The Dolphins play at home in the friendly confines of Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, where the Dolphins are at their best. In 4 games, the Dolphins have scored 174 points good for an absurd average of 43.5 points per game. The defense has thrived here as well, allowing 74 points in 4 games for an average of 18.5 points per game. We score 11 more points per game and allow about 6.5 points per game less. We’re better at home, of this there is no doubt. I’d love to fancy our team as a team that can win anywhere, but right now, we’re a much better team at home. This just signified the importance of not only winning the division, but having a good enough conference record to have home field is as many games as possible.
The Raiders are an up and down team, but mostly they’re a team that has struggled offensively. The Raiders decided Jimmy Garoppolo was their QB, and Garropolo who we all know can’t play a full season is OUT and their rookie 2023 4th RD draft pick Aidan O’Connell has a 2-1 record in Jimmy G’s stead. In total, the Raiders have scored 17.2 points per game, or close to half of what we have scored this season. The Raiders defense has been decent, allowing only 20.5 points per game, 4.5 points less than our Dolphins defense. There are two huge difference makers for both teams entering this game though. The Raiders have finally figured out they need to lean on their best offensive weapon, RB Josh Jacobs, while the Dolphins come in about healthier than we have been all season, and more complete.
In the last 2 games for the Raiders, RB Josh Jacobs has been a workhouse, helping the team to two consecutive victories over NY teams, first the Giants, in which Jacobs had a season high 26 carries for 98 yards, and then against the Jets with a new season high 27 carries for 116 yards. For the Dolphins, we’re getting back our secondary, and possibly for the first time all season, we’ll have a healthy CB tandem of Xavien Howard and Jalen Ramsey. In addition, we’ll have a healthy Safety tandem of Jevon Holland and DeShon Elliott. Our pass rush has come on lately, and a healthy Jaelan Phillips and a resurgence from OLB Bradley Chubb has got this defense playing better. Andrew Van Ginkel has taken on more of a secondary role, but still a big part of the defensive rotation. This is the defense we’d hoped for, now they have to stay healthy and shut teams down. This week, objective #1 is to limit Josh Jacobs. The Raiders don’t want to put the game on QB Aidan O’Connell’s shoulders, so if we shut down Jacobs, it could be a long day for the raiders offense who don’t do well when Jacobs isn’t getting lots of carries and thriving.
This week could be the return of a big offensive weapon for the Dolphins, RB De’Von Achane. There are differing reports everywhere, but there is a good chance Achane returns from a knee injury suffered against the NY Giants October 8th. Raheem Mostert has logged 2 consecutive limited practices but almost certainly will play Sunday. Of more concern is RG Robert Hunt, who looks to miss this game with a hamstring injury. Terron Armstead who played last week will start at LT with Liam Eichenberg at LG, Connor Williams at C, Lester Cotton at RG and Austin Jackson at RT. Not ideal, and Maxx Crosby is feasting this year with 59 total tackles (35 solo), 9 sacks, 13 TFL, 15 QB hits, 1 FF and 1 FR. Austin Jackson and Lester Cotton and our TE’s are going to have keep Crosby in check and away from our QB Tua Tagovailoa, who gets rid of the ball ultra quick anyway. If we have both RB’s this week, keep in mind how they’ve thrived splitting carries. Against the Broncos, they had an amazing day, Achane with 203 yards on 18 carries and 2 TD’s, while Mostert had 82 yards on 13 carries and 3 TD’s. Achane had over 100 yards against the Bills but Mostert was stopped dead. Against the Giants, Achane exploded for 151 yards on 11 carries while Mostert had 65 yards on 10 carries. both scoring a TD each.
The defense needs to continue to make strides and become one of the leagues best units. This is the lineup we’ve waited to watch, now they have to realize their potential. It seems likely PR/KR Braxton Berrios won’t be playing which returns return duties back to Cedric Wilson. We do, however, get a boost with the return of WR River Cracraft. Cracraft and Ced Wilson will probably take slot duties if Berrios can’t go. One more concern on offense is the health of TE Durham Smythe who is dealing with an ankle injury, but did manage to get a limited practice session in on Thursday, and will most likely suit up. The Dolphins are ranked #10 against the run and have 29 sacks, good for 9th in the NFL in sacks. With the secondary healthy, and all our pass rushers healthy, I expect the sack numbers to go up and for this defense to start forcing more turnovers. Kader Kohou moving back to the slot where he really thrives, will share time with Nik Needham who is getting healthy as well. If and when rookie CB Cam Smith ever makes his presence felt remains to be seen, but even without Smith, this is the defense we want out there.
GO DOLPHINS!!!
Finsmob Unleashed 
DAMN IT!
Sorry guys, I had rewound and was watching behind and did not have a load in the wash.
Hopefully we start getting some pressure because it hasn’t been there yet
Achane can’t stay healthy. That’s not going to be good going forward
We really need that 2nd guy behind Mostert. He has been a beast, but we really can’t feed him like a workhorse or he’ll get injured too.
Wilson hasn’t been able to stay healthy his whole career, and Savon is a drop off in talent. Achane would be perfect, but…
I thought Chris Brooks could be the thunder but he’s out longer than Achane
I’d like to see more inside running. Maybe our guard situation affects that.
That tackle was all helmet
I’m really disappointed with that weak defense.
You said Adams might get loose. I figured with Howard and Ramsey we’d be fine
Just saw Chosen on the field. WTF??
Berrios is injured they resigned Chosen
Claypool too
Dumb play on 4th and 1
Sigh, getting too cute. The run up the gut was fucking there.
🍻
I don’t like that play call
Yet another example of us getting too cute in a key spot.
We are in for a dogfight
F’kn hate WR screens. And McD gets too cute on short yardage downs.
Right. They would be great if we had more success with them, but we don’t.
I think MM doesn’t trust the OL enough to ground and pound in short yardage
You’re probably right
great
Speed kills – US?
Mother fucker. You’ve got to be kidding me. That would be a season killer for us.
WR screens haven’t worked for either team today
Good pressure
Good pressure by Chubb
Way to fair catch the punt when the raider was still 10 yards away. We’re just making way too many little mistakes right now
Horrible fair catch there
whew, nice fucking read, Tua
Great play design
^
It really was. I think it was a TE on the crosser that turned into the blocker. Perfect play for the defensive call
Ahmed!!!!!!!!
Awesome block by Williams
Time for defense to force a turnover
Bingo
Raiders have responded so far. Let’s get a stop here, D
Was it the same knee for Achane? The right knee
really conservative by the Raiders
Chubb really coming on
Chubb is really coming on
Beer to Mike E 🍺
jesus, what a punt
Holy fucker!!! Like 80 yards
Here’s another one for you Cav 🍺
Getting me drunk before half, lol
Wow. That was a great punt
He ran over Hobbs
unreal. I keep saying this is the only way we lose this game
Fuck me
Fuck!
Are you kidding me!
Dammit!!! So frustrating
Doing everything we can to let the Raiders know they can win this game
Fucking mistakes are going to be the undoing of this team. We can get away with it against lesser teams, but it’s one of the main reasons we can’t beat the good teams.
exactly
Our defense has given up only one big play and the fucking raiders have 13 points
Bad series by the Raiders
They are playing really conservative. They are just tryin to stay in the game and not hurt themselves with mistakes.
Seems to be working
Yep, we’ve turned it over 3 times
Raiders have a bad ass kicking game
I wonder what that is like
Clean that shit up at halftime, we be okay
Disappointing half, but at least we’re up, even if it’s one measly point
And we get the ball back
This first half gives the Raiders a lot of confidence
Why are we so sloppy?
We were supposed to get rested not rusty during the bye.
Feel the same Naples
It surprises me how unathletic Tua looks when he takes the ball to run
I love Mcdaniel, but come on
No Hill or Achane for second half???
Hill is back
I am sorry that was reckless
Tua got banged up. He was holding his hand
For a smart guy, that was really dumb by McDaniel. The odds of something bad happening are so much greater than us getting points out of it.
Us getting that fg with 13 seconds left in the half earlier in the year may have been the worst thing for us
I’m really unhappy with that half of football from the offense.
Kudos to the defense for only giving up 6 points on 2 TOs inside our own 30.
Actually, I think the 1st TO was inside the 40, but either way, they got the ball inside fg range both times
So Hill gets hurt on a shitty playcall on 4th down, and Tua gets hurt on a unnecessarily stupid play call with 5 seconds left in the half. Step your game up, McD
What happened? I missed it. You mean we didn’t kneel down with 5 seconds before the half?
No, we called a pass play. Waddle caught it around our own 45 or so with no time left, and Tua hurt his hand.
SMH, that’s not ballsy. It’s stupid
It really was. If there were 15 or 20 seconds left, I’d be ok with it, because we’d be able to get a 2nd play in, but with 5 seconds from our own 25, it was just dumb.
Do we still have an active streak of 20+ for games won when we’re up in the half?
We can’t win like this
I am going to have to stop watching
Ugh
Ugh, that throw wasn’t even close
Grrr
This team is so fucking mistake prone
Man, our D is really playing well. It’d be nice if the O could get their fucking heads on straight
Great stop
Wilkins
Lets value ball control now
Err, I meant let’s stop turning it over, lol
Can we please have a nice long TD drive? 6 minutes, lots of runs
We need to get our shot together on offense right now.
Shit
How long before there’s an NCIS or CSI Mars???
Please make your kicks, Sanders. It feels like the kind of game…
fuck, I just knew that was coming
Fucking Sanders
We really need a new kicker next year
Okay Cav. That’s three 🍺. I’m beginning to think we are in each others heads, or your feed is slightly ahead of mine…
Sanders has to go through his offseason. He’s so inaccurate over 50
We are so going to lose this game
It’s one of those games you just have that feeling in your stomach as your team makes mistake after mistake, keeping the other team in the game…
This team is not as good as we thought
Yet another disappointment. These things add up and you lose a game you should have won
Jalen. Fucking. Ramsey
Take that fuckers
That was huge
Thank God for Ramsey
This is one reason losing every game to good teams hurts. EVERY team loses games they should win. We aren’t going to win the next five games we should be favored in.
Now capitalize you god damned offense
Ramsey has completely transformed this defense
It’s pretty amazing
I’m liking that we’re running inside more
Should have been TO #5 (I’m counting the TO on downs)
Yikes, should have been picked
Fucking Sanders better put this thru
Our offense seems out of sync at times. Not sure why.
Their DL is better than our OL
This is the kind of game I expected against the Jest next week.
Yeah. The Jets D is built to give us fits. We keep turning the ball over like we’ve been doing and every game will be a challenge.
Need our defense can keep it up for another quarter+. I really hope our offense doesn’t have to win this at the end.
Nice thing is we can look bad and still be up. Defense with the exception if the Adams TD has been great
It’s so frustrating that our D is playing so well and our offense is sputtering
Whew!!!
That was nearly a perfect throw. Ramsey was in perfect coverage, it had to be perfect
Perfect coverage is difficult to say, he had a step on Ramsey but the throw was a bit long
that’s fair
I’m more concerned about giving up points with our offense having the ball at our own 15 than I was when the Raiders had the ball on offense.
That is how shitty we’ve been on offense today.
Does our ST coach instruct the punt returners to fair catch? We fair catch WAY too many times where there are yards to be had .
That was a good decision there
I think Wilson is more conservative than Berrios
Crazy how wide open Tyreek gets
Wilson has had some good catches today
As bad as we’ve been on offense, we can still take control of this game here.
I don’t understand that call
or non-call