Dolphins Schedule suddenly not looking so tough. | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Dolphins Schedule suddenly not looking so tough.

MiamiFan1354

MiamiFan1354

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At the beginning of this season, the Dolphins looked at one of the toughest schedules in NFL history. After 5 weeks, that seems to have gone away.

After losing their first three games, the Dolphins have taken out divisional foes Buffalo and New York, while the Patriots have lost two games. One of those games was against a Jets team which the Dolphins upset on Monday night.

Looking at the rest of the schedule, the Dolphins have obvious divisional opponents, the 3-2 Patriots twice, the 3-2 Jets, and the 1-4 Bills. The teams with the best records remaining on the schedule are the New Orleans Saints (4-0) and the Pittsburgh Steelers (3-2). The combined records of the rest of the teams is a whopping 5-19 including two winless teams in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Tennessee Titans. Combining everyone, that's 19-29.

Just to put it in a little perspective, the three losses the Dolphins faced in the beginning of the season were against the Falcons, Colts and Chargers. Those three teams have a combined record of 10-3. It looks like the hardest part of the schedule came in the beginning of the season, and with eleven games remaining, the Dolphins could easily make a push at the playoffs by going 10-1 or 9-2. (Dolphins started 2-4 last season, and won 9 of their last 10 to win the division last season)

So lets go Phins! Use this bye to prepare for the Saints, take them out and then decimate the remainder of this so called hardest schedule in the NFL. Make them look like chumps!
 
I said before the season that we would have something to do with changing the strength of schedule equation.
 
we need to go on a serious run after bye week.
saints are gonna be even tougher than the Colts i believe
jets will be ready for revenge
pats may not be the pats of old but still tough.

if IF we can get two out of these three we are in solid shape for a nice playoff push
 
The New orleans passing game hasn't been much the last two weeks.. One of them in Buffalo where Buffalo played them very well till the start of the 4th quarter.. They also laid a bit of an egg against the Jets and picked off Snatchez.

The Saints will be coming into a buzzsaw as we are riding a 2 game home winning streak and scored 30+ points in each game... And they are due for a losing streak.

We are riding in confidence now with the team playing confidently with our new young upstart QB.

The Saints play the Giants this week. Maybe that will soften them up for the physical pounding we are going to lay on them.

And don't forget that last year this coaching staff had us prepared to play well coming out of a BYE week, also at home.. Against San Diego we had 37 minutes of possession time to their 23. The 7 point margin of victory was not indicative of how we physically dominated the Chargers in that game.

We ran all over them. Rivers had a horrible day.. And we held LT to just 35 yards rushing.

I have a feeling we will come out even stronger against the Saints in 2 weeks.

3-3
 
I think the Saints game will be our most difficult. Just as we matched up well against the Jets, we don't match up so well with the Saints. Their strengths could exploit our weaknesses.

But, if our offense plays like we did against the Jets, we'll be in the game. Basically, we'll have to play the way we did against the Colts - except Henne will have to make some big plays through the air, as he did against the Jets.

I'm hoping for the Giants to play their most physical game of the season next week.
 
The next three games (Saints, Jets, Pats) are key to contending in the second half of the season. Going 2-1 in that stretch puts you at 4-4, which would be terrific after the 0-3 start. However, I think you can contend even if you win just one of the next three, going to 3-5. That's because the second half really doesn't look that bad right now.

Let's first ignore the final game vs. Pittsburgh. Yes it's probably a tough game, but if you're playing for the division or a wildcard, you've accomplished a lot after starting 0-3. You're essentially in the playoffs already, just a week early.

That leaves seven games, two of which are division opponents (Pats & Bills). So what about the other five? It's the Bucs, Panthers, Jags, Titans & Texans. None has a winning record so far, and they are a combined 5-19 right now.

From here, step one is to go 2-1 in the next month to reach 4-4, then 5-2 through the easier half of the schedule to be 9-6 entering the final game, playing to finish 10-6 and probably have a chance at the playoffs.

I'm not saying this is the best they can do, or that 2-1 in the next three will be easy -- but I do think there's a viable path to the playoffs if Miami can get to 4-4, or possibly even 3-5. We'll need a good division record for tiebreak purposes, but we're 2-0 so far, so that's the one bright spot in the 2-3 start.
 
I think we can definitely do great things against the Saints. I see the Colts as a better team (Peyton is a better QB by far) and we were one play away from winning against them. I know that the Saints D is better than the Colts, but I think the Jets D is just as good, if not better than NO.

We are riding hight right now, and with a week off, we should be well rested and well prepared. No one is unbeatable (except the '72 Phins), so we have as good a shot as any.
 
Why couldn't wait till we play the saints, jets (at their place), and pats to write this the season is not even close from over.
 
Bta72dolphins said:
Why couldn't wait till we play the saints, jets, and pats to write this the season is not even close from over.
Click to expand...

How about because the Saints game is next, so it's time to talk about it now. We just beat the Jets, so it's time to talk about it now.
We just saw the Pats get beat, so it's time to talk about it now.
 
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