MNF: Dolphins and Giants Looking for Playoff Spots

Both teams are not good, I wanted to start off by saying that. Yet when you only have 12 playoff spots, and only nine teams are certified good teams and Super Bowl worthy teams, you’re going to have some bad eggs.

This could be said about the Miami Dolphins and NY Giants. Both teams are below .500 with a 5 – 7 record, but they are inching close to a Wild Card spot in each of their conferences.

Miami Dolphins are on a roller coaster of a season. With high expectations coming after acquiring Ndamukong Suh to anchor their defense, and solidifying an offense that could put points on the board; the Dolphins looked ready for a run in the playoffs. As was not the case, the team fired their head coach Joe Philbin four games in to the season, and promoted their tight ends coach Dan Campbell as interim head coach. Yet nothing changed as the Dolphins rank in the bottom 20 in points and yards per game, they also rank tenth in points allowed with 25 ppg.

The NY Giants have a great offense, ranked seventh in the league due to its passing attack with Eli Manning and Odell Beckham Jr. Beckham is having a great year with 1,154 receiving yards already in the season. His season wouldn’t have happened without Eli Manning, who has 3,318 passing yards and 24 touchdowns, 10 of those going to Odell. The main issue to the Giants underwhelming season is their defense. Ranked dead last in yards allowed per game, and ranked 13th in points allowed with 24.7 ppg.

Their defenses are fairly equal, when it comes to not being good…like at all. So I’m ready to see a high scoring match between both teams. The Dolphins have play makers in running back Lamar Miller and Jarvis Landry. If the Dolphins can capitalize on the Giants horrible run defense, and Miller getting 100+ yards in the game, this solidifies a Miami win. This will take pressure off quarterback Ryan Tannehill and allow him to throw to his receivers.

Let’s say the Giants defense shows up to play, then this game will be a blowout. They stop the run, pressuring the Dolphins to throw the ball and forcing Tannehill to carry the team to victory. Ryan Tannehill is not a bad quarterback but he hasn’t blown any one away with his play. Last weeks performance of 86 yards and a touchdown was enough to beat the Baltimore Ravens, but that wont be enough to beat the Giants. If you let Eli and Beckham Jr. loose on the field, there’s no hope for you Miami. Lets not mention if the Giants running backs show up to play also. The teams rushing yards per game has been mediocre but this could be the day they run all over Sun Life Stadium.

It’s a toss up, and its up to players like Ryan Tannehill and Eli Manning to play outstanding for their teams. The Miami Dolphins are also honoring the teams history by presenting the teams top 50 players during halftime. The team is also wearing their throwback jerseys for tonight’s game and have painted their end zone with their zig-zag design of yesteryear. Sun Life Stadium will be electric once its game time, the crowd could be tonight’s x-factor!

Prediction: Home field advantage pushes Dolphin to 38 – 30 win over the Giants!