| Anyone Have Any Predictions As To How Well Henne Does Against The Vikings? |
The Miami Dolphins are in Minnesota and are preparing for their game against the Minnesota Vikings.
The Vikings are predicted by a lot of "experts" and analysts to beat the Dolphins, and that is a shame for those analysts. I hate seeing analysts messing up picks because they are paid to be experts and when they mess up it looks bad, but that is what will have to happen Sunday.
I am sorry to say it, but anyone who picked the Vikings to beat the Dolphins will be wrong.
Miami has not won two straight games to start off the season since 2002, so this would be a pretty big win for Miami if they can pull it out. Especially since the Dolphins have really struggled to win at all in the beginning of previous seasons.
A lot will have to go right if the Dolphins want to beat the Vikings, but it is completely possible. People are overrating the Vikings, and especially Brett Favre, and they are underrating Miami this year. Brett Favre is nowhere near where he was last year.
Everyone knows it. They just do not want to admit it. But, they won't have a choice other than to accept it when the Miami Dolphins come in and stomp on Favre and his team. In order to do that, though, here are three things the Dolphins will have to do:
1. Capitalize On Brett Favre's Risks
Brett Favre is the king of risks.
There might as well be a variation of the board game Risk named after Favre called Risk: Brett Favre Edition. It would have a "waffling meter" that helps each player make decisions on attacking. Whenever a player wants to attack a country they would have to push a button and the "waffling meter" would decide whether the general wants to attack or not. The meter would go back in forth for an unnecessarily long period of time before finally deciding.
Just an idea.
Sorry about that, but I just couldn't resist. I will try to stay on topic for the rest of this article, though.
Favre does like to take a lot of risks, and that can be a great thing for his Vikings or a horrible thing. It always seems like he is going to try and fit the ball in there. It doesn't even matter to him if he has to throw it through a defenders chest, he will still try.
Sometimes it works, and he ends up a hero like he was for the majority of last season. Other times things don't work out so well, and he just ends up looking like an idiot like he did after his interception in the NFC championship game last year.
If the Dolphins want to win this game, their secondary must capitalize whenever Favre has one of those urges to throw even when he shouldn't, because when he gets an urge to pass the ball into an extremely tight spot he rarely doesn't act on it.
No one on the Dolphins defense got an interception last week against Buffalo, but that will have to change this week.
2. Pressure Brett Favre
This goes with #1, but it is also important on its own. The Dolphins D did a great job putting pressure on Trent Edwards last week. They were able to sack him three times, but the best part of their performance was their ability to bat down the ball whenever Edwards threw it.
We need them to continue the sacks and bat-downs on Favre Sunday. Both are great ways to kill offensive drives pretty quickly, and they keep Favre from having any chance to throw the ball long.
Also, the more pressure that we can apply on Favre, the more likely he is to take risks and throw the ball where he shouldn't. Pressure will turn in to turnovers, and that statement is always amplified when Brett Favre is the player being pressured.
Winning this game will start with pressuring the quarterback. It is a proven way to bring down prolific passing offense like the 2007 New England Patriots, so why would pressuring the quarterback not be a good way to bring down an offense without it's number one receiver and an old, beaten-up quarterback?
3. Passing The Ball Effectively
At first I wanted to title this reason "Passing The Ball Downfield", but I decided not to because we don't need Chad Henne throwing the ball deep every passing play. Not that I think the Dolphins will take advice from me. I just don't want people to think that I am some crazy fan who wants 80-yard bombs every play.
The Dolphins do need to keep their short-ranged passes in the offense for sure. Without them our offense would lose an important dimension. But, they do need to start throwing the ball longer than they did against Buffalo last week. 15 points is not good enough to win a lot in the NFL, and it was against the Bills, which makes it even worse.
We have the tools in place for Henne, now. We added Brandon Marshall for goodness sakes! What more could you want? Now all he has to do is get the ball to him.
Success on the long ball means more points, and more points means a better chance of winning. It is pretty simple.
If the Dolphins are able to do at least two of those three then they should come out with a win. I just can't wait to hand Brett Favre another loss since we beat him two years ago. It will be nice to go 2-0 and really start the season off well.
Let me know what you think about the Dolphins chances this week with your comment. To leave a comment just click here.
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