The Miami Dolphins Did The Detroit Lions A Favor By Beating The Chicago Bears Last Week, Now Detroit Heads To South Beach With A Chance To Gain More Ground In The Midst Of A Very Close NFC North Race.
Two weeks ago, the Detroit Lions were 1-3 and looked to be behind the eight ball in terms of NFC North chances. Following a bye, they are now only one game out of first place and at the same time they reside at last in the division. They got some help during their bye week and that came from the team that they will be facing this week in what should be a very interesting matchup.
This Weeks Opponent: The Miami Dolphins
The Dolphins did the Lions a big favor last week when they were able to take down the Bears in overtime. At the same time, the Dolphins may have also exposed some defensive weaknesses that the mighty Bears defense had yet to show thus far in 2018. At the helm of Miami’s victory were the connection of backup quarterback Brock Osweiler and wide receiver Albert Wilson who is now claiming to be the NFL’s YAC king after just one one-hundred yard receiving game this season. Showtime Tate may have a thing or two to say about that this weekend.
The key to victory for Detroit lies within the performance of Miami’s two-headed monster in the backfield. The ever-reliable Frank Gore and underrated Kenyan Drake could give a poor Lions run defense fits if they are unable to get off of the field or force Osweiler to throw the ball as many times as possible.
Why Does Matt Patricia Hate The Dolphins?
I’ve noticed a lot of people this week saying that Lions head coach Matt Patricia has struggled against the Dolphins and that has been the case in recent years. The Patriots were 1-4 against the Dolphins on the road from 2013-17. Not really something you want to see when your new head coach was calling the defense for all those games. That being said, a similar approach to the one Detroit used to beat New England would be very beneficial this week. The Dolphins will likely be counting on help from their running game to take some of the pressure off of either Osweiler or Tannehill so get ahead early and force Miami to throw themselves back into it.
A big part of the Dolphins’ 4-2 record this season has been their turnaround in the run game. Last year’s unit was ranked 29th and they’ve improved to 16th thus far in 2018. Stopping that unit is going to be key for Detroit if they want to pick up a big win on the road and for winning just about any game going forward because the Lions’ secondary is actually pretty darn good. This Dolphins team ranks in the bottom third of the league in both run and pass defense so if Detroit can take care of business on the offensive side, I think they can get the job done.
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