Tag Archive for: Miami Dolphins

Patriots RB James White looking to show out against Dolphins

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Local product James White is coming to town, hoping to lead the New England Patriots to victory.

As the New England Patriots take on the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, a familiar face will be recognizable from the opposing sideline. New England Patriots running back James White will undoubtedly be a part of the game plan for New England. A Florida native, this is sort of like a homecoming game for him. Given that the Patriots and Dolphins are division rivals, he has been back several times as a member of the opposition.

Playing high school football at St. Thomas Aquinas High School, White certainly excelled. In three years of varsity football, he accumulated 1,679 rushing yards and 20 touchdowns. Averaging 9.1 yards per play, he accumulated 57.9 rushing yards per game. His best season came in his senior season of 2009-10. As some may remember, he had a great year. Playing 11 games, he carried the ball 102 times for  979 yards and 11 touchdowns. Averaging 9.6 yards per carry, he averaged 89 yards a game.

A different type of running back

So far in his tenure with New England, White hasn’t really been a pure running back. In fact, he has become one of their best receiving backs. Take for instance his 14-reception, 110-yard receiving game against the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI. A Super Bowl MVP award was the result of what was an incredible display of pass-catching. New England patriots Fans had obviously seen what he can do. The Super Bowl performance was a coming-out party for him on the national level.

He has made a living of catching the ball out of the backfield for New England. Fantasy owners love him, and the Patriots have been able to find the perfect niche for him in their game plan. The last time New England played Miami, White rushed the ball four times for 13 yards. He also caught the ball two times for 15 yards. With how crowded the New England backfield is, it’s important for each player to make the most of their snaps. White has certainly done that over the years.

He is the perfect type of running back for this era of football. Running backs that are pass-catchers are often times even more valuable than one-dimensional running backs.

In the New England Patriots season opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers, White had a great game. he rushed the ball four times for 26 yards, averaging 6.5 yards per carry.

He will certainly need to keep up that level of production against a Miami team that has given New England trouble at home. Wherever your rooting interests lie, there is no denying that it is great to see a local kid make it.

 

Tom Brady needs to feel heat from Dolphins pass rush

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The Dolphins need to bring defensive pressure to the New England Patriots in the passing game.

It’s no secret that the Miami Dolphins have a tough task this weekend with the New England Patriots coming to town. After all, New England demolished the Pittsburgh Steelers by a 33-3 score. With a stout defense and Tom Brady at the helm, they did whatever they wanted last Sunday. Oh by the way, Antonio Brown should join the team in Miami just in time for the game. It is safe to say the Dolphins will have their hands full.

This may seem like an obvious statement, but the Dolphins need to get pressure on Brady. Last weekend, Lamar Jackson was pretty much free to do whatever he wanted. He burned the Dolphins for 378 passing yards and four touchdowns. Tom Brady will do the same if the Dolphins do not get to him quickly. A receiver like Josh Gordon can beat you with pure speed, while a receiver like Julian Edelman is great at improvising routes and getting an initial first step on his defender. The running backs are huge part of the passing game as well. They can catch screens, wheel routes, and even line up as receivers. They are extremely versatile and add another wrinkle for the defense to look out for.

Sam Eguavoen  and Jonathan Ledbetter each recorded a half sack last week. With one sack in total, the Miami defensive line did not get to the quarterback enough. If the Dolphins have any chance of beating the Patriots, they need to create a consistent pass rush. If you give Tom Brady time to throw, he will make you pay. Even at 42 years old, he can still throw the football extremely well. it’s fascinating to see quite frankly. However, he always seems to struggle in Miami. Whether it be the heat or the crowd noise, a New England Patriots-Miami Dolphins game in Miami is always a good one.

New England Patriots need to feel the heat

Bringing pressure up the middle often makes Tom Brady think a little bit in the pocket. I used to see it a ton with the New York Jets defenses in the early part of this decade. They would bring pressure up the middle, and also bring a little bit of pressure off the edge. They constantly stumped Brady and rushed him into making throws he didn’t like.

Those New York Jets defenses were very good. I’m not asking for the 2019 Miami Dolphins defense to play like those just defenses. The formula of getting pressure up the middle and making Brady think is something that they can do on Sunday. I like to see a little bit more out of Christian Wilkins in this game. He can do a little bit of everything. He can clog up running lanes, but he can also rush the passer. I would love to see him be able to get pressure on Brady. Getting pressure on the quarterbacks was something he did at Clemson, and his skill set should translate well to the National Football League.

Playing Tom Brady and the New England Patriots is not going to be easy. The odds are certainly stacked against the Dolphins, but they can at least make life for Brady in the new England patriots difficult.  Getting pressure on Brady would be a nice step toward keeping this game close. keeping this game close and general would certainly be a moral victory for Miami.

Rookie receiver Preston Williams provided the Dolphins with a small victory against Baltimore

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Preston Williams gave Miami its first victory of the year.

Nobody expected the 2019 season to be pretty for the Miami Dolphins. At the same time, nobody expected a 59-10 blowout by the Ravens in week 1.

The Dolphins, the NFL’s youngest team, was expected to have a few bright spots while tanking away the 2019 season.

Preston Williams, an undrafted rookie from Colorado State, is continuing to make a case as a diamond in the rough.

After an impressive preseason and training camp, Williams finished his first regular season game with three catches for 24 yards, including this saucy touchdown grab before halftime.

“If you’re looking for small victories, that’s about it,” quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick said of the catch.

Fitzpatrick, the 16-year NFL vet, finished his first start by going 14/29 for 185 yards including one touchdown and one interception. Look for Fitzpatrick to continue to target Williams as the Dolphins will play from behind for most of the season.

 

Follow what probably will be the worst team in Miami professional sports history with us at FiveReasonsSports.com. Let’s go through it together, as we all suffer in the 15 games that are left, until get Tua, right?

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According to Vegas, losing Tunsil and Stills did not hurt the Miami Dolphins

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Tunsil and Stills are gone and some Miami Dolphins fans can’t still believe it.

The Dolphins have continued to be the model of mediocrity for the last 20 years.

They’ve struggled to find success in the playoffs. Yet, have refused to bottom out.

The Dolphins are embracing the tank under first-year coach Brian Flores in 2019. As a result, Vegas had Miami winning 4.5 games in the 2019 season. BetOnline still had a line of 4.5  after trading away left tackle Laremy Tunsil and wide receiver Kenny Stills.

Robert Duff, on sportsbettingdime.com dove into how this move may impact the Dolphins here.

Duff, whom taught a course on the history of sports at Elder College, highlighted how a mutiny could develop in Miami’s locker room after trading away their cornerstone left tackle. According to Duff, what doesn’t help Miami’s situation is that Brian Flores is starting to look as “cold-hearted” as his previous boss, Bill Belichick.

Flores is quickly losing the faith of a team. Like every team, Miami put plenty of work in the offseason, just to fall to Baltimore by 49 points on opening day.

While the first-year coach has preached that his team is going to be competitive, it isn’t looking that way early in the season. Miami’s struggles are at a point in which players don’t want to suit up for a team that will be dominated on a week-by-week basis.

Per Mike Florio, of ProFootballTalk, members of the Miami Dolphins are reaching out to their agents in hopes to get traded from the team. This could potentially make an already diminished roster even weaker.

Early mutiny in Miami

Things will get worse in Miami before they get better. The Dolphins have only won four-or-less games just twice since 1970. The 2019 roster is looking as bad as the 1-15 team from 2007.

Vegas doesn’t see the Dolphins getting any worse, especially after losing Stills and Tunsil. Keep in mind, they are most certainly not getting any better.

The 4.5 line is looking like a pretty appealing line to bet the under on. Especially for a team that is clearly tanking with their sights on Tua Tagovailoa.

Jerome Baker

Jerome Baker is ready to fight through tough times

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Jerome Baker will embrace the situation and fight along all season.

Hours after the 59-10 loss to the Baltimore Ravens, ProFootballTalk reported that players wanted out of Miami.
Whispers spread that players were contacting agents with the hope of escaping the 2019 Miami Dolphins. Jerome Baker wasn’t one of them.

Shortly after, the Miami Herald reported that the Dolphins have not heard from any agents.

As a result, Jerome Baker took to Twitter to make it known that he is ready to battle through the tough times in Miami.

Baker played 71 of 76 total defensive snaps for the Dolphins in the first week of the regular season. Keep in mind, he was also named a captain for the 2019 Miami Dolphins.

Hopes are high for Baker in his sophomore season as people expect him to take a huge leap in his second year under coach Brian Flores. Despite the hollow roster surrounding him.

 

 

Join the discussion following us on Twitter and get the best Miami Dolphins content in the market with us here, or at DolphinsMaven.io

By the way, go ahead and buy your Tank For Tua t-shirt and tank top right now clicking here!

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Brian Flores

Brian Flores: ‘I’ve got to do a better job of coaching’

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MIAMI GARDENS — Brian Flores had spent his whole football life preparing for Sunday – the past 15 years with the most successful organization in the business in New England. He did his part in helping the Patriots win four Super Bowls, including the most recent.

Sunday was his first chance to show that he could take what he’s learned and lead a winner on his own.

Flores’ first regular-season game as head coach couldn’t have gone worse for him and the Dolphins, a 59-10 thrashing by the Ravens at Hard Rock Stadium. Actually, the Ravens could have scored more. The game ended with a kneel-down at the Miami 5.

Still, it was the second-worse loss in Dolphins history.

The surprise wasn’t that Flores’ reign started with a loss in a rebuilding season. It was how poorly the Dolphins performed, how outclassed they were by the Ravens.

And, frankly, how ill-prepared they appeared despite months of meticulous preparation by a demanding and perfectionist coach.

Brian Flores and his Missed on goals

“We talked about playing penalty free. We talked about having a clean operation, alignments, assignments, trying to play turnover free, and we didn’t accomplish any of that. We talked about starting fast. We didn’t accomplish that.

“It starts with coaching. It starts with me. I’ve got to do a better job of coaching this team. We’ve got to play better. It starts with me. We’ve got a long way to go. We’ve got a lot of work we have to do.”

The thoroughness of the beating administered by Baltimore illuminated the ruthlessness of the NFL. Before Ravens coach John Harbaugh took his foot off the Dolphins’ throat on that final play, he had shown no mercy all afternoon.

Harbaugh called a fake punt with his team leading 35-3. It went for 60 yards and led to another score.

Harbaugh went for it on fourth down with his team up 52-10.

Flores, who has been on the other side of rough-riding an opponent while coaching under Bill Belichick, shrugged it off.

“It’s our job to stop them. Those are my thoughts,” he said. “It’s not their job to let off. So it’s our job to stop them. John is a good coach. They’ve got a good team. It’s our job to stop them. I’m not looking for handouts here.”

Brian Flores not blaming tanking

Similarly, Flores brushed aside a question regarding concern about whether there is enough talent on a roster that has been stripped bare of many of veteran players in the early stages of rebuilding.

“I don’t worry about that,” Flores said. “We’ve got the guys we’ve got. We’re going to coach them. It’s our job to coach them. It’s our job to get them better. It’s our job to put them in positions to play well and make plays, and that’s my job. I’m not getting into – Look, I’m not an excuse maker. I never have been.

“Put that in the excuse bucket and you can kick it to the curb, because I’m not into that.”

Flores has bristled at the suggestion the Dolphins are deliberately tanking the season, playing to lose in order to be in position to draft a quarterback to build around.

He puts high demands on his players, as well as on his coaches and himself.

In Brian Flores way of thinking, Sunday’s result is a challenge to be met with even harder work.

That was evident in what he said his message was to the team at halftime when they trailed 42-10:

“‘Let’s play better. Let’s not have as many penalties. Let’s get aligned. Let’s tackle. Let’s not turn the ball over.’ … I just wanted us to stick together, play together and fight.

“We’ve got to fight. We can’t lay down. We’ve got to fight, keep fighting.”

Ready for Patriots?

His message will likely be similar when the team returns to practice this week.

Because, guess what, next week can be worse: The opponent is Flores’ former team, the Patriots.

As much as Harbaugh threw everything but the kitchen sink at the Dolphins, imagine what Belichick will have in store for his former protégé.

“I’ll just go through my normal process, my normal routine,” Flores said. “I’ll obviously reflect on what this was this past week and try to improve it and try to do a better job. At the end of the day, how this team plays is a reflection of me, and I have to do a better job, and this team has to do a better job, and we’ll come to work tomorrow and try to do that.”

Craig Davis has covered South Florida sports and teams, including the Dolphins, for four decades. Follow him on Twitter @CraigDavisRuns

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The Miami Dolphins look like the worst team in local history

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The Miami Dolphins haven’t been able to do much right in the past couple of decades.

But this tanking thing?

They’re naturals.

Sunday’s 59-10 loss to the Baltimore Ravens was so complete that the score is misleading. If Lamar Jackson had stayed in for the fourth quarter, the Ravens were headed to the 70s. As it was, this was the highest score by a Dolphins opponent in a regular season contest in the franchise’s increasingly ignominious history.

And here’s the thing: it can and will get worse.

The Dolphins — what’s wrong with Minkah Fitzpatrick — couldn’t handle the Ravens’ pedestrian receivers Sunday. Next Sunday? Tom Brady comes to town with Antonio Brown, Josh Gordon and Julian Edelman. And it’s not like there are lots of Dolphins young players with high upsides who will improve drastically as the season progresses.

So there’s a real chance this could be the worst non-expansion team in South Florida sports history.

Yes, the Miami Dolphins were 1-15 in 2007 under Cam “Thumbs This Way” Cameron.

But they were outscored on average only 27-17 per game.

The Panthers have been middling to bad for a while. But they’ve never been the equivalent of 1-15 or even 2-14 NFL bad.

So it’s just the 2007-08 Miami Heat (15-67 after Dwyane Wade and everyone else got hurt and the Heat raided the D-League roster) and the 1998 Florida Marlins (54-108 after H. Wayne Huizenga sold off a World Series winner).

But this?

This has the looks of something historic.

What will the Miami Dolphins do well this season? Throw? No. They can’t protect. Run? No. They can’t block. Tackle? That appears foreign to them. Cover? Ravens ran wild through the secondary.

And as it gets more and more hopeless, more veteran players will check out, interested only in their checks. More fans will stay home — tanking sounds better in principle than it feels in practice.

Prepare for the worst.

It’s what many of you wanted.

And the Dolphins will deliver.

 

 

BETDSI.com: The Miami Dolphins are a touchdown dog

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BETDSI had no merci with the Dolphins.

With the offensive and defensive lines this, um, lacking, are you surprised the betting line is this low?

Well, some bettors aren’t, apparently.

That’s why, if you want to bet the Miami Dolphins and take the seven points from the Baltimore Ravens today, you need to give up a little more (-112) at BetDSI.com.

(BetDSI.com is where you should go and use the promo code FIVE101 for a bonus).

Taking the Ravens and giving the seven points (at -105) good play to me, especially since the forecast is mild for a September afternoon — cloudy and a high of 87.

Even easier money, of course, is the moneyline.

But to bet on the Ravens to win, you need to currently need to give $323 to make $100.

And we all know what happened in 2007, when Baltimore was the only team to lose to the Dolphins.

If you believe in Miami’s ability to corral Lamar Jackson, sure, pick the upset. Maybe Minkah Fitzpatrick picks him off a couple of times.

We’ll just be sitting on the other side.

In Five Reasons Sports Network we promise you we will be there with you for this long 2019-2020 Miami Dolphins season. We know it is not an easy thing to be a Miami sports fan right now, but give it a couple of years and we might be winning a lot of games, and maybe some championships. This is how it is now. You have to tank to have a shot at winning, if you’re not one of the highest payrolls of the game. It sucks. We know. Let’s embrace it together. Be part of the Five Reasons family. 

Dolphins trudge off after what may be a season filled with losses. (Tony Capobianco for Five Reasons Sports)

Center Daniel Kilgore reflects on being named a captain of the 2019 Dolphins

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Before 2018 free agency hit, the 49ers signed Daniel Kilgore to a new long-term deal. Just days later, they traded him to the Dolphins for a late round pick.

Kilgore was a cheap replacement for Pro Bowl center Mike Pouncey, who joined the Los Angeles Chargers. The seven-year vet from Appalachian State instantly became a starter for the Dolphins, before suffering a week 4 injury that ended his season.

Not only has Daniel Kilgore worked his way back, he has even been named a captain of the young new-look Dolphins. On Friday he met with the media and reflected about being named a captain of the 2019 Miami Dolphins.

Daniel Kilgore on being named a captain:

“It’s a huge honor. I was a captain last year before the injury. To be voted on by your peers is a true honor. It’s not a job that I take lightly. I think it comes with a big responsibility and I’m ready for it, and get these guys ready to go on Sunday.

Whats the biggest thing you feel like the captain should do?

“Lead by example. I’m not like a big ‘rah, rah guy.’ I’m not going to stand in front everybody and give an emotional speech. I’m just going to do my job and come in with that attitude and get better.”

Is there any difference in leading such a young team?

“No. I’ll go about my business the same way I have for nine years. I go through the same routine. Be one of the first ones in and one of the last ones to leave. Well, not today. My daughter turns one (year old) tomorrow so I’m going to leave early today. (laughter) But no, it’s no different for me. (I’m) the same guy. The same responsibility – do my job.”
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Daniel Kilgore and the Dolphins will be tanking this year. Buy your Tank for Tua tank top here!
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Miami Dolphins extend G/T Jesse Davis through 2022

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Not everyone on the Miami Dolphins roster is set to be released. On Saturday, the team officially signed veteran offensive lineman Jesse Davis to a three-year extension. This new deal keeps him from becoming a restricted free agent next season. It will pay him a total of $15 million. His guarantees equate to $8.5 million, with a $4 million signing bonus.

Obviously, locking up Davis comes from a place of necessity. In light of the trade that sent Laremy Tunsil and Kenny Stills to the Houston Texans, the Dolphins need players who can provide depth. At the same time, Davis now projects to be their starting left tackle. With Tunsil gone, Miami only has three other players who can play tackle. Jesse Davis, J’Marcus Webb and Julién Davenport.

The only one who has any experience in Chad O’Shea’s offense is Davis. Additionally, with versatility being so important, Davis fits exactly what coach Brian Flores is looking for. Davis played every snap at right guard for the Dolphins last season, and he’s played every position except center since being called up from the practice squad in 2017. Before the Tunsil trade, Davis played almost every snap at right tackle. Now he’s expected to move to the left side against the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday.

Davis has never wowed the crowd with his blocking prowess. He grades out average at best according to ProFootballFocus. However, he’s a versatile and reliable body who can be called upon for many different situations. Miami will undoubtedly look to strengthen the offensive line in 2020, which will take Davis out of his starting role. But in the future, they will need someone who can step in during emergencies, and Jesse Davis fits that role like a glove.