Dolphins @ Raiders Game Preview. A Battle of Inconsistency

Three words. Home. Field. Advantage. The Oakland crowd may be deafening, but the Dolphins seem to perform better when they are away from Sun Life Stadium. Oakland have also proved that they are not to be taken lightly when playing at the Coliseum so this one has the makings of a great game and is a tough one to call. Losing is not an option for either team if they hope to make the playoffs and they both have difficult games coming up in the latter half of the season.

On Sunday, Oakland were bowled over by Pittsburgh on both sides of the ball, amounting less than 200 yards all game and Miami’s nightmares against the now 7-3 Bears were well documented.

The Dolphins do not do well against the run. They have allowed an average of 128.5 rushing yards per game and this is certainly not a healthy number for an aspiring playoff team. I can’t see Oakland establishing much of a passing game, but I can definitely see them not needing to as McFadden and Bush should be able to capitalise on Miami’s poor run defence.

Cameron Wake will get after the quarterback. He’s proved that so far this season with his 9.5 sacks, but if the same Darren McFadden that turned up against Denver, Seattle and Kansas City then Wake will have to get some help from Karlos Dansby. I can see Oakland going with a lot of draw plays on third down to try and coax the Miami defence into giving up a big gain.

Against the Chicago Bears in Week 11, it didn’t seem to matter how good Wake and Dansby played for the Dolphins because Tyler Thigpen simply could not amount any offence, resulting in a shutout. On the plus side for Miami, Idonije and Peppers won’t be running at their quarterback, although given the amount of times he was sacked last week, Thigpen will be seeing those two big guys every time he closes his eyes. Nonetheless, if the rookie develops any sort of rhythm, he will surely grow in confidence and begin to put up points, as Tennessee found out the week before.

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There is still a big question mark over the Oakland secondary for me. Tom Cable had little to say about their injured corner, Nnamdi Asomugha, just that he is ‘still mending’. If he is out of the game, Oakland will again rely on his replacement Chris Johnson to cover the likes of Brandon Marshall. The key for Miami’s passing game I feel will be wide receiver Brian Hartline, as he is a great go-to receiver and with the Oakland secondary already depleted, he could be helping to bring Miami’s 3 rd down completion rate up drastically.

Three of the teams to beat Oakland this season, the Cardinals, the Texans and the 49ers, all have negative records. Although this suggests that Oakland perform badly against the teams that are beneath them, they also appear to love stepping up to the challenge. San Diego went to The Black Hole as big favourites and were beaten mainly due to their woeful special teams display. Kansas City were on top of the AFC West, only to be knocked off by the Raiders who then clinched first place. Seattle had a 4-2 record going into the Oakland game and McFadden ran on them all day long gaining 111 yards. This team steps it up against tougher opponents. Sometimes. The key word that seems to sum up the Oakland Raiders this season? Inconsistency. How do we know which Oakland team will show up against Miami? Will McFadden gain over 100 yards running or will Cameron Wake turn his attention away from his sack count and stuff the line of scrimmage? The Raiders got hammered last week against the number one rushing defence. Miami are ranked 20 th…

A big factor going into this game is Oakland’s ability to grind out wins. Against the Chiefs, they got the big win when it looked like they were dead and buried and against San Diego, they held on to prevent a last minute Rivers onslaught, something that many teams have been subjected to already this season. Interestingly, Oakland has yet to play San Diego, Kansas and Jacksonville away from home and I can only realistically see them beating the Jaguars there.

Outside their division, Indianapolis are no mugs but I can see the Raiders winning depending on which Oakland team turns up. After all, one thing remains. On their day, Oakland can beat just about anyone and that is why I pick them in the battle to go 6-5.

By: Tom Greenhalgh
ProFootball-fans.com Oakland Raiders Correspondent