ArrowheadOne
Wildcard Weekend:
Miami v Pittsburgh
Although Wildcard Weekend started yesterday, the Dolphins and Steelers game is the one most Kansas City Chiefs fans have their eyes on. Many are hoping the Dolphins have an upset in their pocket because they’d rather that the Chiefs didn’t have to face the Steelers next weekend. Others think they want to see the Chiefs beat the best en route to a “little” game in Houston on February 5th called, the Super Bowl.
With the Steelers touting the 7th ranked offense, based on total points scored, the Dolphins are only 29th in total defense so, a lot of points could be scored in this game. The question is, can Miami score enough points to keep pace with the Steelers attack?
The Steelers defense has been better than expected this season and ended the year ranked 12th in total defense. On the other sideline, Miami will be fielding the 24th ranked offense so unless Pittsburgh has a bad day defensively or Miami has a geat day offensively… it’s likely that the Dolphins won’t be able to match the Steelers scoring machine.
Perhaps the biggest issue which will affect this game: Matt Moore has just taken over the QB reigns 3 games ago when starter Ryan Tannehill went down with an ACL. In a wildcard preview from Athlon Sports comes this:
“In order for the Dolphins to shock the Steelers on Sunday afternoon, Moore doesn’t need to be perfect and throw for a bunch of touchdowns; he doesn’t even need to be great — he simply needs to be good enough. To put it in a simpler term, Moore can’t turn the ball over.”
Matt Moore is quite capable of having a good day but these are the playoffs and strange things happen to players when they get there, especially with no playoff experience. That won’t be a problem for the Pittsburgh Steelers who have won 2 of the last 11 Super Bowls and find themselves in the playoffs about as often as the Cleveland Browns don’t: which is a lot.
My prediction for this game: Miami 24, Pittsburgh 34.
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