Mission Impossible? Or Is It?
The Miami Dolphins winning at Tampa Bay on Sunday kinda sounds crazy at first glance, doesn't it?
After all, the Dolphins are on a three-game losing streak heading into their game against the defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium.
Coming off a 27-17 loss against the Indianapolis Colts at Hard Rock Stadium, the Dolphins are 10-point underdogs for the game at Raymond James Stadium, according to the Sports Illustrated Sportsbook.
The Dolphins-Buccaneers game is tied for biggest point spread in Week 6 along; the Minnesota Vikings also are 10-point favorites in their home game against the winless Detroit Lions.
Naturally, when it comes time to picking a winner, pretty much everyone has gone with Buccaneers, who are 3-1 following their escape against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium last Sunday night.
But there's at least one national writer who thinks the Dolphins will pull off the shocker and defeat Tampa Bay, SI national writer Conor Orr.
Here's how he explained his prediction:
"One part of this is bundling together all the silly sports clichés about a letdown game and some kind of emotional flat-lining. And while I understand that Tom Brady is really the only person on his team who gave a you-know-what about playing an otherwise middling Patriots team, there could be a bit of a collective deflation this week against a Miami team that is desperate and on the verge of shaking things up. There is obviously a great deal of Brady institutional knowledge inside this Dolphins facility and perhaps they build on a Belichick game plan that was able to successfully render one of the better skill position groups in the NFL useless. There are also these games that are completely senseless every year and the Dolphins seem to be one of those teams that wins one or two absolute head scratchers. So, this was an attempt to harness both that random energy and wonder if Brian Flores could possibly pull a beautiful game plan out of his hat."
As Orr pointed out, it's not like the Dolphins under Brian Flores haven't been able to pull off a major shocker before.
And one of those involved Tom Brady, and it was the Dolphins' 27-24 shocker in the 2019 finale that set off a chain of events that led to New England's early exit from the playoffs in Brady's final year with the Patriots.
We've also documented past successes the Dolphins have enjoyed against Brady.
So, yes, there is precedent here and the idea of the Dolphins being able to win at Tampa Bay on Sunday definitely isn't crazy.
