It could go either way. You never know. The Ravens could have lost to Buffalo.

 

KC almost lost to Buffalo. Buffalo and I said it from day one of the season, is not as bad as people say they are. Best 0 and 6 team I have ever seen in my life.

 

we never win when we are heavily favored anyway

 

It has not entered ESPN's thought process that the Dolphins Defense is performing better than the Ravens Defense, in fact, the D is the best unit on the Dolphins at the moment and ranked #8 overall.

 

If I were a betting man, I would bet on Baltimore this weekend. I just think that the Ravens are a better team then the Dolphins right now.

I know that they barely beat the Bills, but then again, so did we.

Good thing I'm a fan of the Dolphins, otherwise I might put money down.

 

In Baltimore they all picked the ravens and they had some guy from the sun sentinel on today and he said that everybody but himself pick Miami to lose.....but at the end of the day they can pick till there faces turn blue it doesnt matter the game is played on the field not in the news paper or on the radio.

 

Definitely. Practically all, if not all the games they lost were very winnable. It's not like any of them have been blowouts.

We're (Baltimore) is currently 14th on offense and 10th on defense and are 5-2. The 6-1 Patriots are 19th and 28th. The 3-5 Chargers are first in both categories.

 

One thing that scares me in regards to Balt is Flacco can place the long ball pretty decent on his receivers outside shoulders or in a place our defense cannot get too.

Carson Palmer does that well too so IMO we have to get in there and ratlle Flaco's brain muscles around. Ocho Cinco and TO are about the same match as Boldin and TJ Hoosyamomma is. The rattling of the brain does wonders.

 

All their "experts" also picked the Rangers in 5 against the Giants. Don't worry about what these people think.

 

:lol:

 

If you go by what matters most, points, the Chargers have the 25th ranked defense and 5th ranked offense. Patriots have the 18th ranked defense (however, in their last 4 games the Pats are giving up less points per game than the Ravens) and 1st ranked offense. Ravens have the 5th ranked defense and 15th ranked offense.

If you look at the records of each of these teams I think the points for and against are a better indication of how good they are/aren't.

 

The other poster went by YPG so so did I. But yeah, you do have a point. BTW, the dolphins are 14th in PA per game.

ETA...Correction: 16th

 

Sounds an awful lot like the 2007 Miami Dolphins...:yes:

 

By Vegas? Or by the blowhards?

 

Incidentally, I know we were favored by Vegas against the Bills...but have we been favored since then?

 

I don't think the Dolphins have been favored since then.

 

The reason for this is simple. You cannot look at JUST the offense and defense. There is one other facet to a team and it just happens that this year it's playing a bigger role then most years.

The Chargers rank dead last in Special Teams. They have 4 blocked punts, they barely get past the 20 on KO returns, and they can't tackle on opposing team KO and Punt returns. This is truly the sole reason they are 2-5. Listen, you can't have the best offense in the league and the best defense in the league (from a yards perspective) and be 2-5 without having somewhere else be an abomination. That somewhere else for the Chargers is ST's.

The Patriots are at or near the top in ST's. Gostkowski hasn't missed a FG inside the 50, Tate has been very good in the return game, and obviously they slaughtered our ST's with a FG and punt block to go along with Tate's kick return.

In the end, you can't go by points and say the Chargers defense is 25th considering alot of those points given up were directly related to Special Teams. They have the best defense in the league in YA which is usually a good determining factor for how good a defense is. If you aren't giving up much in the way of yards, you probably aren't getting scored on much (unless of course your offense is turning the ball over all the time (they have fumbled the ball quite a bit) or your ST's is getting shelled (which they are)).

 

Miami's initial and final Vegas lines by week...

Week 1: -3.0 ==> -3.0
Week 2: +5.5 ==> +5.5
Week 3: -2.0 ==> -1.0
Week 4: +1.0 ==> -1.0
Week 6: +3.0 ==> +3.0
Week 7: +3.0 ==> +3.0
Week 8: +2.5 ==> -1.0

Vegas initially favored us against the Bills and Jets but has not favored us initially in any other game. Kind of funky that closing lines are only 2-5 at predicting the final outcome. The only ones the closing lines predicted were the Bills game and the Steelers game (which was obviously stolen, so it's more like 1-6).

Miami is 4-2-1 against the spread.

 

Keep in mind 3 TD's came on in the MNF ST melt down, 1 with Ricky Williams fumbling at our own 1yd line, the D is actually playing better than the stats suggest.

 

Agreed. This passing attack really scares me because they have the best receivers in all of the NFL. Hopefully our D is up to the test.

 

Eh, tbh Boldin and Heap are solid players, if you look at Derrick Mason's performance this year it has not been as good as in the past, and Stallworth will be in his first game back in nearly 2 yrs.

 

Don't forget about TJ. Him, Heap and Boldin scare me the most.

 

Good point. All of our points allowed I believe is from our defense :(

 

Mason is a very solid player every year. However, the additional receivers may have hindered his numbers, of course. (although if teams have been doubling Q leaving Mason more 1 on 1, that blows that theory). The good thing is that the different receivers have put up good numbers. Q, Heap, and Mason all have had at least one great game. TJ hasn't contributed that much overall. Stallworth adds another deep threat for us. He won't be starting and will probably only be put in on 3rd downs and sub packages. Maybe the Ravens can target Stallworth for a long ball or two and open up the run game and/or get a PI call or even better, a reception :)

 

If Ocho Cinco can be handled Housh is not really a problem.

 

The main problem is covering them all in 4 receiver sets. If they only have 2 or 3 of them on the on the field at a time no problem. But if they line up in the 4 receiver set I dont like our chances unless we can get pressure.

 

I'm really not surprised. Dolphins have only scored 1 TD in each of their past 2 games, and have lost their 3 toughest games. Many people rank the Ravens with the Steelers and Patriots and Jets, considering they beat two of those teams.

I always figured this would be our toughest game this year. Dolphins should be able to throw on them, but Ravens can easily get turnovers so it's still going to take the Dolphins A game, which we haven't really seen.

The good news is the Bengals beat the Ravens with only FGs.

 

it is what it is. now, we play the game. :yes:

 

Did they beat the Steelers with rothlesberger

 

I guess going 4-0 on the road didn't mean much to them.

 

Its ESPN when have we ever really been respected by them?

 

I don't really think it's a matter of lack of respect for the dolphins. The Ravens are coming off a bye, will be at home, and have a better overall record.

These two teams are pretty close to each other, really. I'd have to give the edge to the Ravens though because over the last couple years, they've gone to the playoffs and look like could go for a third straight year.

 

7 painfull 3 pt or less losses. We could have easily been 6-10 or 7-9 that year.

 

Nope, not even when we had Marino. I've never understood the hate for the Dolphins eminating from there.

 

Perhaps it is due to where they are geographically: Connecticut. :up:

 

Jake Long may be worth the pain we went through.