Hyde5: Here's Why A Fast Start Looks Scheduled For Dolphins

[DolfanDuBbZ~]

I’ve been down the optimism road. Over the past 30 years it’s been in more years than it should have been just to be let down. I’ve grown wiser in my fanAGE. I’ve studied organizations and watched football for a long time. Not just the Dolphins. I’m a fan of the NFL and give credit when credit is due. I like TN more than OAK as a playoff team. Miami is a year away from being a playoff team. That’s as far as my optimism goes for Miami today.

Kudos.

Watching TENN they bring a brand of physical play that is in the top tier of the NFL. Miami did beat them in the last contest, but remember that was while Mariota was hurt (knee/active).

Is 2018 a possible 8-8/9-7 team? I think so. Is that a bad thing?

 

[fish920]

Tennessee lost their stud tackle and Murray is gone too. I fully expect Tennessee to take a step backwards this year

Henry, Lewis > Murray, Henry. Tennessee is a better team than last year, and we barely beat them with their backup QB starting.

To be fair we didn’t have our QB either so....

 

[McMichael]

The Dolphins have had some scheduling headaches out the gate in recent years, most notably last season, when they lost their home opener to Hurricane Irma and their first three games were at Los Angeles, at New York and in London.

Here are the first three games:

Home vs. Tennessee at 1 p.m.

Away at New York Jets

Home vs. Oakland at 1 p.m.

This year is the opposite. They’ve got a good schedule that helps chances of a strong start. Two-and-one? Three-and-0? Well, they should be favored in their first three games, assuming nothing awful happens before the Sept. 9 opener.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/miami-dolphins/fl-sp-hyde5-dolphins-start-20180705-story.html

Highly doubt we would be favored against a Tenn. team that won a playoff game last year, actually I'm positive we wont be.

It is true that this years schedule is the opposite of last years though, we actually played the #6 most difficult schedule in the entire NFL last year, compounded by the fact that we traveled more than TWO TIMES the distance of any other team in the league. Wish I was making those numbers up by I'm not, add to that losing our bye week due to the hurricane and you can easily make an argument that Miami had the hardest schedule of all last year.

This year we travel a LOT less, the strength of schedule is in the 20s instead of #6 and we (fingers crossed) will get our bye week this year. We also get our starting QB back. Very easy to see us winning 4-5 more games than last year.

 

[JahnDho]

Kudos.

Watching TENN they bring a brand of physical play that is in the top tier of the NFL. Miami did beat them in the last contest, but remember that was while Mariota was hurt (knee/active).

Is 2018 a possible 8-8/9-7 team? I think so. Is that a bad thing?

It’s what they are, which isn’t anything to be excited about. Then again, many people in here get excited when their kid wins a participation medal.

It also wouldn’t surprise me if they fell to 7-9 either. It’s only disappointing if your expectations are 10 plus wins and in the playoffs.

 

[JahnDho]

This year we travel a LOT less, the strength of schedule is in the 20s instead of #6 and we (fingers crossed) will get our bye week this year. We also get our starting QB back. Very easy to see us winning 4-5 more games than last year.

Strength of schedule matters more than most people think. Still don’t see all this translating to 4-5 more wins.

 

[Jssanto]

The trap game for me is week 2 at the Jets. Can't afford to lay another egg in NY, like we did last year.

I agree about the laying an egg line. They always talk about players being consistent but that goes for teams also. We need to be up for all games and avoid coming out flat.

 

[royalshank]

Schedules are tricky to look at prior to the season. You really can’t be sure - some teams are better than expected and some are worse than expected. Who knows - Gruden may have forgotten how to coach or the time away does him good and the team are world beaters. All that matters is that we show marked improvement on both sides of the ball and we’ll be fine. I do prefer having 3 games either home or up the coast versus the nonsensical travel we did to start last season.

 

[phintim]

While I agree schedules are trickey its really going to back on the coaching on our part with a rusty a QB and a veey young front line at DT and LB there is a large curve for err

 

[joenhre]

Oakland is traveling to Miami week 3, after traveling to Denver Week 2.

People downplay this while also overrating the Raiders' overall talent while underrating the Dolphins. Many seem to forget that both teams were 6-10 last year while the Raiders had Carr for pretty much the entire season. Both teams made roster changes but only the Raiders seem to be getting the benefit of the doubt.

There seems to be a lot of mention of all the adjustments and chemistry the Dolphins will need to build early on with all those new players and coaches. Which is a valid concern. The problem is they are
ignoring similar issues facing teams like the Titans, Raiders, Bears and Lions.

 

[roy_miami]

I'm guessing we're a part of those teams ideas on a fast start too.

 

[fansinceGWilson]

I'm guessing we're a part of those teams ideas on a fast start too.

Good point. Every year around PS games, I go to fan forums and/or read other's team's local writers and read their predictions. I have yet to see a consensus for any team predict more losses than their opponents predict for them. One reason I'm cautious about the 10 wins. In this case, Miami has a lot of new pieces and I have no idea who quickly they can turn into a cohesive unit. And I'm still scarred by year's of slow starts. More has to go right to get to 10 wins than goes wrong, and heaven knows Miami is due for things to go right.

 

[LANGER72]

Kind of tough to predict until preseason is over. There could be injuries or surprises.
I like being at home 2 of 3 as apposed to being on the road 2 of 3.
A healthy and on target RT along with our defense gelling from game 1 is the key.
All of those 3 games will be physical and tough match ups.

 

[Digital]

... we actually played the #6 most difficult schedule in the entire NFL last year, compounded by the fact that we traveled more than TWO TIMES the distance of any other team in the league.

These two bits are Ridiculously marginalized by our naysayers. They are huge, particularly the travel miles.

Every home team facing a team from the opposite coast expects to win. Last year was like playing 10 cross-coast games at least.

Not to mention the hurricane issues and it taking our bye week. Our OL coach's behavior. The non-football obstacles were unbelievable last year.

I am confident that this season would see dramatic improvement even if we kept the same personnel just from removing all of those non-football obstacles. Getting Tannehill back ... of course we will improve in 2018. It's just silly to even expect that we wouldn't.

 

[cash]

Tennessee will whoop our ass if we can't stop the run. Will be the perfect test right out the gate