Miami Dolphins must crush the Cleveland Browns this Sunday
After two regular-season games, the Miami Dolphins find themselves 0-2 after combining to lose by just nine points against the Seahawks and Patriots. While several have chalked these matchups up as moral victories, it’s important to remember that you are what your record says you are, and moral victories have never earned a team a berth into the playoffs.
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With that said, Miami’s second-half performance against New England was fairly impressive, outscoring the Patriots, 21-7. It’s hard to determine what that second-half means in terms of how the team will play moving forward since the Patriots were playing with a lead while also being led by third-string quarterback, Jacob Brissett. However, there is no denying that the connection between Ryan Tannehill and wide receivers, Jarvis Landry and DeVante Parker, looked very strong and gave fans something to look forward to on the offensive side of the ball.
While the offense scored 21 second-half points and the defense only allowed one score, it was still disappointing that when the game was on the line, the defense reverted to the 2015-version of itself and allowed New England to march down the field and take valuable time off the clock. This led Miami to have no timeouts once it got the ball back while also needing the drive the length of the field for a potential game-tying touchdown.
As we know, the Dolphins were unable to complete the comeback against New England and now here we are – 0-2 and facing off against the also winless, Cleveland Browns.
Cleveland has also experienced late-game disappointment this year, blowing a 20-2 lead last week against Baltimore while also losing its second quarterback in as many weeks. With both Robert Griffin and Josh McCown sidelined by injuries, the Browns will count on rookie signal caller, Cody Kessler, to make his first NFL start Sunday against the Miami Dolphins.
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This year’s third-round draft pick out of the University of Southern California, Kessler has quite a bit of weight on his shoulders as several NFL Draft analysts criticized his early draft selection saying they were surprised he was even drafted. Given the fact that Kessler is making his first NFL start in week three of his rookie season, of which he started at third string, there is no excuse for Miami not to dominate this game and win convincingly by double digits.
Playing at home for the first time this season, Miami is also relatively healthy when you compare the Dolphins to several other teams in the league who have seen some big-name players go down — Adrian Peterson, Tony Romo, Teddy Bridgewater just to name a few. The combination of the home opener, a relatively healthy team, and playing against a third-string rookie quarterback should equate to success and the team’s first victory this season.
It won’t be enough for Miami to just win this game. The Dolphins need to look solid on both sides of the ball and actually take it to Cleveland. This is too good of an opportunity not to showcase what your team can do on the field, so anything short of a fairly dominating win will be disappointing. A win will also bring Miami to within a game of .500 and keep the team motivated moving forward the next couple of weeks.
If the Miami Dolphins somehow manage to lose this game, I think it’s safe to assume the competitive portion of the season is over and we can start looking at what players will be able to contribute in the future.
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