Photograph: Patrick Smith/Getty Images
As the regular season draws to a close, we’ll take a look each Friday at a game likely to affect the playoff race, along with the teams whose fortunes are rising and falling. And, so we don’t neglect the also-rans, we’ll see which teams are in the hunt for next year’s No 1 pick.
Game of the week
Miami Dolphins (11-4) v Baltimore Ravens (12-3)
Related: Can anyone derail Lamar Jackson and the white-hot Baltimore Ravens?
Story of the season: The unstoppable force meets the immovable object. Miami enter with the most explosive attack in the NFL guided by head coach Mike McDaniel. The 40-year-old offensive schemer has wrung every last drop of talent from his roster to record a league-best 411 yards per game that features the devastating speed of Tyreek Hill at wide receiver. His brilliance is impossible to overstate; 70 more yards will push him over 1,700 on the season and a career high at 29 years old. On the other side of the field stands John Harbuagh, 21 years McDaniel’s senior, wielding the league’s finest defense fresh from shredding the Super Bowl favorite San Francisco 49ers. Baltimore brutalized Brock Purdy as they have done to opposing quarterbacks all season while giving up the league’s fewest points per game at 16. So that should make the Ravens the favorites come February. That is then, though. Now, the prize for the only two teams in the AFC to have clinched a postseason spot so far: the all-important No 1 seed and a juicy first-round playoff bye.
What the Dolphins need to do to win: Miami have a mammoth task in maintaining their offensive machine with Jaylen Waddle questionable to play with a high ankle sprain. The Dolphins need the wide receiver to soldier on as his superior speed and skill as a No 2 mean defenses are kept from marking a No 1 – Hill – out of the game. If the Ravens send too much coverage over Hill, Waddle will sting you and vice versa. A look at last season’s spectacular 42-38 win at…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl-playoff-race-dolphins-ravens-090002817.html
Author : The Guardian
Publish date : 2023-12-29 09:00:02
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