Phins can’t look past the Jets… especially with Holland and Waddle missing
The Miami Dolphins, along with three other teams, were the last teams in the NFL to have their bye week. The late bye week was meant to benefit Miami this weekend when they host the New York Jets. But the flux of players in and out of the lineup all week because of Covid protocols has diminished this helped a ton. While Myles Gaskin and Savon Ahmed are in again, Javon Holland and Jaylen Waddle are now out, along with Phillips Lindsay.
Holland and Waddle are critical players lost in a very critical game!
Miami won’t be in cruise control vs. Jets
Even though the Dolphins didn’t play last week, things tightened up in the last month’s push for the playoffs, with the Bengals, Ravens, Bills, Steelers and Raiders all losing this past weekend. It is nice that after a 1-7 start the Dolphins still have the opportunity to play a meaningful game this upcoming weekend. The Dolphins can’t really think about the playoffs, but basically each of their last 4 games should be treated like a playoff game, because the reality is they have no margin for error.
And without Holland and Waddle, both the offense and defense will have a much harder time against the Jets. Remember the last game against the Jets was fairly tight 24-17 win.
The Jets will have their rookie QB Zach Wilson starting this time. On paper Miami’s defense should feast on Wilson. He has a strong arm, but is prone to the rookie mistakes, only throwing 6 touchdowns to 11 interceptions and has been sacked 28 times!
Phins defense must lead the way, but the offense needs to produce too!
You can bet that Miami must keep up the pressure and make Wilson as uncomfortable as possible.
The various pph bookie services actually have the Dolphins as a double-digit home favorite at -9.5, something we have not seen all season. Despite Gaskin and Ahmed retuning, we haven’t had much of a running game all year. Missing Waddle stings more than if Gaskin and Ahmed. It will be very interesting to see how the three OCs gameplan without Tua’s security blanket. Miami is going to have to get extra creative this week without Waddle.
Even though the Jets are not a good football team, Miami needs to stay focused and just take care of business. If they can continue to play lights out on defense and have Tua continue his streak of efficiency, then they should be able to come out of this game with a victory. Anything less and the remaining three games on the schedule will be meaningless.
Do the rest of the Miami Dolphins news fans think Miami can continue this momentum after their recent bye week or is this the ultimate trap game?