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Week 15: Dolphins vs Ravens preview

MATCHUP

The Baltimore Ravens are a tough team to size up. While they do own the second longest losing streak in the NFL this year (three guesses who is first), they did come within a referee of beating the undefeated New England Patriots. Three times. In their franchise history against the Dolphins, they’ve only won one regular season game but they were responsible for putting them out of the playoffs in 2001. And those were all better days for Miami. Days in which they had more than half of their defensive line on the field. Days in which they weren’t being forced to start a third string middle linebacker. Days in which they had a head coach worthy of being called a head coach. Days in which Wayne Huizenga wasn’t so embarrassed to own them that he was thinking about selling them. And days in which they weren’t 0-13.

If the Dolphins want to avoid matching the mark of the 1980 Saints and win for the first time in week 15 ala the 1986 Colts and the 1962 Raiders, here is what must be done.

WHEN THE DOLPHINS HAVE THE BALL

Without it’s top two cornerbacks on the field last week, Baltimore’s 21st ranked secondary was completely blown apart by Peyton Manning. Things got so bad that Jim Sorgi actually got to throw a pass. Cleo Lemon is no Peyton Manning. Heck, he might not even be a Jim Sorgi. But the Ravens will once again be without McCallister, who was placed on IR and Rolle, who is officially listed as questionable with a severe ankle injury. The Dolphins will probably have Jesse Chatman’s legs back on it’s bench but against a run defense that is allowing a league low 2.8 yards per carry, that is where they will stay. After he rushed for two touchdowns last week including a bruising run of 20 yards to paydirt, Samkon Gado has earned himself some more playing time. The 2% of the time that Lemon isn’t throwing the ball, Gado will be getting the touches, especially in the red zone. For Lemon, this could be a career day waiting to happen. He proved that he is the strongest only downfield arm on this team last week when he completed a 54 yard bomb to Ted Ginn Jr. on his first play from scrimmage. We should see more of the same color vanilla out of Miami’s receivers: Long streak patterns from Ginn and comeback routes from Booker, Hagan, Martin and the rest. If Lemon is able to read coverage as well as he did last week and he gets the same bit of help from Gado, there is no reason why this shouldn’t be a 40+ attempt, 250+ yard day.

WHEN THE RAVENS HAVE THE BALL

On the other side of the ball, the Dolphins’ defense is just as beaten up. And then some. Not only will Miami be without Matt Roth and Vonnie Holliday up front, they will be missing Channing Crowder, who had done a bang up job filling in for Zach Thomas. MVN’s Bruno Boys are predicting that Willis McGahee is going to go off. And for good reason. Unlike the Dolphins, the Ravens will be run happy not only because of the gaps in it’s opposition’s defense but because of the kind of performance Kyle Boller turned in last week when he got benched in favor of rookie, Troy Smith. McGahee has hit paydirt in seven of each of his last eight games. The key for Miami? The same as it was last week: Stop the run and force the struggling QB to throw. The Dolphins didn’t do so against the Bills and while two of his teammates rushed over the century mark, rookie Trent Edwards threw four touchdown passes. If McGahee gets going early, a perfectly capable veteran Boller could turn this one into a rout.

PREDICTION

Even though it seems impossible for the Ravens to get through a full 60 minutes without making a few crucial mistakes whether it be on offense or defense, they’ll do just enough to skate by the Dolphins. After McGahee leads a late drive down the field against a tired defense, a Matt Stover game winner with 20 seconds left drops the Dolphins to 0-14. Huizenga sells on Tuesday.

GO PHINS!

Visit Mike Brown over at Ravens Roost, MVN’s Ravens coverage and get the scoop from the opposite sideline.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 15th, 2007 at 8:13 pm and is filed under Game Previews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.