Oakland Raiders @ Miami Dolphins – Sunday September 16, 2012 1:00PM EST
Miamirookie quarterback Ryan Tannehill did not exactly inherit a talented football team. The NFL betting crowd is cutting Tannehill some slack because he has no big time receiver to work with and the defense backing him up is still very young. That is not to say that fans inMiami should not be excited, because they should be. As Tannehill and this young Dolphins’ team develops together, it will get better. Now that the Dolphins have abandoned that wildcat offense, things should really start looking up inMiami. The problem is that it isn’t going to start looking up for a few weeks, at least.
The Oakland Raiders always seem to be in-between quarterbacks and are always in a state of flux. But as unstable as the Raiders usually look, it is odd that the football betting sites never apply the term “rebuilding” to the Raiders.Oakland is always a curious combination of veterans and rookies that can never seem to quite get it together, but manage to come close every year. In the opening game of the year, the Raiders made a good showing of itself in a 22-14 loss to the Chargers. Much of the good things fans saw in that game will be repeated inMiami.
Miami Dolphins
Reggie Bush is not the kind of running back a team can ride to a playoff season. Bush has made significant improvements in his game over the past two years, but he is still not a power running back that can carry a team to victory. The most powerful offensive weapon the Dolphins have is Ryan Tannehill, and the bookie software is not going to see that as enough to win a lot of games this year. But it is definitely something for the Dolphins to build on for a bright future.
Oakland Raiders
Darren McFadden is the kind of running back that a team can ride to a playoff season. When things got down to the wire in the opener against the Chargers, the Raiders did everything it could to get the ball into the hands of McFadden. A sportsbook review of the Chargers’ defense shows that it was all ready to handle the McFadden onslaught as the game wore on. The Miami Dolphins do not have the personnel to handle McFadden and the fast, young wide receivers that Carson Palmer has to throw to.
The Bottom Line
There is a bright future coming for the Miami Dolphins, but that future is not now. This year, the Dolphins will have to battle it out with the Buffalo Bills for the AFC East basement. In this game, the Oakland Raiders will simply have more weapons to call on than the Dolphins have and that will be the difference that will swing the game in the favor of the Raiders.
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Pick: Oakland Raiders
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