Week 16 - Dolphins @ Saints

I actually believe he is an upgrade over Hill. With that said, Miami wins 20-3.

Spread went from Dolphins +3 to Dolphins -1. O/U from 38.5 to 37.

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.

Dont have a good opinion of book

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.

"Pennington's Limp Arm wrote:

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.

Dolphins D needs to make Ian Books try to beat us.

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.

https://www.instagram.com/saints/p/CX_a1wDKXfZ/?utm_medium=copy_link

Watching Monday night countdown waiting for my dolphins fix, come on let’s talk about our team already

"The_Dark_Knight wrote:

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.

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.

ESPN giving the fluff treatment to Book. He's so great at everything.

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

"jdallen1222 wrote:

Watching Monday night countdown waiting for my dolphins fix, come on let’s talk about our team already

Expected this. Probably mostly covering the cowboys and the patriots still.

"Dorfdad wrote:

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.

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.

"Berezo wrote:

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.