I wasn't familiar with Strong Opinion Sports, so when I saw SOS in the title, I thought Same Ole ****. Even though I am excited about what I think our new strategy and Flores will eventually bring in time, Same Ole **** is probably fitting for the results we will see this year, LOL. I am gonna go with the flow and hopefully, after a painful year this year, things will get better down the road. :-)
I'm seeing 7-9. vs. Ravens - L (0-1) vs. Patriots - L (0-2) @ Cowboys - L (0-3) vs. Chargers - W (1-3) vs. Redskins - W (2-3) @ Bills - L (2-4) @ Steelers - L (2-5) vs. Jets - W (3-5) @ Colts - W (4-5) vs. Bills - W (5-5) @ Browns - L (5-6) vs. Eagles - L (5-7) @ Jets - L (5-8) @ Giants - W (6-8) vs. Bengals - W (7-8) @ Patriots - L (7-9) Quite a few of these could go either way, of course. Getting New England early in the South Florida heat could be a recipe for an upset. Chargers at home will be close. Traveling to Indianapolis won't be easy, it's a talented roster, but their success largely depends on Brissett. At Cleveland could be close. Any of the divisional games could be toss-ups. At any rate, I think we'll finish somewhere between 5 and 9 wins.
Man, I think a lot of people are under-appreciating just how impressive the Bills could be this year. Their defense is going to rock and that offense isn't nothing. We lucked out against them last year. They'll sweep us this year for sure. I think we have a chance in the following games: Chargers, Redskins, Jets (2), Colts, Giants, Bengals I don't see us winning all 7 of those. Maybe 5 at most but it really depends on how those teams play. We play host to Chargers, Redskins, Jets (1) and Bengals. I suspect those could be our wins right there.
As of today, considering the shape of our OL, I am under five wins. I am not saying that I want us to lose games on purpose, but part of me is ok if we do because I want to have a chance at a top QB next year and not have to give up a ton of picks to do it.
This team won't score enough points to win too many games. With the holes that still stubbornly remain on the offensive line it won't matter who the Qb is. If you can't pass block and you can't run block the skill positions just won't matter on offense. The defense may actually be pretty decent though. AS long as we don't end up with a bunch of injuries in the secondary we should be ok. The pass rush from the D line is a problem but the center of the line looks solid.
Honestly, I think I'm taking the under. I can live with that for a year as long as the light at the end of the tunnel isn't a freight train.
Just some trivia: since 2002 when the NFL went to 32 teams, the most consistent team in terms of win% is the Buffalo Bills. They've averaged 6.8 wins per season with a standard deviation of 1.4246 for wins per season which is even more consistent than NE, the only other team with a standard deviation below 2. Moral of the story: never bet on the Bills doing great. Vegas btw also has Bills win total at 6.5. Dolphins are at 4.5: https://www.sportsbook.ag/sbk/sportsbook4/nfl-betting/season-wins.sbk Anyway, I'm hoping either everyone's wrong and we make the playoffs or we lose enough to get the #1 draft pick. I'm taking the under.
Haha...yeah, I'm not sure if that's how that works, LOL. Still, you may end up being right this year. Who knows? The Bills defense is pretty stout though and if Josh Allen ends up developing well, the Bills would be my pick to inherit the AFC East if/when NE begins to regress. They should be the #2 team in the division this year. If not, they will have really crapped the bed.
I don't think I'm going to write my usual season review this year because there's just too many variables- new coaches, new QB's, a horrible offensive line and all new schemes. I could see this team making it to the playoffs since they've worked so hard in camp. I could also see them winning 3 and completely self-destructing...we lost too much talent to really know for sure how the dominoes will fall. Looking at the schedule, my best guess is 6 or 7 wins. I think we beat the Pats early since they don't have our playbooks yet. I think we split with the Jets. Every other game is a huge question mark but I'm expecting the defense to be improved (from being 31st overall last season) and the offense will be more consistent...despite having worse protection. Better stats over 2018 does not equal wins though; it just means we've improved where we really sucked with all our 2nd string starters before. But does that equal 2 wins? 5? 11? I really have no clue. I see about 7 games on the schedule we could win so that's what I'm going with.
If the over under was 5.5, I’d take the under. We’re one injury on the OL from being a complete disaster on offense. Defense, well, we currently have no pass rush and that doesn’t usually bode well for winning games.
Vegas having us at 4.5 is concerning because that's where I see us too and I normally disagree massively.
I thought that if the OL gelled and becomes sort of adequate and one of our QBs stepped then we could steal a 9 win season. The OL has shown no signs of stepping up. Or more accurately is performing just like the cheapest OL in football is expected to. The QBs haven’t shown that either of them is going to have a breakout year. I expect whoever our starter is to be pretty average at best. That puts me in the 5 win camp. For me this is frustrating because i see development in pretty well all other areas of the team.
The defense will most likely win us a few low scoring games. We may not have a great pass rush but we didnt last season either. I think just based on scheme alone this unit should do better. The biggest issue is the offensive line and QB position, they will need to help put up enough points to convert those low scoring games to wins. I dont feel comfortable predicting a win total. I could legitimately see anywhere from 1 if everything falls apart to 10 if Rosen plays well and has some protection when he steps in.
I think 6-7 wins, as long as we don't suffer crippling injuries. This year's Fins squad isn't going to be good no matter what. However, we do catch the break of playing what I feel is the weakest schedules in the league, with half of our games against the NFL's bottom ten teams. I think that five wins at home is very doable without even any shocking upsets. BALTIMORE W NEW ENGLAND L @Dallas L CHARGERS W BYE WASHINGTON W @Buffalo L @Pittsburgh L JETS W @Indianapolis L BUFFALO W @Cleveland L PHILADELPHIA L @Jets L @Giants W CINCINNATI W @New England L
I think we'll have a respectable running game, special teams have been surprising. Defense will only get better. Either QB gives me more hope than Tannehill ever did. 6 or 7 wins sounds about right.
Sorry brother, but I had to stop reading at the W against Baltimore. I mean, I'd love to open the season 1-0 and all, but Baltimore's defense is going to eat us alive. Unless it's like a 10-7 ballgame, I don't see us having a chance in hell.
After thinking about it a little, maybe we will see some Fitz-Magic in week one and put up some points. If you overlook the pass blocking of our line, our offense is great on paper and should be able to move the ball nicely on the ground (the run blocking has looked surprisingly good). We haven't showed it but this is definitely a ground and pound team- that will be our identity until we have to go up top. I just can't buy in this season though and I'm 100% in show-me mode...plus it's freaking Baltimore. Their 5-11 teams have destroyed us even when we were a playoff team. I'm definitely looking forward to it though and have my fingers crossed that my skepticism is all for nothing.
The Ravens have lost a lot this offseason, and I don't feel that they've replaced it. I also feel that Jackson has no business being a starting QB, and its going to be an unmitigated disaster for them.
First game of the season is always a toss-up. Both teams are flat footed and unprepared. At home, in the Miami heat. Maybe some rain. The Dolphins could very well steal this one with a running attack. Just a couple seasons ago we beat NE at home in the first game of the season. After that, they went on to the SB and we went fishing in the Keys.
The Fins are actually 6-1 in the last seven home openers, dating back to 2012. And 2-0 at home in Week 1 during that span as well, despite only having one winning season during that span. For whatever reason, the team was 0-4 in their home opener under Sparano before that.
Also, I found it interesting that in the 54 seasons that the Dolphins have played, they've only opened at home in Week 1 17 times. (This will be the 18th). It feels like it should be more to me because they did so nine of out eleven years from 1994-2005 when I was a young adult, compared to only four times in team history prior to that. To me, it was just totally normal. In those seventeen games, they've failed to score at least 14 points only once. That came in the game to start the 2004 season that was pushed up to Saturday due to the impending hurricane that year, which was also right after Ricky Williams retired as well. They've failed to score at least 20 points only three other times, including the first game in team history in 1966. The team is 9-2 at home in Week 1 Sunday games since 1990.
Also of note in Week 1. The Fins have hosted the Ravens ten times, and no team in those matchups has ever scored more than 27 points. The winning team has scored 20 or fewer four times, including the epic 9-6 Miami victory in 2003 that perfectly exemplifies the Wanny era.
I think it's worth mentioning that a category 4 hurricane is barreling down on Miami and it's possible that we don't have a game there next Sunday. Although that might sound crazy, it's exactly what happened two seasons ago.
Its not crazy. Its life in South Florida this time of year, sadly. We shall see. I don't see the local news down there, but the Weather Channel seems to think that the storm hits Florida closer to Orlando than Miami. I guess we'll see.
The thing is, the storm is 200 miles wide so this is a full Florida event regardless. And anywhere near the eye, you can have multiple tornadoes spawning every few minutes or seconds...we personally witnessed the neighborhood next to us get destroyed during Andrew in the 1990's while we only had a few roof tiles loose and a few broken tree branches. One house over in the opposite direction (where damage was generally minimal)? It was crushed like a pancake by an 80 year old tree. So you literally never know- that's one of the main reasons I got out of South Florida.