Yeah, Cleveland isn't the pushover they used to be. They might not have a winning record, but they will give some good teams fits.
They are better on the OL than we are. Their interior DL is at least as good. Their LB corps is as good. Their starting secondary may not be overall as good as ours, but it's close. I think Weeden is as good a QB prospect as Tannehill. Their starting RB is Trent Richardson. Nuf said. We are better overall at WR and TE. If we beat those guys in Cleveland, it will speak very well for our team.
How so? The only positions where we are decidedly better is WR and TE. They are decidedly better at RB and on the OL. Everywhere else is a push, IMO.
1. I agree, absolutely nothing. 2. They are definitely. Just need Red Dalton to be a solid game manager QB, and play mistake free. They are loaded everywhere else.
It's not Pete Prisco but Jason La Canfora also is on the "hater" list and recently wrote a blurb about how he doesn't buy the Mike Wallace hype and he heard from one source that Nolan Carroll was handling him all through training camp.
Their O-line is going to be troublesome to start the season as Andrew Whitworth hasn't done anything since February and is coming off knee surgery. Their LB corps was not good last year and they've not been as high on James Harrison as Hard Knocks would lead you to believe. If Reggie Nelson gets hurt the rest of their safeties are trash. RB could also be spotty. And again, Dalton is 17-4 against non-playoff teams and 2-11 against playoff teams. I think with their schedule they're lucky to win 10 again.
They do need a few things to come together, but to consider them as a viable Super Bowl candidate is not outlandish at all IMO, as some here seem to perceive it to be.
No disrespect but I don't handicap that way. Our OL doesn't face their OL and our DL doesn't face theirs, etc etc, etc. I think their OL can't move our DL and that our OL will have trouble moving theirs, initially. IMO the difference is that our passing game can move the chains and theirs will struggle to do much of anything. I see a game that will start out as a field position battle and slowly shift in our favor as their defense wears down over the course of the day.
What I find amusing is that we sorta spanked them last year. It was close on paper on we physically dominated them and pretty much had control of the game for the entire day. The reason it was close is b/c we had crap at the skill positions and overall no firepower on offense.
I hope I'm wrong and we blow their asses out the building. But I'm pretty confident they won't be able to score on us, all we need is a respectable showing on offense to get it done.
I predict superb special teams play, good to great defense play, and average offense play in a win for Miami.
If that were true, I'd have expected James Walker to have broken that long ago. There's also the fact that Carroll has played second team most of camp. There's been talk of Wallace going against Grimes a lot but nothing much about him vs. Carroll. Fact is, Wallace is a proven commodity. That news would say more about Carroll, and by extension, the coaching staff that doesn't start him, than it would about Wallace. Sent from my GT-P3110 using Tapatalk 2
They have never won a playoff game under Marvin Lewis. He's also a pretty bad game/time/challenge manager (as in worse than Tony Sparano and Herm Edwards at times) and it's bitten them several times in big games in recent years. I'll stick by that they'll be luck to win 10 games this year, and I'd bet on the Ravens or Steelers to win that division over them. They've got a brutal schedule, and their stretch of their last 5 games is awful: At San Diego - Cincinnati has typically struggled out west Indianapolis At Pittsburgh Minnesota Baltimore Their bye week doesn't come until week 12 and prior to that they have games against the Bears, Steelers, Packers (weeks 1-3), Patriots (week 5), at Miami and at Baltimore. And that trip to Detroit stuck in the middle could be tricky.
Certainly i could see a 7-9 season prediction despite my homerism thinking 10-6...5-11 would indicate a total loss at qb...and i just don't see it.
Great unsaid here is even us fans do not have a lot of confidence that we can consistently beat the teams with franchise type Qb's, and the commentariat does not believe it either. I rarely pay attention to predictions as usually they come at no cost to the predictor, however, it will be interesting to see if 5-11 is merely an outlier, or if that is the consistent opinion of what our performance will be this season.
I don't get a "this guy hates the Dolphins" vibe from Silva. He certainly thinks Ireland is a moron because of moves like Daniel Thomas, Wheeler, and Ellerbe, but that's different from hating the team as a whole.
Yeah the start could be the big problem. We've lost 4 straight to the Browns, so even that is a tough one. Falcons are not a great matchup for us. Saint in the Superdome in primetime is never fun, even for the Patriots who got blasted there during the Saints' super bowl year. Oh, then the super bowl champs come to town... On the flipside an unlikely strong start would be surprising and hopeful.
Oh Pete Prisco.... You have us losing by such Close Margins! Losses: 3 Pt Browns 2 Points Colts 1 Point Falcons 4 Points Ravens 6 Points Patriots 4 Points Bucs 4 Points Patriots 6 Points Bills Wins: 7 Points Bills 2 Points Bengals 7 Points Chargers 1 Point Panthers 1 Point Jets Silly Prisco.
That's specifically so he can go back if a team like us exceeds his prediction, and soften his stance. "Yes, I picked the Dolphins to only 5 games, but that was one of the more difficult teams to get a read on. You'll notice I had them competitive in almost every game....."
