The Over Is The Only Way To Play Dolphins Vs. Chargers

Dolphins vs. Chargers, 8:20 ET

I complain a lot about the primetime matchups that we get in the NFL - mostly on Thursday - but you won't find me being a Grinch about this one on Sunday Night. We get a high powered and explosive offense in the Dolphins against a Chargers team that has the capability to be excellent on offense and has one of the most dynamic running backs in the game.

The Dolphins are 8-4 and coming off of a loss against the 49ers. It was one of those weird games where they lost the game despite having an advantage, in theory, of facing a backup quarterback. This does happen often, though. I think it is because the defense isn't sure how to adjust that quickly to what the backup quarterback does as they've spent the entire week getting prepared for the upcoming game. Anyway, it was a bad spot too because they had to travel completely across country for the game. I did read that they stayed in California for the week rather than going home just to get back on a plane. I think that helps both sides of the ball. Before this slip up against the 49ers, they scored over 30 points in each of the previous four games.

The Chargers were suppose to take a step forward this year, but as of right now, they don't seem to have done that. Sure, there were some injury issues, but their defense looks significantly worse than expected and there isn't much hope, or signs of hope for them any time soon. Austin Eckler struggled out of the gate but has been better lately and as much as the offense needs Justin Herbert to succeed, they need Eckler to be spectacular just as much. Still, in order to win this game, they need to find a way to stop the Dolphins offense that knows how to put the ball in the endzone. The Chargers have already shown that they don't have much ability to stop strong offenses.

The total in this game is pretty high. I am going to play the over though at 51.5. I'm concerned that the game could be a blowout, but if we expect the Dolphins to get back on track and drop another 30 points they don't have a strong enough defense to hold the Chargers down. Play the over and lets hope this is a fun shootout during primetime.

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