Steelers Host Doubted Dolphins For Wild Card Matchup
- by Grant Boone
- in Sports
- — Jan 8, 2017
The Dolphins will face the Steelers on Sunday in the first round of the 2016 NFL Playoffs and weather will play a big factor in the game. That was just the first of multiple 200-yard days for the running back.
'No. It's not all about me.
"We have had so many injuries in years past, it's hard to play your best football when you have guys down". Tuitt is on track to return for the wild card game after a knee injury.
Pittsburgh allowed just 64.6 yards rushing a game during five straight wins that vaulted them back into first in the AFC North.
'It a whole new team. Dolphins fans are not confident that the team can win this weekend, but they are not resigned to this being a one-and-out playoff experience either. Throughout the season, the defense has often compounded one mistake by committing another on the same drive, moving a drive going nowhere to one in the redzone.
'So it's just about us reading our keys, sticking to our game plan, executing. His receiving targets on the outside in Jarvis Landry, DeVante Parker and Kenny Stills can all stretch the field vertically.
'We hear a lot of talk about the other team and who they have and the players that they have, and it's starting to get to me where you have to understand that we've got players too.
"I'm glad that the run game was a great part of why we're here at this point today".
As a matter of fact, the Dolphins winning on Sunday would be the single biggest upset of this entire National Football League season.
While Walton has not offered much in the way of a pass rush, I have been impressed with his development overall as a 3-4 defensive end, and he has played the run pretty well. The Dolphins must show the Steelers defense that they have a passing capability with Moore at the helm, as they struggled to contain the Dolphins injured quarterback, Ryan Tannehill, who threw for over 250 yards in the air. And so I think we go into the game with that confidence and if we execute and handle all the details. "We're going to go out and do our thing". Of course, Miami beat Pittsburgh in impressive fashion at home back in October, but this set of circumstances is quite a bit different. When the margin is seven points or less, they've won eight in a row. However, the Steelers have been back to the big game only once since then. 'You want to be competitive and out there helping your team. "Even though he's an experienced quarterback, we have to really get him on the edge out there, make him one-dimensional". "He's in it for one reason that I can see and that is to put another trophy in that room".
In the other contest, look for Houston to beat Oakland.
Meanwhile, Dallas Cowboys linebacker Jack Crawford will be putting his feet up this weekend ahead of the Divisional Round.
'He's a younger coach so relates well to us. Miami has played the "next man up" game all season, but coming into the postseason - where the team has 40 players on their roster who have never made it to the playoffs before - the next man up has to take a giant step up in an environment a lot of them have never seen before.
The Dolphins' fate in Pittsburgh rests as heavily on Gase's shoulders as Ajayi's broad bows, but as he admits anything can happen in the postseason. For that game they didn't have underrated nose tackle Earl Mitchell, who has returned to the rotation and forms a good trio with Ndamukong Suh and Jordan Phillips.
One of those 14 losses when all three have been on the field together came earlier this season in Miami. Hence, Miami must now do what no team has done all season - win outright as a double-digit underdog - in order to end that 16-year drought and move on.