Prediction: How will the Green Bay Packers fare In 2014?

Week 6: Green Bay Packers

@ Miami Dolphins

The Dolphins are a team that are a bit tough to project at this point. They have decent/good players at a lot of spots all along the roster, but just about nobody stands out at any position. They have Cameron Wake at DE as an elite pass rusher and a strong front-line rotation, but are definitely below-average at LB and in the secondary beyond Brent Grimes.

They also have about four good players at WR, all who have good designated roles, but don’t provide consistently great output; Mike Wallace (pure deep threat, but little else), Brian Hartline (possession receiver, but not dynamic), Brandon Gibson and Rishard Matthews (decent slot guys, but castoffs and limited upside).

Lamar Miller and Knowshon Moreno look to head the RB committee, but each is stuck as a role-player type at best (Moreno had a great 2013, but leaving Peyton Manning will obviously change things). The O-line is completely revamped after a sack-filled year, but each player has consistent holes in their games, are injured, or are rookies.

To top it off, Ryan Tannehill is like a perfect screenshot of the entire team: Talented with potential, but is limited in certain aspects that seem to cap his ceiling lower than you would like. He can still develop into a great player, but the evidence so far shows he’s far from the heights a hopeful franchise QB would be expected to reach.

Defensively, this seems like an even matchup for the Packers; neither side projects greatness but they have talent that can succeed in the right matchups and circumstances. The receivers shouldn’t explode on the secondary, but they won’t be shut down either. The linebackers won’t be annihilated in the run game, but they shouldn’t be expected to shut it down either.

The D-line will have plenty of chances to shine, but won’t capitalize on at least a decent portion of them. It’s as even as it gets.

When the Packers take over offensively, we will see the difference. The Dolphin D-line will make it tough on the O-line in both passing and rushing plays, but probably won’t dominate things.

The passing game should have a chance to make some plays, especially with whoever isn’t covered by Grimes. Where the highest impact will probably occur is in the run-game though; as I said before, the Dolphins linebackers are a weak spot, so taking advantage of them will make everything easier for the offense.

So that is what I see happening; the Packers run the ball often to pound on that weak LB corps, and then exploit the adjustments they are bound to make to hit them all around the secondary. With that game-plan I don’t expect the score to be that high, and the fact that a team won’t be at the top of its game every week will contribute to enough mistakes to keep Miami in the game, but ultimately Green Bay heads home victorious.

Green Bay 24
Miami 20