presented by a unit that has run 50 plays out of four different personnel groupings -- the only team in the league who can make that claim.
"They are very versatile," Flores said. "They have a lot of different groupings and they do a good job in each one of those groupings. They create matchups or try to create matchups or mismatches. They are balanced. They do a nice job really across the board offensively, defensively and in the kicking game."
Flores also addressed the latest rumors swirling around the Dolphins with regards to the quarterback, and emphatically backed his starter, Tua Tagovailoa.
"I don't really get into rumors," he said. "Tua is our quarterback. We're happy with our quarterback situation and I'll leave it at that, which I've said multiple times."
Thursday, I had a chance to ask some inside football questions to a few of the Dolphins players – here are their answers.
Jaylen Waddle on finding the pylon on flat routes: "All I be thinking about is just making sure I'm getting there and ball security, of course. Just a few things, making sure I come up with the ball honestly."
He continued to discuss if he could feel the defender when his back is turned: "Yeah, I've got a good idea of where they are just based on the coverage and where the ball is placed. I think a lot goes into it, just where the ball is at and where I catch it at."
Liam Eichenberg on the process of corrections: "It's kind of just based on personnel. It kind of depends on – it's tough because you have your assignments and you have specific things you need to do based on alignments and stuff like that. Kind of like what I was saying with a guy like (Josh Allen), maybe I should have taken different footwork and maybe made a different call. That is kind of something that you talk about after the game."
Zach Sieler on Christian Wilkins' Year 3 improvement: "He's worked on his technique a lot. I'm sure you guys see that and see how his progression is with his hands, his feet and his vision and reading the offensive players. That's something I think has been a huge thing for him this year. He's been doing really well at that."
Malcolm Brown on what goes into short-yardage execution: "Just pure heart and will. I think it just comes down to a mentality. I feel like you get into certain formations, certain plays, certain situations. There are times where the whole stadium may know you're about to run the ball and you've got to get it done."
Emmanuel Ogbah on value of joint practices ahead of this game: "They're a different team. They improve every week. They do a lot of good things and we've just got to do a good job stopping the run, rushing the passer well this week. We're definitely going to use some film during joint practices, but they're a different team now so we'll see."
