Now I feel compelled to repeat my joke from the other thread: "Can Ian Book make the right reads?" While it's great that this should be Miami's game to lose, the COVID sword of Damocles hangs over every NFL team these days. I hope Miami is separating the groups to avoid an entire group from testing positive, has everyone mask up, and back to virtual meetings again. All the effort to get back into the playoff chase shouldn't be wasted.
Tough game I've been putting my Lets Go Dolphins chant in the game thread on game day for 2 or 3 weeks now , lets hope I don't forget, this and every other team left is crucial. But i'm laser focused on those black and gold MFers and I want to run them the F over, cause they think they are a better defense . We will show them what's what. I'm not scared of any of their QBs. I think it will be fun if they use Winston. I've seen him hot before, but usually Ice Cold so i'm not worried. Only question we need to ask now is what % of the Mercedez-Benz Superdome will be wearing Aqua. Our out of FLA fans rep pretty hard in most stadiums. This is a big game for us. I say 15% Miami fans and thats kinda a low estimate.
Saints tried to lure Brees out of retirement to play the Dolphins on MNF... NOLA.com's Jeff Duncan reports the Saints tried to lure Drew Brees out of retirement for Monday night’s game with Miami. Coach Sean Payton called Brees personally, according to Duncan, who gave it "serious thought." Brees "nixed the idea" because he would have had less than a week to prepare. The Saints also checked in with Philip Rivers and Josh McCown about starting this week before ultimately signing Blake Bortles to back up to rookie Ian Book. It's notable Brees was interested in returning to the Saints as a starter, but with Taysom Hill and Trevor Siemian expected back from the COVID list next week, Brees will remain in his post-playing career. Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune Dec 25, 2021, 11:12 AM ET
On paper this should be a win. But since the Dolphins tried almost blew it against NYJ, i certainly won't count my chickens. But to break his game down in it's simplest form on paper. The defense matchup 'should' be a WASH. Both teams lean on their defenses to win games. NO has their star RB back, and is fresh. The Dolphins have the emergence of DUKE, who is has also come in late in the season fresh. If he can offset what Kamara will do. At that point our offense > Saints offense. Thus we "should" win this game. Due to the sheer fact that we have more reliable skill players, and a more stable QB Sitch. It will come down to which offense can perform better against a tough defense, and of course the turnover battle. If we lose the turnover battle in the Superdome it's all over but the crying. I sure hope the coaching staff has drilled this into the head of the entire team.
If Tua comes out sharp. I like our chances. Wasn’t his best game against the Jets, but I think he’ll bounce back here. Ian Book was always more mobile than given credit for in college and is tough to tackle…. Could be a factor. His arm and lack of weapons on offense should stall their air attack.
Load up the box and don't let him get outside. It will help us in stopping Kamara too, just let him try to beat us in the pocket passing.
What does everyone think the running back splits are going to look like tmrw ? Im thinking 60-20-20. With Duke getting the bulk of the snaps. Gaskin and Lindsay sprinkled in.
Defensively, I'm not too concerned with Book. He's going to be facing a defense that's playing at a near elite level. Not a great position to be in for a rookie. I'm more concerned with the defense being able to shut down Kamara and forcing Book to be the determining factor. Offensively, we'll be facing a stout Saints defense. Hopefully we'll have Duke Johnson pound the ball at the defense. This is going to be instrumental. If we commit to the run and force the Saints to stay honest defending the run, it's going to open play action for Tua to have a good night. Bottom line, if we abandon the run we lose the game.
Watching Monday night countdown waiting for my dolphins fix, come on let’s talk about our team already
With everyone out on the Saints defense it shouldn't matter if the Dolphins abandon the running game. I am not saying they should abandon the running game. However, with the players out, the Dolphins should be able to pass every down and win this game.
We have a history of making unproven quarterbacks look like Hall of famers. We have film on him and they are surly going to have some trick plays and with their defense they could hold us down this isn’t an easy game at all.
Can’t decide what jersey to wear tonight. Czonka or Ricky to give the RBs some juice? Zach? Maybe Madison for the DBs? 13 and Tua has a 4TD game? 99 for the D line? Are we white tonight? Maybe my old #8 for my favorite rookie? Help me out here
This game is still incredibly hard. Their defense is legit scary and can just win the game outright if we don't have a solid plan on offense tonight. All it takes is for their ground game to get going and we will have issues there as well. We cannot have a slow start tonight or that stadium will take over.
It shouldn't be. All teams have good players. This game should be easy. If it isn't, then the Dolphins ****ed up.
We really need to steamroll the Stains tonight. Of course, they're playing at home and have traditionally been a team that plays on emotion. But, still...
I'm hoping for a bit of a letdown after the big Tampa game. Maybe a little beat up from a tough and physical fight, emotional fumes from a second straight major prime time game. My biggest fears are the Saint's D shutting us down and keeping us to 10 or less, while the lack of tape and rookie false confidence let's Book sling it in a Mike White type of freak performance getting them to 17 or more. Ideally, we confuse and overwhelm a rookie QB and offensively we take advantage of a depleted defense missing a starting S and two LBs and win something like 27-10.
We have to play well tonight. We need Tua to play well and if we have running game as well like last week this one should be a W. With the Saints as decimated as they are with injuries and covid we should have a run game, and Tua should have a good night. If not; we weren't ready to play and there's lots of questions to be answered IMO.
Just be ready when they win for the Dolphins to get no credit. They're already making excuses for the Saints and saying that the Dolphins win streak is not impressive because they didn't beat anybody.
TBH it's not an unfair point to make - the amount of players out for NO is ridiculous and we haven't played anyone worth a damn other than the fading Ravens. BUT ... a dub is a dub and they are rarely easy to get. We have no reason to discount them or not take advantage of the breaks we are getting. It's what good teams do.
Im shocked they actually called that penalty on the Saints. Cleary the right call, but it's the Saints.
Austin Jackson sucks. WTF was he doing on that third down play, because it sure as hell wasn't blocking anyone.