This is it! TIME TO SHINE!!!
It’s not going to be easy, we all understand that, but the Miami Dolphins simply have to find a way to win this game at home, in the friendly confines of Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens. Sure, there will be a lot of important Miami Dolphins players that will miss this game, most recently, OLB Bradley Chubb, CB Xavien Howard and WR Jaylen Waddle, who join OLB Jaelan Phillips, OC Connor Williams, OG Isaiah Wynn and potentially, ILB Jerome Baker who may make his way back this Sunday night. There is also a chance Jaylen Waddle plays, but those high ankle sprains are so difficult to play with, and even if WR Tyreek Hill plays, he’s not playing nearly at 100% with a sore ankle of his own.
I can’t express how important this game is. The Dolphins team psyche is fragile at best after getting demolished and embarrassed last Sunday in a 56-19 loss to the Baltimore Ravens. Yes Dolphins fans, yet another beatdown at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens. It was a demoralizing loss, in what was a fight for the #1 seed in the AFC. After the 1st quarter, it wasn’t much of a fight, even though we got the first punch in. Of course, to pour salt in already open wounds, we lost OLB Bradley Chubb to an ACL tear (non-contact) very late in the game, where he should have been on the bench. Young coach mistake there, and one that could have ramifications for not only this season, but next as well.
I believe it will be ROLB Melvin Ingram who will start opposite LOLB Andrew Van Ginkel. DE/OLB Emmanuel Ogbah will be in the rotation as well as 2nd year OLB Cameron Goode. On the O-line, it’s looking like RG Robert Hunt will be playing, but how long, is anyone’s guess. OC Liam Eichenberg is hurting with a calf injury but he’s been a gamer and has fought through it. RB Raheem Mostert will almost surely play, it was a surprise he missed the Ravens game. Both ILB’s David Long Jr. and Duke Riley are hurting, so if Jerome Baker is healthy enough to go, he may be needed. Listen, none of this ideal, we all understand the NFL is a game of attrition, and the Dolphins have been hit hard by injuries, but this game is just extremely important. The difference between losing two games in a row at the end of the season and ending up the #6 seed and a Wild Card, and beating the Bills and potentially removing them from the playoff picture entirely is just tremendous. Being the AFC East Champs and securing a Home Playoff game or traveling to KC as a downtrodden Wild Card team is a chasm nearly equal to the Grand Canyon.
The Buffalo Bills handled us quite easily in our first matchup earlier in the season, it wasn’t even close, as they cruised to a 48-20 victory in Buffalo. We will not have the heat advantage as it’s January, and the high temperature for Sunday is expected to be 73 degrees, and about 63 at game time. I would also expect a strong showing of Buffalo Bills fans at Hard Rock, which further lessens our home team advantage. Despite those shortcomings, Head Coach Mike McDaniel has to have his team confident, and ready to compete for the AFC title. This is no small feat, but it’s also essential if this team is going anywhere and contend for a Super Bowl berth.
Two games can really impact our game. First off, the Steelers vs Ravens game. If the Steelers can knock off the Ravens, who will be resting most of their starters, including QB Lamar Jackson, then that would be the first domino to fall. Then on Sunday, if the Jacksonville Jaguars defeat the Tennessee Titans, this would force the Bills into a must win situation in order to make the playoffs. I’m not sure the Bills need any extra incentive to want to beat us, but that scenario just might make them a little extra desperate. My feeling is we should be just as desperate. We need to have a positive ending to the season, and another loss might just break this team. Not that the Kansas City Chiefs are unbeatable, far from it, but a playoff game in January in Kansas City will more than likely be in frigid temps, and I can’t see us having any confidence after surrendering the division crown to the Bills while having a two game lead with 2 games to go. It’s just a horrible situation, and I know our team has been tight, meaning feeling a good camaraderie, but those 2 losses to end the season to fall to Wild Card status could be too much to overcome.
The Bills are the hot team, winning 4 in a row, we’re floundering now after not only losing the game but leaving one of our best defensive players behind as well. RB James Cook has been huge weapon for the Bills during this 4 game tear. He has 355 yards rushing with 1 rushing TD and 8 receptions for 121 yards and 1 receiving TD. Josh Allen has been running the ball more often as well, imposing his will on the defense. Allen has 115 yards rushing in the last 4 and a whopping 6 rushing TD’s. Allen has always been dangerous when facing us, and in addition to James Cook, Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis, we will have our hands full. Allen, along with James Cook might just run all day against our defense, especially with all 3 ILB’s hobbled (Long, Riley and Baker). With Xavien Howard OUT, CB Eli Apple will get the starting nod at LCB opposite Jalen Ramsey. CB Kader Kohou will be in the slot. I’m not sure how Vic Fangio is going to play this defense. Do we have one of our OLB’s spy Josh Allen, either Andrew Van Ginkel or Melvin Ingram? My preference would not be that, I’d rather have them rushing the passer, but if Josh Allen is running amuck, that might have to change.
Another key factor will be our offense. We must be running hot, we have to run the ball with both Mostert and Achane, and we must score TD’s, not rely on FG’s. The Bills offense has not been a high powered offense, and we’ll be much better suited to defend them if they’re playing from behind. It’s imperative for our run game to be working and someone besides Tyreek Hill needs to threaten the defense. I’m fine with the Tyreek show if he’s killing it, but I’d much rather see more balance in our attack. McDermott has been successful defending us, so Mike McDaniel has his work cut out. My hope is that he has the right gameplan on Sunday night to finally grasp the AFC East crown. It’s been 15 years since we’ve done that, 2008. It’s TIME TO SHINE!!!
GO DOLPHINS!!!
Finsmob Unleashed 
This offense is coming up really small in the second half
mistakes all over the place
wow, i guess it was only a matter of time till shitty special teams came back into play
Been a weakness all season. I sense a firing in the off season
CavalierKong says:
January 7, 2024 at 10:34 pm
fucking offense
‐—————-
Keeping socks on in the bedroom?
now our offense has another chance to fail big
Unfuckingbelievable
Fire the ST coach
C’MON… FUCK!!!
That’s game . We are going to lose this game.
how many KO returns for TDs have we given up in the last two years? It has to lead the league
Ugh
The better start packing their cold weather gear for KC
Cam Goode is now hurt…
I can’t believe we’ve held the Bills offense to 7 points into the 4th quarter and aren’t winning this game.
Right. The bills have had long drives. Offense has done shit in the second half .
We have to answer that TD with a TD of our own. Nice long drive too. Run, run, run
That’s ok.
Our defense needed a rest.
Tua missing that throw to Tyreek was the start of this particular avalanche. He hits that, it’s 2nd and 1 and we’re almost certainly going up two scores.
He had Wilson open on a comeback route to the left
Yet another big injury. One of the guys filling in on the edge.
Goode gone for the year now
Dolphins edge players have a shorter shelf life than soap bubbles this season
JPP back?
Quinton Bell will be active next week, even if we sign another player
Seriously?
Go tie!!!!!
We have to change the momentum here
The battle of attrition right down to the end.😩
3 and out. offense has completely blown it this half
This season fucking sucks. We finally have a good year, and it’s derailed by injuries .
And now we’re in trouble
Big time. This game is over Mike.
This offense is overrated. They can’t step up enough in big spots
No Mostert and Waddle bro!
They have tons of defensive players out Tim. It’s no excuse.
It’s been the theme all year, even when we’ve had our weapons. In big games our offense just can’t sore.
For all the talk about our high-powered O and the ‘narrative’ about us beating good teams, we haven’t performed when it matters and we’re running out of time to prove ourselves.
Correct. It’s not a narrative when it continually happens: it’s a fact .
Allen still carving us up after 3 t/os.
I fully expect our offense to fail here and then this game will be over.
Oh, I’d be surprised if they got two first downs
I can understand the defensive woes now. Where the fuck is the offense?
They said the seeding changed if there was as tie……
Howso praytell?
We would have home game with Steelers, Bills go to KC
We would play the Steelers
Don’t worry Rock, it’s not going to happen
I’m guessing division or conference record ??🤷♂️
Our offense had 3 or 4 chances to gain some distance in this game and couldn’t get it done. Our special teams let us down in the biggest moment of the year. Our defense has put forth a heroic effort and really gave us a chance in this game.
Yep. And the offense just shit the bed in the second half
All of this and it’s so Miami that the ’12th man didn’t even turn up.
If talent doesn’t matter then stop worrying about FA and the draft. We’re the fucking walking wounded. We have how many edge rushers left?
The defense isn’t the problem tonight Tim, no one is saying that. The offense is.
Hey Tirico, Berrios isn’t a dangerous return man …
There’s your game.
lol, Dolphins have one 1st down in the 2nd half
Collapse in progress
Three and out . Fucking chokers
How does hill drop that
Tua missed high on 1st
Tyreek dropped the pass on 3rd
That is our stars not making plays in the biggest moments
^
but we have a bunch of injuries!!!!!!!!
SMALL
I’m just mad at myself. During this game I actually believed we could win this game. That’s not who this team is yet, maybe ever . Only time will tell.
I’m glad we didn’t get blown out. It was a combination of bad Josh Allen showing up and our defense giving us a chance.
Yeah. That’s the only good part.
You guys think losing players week after week doesn’t make a difference? This is not the roster we started with. Half our team is playing with backups. It’s not the same team. We’re done. Look who we’re playing with. Tyreek isn’t 100% either.
What about the offense shriveling up like a frightened turtle? I’ll excuse the defense due to injuries, but the offense is nowhere near a high power offense in big games
It’s a finesse offense that can be derailed way too easily by a good physical D. End of
Bills are missing Gabe Davis. That is equivalent to Waddle. They lost their best DB White, the heart of their defense Milano, a couple of players this game, and on and on.
Our offense and special teams are the reason we lost this game, not our injury riddled defense.
The injuries have impacted us this season, sure. But our offense has been terrible in the 2nd half of this game.
It was a team effort. Defense didn’t give up a lot points but gave up a ton of yards and TOP. ST error was critical and O was stagnant in 2nd half
The Bills defense has a ton of starters out. We couldn’t do shit against them in the second half. ONE first down Tim. That’s inexcusable.
They convert on 4th and short in their own territory and we knew we would fail in that same down/distance/field position earlier. That is the difference between the two franchises right there
And there is your game
That’s our season. No division title , one and done in the playoffs. Again. You know what they say- there’s always next year! 🙄
Hahahahahahahahahaha. That okay just sums up this whole sorry fucking game.
Play
Ball game
Nogtih all. Its after 4am. Seen enough
SMALL
Defense held on as long as they could. Our offense as usual wilts in big games. It all starts with our soft QB. I’ll take Josh Allen every time over Tua. He takes over games and wills his team to victory. He has a ton of turnovers, but I’ll live with that over never showing up.
Tua didn’t drop that 3rd down throw.
Every big game. Every big situation……crumble. It starts with your leader.
Who made a perfect throw on 3rd down under pressure. The star receiver dropped it
They are going to go for it
And make it
Bills will get to win this with victory formation just to punctuate it.
Dolphins had one fucking 1st down in the 2nd half. There just isn’t any excuse we should accept for that.
None. Mostert is very good, but we are deep at RB. Waddle out hurts, but he’s one guy .
Another week I won’t watch hard knocks
Ken, I can accept that from the defense. The Bills have a pretty unstoppable offense. Our defense held them to 14 points for the game. And part of the reason they have such a dominant TOP is because we have one 1st down in the 2nd half.
The biggest difference between the Bills and Dolphins…
One team has a QB who can make plays the other team doesn’t.
We are the “other” team.
Sorry, it’s true.
Ken,
Tua threw high on the first down throw to Tyreek . Lucky it wasn’t picked
Yes he did but he made the play on 3rd down but Hill didn’t.
No way they can reverse that. And our defense gives our offense ANOTHER chance.
I thought that spot was actually generous
Let’s see what you’re made of Tua
I give up. We’re a 1/3 of the team we started with. Our current roster is not the team that made the playoffs.
Don’t give up. Just watch the game and be real in evaluating why were losing instead of just shouting ‘injuries’
Ah man, the injuries just caused Tua to throw that INT, smh
That was a TD that Hill dropped
That was a shit throw
What are you doing Tua
Never a doubt
Someone please try and defend Tua in these spots . I just don’t see it.
Mike McDaniel. Go draft your QB
To your point, BBM. Tua just isn’t a very good big game QB. The last high level game he had against a top notch team that I remember was the Ravens last year.
And that was in week three
Perfect drive to beat the Cowboys a couple of weeks ago
He did have a good drive there, but a lot of that drive was runs Ken. He needed to come up big today, he didn’t . There is definitely truth to the notion that if you get him off his rhythm , he’s not nearly as good.
He was a bit better than average in that game and had a good drive to win the game against a team that struggles on the road.
Not to take anything away from that win, but that isn’t playing a great game against a top team.
Oh well no trip to Florida for me next weekend
That’s ok
I didn’t want to play the Bills twice in a row anyway.
Tomorrow, y’all.
Again, the Bills have a QB who can make plays. The Dolphins don’t.
That is unfair. Allen made plays but he is why they almost lost. We would not win 11 games and be in playoffs 2 years in a row without Tua
So we go to KC next week, most likely lose, hopefully draft some good players, re sign most of our FA’s. Reset next year . This season is done.
^
I actually think we have a better chance to win against KC than if we’d pulled this off tonight. The Bills made a lot of mistakes or they would have won this game by double digits. I would have expected them to be better next week…not that I think we’ll beat KC
I’m drafting Bo Nix
We are mostly a backup team now. Even they got hurt. If we win in KC I’ll jump for joy. We don’t have the players. It’s ridiculous!
We have the players on offense Tim, you’re wrong on that. They came up small. We are missing a replaceable RB (Achane, Wilson Jr), and Waddle. That’s really one guy. Our stars came up small when it counted, that’s a fact.
Another week of small ball by Tua and this offense. I’m glad we have Fangio to at least make this week look close.
D didn’t play great either. We got killed in TOP and yards. Bills stopped themselves more than we stopped them.
TOP was pretty even until the second half, when we had 1 first down going into the final drive. The D played their fucking asses off.
What more do you expect from the defense? They held them to 14 points. All the offense had to do was score. They haven’t done that against good teams ALL YEAR LONG. Which is consistently the side that doesn’t perform in big games? Offense every single time. Every single big game, shitty offense.
The defense wanted it. The Offense didn’t want it as bad and didn’t have what it takes to go get it. That second half by the O was pathetic.
Really ST lost the game. Game was playing out well for us until that punt return
True, but the lack of O in the second half is why they had to punt anyway.
14 pts. You aren’t winning games scoring 14 pts.
Pretty much yep .. we did nothing on offence to help our cause in 2nd.. seems we forgot to run it in 2nd.
Imagine just how bad this team would be if Grier hadn’t gone out and gotten the most dynamic WR in the NFL to cover up how bad Tua is most of the time. We would be seeing the same old anemic offense we’ve seen from previous coaches.
The guy who had 2 crucial drops? The 3rd down drop and the one with the PI would have been a TD Tua hit him in stride
I am hoping we have Mostert , Waddle, and Hill vs KC… and hopefully enough players on Defence.. yes we have a lot of injuries again , but we still fielded a better team on paper this week than the last two games vs Bills last year that we lost by 3 pts ….
The punt return for a TD changed everything. Not Josh Allen. We don’t have a playoff team in the playoffs. We’re depleted folks.
Not on offense Tim. There’s no excuse for them only putting up 14 points tonight, and ZERO in the second half.
We lost so many players on defense this year and they HELD. The Bills were held down all game. The offense did almost nothing all game. Just like against every other good team.
Yeah there is.
I don’t have Peacock. Maybe that’s a good thing
Against winning teams this year we’ve scored
20 – Bills1
17 – Eagles
14 – Chiefs
22 – Cowboys
19 – Ravens
14 – Bills2
That is an average of 17.7 per game. It’s just not good enough to beat good team.
If our offense had played well, we could have won 3 of those games.
As a matter of fact, even having subpar outings, in the Eagles, Chiefs, and Bills2 games our fucking offense had the ball looking to tie at or near the end and ended up turning the ball over in all 3 games to seal the loss.
SMALL
Yep
Small Ball Dolphins.
We will be 1-6 vs. teams with winning records after next week. That’s not going to cut it folks.
And apparently the game will only stream for ya on Peacock…. Thankfully TSN is supplied all games by my cable company still
Defense didn’t play well. Gave up tons of yards. 9-15 3rd down conversions. Only Josh Allen’s mistakes made the D look palatable. This loss was a team effort
Ken, your nuts if you’re going to pin this on the defense .
You’re
Offense had 167 yards
Team effort all 3 phases lost this game
If we win in KC that would be amazing. Who is rushing the passer, Ingram?🤣
New Age says:
January 7, 2024 at 11:32 pm (Edit)
What more do you expect from the defense? They held them to 14 points.
——
I expect them to get us off the field on 3rd down. Repeatedly they didn’t do that. Only Allen’s mistake made it look better than it really was
Team had 275 yards of offense. Yeah, it was definitely the defense that had lost Chubb, Howard and Phillips.
Offense lost Waddle, Mostert, Williams and Wynn so why is that different?
Tyreek had 50% of Tua’s targets tonight. Dude didn’t look for anyone else all game. Without his blanket covering for his very average play, Tua would look like the same dude from Flores years. Holy shit, this offense was putrid and the playcalling has not gotten better. If we don’t obviously have faster dudes and their defense sucks, this offense can’t function. We can’t beat good teams. We can’t beat good defenses, and McDaniels can’t adjust to good DCs.
Injured players lives matter. We’re a shell of the team we started with.
Not on offense Tim
So Waddle, Mostert, Williams and Wynn don’t matter?
ElephantRider says:
January 7, 2024 at 11:40 pm (Edit)
Offense had 167 yards
————
281 yards. Still not great but not what you claim
Man. This team just fucking disappoints year after year after year. And least we have that consistently .
This was 2 heavyweight teams that slugged it out but we came up short. That is it.
We came up short. Again. Never fails.
Heavyweight? We beat one winning team this year.
We won 11 games this year. 2nd in the conference.
Playing one of the weakest schedules in the NFL.
And we’re 6th in the conference.
11 wins is still 2nd most in the conference. Tied with Buffalo
4 other teams have at least 11 wins. We are the lowest rated of those 5 teams.
Defense definitely lost this game. They didn’t teach Tua how to throw for 200 yards and not throw ints to the other team. Allen stepped up after his mistakes and put the team on his back. Tua did a tuck and roll and hoped no one noticed.
Our line played well enough to win tonight, and we have a deep RB room.
Tua wasn’t sacked once and we had 108 yds rushing at 5.4 per carry.
And we had 100 in the first half
Ken. No, Wynn doesn’t really matter. Jones and everyone who has subbed in has done an adequate job. Every team but two has had OL injuries that’s part of the game and why you need depth. Mostert is very good, but Achane and Wilson Jr. negate him. Do you think we would have run the ball that much better ? We had 100 yards rushing in the first half! Waddle definitely hurts, but shit, if we can’t win without our number 2 WR then we aren’t anywhere near close to as good as we thought we were in offense .
Tua mainly throws to Hill, and Waddle as the second option. Without Waddle, he threw to Hill 50% of the time. He’s way too predictable and easy to rattle. Dude is basically a one read college QB with the fastest WRs on the field that plays against D3 talent too often.
If that ball isn’t out in 2-3 seconds, Tua struggles.
And if you want to compare the injuries on offense and defense fine. But the D stepped up tonight, held the Bills to 14 points , and gave the ball back to the o with a chance to tie or win the game. The offense SCORED 14 points, had 1 first down until the last drive that ended in a Tua pick. And scored 0 second half points. Zero.
Tua had time to throw and our rushing attack was effective.
Our biggest stars missed crucial throws and dropped crucial passes at inopportune times. I feel like I can’t overstate how important that low throw by Tua was when we were driving to go up two scores. Hill also could have caught that pass. neither of them made the play.
Then they both failed with a high throw and a dropped pass on our second to last drive.
Then Hill drops a ball that might have been a TD and Tua throws a pick on fucking 2nd down to end the game.
That is fail after fail from our stars! Not failing on offense because Eich was the center.
I just don’t get blaming a backup center or a missing RB.
💯
A lot of fans are not realizing how many injuries we’ve had and why it matters. We’re not the same team. We’re hanging in there the best we can. 😩
If we’d lost 38-35, I’d totally give the D a pass because the injuries on that side of the ball have been catastrophic. I thought our D played above what we could have hoped to expect.
😂
Ken
You are correct. I meant 167 passing yards. That’s pretty terrible
The Denver game was the worst thing to happen to this team. It gave them the spotlight.
And made them think they were good.
Tim,
has no other team had injuries this year? Cleveland has played backup QBs all year. They lost both starting tackles for the year. Yet, they find ways to win. How is that?
Oh well, with the exception of Saturday night when I was lit, I’ve been dreading this game all week. I thought they were going to blow us out and we were in it until the 4th, so I’ll take that.
It’s been a fun season, I’m glad we made the playoffs, we’ll be one and done. And if we beat the Chiefs, then we’ll have met my expectations of a playoff win.
We’ll be in year 3 of this offense next season. If we can add a playmaking TE, maybe it will open up things up and allow us to be more effective against top defenses. Assuming we can keep our players this offseason.