The Miami Dolphins may have come up just short with their most recent performance this season, falling to the Kansas City Chiefs 33-27 at Hard Rock Stadium last Sunday, but the team is still carrying plenty of optimism into the final three weeks of the season. And with the Dolphins perched at 8-5 for the year, there should be. Miami has a great chance to secure a playoff berth in the coming weeks and the team’s youth movement has come together impressively this season. Despite their general lack of experience, Brian Flores has this Dolphins team playing inspired football and that can hopefully continue as the Dolphins look to exact revenge against the Patriots today.
How is Week 15 going to shake out for the Dolphins? Here are five bold predictions for the Dolphins this afternoon:
At least one Wild Card contender is upset
The Dolphins enter today racing against the Baltimore Ravens, Cleveland Browns and Indianapolis Colts to fill three playoff spots. We’re betting someone goes down today — but it won’t be the Dolphins. Baltimore squares off against Jacksonville, Cleveland faces the New York Giants and the Colts must tackle the Texans. Playoff races don’t stay “chalk” each week — any given Sunday can provide an upset of the expectations. Look for the Wild Card race to get turned upside down today with an upset elsewhere across the league.
The Dolphins extend their turnover streak
This doesn’t feel like much of a bold prediction when you consider Miami has forced a turnover in nearly 20 straight games — but the Patriots have just three turnovers in their last 6 contests. The Dolphins will get theirs, however — the team has had so much success finding those opportunities this season and was able to force four off of the Kansas City Chiefs last weekend; who had 8 in 12 games this season prior to playing the Dolphins.
As a Miami fan, you have to like the odds that Miami finds turnovers against New England.
Miami sets a season-high in team rushing
The current watermark for team rushing in a game for the Dolphins is 138 yards, which was set against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Miami’s first of the season. And while the Dolphins haven’t sniffed that number despite an improved rushing attack from 2019 and the team rushed for only 87 yards against New England the first time around, we’re betting for much better success.
Why?
Because Miami is close. They’re very close to busting some big runs in each game they play and their familiarity against a Patriots front that they’ve already played is going to help the cause. Look for 140+ team rushing yards from Miami today, largely because they’ll finally break a big one.
Tua Tagovailoa sets a career high in touchdown passes
Last week, we successfully pegged Tagovailoa to surpass 300 yards for the first time in his career. This time around, we’re pegging him to toss three touchdowns against the Patriots and be the centerpiece that Miami envisioned him being when they drafted him at No. 5 overall in the 2020 NFL Draft. The Patriots can be a stingy group defensively, which is why we’re not forecasting a great deal of yardage production through the air. But Tagovailoa’s accuracy will be a critical factor in the red zone this time around.
A 24-17 Dolphins win
The Dolphins enter this game with more to lose. The Patriots just watched the Buffalo Bills snatch their AFC East title last night — ensuring the Patriots won’t win the division for the first time since 2008 when the Dolphins were division champions. But while New England, at 6-7, is likely to feel some type of way about the Bills’ success, Miami has known for several weeks that unless Buffalo helped the cause, Miami’s path to the postseason ran through a wild card berth.
And after coming up just short against the defending world champions, expect Miami to play some inspired football today as they look to climb the conference standings and potentially search for a playoff berth as early as next weekend.
