Once a division foe, Dolphins-Colts matchups have been scarce as of late. The road team won each of the last two games (Colts at Hard Rock Stadium in 2021, Dolphins at Lucas Oil Stadium in 2019), as Miami looks to make it three straight for the visitors in this tilt from downtown Indianapolis.
Here's what the Dolphins are saying ahead of the Week 7 trip to meet the Colts.
Bye Week Boost
Head Coach Mike McDaniel: "When your team collectively is trying to battle through some adversity, that doesn't go away with one week… It was a highly motivated post-bye Monday practice, so more spirited, more focused, as it should be because you don't get into this profession – anybody involved – to have things happen and to hope for better circumstances. You've got to put the work in and I think the work has matched the vigor to get our ball better and that's what we'll be sweating through (Monday)."
Wide receiver Tyreek Hill: "The great thing about the NFL is it's going to continue on going, and obviously we get a chance to learn from our mistakes from the past and get better from it. We've got a great head coach who does a great job of holding himself accountable, holding his players accountable. (Monday), we had a great day of practice. Things aren't going to go perfect, but I believe our operation was great, guys were getting out of the huddle good. No pre-snap penalties as far as false starts from the wideouts, the running backs, the linemen, so I think (Monday) was a good start to where we used to be."
Quarterback Tyler Huntley: "It was great to have the bye week when we did, it gave us time to get a break. I got time to move into my house, got settled in and able to get into my playbook."
Scouting the Colts
McDaniel on Colts Defensive Coordinator Gus Bradley: "This is a guy that players play for, and you can see it on the tape and it's a consistency over 12 or however many years I've gone against him. That's pretty obvious. I've been very impressed with the Colts football team in general, in all three phases, but in particular you can see how Gus Bradley has always wanted to play football."
Safety Jevon Holland on facing Colts QB Anthony Richardson: "Just extending the plays, that's really kind of the difficult part. A lot of the time like in zones or whatnot, if we're in a big zone and they spread the field, it opens up the middle for him to run so that makes it difficult. Obviously, we've got to come off coverage and make the tackle. If he can extend plays and keep his eyes downfield, we've got to cover for longer, so just that and even in the front, they've got to keep their run lanes and that's hard for them because a lot of the time, there are gaps where they can go make plays on the quarterback but because he's so athletic it's easy for him to evade and get into open lanes."
Defensive tackle Calais Campbell on Colts RB Jonathan Taylor: "He's one of the best I've ever faced – different level of speed, great vision, jump cut, acceleration, break tackle, he has it all. With the ball in his hands, he's a threat to take it to the house every time. I've had some good games against him and some bad games against him and I don't know what happens, I don't know what his injury is. We just started to break the tape down on them, but if he plays, he's probably the most talented back we'll face all year."
For more on the Dolphins search for a second-straight road win, download the Drive Time Podcast with Travis Wingfield, available wherever you get your podcasts.
