The Miami Dolphins will take their four-game winning streak into their game against the Denver Broncos at Empower Field at Mile High on Sunday.
The Dolphins (6-3) are coming off a 29-21 victory against the Los Angeles Chargers, while the Broncos are coming off a 37-12 loss against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Here are different ways this game could play out:
The Dolphins will win because ...
-- We'll keep it simple at the outset: They're a better team.
-- The Dolphins running game will continue the good work it did against the Chargers and rookie Salvon Ahmed will become the first back this season with a 100-yard game.
-- Tua Tagovailoa will have another clean performance, complete with another two touchdown passes and another strike down the field off a roll-out.
-- This will be the game where Tua and DeVante Parker establish a connection, as Parker rolls to his second 100-yard game of the season.
-- The Dolphins offense will neutralize pass rusher Bradley Chubb.
-- The Dolphins defense will do to quarterback Drew Lock what it did to Jared Goff and Justin Herbert and drive him crazy with their blitzing and all the blitz looks they give him.
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-- Lock doesn't play, but the Dolphins do the same to backup Brett Rypien and even pick him off a few times.
-- The Dolphins take an early lead again and that forces Denver to abandon its running game with Melvin Gordon and Phillip Lindsay.
-- Jason Sanders takes advantage of the altitude and sets a new career high with a field goal of at least 60 yards.
-- The Dolphins come up with yet another game-changing play on special teams.
The Dolphins will lose because ...
-- They come out flat against a team that lost its last game by 25 points.
-- The Broncos rediscover their ground game (they had 177 yards against Kansas City) and play turnover-free, ball-control football.
-- Lock plays through his injury and rebounds from a four-interception game against the Raiders with a strong outing.
-- Jerry Jeudy shows off the form that made him such a good receiving target for Tua and has his second 100-yard game in three weeks.
-- Outside linebackers Bradley Chubb and Mike Reed create problems with their pass rushing and force at least one turnover with a sack.
-- Safety Justin Simmons comes up with his fourth interception of the season.
-- Kicker Brandon McManus makes a couple of long field goals.
What actually will happen ...
We're now on a two-game losing streak with our predictions — and many fans took it personally that I predicted a loss against the Chargers (a gut feeling that proved wrong) — but still have a very solid 6-3 record on the season.
There's no particular gut feeling for this one, so it's going back to evaluating both teams for what they have and don't have — and it's clear the Dolphins have more.
The biggest cause for concern from a Dolphins standpoint is the run defense, particularly given the two quality running backs Denver has with Melvin Gordon and Phillip Lindsay.
But the Broncos are coming off a game where they rushed for only 66 yards as a team after rushing for a pedestrian 103 in another loss at Atlanta. But the key here for the Dolphins is to take another quick lead and get Denver to move away from its running game because it's tough to envision the Broncos doing much damage through the air.
Lock showed promise as a rookie late last season, but he's got only seven touchdown passes against 10 interceptions in 2020.
On the other side of the ball, this just isn't the same Denver defense without Von Miller.
A late-November game in Denver usually brings about potential weather issues, but the AccuWeather forecast calls for mostly sunny skies and temperatures around 50 for the game.
The Dolphins have gotten five touchdowns from their defense and special teams in the past three games (we're counting two offensive touchdowns that came on 1-yard drives), but they might not even need that against Denver because they should win the game on offense and defense.
Dolphins 23, Broncos 13
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November 22, 2020 at 01:46AM
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Why the Dolphins Will Defeat the Broncos, Why They Will Lose, And What's Actually Going to Happen - DolphinMaven
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