Baltimore Ravens lead series 9-6-0
- Where: Hard Rock Stadium, Miami
- When: Sunday, September 8, 2019 at 1:00pm EDT
- Point Spread: Ravens -6.5
- TV: CBS
The Baltimore Ravens have basically punched the Dolphins in the mouth, physically beat them up and blown them out the last two meetings they’ve had.
It’s not been close folks, in fact the last two matchups ended with the Ravens 40, Miami 0 on 10/26/2017 and Ravens 38, Miami 6 on 12/04/2017 playoff game, combined loss of 78-6 ouch!
The Brian Flores era begins as the new look Miami Dolphins takes on the Baltimore Ravens, the Dolphins took on a different personality once we brought in Joe Philbin from the Green Bay Packers, Miami started to become more of a finess team and that unfortunately played right into the hands of a team like the Ravens, a smash mouth physical team much like their division.
I see Brian Flores bringing the Dolphins back to a more aggressive physical style team both offensively and defensively I’m actually looking forward to this game and I’m anticipating a win.
On to the matchups
The matchup: on Offense
This being the first game of the season I don’t have any stats to go on as to what to expect from either team.
I suspect both teams will have the same philosophy run the ball and stop the run That’s what they both want to do very well as both teams will have that smash mouth physical style of play.
The Dolphins have somewhat of an advantage because of the weather and if they can play an uptempo game and keep the Ravens on their heels with that heat the Ravens will wear down by the end of the game so it all depends on the conditioning of the Miami Dolphins.
The Ravens have a veteran coach one of the better coaches in the NFL and they’ve been a pretty respectable team for quite a few years and as noted earlier have dominated the Dolphins recently.
The Ravens have more weapons than the Dolphins and since moving on from Joe Flacco to a young Lamar Jackson who brings a RPO style of offense that will make them difficult to defend especially with a young defense like the Dolphins will field.
This is an excellent test of Brian Flores’s team and what we can expect moving forward in 2019 as expectations are very low for our Miami Dolphins.
The matchup: on Defense
Brian Flores is a defensive minded coach and I am 100% sure he has the goal of having the best defense in the NFL that’s why they tried to lure Jadeveon Clowney unsuccessfully to Miami.
Miami have a young nucleus of players right now that he’s intending to coach up to be in a position to play disciplined, tough, smart defense.
Unlike what we’ve had to endure the last two seasons under Adam Gase (who made a huge mistake by making Matt Burke his defensive coordinator) because Matt Burke was not ready for primetime and our Dolphins defense stunk big time under him.
I am looking forward to Miami’s Defense maturing throughout the season and by seasons end being one of the best defensive units in the game. But there are going to be some growing pains.
The Strategy:
For The Dolphins:
The good news for Miami is they have no pressure at all this year, there are low expectations for this team by many and with this being year one of the rebuild some don’t even feel Miami will win two or three games.
The Dolphins coaches can use that to their advantage with this young team by letting them know how disrespected they are and how they need to step up to the challenge.
The Dolphins must protect their house!
That is the first sign of a good team winning the majority of the home games if not all of them. There’s no better time than the present to start by sending a message through the Baltimore Ravens.
I’m looking forward to seeing what Miami’s strategy is because it’s really hard to tell under this new regime, I think they will have a similar strategy of that of the Ravens. Run the ball well and stop the run!
Ryan Fitzpatrick is a gunslinger and he’s going to take his shots down the field so I expect a few big plays to happen the Dolphins have a very good running back group that if the offensive line can at least run block well the Dolphins can impose their will on the Ravens in the heat at Hard-Rock stadium.
Time of possession and whoever has the fewest turnovers will determine the outcome of this game.
For The Ravens:
The Baltimore Ravens are a playoff contending team, their solid on all three phases of their game Offense, Defense and Special Teams.
They play more of the old school style football, one I feel the Dolphins will eventually go back to and they have plenty of weapons to accomplish their goal.
The Ravens had the number one defense last year and despite changes they will most likely be a top five defense again one of the best defenses in the league with a lot of talent.
And with that formatablel front line they’re going to be hard to run against. I feel they might be average on their defensive backfield which plays into the hand of Ryan Fitzpatrick’s gunslinger mentality.
The Ravens also have one of the most exciting young quarterbacks in the league as Lamar Jackson in his second season has a chance to take his game to another level as hopefully his passing game will be improved.
Lamar Jackson adds another dimension to their run game, if he gets out of the pocket he is one of the most exciting runners at the quarterback position in the NFL.
Lamar still has a ways to go as far as a passer but he can create havoc with the RPO As well as running a ball controlled smash mouth football.
My take:
I do think that the Dolphins will find a way to pull this game out, I would be shocked if this team fell into the pattern of the last two matchups against the Ravens and get blown out.
At the very least I expect to see a very competitive game, a close game, one that the Dolphins will pull out at the end.
Miami 24, Baltimore 20
(((((( Go Miami ))))))
The Dolphin Seer 