The halfway point of the season, the Miami Dolphins 3-3 host the 5-2 LA Rams. It’s going to be very different for the 3-3 Dolphins because their veteran fun loving QB is no longer at the helm as he is replaced by rookie Tua Tagovailoa. There aren’t many parallels to find in the history of the NFL but I do recall Eli Manning replacing Kurt Warner in NY for the Giants in 2004. The NY Giants were 5-4 and after replacing Kurt Warner who had thrown for 2054 yards with 6 TD’s and 4 INT’s ended up finishing the season 1-6 with Eli Manning at QB. Ryan Fitzpatrick after 6 games has 1535 yards with 10 TD’s and 7 INT’s. There are similarities, but to me the biggest disparity is that the Dolphins at 3-3 are only a game and half behind the Bills (5-2) while in 2004, the Giants at 5-4 were pretty far behind the division leading Philadelphia Eagles who were 8-1 and comfortably in first place as they cruised to a 13-3 record. After watching the play of the Bills against the NY Jets last week, those Bills are fortunate to have won that game.
So even though it’s technically game #8 for us and not the start of the second half of the season, this season will be forever divided from this point on. Did the Dolphins make the right move inserting their rookie QB with a chance to win the division? We’ll find out, and this Sunday’s matchup against the LA Rams will give us an idea. The Rams boast a +52 point differential after 7 games, the Dolphins +47. The Dolphins are 12th in the league in scoring (26.7PPG) while the Rams are 18th (25.1PPG). Defensively, the Rams are 2rd in the NFL allowing 17.7PPG and the Dolphins are right behind them at 3rd allowing 18.8PPG. The teams are pretty even but definitely take a different approach getting there. On offense the Rams truly have had a RB by committee approach with Darrell Henderson leading the team with 87 carries for 411 yards followed closely by Malcolm Brown with 65 carries for 274 yards. Cam Akers was drafted early (RD 2 pick #52) by the Rams but minor injuries have stifled his season. In contrast, the Dolphins have relied almost singularly on RB Myles Gaskin with 82 carries and 340 yards and then Matt Brieda has had a few carries sprinkled in some games for 33 carries and 115 yards. The disparity is even wider in the passing game where Gaskin has 27 receptions to Breida’s 7. For the Rams, they seldom throw to the backs, Goff loves the WR combo of Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp who have 30 and 37 receptions respectively. The Rams offense relies much more heavily on its run game than do the Dolphins, the Dolphins have about half the rushing yards.
On defense I think we match up well against the Rams passing game. The pass rush which has come alive can make things difficult for Goff. The Dolphins secondary, now at full strength with Byron Jones healthy opposite Xavien Howard. Nik Needham has been handling the slot and safeties Bobby McCain and Eric Rowe, along with Brandon Jones, Kavon Frazier and Noah Igbinoghene will probably once again leave the Rams to focus on the run game. At the time of this writing, I don’t believe the Dolphins have made a roster move to replace Davon Godchaux at DT. Raekwon Davis will start there but until they bring someone for the PS or acquire a DT DE’s Zach Sieler and Jason Strowbridge will likely fill in. This is important, because I think the Rams are going to try and control the game with their run game so our depth and strength on the front 7 will be imperative to success at stopping the run. The Dolphins are midpack allowing 745 yards rushing (124 YPG)) while the Rams are #12 with 702 yards allowed (100 YPG).
On offense, all I can do is guess as to how we attack the Rams. LOgic would dictate that we’re not going to be doing a lot of prototypical NFL dropbacks with Tua, that we will have him moving around to keep him away from Aaron Donald who as 8 sacks in 7 games, along with 15 QB hits. The good news is that no one else on this Rams defense is close to that, so the task will be neutralize Donald and take your chances with everyone else. My hope is that we get TE Mike Gesicki more involved in the offense. Only twice has Gesicki been targeted more than 5 times and in 2 games he’s had only 1 reception. I want that to change. He’s a big time weapon and should be better utilized. The Rams won’t be easy to run against but they have very little to go on with Tua except 3 plays in the Jets and his college film, so Tua is the “X” factor. In some ways I’d be surprised if they lean heavily on Tua in this game but sometimes great players make it so, and if that happens, I’m willing to let Tua be Tua.
GO DOLPHINS!!!
Finsmob Unleashed 
WOW!!!!!
🍻
Was that Ogbah?
Sure was .. and Van Ginkle didn’t sleep on the return
Yes
BOOM 💥
Ogbah = beast
I love this new dolphins team.
Our Defense is awesome
it feels different, for sure
What an emotional swing!!!
Oh that D
Wow
thats a helluva goal line stop, lol wow, wilkins was all over goff
#11s effort…no Metcalf.
Can Ginkles hands woke up
The beginning of this game looked like it was going to be a long afternoon, but this is starting to look good.
wow, went to shower after workout, and missed the fumble return for TD. wow!!!
Our pass coverage is living up to Flores’ plan today.
OMFG…. GRANT!!!!!!!!!!!
Holy Shit
Wow!
HA HA!
All 3 phases
Holy shit!!!!!!!!
I’d say the team has Tua’s back!!!!!!
Dolphins are fired up in all phases of this game right now. holy shit.
GrAntman
I don’t want to 💩 on this but I’m pretty sure Jones got away with PI
Nope.
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
Grant is so fast.
Also – Goff isn’t very good
Noticed that Monday night
Just keep teeing up on Goff.
Lol I love Wilkins
That’s what happens when the stupid punter gets cocky.
GO FINS
SBJ – May never get to see Tua play at this rate.
This score cushion allows offense to work on run game a bit… at least on first and second downs to see what they can get going.
Yeah, run run run
We STILL are not that great vs the run. Make Goff pass! 🙂
If we could make that first tackle, we’d be killing. We keep getting penetration and missing that first tackle on the RB.
These fakes to woods are faking me out too
By the way
Woods is an original
This is fun 👍👍
Wow again
Rowe joins the party!!!!!!!!!!
WOW Just WOW
Who are these guys🤔
Love this d
Woop woop
That’s my issue with Williams. Easy drops
The defense is telling Goff where to throw it
need a sustained drive to get defense some rest…
Keep this up all season long.
2x for Williams! WTF???
He only seems to catch contested balls
Williams sucking right now
The ball spirals the opposite direction
Williams did the same with Fitz
Williams fucked that whole series up!
Rowe should kick him in the nuts!!!!!!!!!!
Williams wtf
That’s 2x
Preston Jesus not 2 drops in a row.
Need Gesicki on those routes that Williams was running. He’d catch both of those.
Lmao at the sideline thermometer
Tua is throwing them too low. He needs to get the ball higher.
Or throw everything to Grant
Play Perry – play some one hungry for catches
Holy Shit!!!!!! again!!!!!
This is AWESOME
Loose the HOUNDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Holy crap D is balling
NO FUCKING WAY!!! HA HA HA HA HA
Woop woop woop
FFB collectively kicking themselves for not having Fins D in their lineups LOL
There’s more hands scraping at the ball.
TD Gaskin. WOOOOO
Who said we don’t have a FB Wilkins
Wilkins the big FB!
And NAILED IT. Wilkins as FB
Wilkins FB
He’s our official TD celebrater.
We got them to pull Jimmy G at the half
Maybe we do it to Goff
Who guessed 34-17?? Looking pretty good now. Hell, the 51-7 guess is looking good.
So you are saying we are having a good quarter number Tua…
LOL I can’t find the stats to prove it but I think Van Noy has more yards than the entire Rams offense.
Rams: 159 total yards
Dolphins: 56 total yards
28-7 lmfao
rhino: one of my leagues a players return yards and yds count for both player and DST .. I had Grant in but pulled him and replaced him. 😢
ouch
How bout these Dolphins!!! The D is really balling and Grant strikes again. This is so much fun. 🙂
Maybe you shouldn’t have made fun of David’s 51 Piggy?????
🖕
That is for all the worthless “journalists” reporting last 2 weeks about all the dissention on the team from the QB switch.
Yep, they look like they quit because of it….
that was holding there. He was tackled
Our defense is killing it but it needs a rest.
I make you a bet that they love being out there right now
🇨🇦24-20 🐬
🐷 20-14 🐬
🦍 22-19 🐬
🐟 35-14 🐬
🤠 21-20 🐬
🐃🐃 27-24🐬
🎲 27-21 🐬
🦏 23-2o 🐬
🌞 21-13 🐬
💰 26-20 🐬
🎙E 27-26 🐬
Rockphin 23-21🐬
🍑51-7 🐬
M13 31-30🐬
🎩 31-13 🐬
I love the Howard, and Jones Duo!!!!!!
Tua minute warning
If he way this half is going I can honestly say it’s come Tua soon
I thought Howard had that one
I’m almost expecting it now
Goff’s rating thus far is “10” … yup, not missing the other zero … it’s 10 (which is the opposite of the ‘Bo Derek 10’ lol)
Bo jogging! 🙂
So … I’m starting to think Brian Flores is pretty good at coaching defense. 😉😎
3rd and long. Release the hounds
That was all in Kupp
I thought that was going to be another INT
Quite the 🦆
you see coach giving players specific tips when they came off at TO
Of fucking please. Is this fucking college?
Thats a fuckin gift.
Dolphins score here
He got a body part down
Love dont get you rested Ken.
It might get you arrested though……………..LOL
let’s hold’em to a FG attempt
Let’s make them miss that FG!
Dolphins score here……
LOL
We only had the ball for 9 mins in first half. Our defense did their job. Offense needs to move the ball and get them some rest in the second half.
When you get the ball on the 1 , score on a punt return, and D td, that’s 3 possessions taken away from your O, in terms of yards and possession time,so…
What a half!!
Thats a victory for the defense. They were dog tired.
Howard still needs his pick to keep his streak going.