Miami Dolphins fans Week 3 rooting guide After not publishing this last week (I was out of town and did not have a chance to put it together) Authentic Laremy Tunsil Jersey , The Phinsider’s Dolphins fan rooting guide returns for Week 3. This is basically a guide to how games need to fall for the Dolphins to make the playoffs. Of course, we are early in the year, so a lot could change - and games that we ruled one way now could come back to haunt the Dolphins later when tie breakers start being used.The basic rules for most of the game is that you root the Dolphins, for NFC teams over AFC teams, and you do not root for teams in the AFC East. Later in the year, when strengths of victory and the surprises of the season - “bad” teams being good and “good” teams being bad - this will adjust, but we are still early in the season so those basic rules likely apply.Thursday night’s game went well for the Dolphins, with the Cleveland Browns coming away with their first win in 635 days by beating Miami’s AFC East rival New York Jets. That was the right way for that game to fall, even if the Browns think they could still be in the AFC Wildcard picture.As for the Sunday and Monday games, here we go:Packers at Redskins - 1pm ETThis game would normally fall off the rooting guide because it is an NFC versus NFC game, but the Dolphins do play the Packers later this year, so a better Green Bay record potentially helps Miami’s strength of schedule/strength of victory tie breakers. Root for: Packers.Colts at Eagles - 1pm ETAFC team versus NFC team. Add in the assumption that if Indianapolis is to make the playoffs, it would be in the Wildcard position because Jacksonville appears to be in position to win the AFC South, and that makes this a really simple choice. Root for: Eagles.Bills at Vikings - 1pm ETYou could make the argument that a Bills win would be more helpful for the Dolphins than a Vikings win since Miami plays both teams this year, and the strength of schedule for the Bills is counted double for Miami compared to the Vikings, but at the end of the day, the Bills are still an AFC East team that needs to fall away from Miami. Root for: Vikings.Sign up HERE to take our weekly Dolphins survey.Raiders at Dolphins - 1pm ETRoot for: DolphinsBroncos at Ravens - 1pm ETMiami does not play either team this year (seems strange to say that given Miami seems to play Baltimore every year), so this game is all about the Wildcard positioning for both teams. The Broncos are currently tied for the lead in the AFC West with Kansas City while the Ravens are in third in the AFC North behind Cincinnati and Cleveland (given the Browns’ three-games already played). Kansas City looks really good, while Cincinnati and Cleveland look less likely to continue near the top of their division. That means we will assume the Ravens have a better chance to win the AFC North than Denver has to win the AFC West Youth Ryan Tannehill Jersey , putting Denver closer to the Wildcard. Root for: Ravens.Bengals at Panthers - 1pm ETAssuming the Ravens would win the AFC North pretty much settled this game. Add in the AFC versus NFC piece and the chance to knock off one of the remaining undefeated teams in the league and it was easy. Root for: Panthers.Giants at Texans - 1pm ETNFC versus AFC. Easy. Root for: Giants.Titans at Jaguars - 1pm ETThe Jaguars win this and they basically take firm grasp of the AFC South, possibly with a two game lead after three weeks (assuming an Indianapolis loss as listed above). That is good for Miami. A second loss for the Titans on the year is also a good result for the Dolphins. Slight argument for the Titans to get the win for a strength of schedule/victory tie break for Miami, but the Dolphins play the Jaguars later this year, which offsets this game in the long run. Root for: Jaguars.49ers at Chiefs - 1pm ETNFC versus AFC seems to say this should be an easy option. However, we earlier assumed the Chiefs would win the AFC West while the Broncos fought for a Wildcard spot. That seems like a better situation than Miami trying to out-duel the Chiefs for that Wildcard spot. Let Kansas City get out to a lead in the division. Root for: Chiefs.Chargers at Rams - 4:05pm ETThe Battle of Los Angeles is easy. The Chargers need to lose so that they fall further behind the Dolphins in the Wildcard picture. Root for: Rams.Bears at Cardinals - 4:25pm ETAnother NFC versus NFC game makes the list because the Dolphins play the Bears, so the strength of schedule/victory tiebreak could come into play. Root for: Bears.Patriots at Lions - 8:20pm ETAFC East vs. NFC, though Miami plays the Lions later this year. The more losses the Patriots can get, the better for Miami. Can you imagine Miami having a two-game lead over the Patriots heading into their first meeting of the year? It could happen if Detroit shows up for this game. Root for: Lions.Steelers at Buccaneers - 8:15pm ETAFC versus NFC. The Steelers are weird this year, in part without Le’Veon Bell, in part because Antonio Brown seems to be bristling about something, and in part because a really good team is 0-1-1 this season. 0-2-1 would look better for Miami. Root for: Buccaneers.Games without consequence for DolphinsSaints at Falcons - 1pm ETCowboys at Seahawks - 4:25pm ETCharles Harris, penalty flags shine in Dolphins training camp scrimmage 2018 The Miami Dolphins completed their annual training camp scrimmage on Saturday, their first time on the field at Hard Rock Stadium for the year. The day featured two story lines, one with a player appearing to breakout when given a chance and one a continuing theme from throughout training camp, and over the past few years.Defensive end Charles Harris saw extra playing time on Saturday, while veterans Cameron Wake and Robert Quinn were limited on the day. Harris took advantage of the situation while lining up both outside at defensive end and inside at defensive tackle. He twice beat the pass protection, once getting past left tackle Laremy Tunsil and once passing tight end Mike Gesicki, to sack quarterback Ryan Tannehill. The second sack, beating Gesicki http://www.dolphinsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-kenyan-drake-jersey , would likely have resulted in a crushing blindside hit if the play had been live contact on Tannehill.“A year ago, Charles Harris was kind of stretched out, kind of in a dark place; but like I said, I just love being out here, love competing, love having the logo on me and everything like that,” Harris said of the differences between his rookie season and now coming into his second year. “I love my teammates and everything like that. I love my teammates. That’s really all we’ve got here, too. I love playing for my brothers. I feel like we really are getting closer and closer together and that’s a shout out to the coaches – (Defensive Line) Coach (Kris) Kocurek – and everybody el se that forces us to be together. It’s all love now.”Head coach Adam Gase, after the scrimmage, discussed Harris’ play this summer, saying, “He’s a tough matchup, especially on pass downs. The thing that he’s improved on, especially from last year to this year and then through training camp, is his transition to a pass rush when it’s first and second down. That’s really kind of where rookies across the league will struggle always. You’ll see that their pass disruption numbers aren’t as good on first and second down because they’re always thinking run and then they have to transition to the pass rush. I think he’s really improved in that area and then you can see he causes disruption, especially if he gets a matchup where it’s a tight end/tackle trying to work with him. It’s really tough if he wins off the ball.”Harris played about 48 percent of the Dolphins’ defensive snaps last year, playing behind Cameron Wake and Andre Branch. He recorded 19 tackles with two sacks in 16 games played, including two starts. Last year seemed more about giving Harris, the Dolphins’ first-round pick in 2017 Reshad Jones Jersey , experience at the NFL level rather than expecting him to be a dominating pass rusher from the start. This year, the Dolphins are expecting more from him, and Wake appears to believe that improvement is already here. “I actually think Charles Harris has probably had the best offseason, not just any d-lineman but probably anybody on our team,” Wake said earlier in the week. “He came back in tremendous shape. He’s obviously been working on his strength. He’s been working on his football and it’s showing up on tape. I think that’s definitely going to pay off when it becomes time to put these live bullets in and get after these quarterbacks. He’s made great strides and obviously the more the merrier, I’m happy for it.”Harris was asked on Saturday about Wake’s praise, with the second-year defensive end responding, “That’s big praise from big bro. It’s kind of one of those things that go in one ear and out the other. You’ve got to show up every day. Every single day you wake up, every time you see that sun, it’s a new opportunity to get better at your craft, to be productive, to really be productive. I’m just called to be productive and that’s what I have to do every single day. All the work I put in, it doesn’t matter. It’s about what I’m doing in the present. The present is the most important. The time is now.”While Harris is showing his improvement from last year, the Dolphins as a whole have yet to figure out how to bring down the penalties. The Dolphins’ scrimmage this year only lasted 36 plays. There were at least six penalties in that span, with five of them coming pre-snap. Some of that could be the team working out some timing issues, especially as quarterback Ryan Tannehill and center David Kilgore get used to playing together - though Gase downplayed that as an explanation after the scrimmage - but the flags in practice are coming at an unacceptable rate, and everyone knows it.“The only thing I noticed was the pre-snap penalties,” Gase said. “We’ve just got to get that cleaned up. The delay of game, I’ve got to figure out what really happened there. I don’t know if we were a little slow Authentic Ja'Wuan James Jersey , either me calling it or relaying it in, or whatever happened there. We didn’t change personnel. That was odd. We’ve got to do a better job. I know it’s second group going against the ones and they’re trying to get a little bit of a jump. Sam (Young) going against Robert Quinn, that’s always a fun matchup for him. We’ve got to do a better job of not losing 5 yards on a no play.”The Dolphins coaches have been having players run gassers after making a pre-snap penalty. After another day with flags flying way too often, Gase answered a question about the effectiveness of the gassers, simply asking, “Did it look like it was working?”He continued, explaining, “I don’t know [what else we need to do]. We’re just going to have to fix it. We just have to focus and understand the cadence is for us on offense to help us, not to hurt us. We’ve just got to hang in there and we’ve just got to do a better job being consistent with it.”Maybe the Dolphins are purposely calling penalties tighter than they would be called in the regular season. Maybe the team really is struggling with penalties. The Dolphins were the second-most penalized team last year, and had the second-most pre-snap penalties. They were also the second-most penalized team in 2016, though they fell to sixth in the pre-snap penalty count. And it is not just a Gase-era issue either, as the team was fourth in penalties in 2015, while leading the league in pre-snap penalties in 2015. The Dolphins need to get back to playing like they did in 2014, when they were penalized the third-fewest times in the league, though even then, the pre-snap penalties were bad, jumping them to 15th in the league with nearly half their accepted penalties coming before the snap that year.The Dolphins have to fix the penalty issue, something that has continued the plague them into this summer and was especially noticeable during the scrimmage.
