December football can lead to epic matchups, and we most definitely have one here as the Dolphins travel to Baltimore to play the AFC leading (12-3) Baltimore Ravens. The last time we played the Ravens in Baltimore was that wild 4th quarter comeback win, generated by QB Tua Tagovailoa in which the Dolphins scored 28 4th quarter points to knock off the Ravens 42-38. The Dolphins were down 35-14 to begin the 4th quarter. After the game, pundits and commentators alike made excuses for the Ravens who had an injury riddled secondary. I never hear those same excuses and concessions when we’re playing without 4/5 of our starting Offensive Line, but so be it.
This is a very difficult game to predict, but I don’t think the scoring total goes anywhere near last year’s wild shootout. While the Dolphins defense overall has allowed 20.9 points per game, over the last 8 games the Dolphins defense has been better, allowing only 15.8 points per game. Conversely, the Ravens defense overall is allowing only 16.3 points per game, but over the last 8 games, the Ravens have allowed 18.3 points per game. I think our defense has often been the better unit. While our offense overall has scored 30.9 points per game, we’re scoring 27.8 points per game over the last 8 games. Defense wins championships, and we’re going to need to rely on our defense to beat the Ravens.
We all know we have injuries littering our roster, but despite playing with 4 different O-line starters, we’re still getting it done. RG Robert Hunt’s status is still up in the air. WR Jaylen Waddle is OUT, which means there will probably be a combination of Robbie Chosen, Chase Claypool, Cedrick Wilson and Braxton Berrios to replace Waddle. Wilson has been getting a fair amount of targets in the last few games, but I think the run game will be the key for us. The Ravens have allowed 1551 yards rushing, while our defense is more stingy at 1362 yards. We’re going to have 4 RB’s active, Mostert, Achane, Wilson and Brooks plus FB Alec Ingold. Like I’ve mentioned on the blog, I don’t really have a good idea of how this game will play out, but I won’t be surprised if it’s a lower scoring game, both teams under 30 points each, and that we run the ball a fair amount, more than we throw.
I’m amazed at how good the O-line has been considering we’re playing without our starting LG Isaiah Wynn (IR), starting OC (Connor Williams (IR), starting RG Robert Hunt (QUESTIONABLE), and starting RT Austin Jackson (QUESTIONABLE). OG Lester Cotton filled in admirably, as did OG Robert Jones who played his best game of the season at RG. Liam Eichenberg has quietly become a very valuable player, perhaps becoming our future OC. What an amazing turnaround for Eichenberg who was drafted as an OT/G, failed at both positions early on in his career, but played better at OG this season as it went on, and now is succeeding at playing C after starter Connor Williams went down for the season in Game 9 against the Chargers. Besides Eichenberg, both swing tackles have been invaluable, Kendall Lamm who played RT with starter Austin Jackson out and Kion Smith who stepped in played LT plenty of times to replace oft injured LT Terron Armstead. To Armstead’s credit, he plays through injuries and has done his best to stay on the field despite his body failing him.
I think we all know this game is a huge one, I look at this as playoff game #1. December, which has annually been a time this team has fallen out of contention is different this year with our Dolphins at 3-1 in December in 2023. The Ravens being the #1 seed in the AFC couldn’t be tougher team to face, especially in their house. QB Lamar Jackson is a game changer, the most talented, most dangerous guy on the field. In my opinion, as he goes, the Ravens go. This is not so with the Miami Dolphins. Tua can have an average day and the Dolphins can win, but the Ravens live and die with Lamar Jackson. Jackson doesn’t turn the ball over much at all with a 1.6 INT %, less than our own careful QB Tua Tagovailoa at 2.0%. Jackson has thrown 19 TD’s against only 7 INT’s. The big difference though is Lamar Jackson who also has 786 yards rushing and 5 rushing TD’s. For reference, Jackson leads the Ravens in rushing yards ahead of their 2nd leading rusher big back Gus Edwards with 694 yards. Edwards is the big goal line threat though with 12 rushing TD’s. It’s a difficult task to control Lamar Jackson, when the pass rush is too aggressive and unsuccessful, he can feast through the air or escape and pick up huge chunks of yards. I think it’s paramount that we stop Gus Edwards. They no longer have their version of De’Von Achane in RB Keaton Mitchell, who tore his ACL and is out for the season. Contain the run game, and when you get your hands on Lamar Jackson, take him down, or else! Easier said than done!
I think all our backs, even seldom used RB Chris Brooks may get some action today. With Waddle OUT, I’m not sure we have a WR that’s going to step up and replace him adequately. The O-line has been run blocking well, and I think that’s how we’re going to roll Sunday afternoon. NFL playoff games are usually close to the vest affairs, I expect that to be the case for this game. Once again, the Ravens run defense isn’t their strength, their pass rush is. Quick passing of course offsets a strong pass rush, and that’s how our offense is designed and how our QB Tua Tagovailoa is most comfortable operating. Make him hold the ball, and we’ve seen some ugly. Running effectively opens up the pass game so we need to run the ball well. I look forward to watching this game, I think we’re up to the task, I don’t feel like this game or team is too much for us. I look forward to our team putting an exclamation on this season by taking down the big and bad Ravens in their house.
GO DOLPHINS!!!
Finsmob Unleashed 
Great, Tua hurt his left shoulder
Ken
Maybe limping was not the correct term. What’s the term for small?
That’s what this team is, small. Dallas win was luck and Dallas is a carbon copy of Miami. Pyrite
We fold against good teams.
The Dallas game was the moveable object vs the stoppable force. One of us had to fail.
And now Tua has an injured left shoulder. unreal
We’ll be lucky if they don’t score 70.
Happily the Ravens will probably only get one more TD after we go 3 and out.
My mistake, after we go 1 and out
We are losing by 30. We aren’t the team we thought or hoped we would be.
And counting
THis is pathetic
Gosh there was no flag for hitting the sliding QB Tua.
It was too close to call that a penalty imo
Have a decent night folks. I can’t deal with the negativity. Listen to some music, have a sandwich, drink a glass of milk, do something.🤣
What is there to be positive about, really
^
For someone who doesn’t want to ‘deal’ with negativity, you sure like to inject yourself into the way other people process the game.
If you’re so zen about it, then be zen about it and stop trying to change the way other people want to go about it.
^
OMG
Chubb hurt his fucking knee now
DOes not look good at all
It’s blown out. We’ll be one and done in the playoffs.
The sad thing is that this asswhipping won’t change anything. Same team leadership will poo poo it away just like many fans will.
Well at least we beat most of the terrible teams this year!
At least we got to the playoffs on an extremely easy and loaded schedule!
At least we have good stats against terrible teams!
There’s a knee for Chubb. Kiss this season goodbye people
Why the fuck are starters in!
No way Chubb should have been in this game right now
Chubb out for the season.
I get playing with a fight, but we are down by fucking 30 points . Why the fuck was Chubb in there ?!!!!!!
I will BBL. Can’t handle this right now
Pretty ridiculous Chubb was in the game
That’s the fat lady folks.
2 guys could’ve caught that TD for Ravens.
This season had so much promise at points, but it’s going to end up in disappointment unfortunately. We will lose next week, and we will likely be one and done on the road in the playoffs as the 6th seed.
Yeah, we’re probably not even going to catch a break there facing the 3 seed. We might have a chance against the AFC South winner, but we’ll probably end up playing Buffalo twice in a row, with the 2nd game being in Buffalo.
We could survive losing Phillips because we had Van Ginkel. We can’t survive the loss of Chubb as well.
Correct. That will be the demise of the pass rush. This season is effectively over.
McDaniel is learning a lot of hard lessons this year about how to be a HC.
There’s a lot more to it than just drawing up cute plays and making cute quips.
These are lessons that should have been learned already.
Sports don’t define my emotions anymore. The end!
We’re not the best team and we’re being decimated by injuries. That’s the reality. I didn’t say today was positive.😉
I don’t think this game could’ve gone any worse.
Maybe if we lost Tua and Hill for the year too. Other than that, no.
just a total disaster
Well, as I said earlier, I’m not surprised by the game, but losing Chubb was a real punch to the gut.
If we win next week, we’re still the #2 seed.
Still have to see how bad Tua’s injury is.
Honestly, I just don’t see how we win that game.
Pretty hard to see it right now. The Bills are mostly healthy; we’re a mess. The Bills own us and they have the same type of weapons as the offense that just dismantled our defense (mobile playmaking QB, fast WRs, good TEs, strong run game).
However,
I’ve got a hot date
to go out to dinner and
dancing to a live band
on the deck over-looking the Harbor,
so I’ll have fun from 8 till 1AM and beyond!!
Go Dolphins!!
You and the wife enjoy and have a great time, Bro. Cheers!
thanks, Cav, you, too.
Party our way out of ’23 and bring on ’24!!
Have a great time!
Maybe we hire Boyer as a blitz consultant over the next two weeks- we are going to need it
We’ve made progress over last year. Last year, we were a ‘likely’ playoff team. This year, we secured a playoff spot in week 16.
We’re not SB contenders, but we are solidly a playoff team- even if we’re one and done.
All that is left is to play out the last week of the season and a playoff game, or hopefully, two.
Hopefully, we can navigate all the cap questions of the offseason and somehow improve our team, get healthy, have a little more luck with health during the season, and learn how to play in big games.
Well said
The real question is will there be any further progress with the coaches we have today? I don’t think there will be. I think we’re solidly a low tier playoff team for the immediate future until we can’t afford Hill or he slows down. Then depending on who Grier gets, we may continue to be that team or will start to look like Pittsburgh the last 6 years with Big Ben declining and retiring.
Is that a fact that Chubb is done for the season?
It hasn’t been announced, but you can take it to the bank.
I think what we’ll be hoping for is his recovery will be done before the beginning of next season.
What happened? How did he get hurt?
They wouldn’t show the replay, and I’m never going to watch that game again, so I haven’t gone back and looked. But, from what they said and how it looked, it was a non-contact knee injury. He was crying out on the field and had to be carted off. McDaniel was over with him at the cart as it was going down the sideline giving him condolences and stuff.
I was making chili for tonight for New Year’s Eve, I wasn’t watching the game after some point in the 4th, can’t recall exactly. It was over. I can’t believe we may have lost Chubb for the season, that’s a brutal injury for us. WTF!!!
Well, this is why I fucking absolutely hate the Ravens. Every time we come around to play them in December as a potential contender, they fucking bitch-slap, body slam, suplex, Jimmy Superfly Snuka jump off the top rope on us and remind we ain’t shit!! It’s amazing how that happens every few years, and the big bully Ravens are always there waiting for us. I don’t think it’s possible this year, especially if Tua and Chubb miss the rest of the season, but I’d love to just beat them when it counts just once!
😂
Chubb 99.9% done, Tua said he’s fine and his shoulder is just a little sore
Oh, that’s good news on Tua.
Is this the speech of a competitor? A dude pissed that they didn’t produce a good game? That he failed his buddies and played like crap? Just another oops maybe next time like all the other losses to winning teams?
I think what he’s saying is it’s not the end of the world- they win next week and they are the #2 seed. That has to be the mentality for them.
That’s the speech of team leader New Age. Tua is always first to step up and take the hit for playing poorly. They have a big game next week, and he can’t play the sky is falling speech, or we got our asses whipped and we’re mad as hell either. I don’t know what you expect him to say
Good news on Tua. We’ve had to play a backup QB our last two trips to the playoffs. Can we just not this year? lol
New Age – The only thing I would change in that speech is the line “Hopefully we see these guys again”
I hope we don’t see them again for a long time, especially not in December and especially in their house!
Sure he can say they played like shit, and it starts with him. Why can’t he? Why can’t the first thing out of his mouth be the truth? We got our asses handed to us in all phases, played like shit, and I’m a big reason we lost today but we must do better. This embarrassed me. I’m embarrassed to be a contributor to such a terrible game.
McDaniels let’s them enjoy the wins for a couple days. Why can’t they focus on the loss a little? Be upset at themselves? Be angry at their garbage play?
When you are down by 30 with 4 minutes left why is any starter playing? And if you made a list of who most should not be….. Chubb, Tyreek and Tua would be right up top.
I dont know any team that sits pass rushers bc they are down multiple scores
But why wouldn’t you? The game is lost. Your team has back-ups and those are some of the most valuable players you have.
You’re down by 30 with three to play and you just turned the ball over on downs. Backups should have been in. Game is well beyond reach. The only thing that is going to happen is they are going to go up by 37, which they did anyway.
The only position I’ve seen that be the norm is at QB
You can’t really predict injuries like that. You have to expect your players to play all 4 qtrs
I wouldn’t have say anyone except Tua and I’m not even doing that until there is no hope
They’ve sat Tyreek the entire 4th quarter 2-3 times when the game was a blowout in our favor This season.
The only time I think that happened was in the Denver game and it’s not to avoid injury, it’s so we don’t rub it in and to give players who don’t get a chance to play experience
Generally I think it’s the norm to leave your stars in when yiu are losing. Even the QB a lot of times
When yiu bench a qb in a loss is usually bc the qb played horrible
Personally I think it sends a bad message, you want guys playing to the whistle, they don’t get a break bc they played poorly
I’m tired of the injuries this year
But I don’t think that’s on the coach
Definitely no Hard Knocks for me this week.
Nope
McDaniel says you learn from games like this. I’m actually interested to see how he handles it.
Me too. This is so crucial how they handle this week. You have to have this team ready to play their best against Buffalo or our season takes a serious downward turn. I’ll be watching for sure!
It’s really going to show a lot about McDaniel and his leadership ability this week. If this team isn’t ready to play in the biggest game of the year, it’s going to be extremely disappointing.
Mike E. says:
December 31, 2023 at 5:07 pm
That’s the speech of team leader New Age. Tua is always first to step up and take the hit for playing poorly. They have a big game next week, and he can’t play the sky is falling speech, or we got our asses whipped and we’re mad as hell either. I don’t know what you expect him to say.
Yeah, leave those speeches to us!
LOL Bri – The sky has crashed and burned and scorched the earth here, that’s for sure! 🙂
😂
Why should we be the only ones saying the truth? Is it too hard on these players? The truth is that they were embarrassing to watch. The FSU/GA games was about as competitive but at least FSU didn’t have most of their players? Why can’t they focus on the things they fucked on for at least today? Too soft?
Man, I was feeling so good after the first drive
I was too, I was foolishly thinking perhaps this was the year where Lucy didn’t pull the football away and we fell on our ass!
But then she did. Again. She’s such a bitch.
If we finish 12-5 and win a home playoff game, this game be will be behind me
It was a ridiculous game
As fans watching the injuries mount, watching our QB that we fought for Mae big mistakes in key moments and watching our opponent click on all cylinders isn’t easy
In fact, I keep thinking we don’t deserve this
But we are in position to win the AFC East and beat the Bills in the final game
And even though I don’t think, given the way we played, we can be taken seriously as a contender, we had our best year in decades
A buddy of mine (Bills fan), just said that Allen hurt his shoulder on that last first down run and wasn’t lifting it at all post game. There’s hope!
Even with Allen healthy they have been so up and down this year.
They’ve been winning lately though
Today’s game reminded me of the first Bill’s game. Trading scores with the O on high octane and then all of a sudden it just fell apart. Just got to keep the start of the game going into the 2nd half next week. Bills didn’t show the Pats up much today.
Agreed. In every loss but the Titans collapse, which is killing us right now, there is this avalanche that happens on both sides of the ball and it’s basically game over.
No doubt it happened. Don’t even get our hopes up PFT
The injury becomes especially unfortunate given that the game was out of reach for Miami at the point that Chubb went down. Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel recognized after the game that Chubb probably shouldn’t have been on the field so late in the game.
“In hindsight, I would absolutely not have wanted him out there if I would’ve known he was going to get hurt,” McDaniel said. “That’s a known part of the job that I understand fully. It doesn’t look very smart at all.”
No shit
What happened to saving players for when it matters. This game didn’t matter anymore.
It was a horrible decision. One that will affect them for the rest of the season, which will likely be two weeks .
It didn’t occur to me that if we lose next week Buffalo gets the 2 seed
This is nuts
Barry Jackson
@flasportsbuzz
Pittsburgh up 30-20 late in Seattle. If this holds, Miami would knock Bills out of playoffs if Dolphins beat Buffalo, Jags beat Titans and Steelers beat Ravens team with nothing to play for (presuming Houston and Indy don’t tie). Then it would be Steelers at Fins in playoffs
I think the Ravens play their starters at least a half next week. You don’t want your players sitting for three weeks .
Would be sweet to at least keep Bills out. I don’t think they can tho.
Yeah. I’m not expecting the Dolphins to win that game. They haven’t done much to convince me then can do it.
So in the final week of the season, the Bills could end up the #2 seed or out of the playoffs. That is wild.
Crazy
Brian in NY says:
December 31, 2023 at 6:41 pm
It was a horrible decision. One that will affect them for the rest of the season, which will likely be two weeks .
————–
Maybe into next season.
😳🤮
That is all.
https://youtube/RcgdvQAmNNA?si=LMbRQTl1NZXkNlQC
It’s not opening
“In hindsight, I would have absolutely not wanted him out there if I knew he was going to get hurt, for sure. That’s a known part of the job that I understand fully. It doesn’t look very smart at all.”
— McDaniel on Chubb
Beer to Brian NY
“The shoulder’s good,” Tagovailoa said, per PFN’s Adam Beasley. “Just a little sore.”
———-
and he doesn’t have the strongest of arms as it is already
29. Bo Nix QB Oregon
62. Jackson Powers-Johnson OC Oregon
157. Nazir Stackhouse DT Georgia
171. Aaron Casey LB Indiana
190. Xavier Watts S Notre Dame
221. Ainias Smith WR Texas A&M
Thank you for taking a QB
Sorry BBM
https://dolphinstalk.com/2023/12/ravens-56-dolphins-19-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/
No matter how you slice this game or this season, this is a team that doesn’t know how to win big games. It’s why I’ve never taken them as a serious SB or really even a playoff contender. You don’t just waltz into post season having never shown you can consistently beat good teams and do it. Sure, we might get into the playoffs….big deal…but I don’t see us beating the really good teams in this league consistently. We’re just not a top team. And did I hear that we’ve had the easiest SOS this year? Is that true?
***
And Tua is not a QB who can go makes plays himself to win games. That’s what the NFL is nowadays. Stats shats. Go be a difference maker once in awhile. He can’t.
Yep.
Well put. The difference in our offense when Tyreek can get past the D and when he can’t are glaringly obvious. The good teams shut him down and just like last year, we have no other answers. We have a lot of talent on D but they get blown out against top teams too. Once adversity hits, we wilt.
I wonder if we set the record for largest margin of victory combined with largest margin of defeat in the same season. I would have to think 87 points has to be it
We’re still in the playoffs when everything resets.🙂
Sunday Night Football huh? Well that seals it.
😂
We have one more game to play and we’re already in the playoffs. We all know we’re decimated with injuries. No excuses, okay fine. We are who we are and it seems we just lost Chubb too.😩
We probably lost X for at least a few weeks too, if not the rest of the season
I’m not enjoying this season. I thought we’d be a 10+/-1 win team, but I thought we’d look like a more finished product by now. It’s disappointing to see us come up short most of the time when it really matters. Losing sucks but looking pathetic doing it really wasn’t what I expected this year.
***
But, that’s what the playoffs are all about…a chip and a chance. Win next week if you can and see where you land. If you believe you’re a SB team you can beat anybody so seeding really doesn’t matter.
The injuries are mounting up. We’re not the team we’re supposed to be but we are who we are. We have to fight through it. If not we’re not good enough.
We aren’t good enough, that much is clear. We got the living shit kicked out of us yesterday, and have lost every other game we’ve played against AFC playoff teams.
Unsurprisingly, Dolphins/Bills flexed to Sunday Night.
I’m not trying to defend our team, but the Ravens fucked up the Niners, who in most people’s view is the best team in the NFC and the Super Bowl pick. I forgot who mentioned this, but the Greatest Show on Turf Rams hadn’t beaten anyone during the regular season but went to the Super Bowl and won. I don’t see that for our team with the injuries we have, but it’s happened before Randy, there’s precedent.
You hit the nail on the head. Any chance of us making some noise was upended by the Chubb injury, and X to a slightly lesser degree. We could afford to lose Chubb OR Phillips, not both. This d is predicated on pressure in the QB and strong secondary play, and those injuries severely affect that, especially Chubb’s.
We can only hope that Ogbah, Ingram, AVG and Goode play at a high level for a few games
Agreed.
And Tua is not a QB who can go makes plays himself to win games. That’s what the NFL is nowadays. Stats shats. Go be a difference maker once in awhile. He can’t.
————
That is why I have targeted Bo Nix a couple times. Though, I don’t think he lasts that long.
I don’t know if I agree with that. I think it’s more of a team thing- they just collapse in big games and have a mental block when it comes to beating good teams. Maybe that starts with Tua, but it’s far from just him.
His INT’s hurt us badly yesterday. We were right in the game and those turnover’s greatly contributed to letting it get away.
I wish we were playing Saturday night instead of Sunday night
I like Nix a lot. In this video you will hear the name Troy Franklin called a bunch. He is one of the WR’s I like that may be available in the second round. He’s 6’2 with 4.35 speed.
Nix has a good arm, quick release, accuracy, can throw accurately on the run, good pocket presence and can make plays with his legs.
In his 2 years at Oregon, he completed 74.6 % of his passes for 7738 yards with 69 TD’s and 10 INT’s. In this last season he had 40 TD’s to 3 INT’s.
He also had 20 rushing TD’s in his 2 years at Oregon and 38 total rushing TD’s in his college career between Oregon and Auburn.
I would be stunned if we took a QB in the first this year.
Nix will be half the QB Tua is
He is not bad but he gives me Tannehill vibes which again is not bad
BBM,
Yes, his INT’s hurt, but so did the two dropped TD passes, missed tackles, countless blown coverages, coaching, etc. it was a total team shitshow yesterday.
Totally agree.
I’m still annoyed over yesterday. It’s not that we lost. It’s that I think we are better than how we played. To try to get some perspective,I went back and found this. We’re not that far from what we all thought before the season started.
M13 11-6
🗿11-6
🐷 13-4
🥸🐟 17-0 (Until they lose one. Then 14-3)
🌴 11-6
🦬 12-5
Realist 9-8: (Losses : Bills2x, KC, split with pats and jets, ravens, eagles, chargers)
🇬🇧 10-7
🖐️ 11-6
Brian in NY 10-7
🗡️ 11-6
🌞 13-4 juggernaut
🇨🇦 14-3
🦍 10-7
🤠 15-6 🏆
Boulder 10-7
True. Though, if we finish 11-6, we will be #6 WC playing in Buffalo.
I hope our defense can bounce back without Chubb and X and we get Waddle/Mostert back.
Herd, Hoping for your prediction to be on the money.
NEW BLOG UP!!!