Finsmob Unleashed

Our 8-3 AFC East Division leaders travel to Washington this week to take on the 4-8 Washington Commanders. Yeah, still hard not to think Redskins, but it is what it is. The Commanders defense is dead last in the NFL, 32 of 32 allowing 29.2 points per game. This bodes well for our team, which is scoring 30.8 points per game.The bright spot for the Commanders is they appear to have a QB, potentially a franchise QB. Although his play has been uneven, QB Sam Howell has thrown for 3339 yards, 18 TD’s and 13 INT’s. That’s 162 more yards passing than our own Tua Tagovailoa for Howell, in his rookie season no less. Howell is also completing 66.5% of his passes, just a shade less than Tua at 69.8%. This is an opportunity for our offense to get back on track, but also a chance for our defense to continue to show that this is one of the top units in the NFL as we get closer to the playoffs.

It was a crushing blow last week when OLB Jaelan Phillips season ended after a non contact achilles injury. He was playing at a very high level, equal to the amount of hype he received before the season. Now, the forgotten man in this defense, DE/LB Emmanuel Ogbah moves very much to the forefront. Of course AVG, Andrew Van Ginkel will probably see more snaps now at OLB, Ogbah will most certainly see a lot more snaps than he has all season. The good thing is, Ogbah has fresh legs, and is completely healthy, playing nearly a 1/3 of the snaps this season (21%) compared to the usual 65-77% of the snaps in other years. Besides the pass rush, one thing that directly affects the pass rush is the pass coverage. Right now, our defense couldn’t be any better, with a healthy CB Xavien Howard on the left side and the scalding hot CB Jalen Ramsey on the right. Safeties Jevon Holland and DeShon Elliot round out this excellent secondary. Holland, of course, had the amazing “Hell Mary” 99 yard TD interception return on the last play of the first half against the NY Jets.

It seems as if we may be getting some players back on the offensive side, as RG Robert Hunt looks like he may be ready to play, although he may be on a snap count. It seems as if the entire team logged a LIMITED practice session yesterday, and it’s impossible to tell if that’s just precautionary, like injury maintenance or if that’s the best those injured players could manage. RB De’Von Achane looks like he’s going to be QUESTIONABLE unless he manages to get in a FULL practice today. The same goes for Raheem Mostert, although we’ve seen Mostert with the QUESTIONABLE designation for weeks and he still manages 20 + touches on offense. C Connor Williams returned last week and should be good to go this week as well. RG Liam Eichenberg played very well against a tough NY defensive front and if Hunt can’t go, I won’t be too concerned since Eichenberg is handling the job sufficiently. Hunt, incidentally, did suit up for the Jets game but did not play.

The Dolphins are now a 1/2 game behind the Baltimore Ravens who are 9-3 but have their BYE week this week. We’re ties with both Jacksonville Jaguars, and the Kansas City Chiefs, but we are currently the #4 seed in the AFC. We must win this week to continue to stay near the top of the conference. Nothing will help this team more than to play as many playoff games in our house as possible, considering besides the Eagles and the Cowboys who are in the NFC, we’re the only undefeated AFC team at home. Home is where we play our best football. On offense, we’re not a physical team, although we can and have run the ball well. We’re actually #2 in the NFL in rushing behind the Ravens, this despite the fact that we have nearly 100 less rushing attempts, 390 rushes for 1903 yards (4.9 YPC) for the Ravens while we have 292 rushes for 1597 yards (5.5 YPC). The Ravens are just a more physical team, they run the ball more, and their QB is a huge reason. Yes, they have a big, imposing RB in RB Gus Edwards, who has 590 yards on 141 rushes for 4.2 yards per carry. He’s a grinder, but the Ravens second leading rusher is their QB Lamar Jackson. Jackson has 574 yards rushing this season, but the Ravens alos have a weapon very similar to our own De’Von Achane, RB Keaton Mitchell. Mitchell is also a TD waiting to happen, he’s averaging 9.3 yards per carry, 29 carries for 269 yards and 2 TD’s rushing. De’Von Achane, for comparison has 39 carries for 461 yards and 5 TD’s rushing and Achane also has 2 TD’s receiving. The big question is though, do we see a healthy and productive Achane again this season or does he get shut down? In addition, we play the Ravens New Year’s Eve day in Week 17, and I believe that game will tell us an awful lot about our team going forward into the playoffs.

The Dolphins are the biggest road team favorites in the NFL this week, a hearty 9.5 point favorite. I don’t mention this because I’m a betting man, I’m not, but this is a game we should win, and absolutely need to. We need to clean up the turnovers. Our opponents have fumbled 20 times against us, 9 forced fumbles. OLB Bradley Chubb has 4 of them.We have 38 QB sacks on defense and have allowed only 18. That’s remarkable. We have the 3rd most sacks, behind the Bills (41) and the Ravens (47). On offense and sacks allowed, the Chiefs (referees) (14 sacks allowed) and the Bills (Josh Allen) (15 sacks sacks allowed) are the only teams better. We have 11 INT’s, Tua (10), and Mike White (1). We have fumbled 20 times, lost 12. We have one of the worst turnover differentials in the league at -5, we have 9 interceptions and 5 fumble recoveries for 14 takeaways, while on offense we have 11 interceptions and 9 fumbles lost for 19 turnovers. Tua and Mostert have bosh lost 3 fumbles, and I suppose we’re a bit lucky, because Tua has 10 fumbles this season. Both of these guys need to be more aware of ball security. If De’Von Achane can’t go this week, RB Jeff Wilson will share the lesser amount of carries with RB Raheem Mostert, as long as Mostert plays as expected.

GO DOLPHINS!!!