Dolphins to square off against troubled Tampa Bay in Miami
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins have a lot of problems and today they will face a team that also is facing a lot of problems. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
This weekend was supposed to be each teams bye week but instead they will play what was supposed to be the opening weekend game way back in week one. Thanks Irma!
It has been a long season for the Dolphins who have watched their starting quarterback go down with a knee injury, the loss of several players to IR, a AWOL Lawrence Timmons in week one, a snorting video by their former offensive line coach, and the latest arrest of starting linebacker Rey Maualuga who was released on Saturday.
And to think that is the abridged version of their season!
Tampa Bay hasn’t had that much drama but today they will start former Jets starter Ryan Fitzpatrick because starter Jameis Winston is injured. If only it stopped there. Winston is embroiled in his own drama.
Winston allegedly groped an Uber driver in March of 2016. Yes 2016. Winston is denying the allegations but it still brings past issues of Winston’s problems in college back to the front and obviously doesn’t look good for the Buc’s.
Regardless of Winston’s problems the Buc’s have their own problems to deal with. At 3-6 the Buc’s are one game behind Miami in the win/loss column which means nothing outside of draft positions. Their issues are on both sides of the ball where they rank 14th overall on offense and 27th defensively.
The Buccaneers have struggled all season running the football and that should continue today against a formidable Dolphins front. That is if they show up. Last week against Carolina the Dolphins gave up almost 300 rushing yards.
Monday’s nights misery was so bad that the Dolphins defense which entered the game ranked 10th in total defense was knocked all the way to 17th. Miami doesn’t have answers to their issues and the Buc’s apparently don’t either.
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Today’s game is more or less a matter of what team wants it more. The Buccaneers have nothing really to play for as they are four games out of their division and three games out of the sixth seed in the NFC. They are also the third worst team in the NFC as well.
Miami on the other hand still believes they can make the post-season and while that is a tall order the reality is they are only one game behind the Bills for the sixth seed. With seven games left to play today’s game could determine whether Miami will have any shot at all. A loss and they can pretty much play for nothing more than experience.
Today’s game kicks off at 1:00 p.m. and will only be televised in the local Tampa Bay and Miami markets. There will be no out-of-state coverage unless you have Sunday NFL Ticket.