Red Hot Dolphins Face Tough Choice, Task On TNF
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It doesn’t look good for the Miami Dolphins this Thursday.
They are on the road against the reigning AFC Champions on a short week, after a grueling,
mentally and physically exhausting contest with division rival Buffalo. Furthermore, the Bengals
just had their best game of the season thanks to a confidence boosting beatdown of the New
York Jets. Meanwhile, plenty of Miami’s top players are banged up, starting quarterback Tua
Tagovailoa foremost among them. As of this writing, his availability for Thursday is still very
much in doubt. What’s more, all of these players are being asked to leave homes and families
behind as a massive hurricane impacts Florida. Bottom-line, there are plenty of reasons to
doubt the Dolphins chances this week. It’s no small wonder the Bengals are favored in this one,
and it’s actually difficult to point to one reason to feel good about Miami’s chances.
Except this: for three weeks, the Miami Dolphins have arguably been the best team in football.
Both ProFootballTalk and ESPN bumped Miami up to No. 1 in their power rankings this week,
awarding them full marks for doing what was starting to look impossible: beat Buffalo.
Tagovailoa has morphed into one of the most efficient passers in the league, and is on pace to
put up career bests in yardage and touchdowns. Second year players Jevon Holland and Jaylen
Waddle are putting aside sophomore slumps and instead proving that they could well be on their
way to becoming superstars. New head coach Mike McDaniel? Looking every part the savior he
was billed as when he took the job. Hard to argue with any of this as the Fins are 3-0, the last
undefeated team left in their conference.
So how should, and will, the Miami Dolphins ultimately choose to approach this game?
So how should, and will, the Miami Dolphins ultimately choose to approach this game?
You can certainly make the case for caution. This 3-0 start is way beyond the expectations of
anyone outside of Dolphins headquarters, and likely many within it. Resting up and getting
healthy now, all but accepting a loss in the name of ensuring players are more likely to be
available for the rest of the year, could be prudent. You see it in MLB and the NBA all the time,
load management and rest days for their stars.
Then again, those are leagues with 82 to 162 game regular seasons. Every single game is
precious in the NFL, capable of significantly improving or reducing playoff odds. Reaching 4-0
would give the Dolphins some ridiculously favorable odds of advancing at season’s end, with a
very soft middle schedule to look forward to. Plenty of time to rest then. If the Buffalo Bills aren’t
allowed to complain about playing in sunshine, then the Dolphins surely can’t complain about a
short turnaround.
Keys to the game? Fortunately, a similar defensive attack to what worked against Buffalo should
work against the Bengals. Thursday night teams traditionally don’t have the luxury of doing
much different scheme wise, and the pros and cons of that are equal for both teams here. Miami
is easily the best defense Cincinnati has faced. As good as Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase are,
the Dolphins can’t say the same thing about the Bengals offense. They’ve seen Josh Allen and
Lamar Jackson the past two weeks, taken their best shot, and triumphed. The only hedge here
is Joe Mixon, who is far and away the best running back Miami has seen in 2022. Stopping him
will be essential. Especially given the run game woes they’ve had the past couple seasons, and
the running back talent up ahead on the schedule.
All of which adds up to Miami's offense needing to step up in a big way. This has the makings of
a firefight, so that alone makes it important that Tua lead the Dolphins to at least four
touchdowns. But there’s more to it than just scoring. Miami’s defense was on the same
sweltering field that Buffalo was this Sunday, for nearly forty minutes. The Dolphins must do
much better in terms of time of possession Thursday night to help keep the defense fresh. Most
of Miami’s 2022 scoring drives have been quick strike attacks- a welcome sight for long
suffering Dolphins fans. This would be a great time to get the running game going though, not to
mention some short passing success underneath. Whatever keeps the clock moving.
Prediction? Dolphins 30, Bengals 27.
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