Dolphins Gameplan: How to slow down the Bengals and stop the losing streak
By Cyrus (@Cyruslassus)
The Dolphins have their work cut out if they want to be wearing the winning costume at the end of this Halloween party at Sun Life Stadium. The Cincinnati Bengals are coming in hot and are capable of playing as well as New Orleans did at the beginning of this losing streak.
Photo Courtesy of Dolphins.com
In order to beat an elite team that is rolling on all cylinders, they will need to play their best game of the season. Cincinnati was downright scary last week, putting up 49 points on the New York Jets and the Dolphins will have to limit them to half of that in order to give their offense a chance to pull it out.
The Bengals running numbers are below average, as they average just shy of 100 yards per game on 3.6 yards per carry average. However, they have really been hurting people in the passing game, where Andy Dalton has been spreading the ball around to six different receivers, while compiling a quarterback rating of 99.
As you probably could have guessed, AJ Green is being target more than twice as much as anybody else. He leads the team with 16 yards per catch. His 46 receptions on 85 targets have gone for 734 yards with 5 touchdowns. Those numbers are mindblowing, but it is not the most impressive part of the offense for me.
The next five guys have more than 30 receptions each, all average over 9 yards per catch and only one has yet to catch a touchdown.
Marvin Jones has proven to be a game breaker and is averaging 15.4 yards per catch with 7 touchdowns. Tyler Eiffert is averaging 12.2 and has 1 touchdown. Jermaine Gresham gets 9.6 and also has 1 touchdown. Mohamed Sanu is averaging 10.2, but has yet to score. Giovani Bernard is averaging 9.3 yards per catch and has 2 touchdowns.
The Bengals have passed 279 times and rushed it 222 times, which is much more balanced than Miami, but their lack of success on those carries (3.6 yards per carry) compared to their excellence in passing (8 yards per attempt) suggests that Miami should defend almost every play as if it will be a pass. (continue to page 2 for the rest of the game plan and our predictions)
