Miami must win and keep winning to make the postseason
The Miami Dolphins playoff hopes are on life support, but they earned a real jolt of momentum to their 2024 Season with their Monday Night victory on the road vs. the Ram in Prime-Time.
Is this the start of better things to come or just a blip on the radar?
Miami will must take one game at a time and notch two wins in a row against Las Vegas Raiders in Hard Rock Stadium this Sunday. The good news is the Raiders are one of the worst teams in the league with only two wins. We only have 3 wins and shouldn’t boast too much, but the Phins went without their starting quarterback for 4 games. On the flip the Raiders are a hot mess with their starting quarterback. Still, they are a scrappy team, so even though we should win this one, the Phins will can’t look past this game.
While Miami is clearly better than Las Vegas, they must bring their A-game week in and week out until the season is over to redeem themselves because they’ve used every one of their mulligans already.
So, what should we look for this week against the Raiders?
Raiders are wounded & talent deficient, but…
The best bookie services opened the Dolphins line this week at -7.5 and it is currently sitting at -8. If the Dolphins want to have any type of chance to stay in the playoff hunt, they need to take care of business and defeat the Raiders. The line is very good sign that they will, but nothing can or should be taken for granted.
Miami’s defense came alive last game against the Rams, and they are going to need to build off that performance. The defense creating turnovers and getting to the QB and making sacks was a huge key in the win, something this Defense has failed to do for most of the season. Miami must continue to generate pressure because they can lead to game changing sacks and turnovers.
On the downside, there hasn’t been much said at all about when Chubb will come back, and sadly he has been missed.
Offense AND Defense MUST work together!
On offense they have shown flashes of what they are fully capable of, but now with two offensive linemen hurt, things are not going to get any easier for Tua and the offense. Miami needs to find a better way to get Tyreek Hill involved in the game, early and often. Hill has clearly been more productive since Tua has been back in the lineup but was pretty much shut down on Monday night with only 3 catches on 4 targets for 16 yards.
Hill has been a great teammate his entire time in Miami and has not been a diva receiver demanding the ball. They must find a way to get him the ball more or maybe that will change. Hill is getting paid too much and is too dangerous to see only 4 targets in a game. I know it’s smart to spread the ball around, but it’s been proven before Miami can win a lot of games when Hill has a big game and gets a lot of touches and targets. I think that will change this week and hopefully going forward as well.
Hopefully then we can get Waddle on track too.
On the plus side of things, Isiah Wynn as returned to practice and a couple of the rookies started to bite in the last game. Malik Washington scored a rushing touchdown where he showed a nice 5th gear, and a crucial first down catch for 17 yards late in the game. On defense Chop Robinson got another sack and did a good job creating pressure on multiple plays rushing the QB. He now has two sacks in his last two games, and it’s visible his confidence is growing and he is trending in the right direction, which is something our pass rush definitely needs.
Can the good trend continue? And for how long? How high this team can take it will determine a ton. One week at a time is all it should be about for the Phins and their fans. Let’s see what this 2024 team is made of!
What are the rest of the Miami Dolphins news fans thoughts about whether Miami can get another win this Sunday and realistically drag themselves back into the playoff hunt?