The Miami Dolphins will welcome Sean McVay, Jared Goff, Aaron Donald, Jalen Ramsey and the rest of the Los Angeles Rams to Hard Rock Stadium for a November showdown this upcoming Sunday, ushering in the Tua Tagovailoa era and hoping to continue Miami’s postseason push. But the Dolphins surely spent Monday night glued to their televisions and watching the Rams sufficiently dominate the previously 5-1 Chicago Bears en route to a 24-10 victory.
That 24-10 win? It’s good news for the Dolphins. You never want to have to face a good football team coming off of a loss, given that losses typically seem to rebalance a team and recalibrate their focus on the task at hand. For the Rams, defeat has almost always led to victory the following week under McVay. The Rams are now 12-5 under their head coach following a loss the week prior, so a defeat at the hands of the Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football would have put the Dolphins tough spot.
That conflict will be avoided this week thanks to Chicago’s punchless effort on offense, a development that perhaps Miami can take cues from regarding how to combat the two stars on the Rams’ defense. Between Jalen Ramsey and Aaron Donald, the Rams have two game-breaking defenders at their disposal. It will be up to Chan Gailey, Tagovailoa and the rest of the offense to solve the riddle of scoring points against that group: an unenviable task. But at the very least we will know coming in that the Rams will not have the motivations of a prior loss burning at them all week long.
Miami, amid their run towards a potential playoff berth, will need every bounce of the ball they can get. This absolutely, positively counts — now we’ll need to see Miami take advantage of the opportunity at home.
