The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

See lots of pressure on Bradford and our offense getting enough done to win a low scoring affair of 20-10.
Back @ .500  and  ready for a little run!

Fins 3.5 favorites

Ross and Ireland want this one bad. They HATE the way Fisher lied and played them this past offseason to only get more money out of St.Louis.

St. Louise doesn't have much of a running game, not good on the road, and their receivers drop passes.  If the Defense can keep the pressure on Bradford the Fins will win.  Of any of the games this year, this should be the easiest.

Provided the o-line can pass block against a good front 7.

match-ups favor Miami this week. Now that doesn't guarantee anything. The match ups favored Cincy last week vs Miami...lol

I'm not counting my chickens, but I'm expecting a blowout.

Miami 35
Rams 10

I actually agree here. St. Louis wasn't great healthy, and now their best WR is out. Miami's weakest unit as a whole is thier secondary, and the Rams pass for a pitiful 183 ypg. Between this game and next week's bye, Miami's run game has a chance to get healthier as well. -EK

Hooray! I might get to see my first Dolphins game this week.

Any word on ticket sales? This one should be a sellout.

Don't underestimate the Rams. The Rams have actually played the 3rd toughest schedule so far (according to ESPN's Power Rankings) and are 3-2. The Dolphins have played the 6th toughest schedule so far. The Rams have actually beaten 2 teams that were ranked in the top 10 in their last 2 games. Seattle and Arizona were ranked 10th and 5th respectively.

I'm not saying that the Rams scare me, but they are probably better than Cincy who was padding their record with wins against VERY beatable opponents Cleveland, Washington and Jacksonville, ranked 31st, 20th and 30th at the time they played them.

Hey Pappy, is there a list of the current sos or are you running the numbers yourself?

I run them myself. I take ESPN's power rankings and put them into a spreadsheet each week and then based on that I calculate each teams sos based off that. For example Miami has played HOU, OAK, NYJ, ARI and CIN. Those teams were ranked 5, 25, 18, 5 and 12 the week that Miami played them. That averages out to a 13.00 schedule (lower is a tougher schedule). The Rams have averaged out to a 10.80 schedule.

So who are the pretenders? Well the Texans and the Bengals have played the easiest schedules to date with an average of 22.60 for both of them. That's effectively like playing the Jets 5 straight weeks who are currently ranked 23rd. So is Houston for real or are they just playing an easy schedule? Well they beat Denver in week 3 who was then ranked 10 in the league, but other than that they haven't played anybody who was ranked in the top 20 when they played them, but my guess is they are still pretty good. Cincy maybe not so much.

On the flip side, Tennessee has had the toughest schedule so far at 8.80 which is like playing the Packers 5 straight weeks. They are 1-4, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are lousy, just not as good as the Packers. Denver has had the 2nd toughest schedule at 9.80 and they are 2-3 so they're probably better than their record indicates as well.

What else? Well Atlanta is 5-0 with the 13th toughest schedule, so they are probably for real, but you probably already knew that. Arizona and SF are 4-1 and they are right there with Atlanta with the 14th and 15 toughest schedules so they are for real as well is my guess. Minnesota at 4-1 has had the 30th toughest schedule so far, so my guess is that they aren't. San Diego and Chicago have also played easy schedules, so they may not be as good as their record indicates either.

One more, Detroit is 1-3 despite playing the 27th toughest schedule in the first 5 weeks. That's kinda shocking. Maybe they are not as good as everyone thinks they are?

Here are the numbers if you are interested. A positive number indicates a win, a negative number indicates a loss.


TM   1   2   3   4   5   W L  SOS
--- --- --- --- --- ---  - - -----
TEN  -2 -14  13  -1 -14  1 4  8.80
DEN   8  -6  -2  27  -6  2 3  9.80
STL -12  15 -12  10   5  3 2 10.80
CLE  -7 -18 -22  -3 -10  0 5 12.00
NYJ  19 -11  25  -4  -1  2 3 12.00
MIA  -5  25 -18  -5  12  2 3 13.00
CAR -25  16  -8  -2 -17  1 4 13.60
PHI  31   3 -14   6 -16  3 2 14.00
KC  -10 -24  24 -13  -3  1 4 14.80
WAS  11 -27 -16  20  -2  2 3 15.20
NE   18 -20  -6  19  13  3 2 15.20
DAL   3 -26 -21  11      2 2 15.25
ATL  17   9  11  23  18  5 0 15.60
ARI  23   1   7  29 -19  4 1 15.80
SF    1  13 -29  17  21  4 1 16.20
TB   22  -7 -15 -22      1 3 16.50
PIT -13  17 -30       7  2 2 16.75
BUF -21  19  32  -8  -4  2 3 16.80
OAK -15 -30   9 -14      1 3 17.00
JAC  30  -4  27 -15  -9  2 3 17.00
SEA -23  10   4 -25  24  3 2 17.20
GB   -4   8 -17  28 -31  2 3 17.60
BAL  16 -12   5  32  27  4 1 18.40
NO  -24 -23 -28  -7  11  1 4 18.60
IND  -9  28 -31       8  2 2 19.00
NYG -14  21  19  -9  32  3 2 19.00
DET  28  -2 -26 -21      1 3 19.25
CHI  32  -5  23  12  30  4 1 20.40
SD   26  22  -3  26 -28  3 2 21.00
MIN  29 -32   1  18  25  4 1 21.00
CIN  -6  31  20  30 -26  3 2 22.60
HOU  27  29  10  24  23  5 0 22.60

Ah thanks Pappy, I now remember seeing that other thread. I've got a question and I'll go to the other thread to continue this.

This could be Miami's "COMING OUT PARTY" type of game. Home game before a Bye week. Fins coming off a big road win. Had 2 games before that they they could have/should have won. People are throwing a lot of praise the Fins way right now. Team is playing with a lot of confidence.  This could be a big statement game for Miami to send a message to the league the Dolphins are on the way back to respectability and no longer are a doormat for anyone.

I could see a 2 or 3 TD win here for Miami. Match-up's favor Miami. I think Bradford could have a very long day.

St.Louis isn't bad by any means and they could come down to Miami and win; wouldn't shock me at all. I just think Miami has a lot of momentum right now which might carry over.

This is the one I circled from the day fisher used us(hate him with a passion) and I want us to destroy the Lambs for his SINS!!!

A win here going into the bye then coming out of the bye with the Jets and Colts who are 2 very winable games would give Miami lots of momentum heading into November.

Not that I think they will make the playoffs, but they can hang around long enough to make the December games interesting at the very least.

If they are in the conversation in December, they will have exceeded expectations.  I don't think playoffs is out of the question, but I am not holding my breath.

Fins 27

Goats 16

I am praying for a shutout. I don't like Fisher either and breathed a sigh of relief when he went to Louis, but I give him credit for the defense he has.

Funny thing with that situation is that it was rumored Fisher chose St. Louis over Miami because the Rams had a franchise QB and Miami didn't. Now Tanny has a good chance of being better than Bradford. I LOVE IT!   

Why all the hate for Fisher? Does it stem from his time in Tennessee? And if so, why? It's not like the Titans blew monkey chunks his entire time there.

Because he didn't choose Miami? If so, does that mean you really DID want him, but are now mad and hope he fails because he didn't come to your favorite team? Please... I probably would have done the same thing if I were him. Hell, most veteran coaches probably would have. He wanted a lot of control, he wasn't gonna get it here with Ireland, he chose St. Louis. Big deal.

I'm a huge Peyton Manning fan, I don't hate him for doing a 2 second interview and not choosing Miami. Whatever.

St. Louis 13
Miami     24

+1   Well said, sir.

Miami 20
Rams 16

.500 here we come!

I don't hate Jeff, just never cared for him. No particular reason. He just does not seem likable to me. Nothing to do with him not coming to Miami...I could not be happier. Have to admit I didn't care for the way he handled the Vince Young thing.

It's strange to say this about a team with a better record than the Dolphins, but this contest has "trap game" written all over it.

Yeah, tell that AZ. I watched that entire game and the Rams looked very, very good in a 17-3 win. The pass rush was relentless.

Yes but AZ's Oline is horrendous at best.

The Phins Oline will not give up 9 sacks.

Phins - 27
Rams - 17

Reading the beat reporters on twitter about 1 hour out from gametime and Carpenter I don't think has hit one yet in pregame warmups. Wide left, wide right, short, hit the upright. He is all over the place.

Windy day and its wet to boot. Better hope this doesn't come down to a kick

Here is the forecast. Chance for rain too. I bet Carp has 100 eyes on him for every kick. I wonder if the ST coach reports to JP on how the kickers do in warm ups? You won't see any 50 yd. attempts today, regardless. 

http://weather.cnn.com/weather/forecast.jsp?locCode=USFL0316&zipCode=33010

Unless it's for St. Louis.  >:D