To get to .500, the Dolphins have a tall hill to climb.
A .500 record could re-boot the season.
The Miami Dolphins will have a short week this week, because they will be traveling to Cincinnati to take on the Bengals on Thursday night at 8:25pm. Both teams have a 1-2 record and the loser will clearly sink to 1-3, which will mean the loser will have little room for error the rest of the season if they want to have a chance to make the Playoffs.
The Bengals have been a very good team for many years, and on paper they have a better team than Miami.The Dolphins secondary is going to have their hands filled with AJ Green, who is one of the best receivers in the game and will be a match-up nightmare all evening.The Bengals also have two capable running backs in Hill and Bernard, and since the Dolphins rush defense is still ranked at the worst in the league, the Bengals are going to make it a priority to take advantage of our deficiencies.
On offense, the Dolphins are going to have their hands full going against a talented defense.The Bengals have talent at all levels of the defense, starting with their DT Geno Atkins, who is a human wrecking ball up front in the middle of the defense.Then they will get back LB Vontaze Burfict from suspension, and will pair him with LB Karlos Dansby and Rey Maualuga. The Bengals are loaded in the secondary with Kirkpatrick, Jones and Ioka. This is going to sound like a broken record, but Miami needs to find a way to start the game strong on offense, and get the running game going.The Dolphins used a committee of backs against the Browns, and I assume they will take the same approach this week.
The one wild card is our Defensive Coordinator Vance Joseph who was the secondary coach for the Bengals last year. He should have some inside information on their offense and defense, and this “may” prove to have “some” value on game day.
The best pay per head software in the world opened this game at -7 for the Bengals, and as of Wednesday afternoon it has inched up to -7.5 for the Bengals. This is going to be an extremely tough game on a shortened week, and especially with multiple injuries across the Offensive line, and Linebacker group. With that being said, if I were a betting man, I would not be betting on the Phins this week to get too .500 — despite what my heart wants. Marvin Lewis the coach of the Bengals has been the head coach in Cincinnati since 2003, and his extensive resume of coaching experience will also be a bit too much for our Rookie coaches in Adam Gase and Joseph to handle in their 4th game. What is the rest of the Miami Dolphins News fans thoughts about this upcoming game?