The Miami Dolphins and Tennessee Titans kick off tonight on Monday Night football at 7:30pm EST. The game is at Hard Rock Stadium in the Miami Gardens, there should be clear skies and good weather. The Tennessee Titans come in 0-3 while the Miami Dolphins come in 1-2. The Dolphins are starting former Raven quarterback Tyler Huntley while the starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is still on injured reserve. Below I will talk about how I think the game will go and some things to watch for tonight.
The game tonight all starts with Tyler Huntley and how the Dolphins can operate without Tua. Last week the Dolphins struggled starting Skyler Thompson and Tim Boyle. Huntley gives fans optimism that the offense will not lose all explosiveness it has even without Tua. It is difficult to run the Dolphins offense the way Tua has, but tonight is the night we see if Mike McDaniel can tailor to different styles of quarterbacks. Huntley will have Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle, and Devon Achane all available tonight, they will all be featured heavily.
Tennessee has a very strong run defense led by Jeffrey Simmons and TVondre Sweat. I believe that the Dolphins will utilize their wide zone run scheme to their advantage and continue to get the ball to Achane on halfback pitches and sweeps. Achane will also be used as a receiver; he has the most receptions of any running back in the NFL. Tyreek Hill has struggled without Tua in the lineup; he had one of the worst games of his career last week against Seattle. I have no doubts that he could still put up great numbers with Huntley however McDaniel needs to do a better job scheming up plays to Hill who is the Dolphins best weapon.
For the Titans, they have to get the run game going in order to get a lead in this game. The Dolphins run defense has been up and down this year. They are scrappy but don’t have the manpower that they had last year. To no surprise, losing Christian Wilkins is a big deal. Pass rush wise the Dolphins have struggled without a 100% healthy Jaelan Phillips and Bradley Chubb.
I think that Will Levis has the chance to have the best game of his season this year, last year Levis put on a show on Monday Night Football shocking the Dolphins. The Dolphins secondary is strong on paper but has been inconsistent this year. Safety Jevon Holland lost his assignment last week, getting burned by DK Metcalf. This is something that has not happened very often to Holland since entering the NFL in 2020.
A fun matchup to watch is DeAndre Hopkins against Jalen Ramsey. Ramsey is still playing at a high level but neither player is who they once were. Hopkins has less than 10 receptions on the year and it looks like his career is coming to an end. However Hopkins has shown he can still squeeze the last bits of juice he has. Hopkins played a great game against Miami last year.
The Dolphins are two and a half Point favorites but I believe this game could go either way. Each of the last three weeks I have overestimated how the Dolphins would perform, so this week I predict that the Tennessee Titans will win 21 to 10.