I look at this game as either the “Road to Redemption” or the “Road to Ruin”. I can tell you from my perspective, the final score as to whether it’s a win or loss is not what will decide this for me, but rather whether we show up and play a solid game of football, a competitive game, or once again we look totally outmatched.
The Dolphins and Bengals are 2 teams going into this game at 3-1. The Bengals earned their 3rd win in a thriller over the Atlanta Falcons, while the Dolphins were thrashed and embarrassed in the Devil’s Lair, Foxborough Massachusetts. The good thing for the Dolphins is momentum only lasts until the next game, and the Dolphins have a chance to rectify certain things, that they aren’t pretenders, they’re for real. The Bengals on the other hand, are riding a high, but that can be obliterated quickly if the Dolphins get the offense going.
The Dolphins made some personnel changes as recently as yesterday, cutting former 2015 2nd RD pick, DT Jordan Phillips. The Dolphins also promoted DE Cameron Malveaux from the PS, The Dolphins also signed OC Wesley Johnson, who started 15 games for the NY Jets last season, after signing OC Travis Swanson last week, now that former starter Daniel Kilgore is out for the season with a torn triceps injury. At the moment, the Dolphins are evaluating a number of veteran DT’s, to fill the space vacated by cutting Jordan Phillips, but have not yet signed one. Right now, we have only 3 DT’s, and only 3, because of the loss of DE/DTWilliam Hayes, so we’re left with Akeem Spence, Davon Godchaux and Vincent Taylor.
The offense just didn’t work last week, and you can assign blame to Adam Gase, or credit to Bill Belichick, and both would be appropriate. Since our offense has been predicated on speed, getting our speedy receivers in space, Belichick countered that by putting 5-7 DB’s, switching from nickel to dime to quarter depending on our offensive formation, and it completely shut down our offense. I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you that I wasn’t extremely disappointed with Gase for not having an answer to that strategy. Still, Gase has another chance this week to get the offense going. The Bengals have allowed 113 points in 4 games, for an average of 28.3 PPG. That got a little bloated from last weeks game against the Falcons, who put up 36, but the Bengals have a decent defense, but not a dominant one by any means.
We all know we have to do a better job running the football. On the other hand, I think it’s important to recognize that all those short passes at or near the LOS are truly just an extension of the running game. Some refuse to see that, but it is, nonetheless. The NFL is evolving, and very few teams hand off the football to a feature back 20-30 times a game. Almost every team has a committee of running backs, and very few backs in those situations get more than 15-20 touches, and that includes runs and pass plays. Even the teams that have elite RB’s don’t run as much as teams used to. Ezekiel Elliott and Todd Gurley are the only premier backs that have gone to 20 or more carries at least once, and the Cowboys are 2-2, while the Rams of course are undefeated. It’s about playing to your strengths, and unfortunately, here in Miami, our strength is NOT rushing the football. Our O-line has already taken 2 big hits, both of our offseason acquisitions, OG Josh Sitton and OC Daniel Kilgore are on IR. LT Laremy Tunsil has struggled with consistency, as has RG Jesse Davis and especially RT Ja’Wuan James. Our O-line just isn’t our best asset, but we need to get it to be serviceable at a minimum. I don’t think we can come out week after week and not run the football, that’s a recipe for failure. We cannot be one dimensional, as NE was so kind to point out to us.
Last week’s game tipped our PF/PA into the negative side, so we’re now allowing 22.5 PPG, not bad, considering we got blown out 38-7 last week, and we’re scoring only 20.5 PPG, also off kilter due to the lopsided score last week. Forget about all the stats, all of them, because this game our team has to show up and play competitive, physical football. I’m not going to dwell on the Phillips release, but the team showing poorly in 2 consecutive weeks will not be boosting this teams morale, or Adam Gase’s value to the team. We need to rebound, even if we don’t win this game, although winning it would be ideal.
Some have said Devante Parker could be the next guy to have his exodus from the team, and if you look at how little he’s been used, you would be hard pressed to notice if he was here or not. If the Dolphins would like to extract any value for Parker, it would be in their best interest to showcase him, and hope a team might be interested when his value is higher after a good game, rather than an all-time low as it presently is.
It looks like Bengals RB Joe Mixon is not likely to play this Sunday, which leaves veteran RB Giovani Bernard as the starter. They have remarkably similar stats in any case, but they lose the depth w/o Mixon. WR Tyler Boyd has recently become a favorite target of QB Andy Dalton. Talented TE Tyler Eifert is healthy (for now), and is beginning to round back into form. (OOPS! Eifert broke his ankle last week and is on IR) Tyler Kroft will replace Eifert at TE. The Bengals of course also have superstar WR A.J. Green, and newcomer, speedster John Brown. LB Nick Vigil, who I recall some liked here, is the team leader in tackles, and they also have DT Geno Atkins. The Bengals also have their starting OC injured, 1st RD pick Billy Price is out with a foot injury and he will be replaced by Trey Hopkins.
So which road do the Dolphins take this week, redemption or ruin? I should have been born in Missouri (The Show Me State), because until this team shows me they can compete with a better NFL team, I just don’t see it happening. Let the boos begin, and I hope I’m wrong, but . . .
CIN 30 – MIA 16
Finsmob Unleashed 
IF … I know, big if … we can contain a banged up Mixon and Eifert is really out, then we might have a chance in Cincy.
I originally had this as a road victory, but with “Little Tyler” balling, and our rushing attack anemic, maybe not. Minkah or someone needs to choke off those crossing routes.
I hope X can keep AJ from outright taking over the game.
Carrot top does throw a lot of INTs (6 already), so here’s hoping we get 2 and
they actually turn into points for us as well as blunting their drives. We need some Defensive TDs.
AT LEAST THREE defensive TD’s, by my count.
You can at least be sure that Eifert is really out. That was a real tough injury.
I didn’t read past the Rock in Rockphin
_____________________________________
Rockphin says:
October 7, 2018 at 9:26 am
2.0, 2.8, 3.7
That’s your power back starter average per run the last three games…..yeah it’s Drake and not the oline
Reshad Jones starts.
Torry McTyer makes first career start at CB.
Charles Harris gets first start.
Andre Branch inactive.
DeVante Parker inactive.
Chase Allen back.
The Dolphins with white jerseys and aqua pants.
AccuWeather, calls for mostly sunny skies from 1-4 p.m. with temperatures between 84-87 and winds of 5-6 mph. Yeah that was mid to high eighties.
Everyone get Oinky!!!
🐽💥👊
Go Dolphins!
I’m going to miss the first part of the game. I’m at the levee here in Charleston for the end of a car show. Hoping we get going early.
❤️🐬🏈
When you get home start doing laundry
Let’s play a good game today Phins, erase that shit feeling from last week’s shit performance.
Go Phins!!!!
Not been keeping up obviously. What’s going on with Wake?
30 year old knee!
And whatever up with his knee…. bad enough he didn’t even make the trip. Little concerning that.
So Minkah will play the role started the season at with McTyer starting at CB.
Pretty much — which means a whole lot of slot corner. But he’s sorta like Waldo too….. can pop up anywhere.
Hmmm….I’m sure Cincy will try to move people around to get as many AJ Green vs. McTyer matchups as possible. Phins will need to be diligent and try to minimize that. Should they just shadow Green with Howard, or try do some zone coverage stuff? Maybe a mix?
Lots of schemes Qs today both on O and D. Clear Howard at least wants Howard shadowing Green.
Son, I’ve been saying the same thing as you the last few days. We need to sustain drives, convert on 3rd down so we can run the ball more and score points! That will also help the defense that is currently down a few guys. I think we’ll need at least 24 points to win today.
GO PHINS!!!
HELL YEAH!!!
Lets see a little more Gore and Ballage in the backfield together!
Fins 28 – Cin 24
Kick some ass Fins!!!
Here we go.
Go Phins!!!
Grant holding his shoulder!
Sure wasn’t a lower body thing way he ran off.
damn man, I hope he’s ok
WTF – Gore is only a 1st down guy! 😉
Drake has the first easy if he catches that!
I liked the drive though!
There’s a polish parade outside of slatterys today
Hit that abuser!
I thought they corrected some of these mental errors
But looks like they reverted the last couple of games
McTyer with a good tackle.
It’s good to have Jones back!
Don’t know who the DB was but nice coverage
Frikkin phone can’t log in. Does tablet work ?? KIKO !!!!
Reshad makes so much difference back there and Kiko is so athletic.
Our Bend but don’t break defense comes up with yet another interception, lol
Let’s keep it up!
He went for 9 does that count
Go Orob. nice carry man.
Dilly Dilly
Good job Tannehill
great throw by Tannehill to even see Gesicki and then the rook with a steel grip.
See
Grant messed up that route. Whew on the dropped INT.
See!
Grant back in. Good to see , bad pass though
I don’t understand why they try that shit on 3rd down all the time
That ain’t play calling
That’s shit passing
No it’s shitty playcalling
We aren’t designing plays to get 1st downs and sustain long plays
Everything is designed for a speed to break tackles or beat some one deep
ok we are at least moving the ball some on offense and keeping good starting field position.
2nd and 3 and we throw. SMH
I was thinking the same thing
That was a good time to continue running the ball
We willhave to find a way to keep our offense on the field in Landrys absence,
I see We aren’t there yet, 🙁
I don’t know why you keep referring to Landry
This is exactly what we did last year too
Bad play design
Last year we moved the chains better than this, and this year we don’t.
You know why I refer to Landry, because he is the guy that got 220 first downs for the Dolphins. If we didn’t want him, We should have brought someone in to replace him, We didn’t and now cant stay on the field more than a frigging hot minute.
I’m not asking for Landry back, I’m asking why we didn’t bring someone in to convert first downs
You should be very careful on 3rd down and do whatever it takes to get those yards.
Piggy,
Yep, that’s where you try to set a tone. Give your OL two plays to get 3 yards and lean on the defense.
Every week we do this stupid stuff early in the game and leave our defense on the field the whole half
Let’s go defense!!! Make something happen here with the Bengals backed up.
Mannnnn we had that stopped, but somehow Green got open.
Malveaux with a nice hit. I hope he is jacked up to try to show out and stick on the 53.
McTyer again with a nice stop.
a 3rd down STOPPPPPPPPPPPP.
wtf is that?
throw the red flag.
can’t ovetturn that call
CFL You could challenge , but that is a whole different can o worms
There’s a dumb penalty
last week the redlegs gave up a blocked punt from that lane so we went for it.
Got to come at an angle so you don’t touch the kicker
B’s call# 1
Why do the refs think the punt went off at such a funky angle?
also he got blocked into him and also the punter flopped like a dead pansy flower.
I guess you can challenge that
I see – he was pushed into him
Out of a 15 minute quarter, we only held the ball a little over 5 minutes. That’s horrible
I’d be ok if we were scoring TD,s with these big plays, but, We aren’t doing shit on offense
No angle available to prove it , did not know they could challenge that
I guess bc it’s not roughing it’s running into – you can challenge it?🤷♂️
Why challenge that? Bad choice.
David
I don’t think we moved the chains better last year
I remember being shut out quite a bit in the first half last year
Landry was a good player – but they weren’t using him well last year either. It really doesn’t matter if it’s landry or Wilson the team doesn’t use right – the results are the same
You can’t deny Landrys 220 first downs, they are permanent stats. I remember him as a guy that got all these first downs and helped us stay on the field. You think no differance? Ok, great, then who is going to get 220 first downs for us here? I don’t see the guy, who could it be now, who could it be now, I don’t see him
This is the problem of TOP, we didn’t want to pay a guy, AND we didn’t replace him either
I thought Allen altered that punt by touching the ball watching it live. Couldn’t really see the replay clear enough. We stopped them anyway, The defense is playing well. Let’s go offense get your ass in gear.
It was no d to see a quick snap like that even though we didn’t get any yards
That’s better on 3rd down
But still not in the middle of field
Try the middle of the field Dolphins
It doesn’t have herpes
Please run it on 2nd and short
that counts
Orob on the niiiiiice carry.
givin’ you props Rob, not meant to be snarky.
Gore limping?
A Erving 6.4 per carry on the ground
Maybe we should run it a little more
So far so good, we’re in the game. Hate that running into the kicker call
That’s a good play by Wilson
But that’s a dumb play call in 2nd and 1 when you are getting so much in the ground
LOL @ Gesicki blocking Jesse Davis
Jackson is a punk.
I like throws like that on 1st down
Wilson wants the ball today
Offense getting momentum
*gaining
Gase has been reading ORob
I wish Larsen got more push.
The offense must have heard me bitching, lol.
Much Better drive this time, now let’s get a TD!
That’s the plays I like on 3rd down
Nice block by Kenyan on the rusher
nice read by Tannehill.
Suck for 6!!!!!!
Omg
Glory be!!!
💥👍💪
And when you say Miami
🎶🎶🎶🎶
excellent drive
Yup
yea, that’s the way to do it, You play the guitars on MTV
95 yard drive finishing with a TD!
About time! Nice job guys
🎶🎶🎶🎶
The 3rd down play to amendola was the key pork on that drive
Nice drive!!! Fuck yeah!!!!
ESPN percent tracker has a 50.2 percent chance of Miami winning after that TD
Hard to tell that we are playing short on the OL. they doing well
Cmon Minkah, get YOUR FIRST PICK SIX
Boy, we have really been bringing extra rushers today. Hopefully, we don’t get burnt.
rookie McTyer.
That was a nice throw
McTyer
☹️
3rd and 9 so we gotta stopthis
Dalton not very fast
Taylor!
Nice!!
Taylor is a freak on those blocks
The key pork on the defensive stand was the pressure on 1st down and he near sack by Quinn
Hell Yea! Now we are fired up! Bend but don’t break defense preserves the goose egg with a blocked FG
Is their Oc who I think it is?
Yeah defense and STs!!!! We came to play today. Vincent Taylor!!! Really like this guy.
Andy Dalton is a slippery MFer though. We could have 3-4 sacks today and he keeps escaping us. We’re gonna get him soon though. 🙂
oL blocking better now too! Nice play !
That’s a legal tackle?
Lazor is OC for the red stockings