Tennessee Titans: 3 Dolphins to Watch Sunday
Oct 28, 2012; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; Miami Dolphins defensive end Cameron Wake (91) celebrates his sack of New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez (6) (not pictured) during the first half at MetLIfe Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland-US PRESSWIRE
The Tennessee Titans (3-6) and Miami Dolphins (4-4) meet up tomorrow in Miami to duke it out, both teams still hoping to make the playoffs, however futile some of those hopes may be.
The Dolphins have been having one of their better seasons behind a rookie QB that is surprising many. This teams seem pretty evenly matched in my eyes. Here’s the Dolphins to watch for on Sunday:
DE Cameron Wake
Wake is the Dolphins sack monster. He’s at 8.5 sacks already this season, good enough for 5th best in the NFL. He’ll be matched up against the Titans OT Jake Stewart. With Jake Locker being back behind center, I wouldn’t expect Wake to put up huge numbers. The combo of Stewart’s blocking and Locker’s elusiveness will present quite the challenge for Wake. That doesn’t mean the Titans should dismiss him by any means. Like I said, he has 8.5 sacks.
OT Jake Long
Usually one of the best OT’s in the league, the Dolphins haven’t been getting much good out of him this season in his contract year. He’ll be matched up against DE Kamerion Wimbley, as well as the occasional Akeem Ayers. Long could be in for a very long day with that combo keeping him busy.
RB Reggie Bush
It took Bush a long time to find his legs but he really took off last year. This year he seems to have come back down to earth, though as we saw a week or two ago, he’s still got those leg breaking moves that helped him win the Heisman years ago. The Titans run defense bounces back and forth between stellar and awful. Perhaps if their offense can sustain some drives this week so they’re a little more rested in the 4th quarter, the quarter they seem to get gashed in the most.
If the Dolphins can get solid performances from all of these guys, it’ll go a long way towards a W for them. If the Titans perform well against these guys, well, it’ll put a lot of weight on their young QB, one who doesn’t seem able to shoulder a team quite yet. The game is tomorrow at 12pm CT.
You can find me on Twitter @JustinLStewart