Miami visits the Pittsburgh Steelers Sunday afternoon on Wild-Card Weekend.
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The Dolphins earned the AFC’s final wild-card berth even though they allowed a franchise-record 6,122 yards.
Although Chickillo started seven midseason games and played roughly half the defensive snaps through November, he played sparingly on defense the past four games. Ajayi has rushed for 1,272 rushing yards and eight touchdowns this season.
The Steelers do have a small bone to pick from that October game, which was part of Miami’s nine-game hot streak, in which Ben Roethlisberger went down with a knee injury.
Continuing to nurse an injury to his right ankle, outside linebacker and core special teamer Anthony Chickillo is uncertain whether he will play Sunday. In the past six weeks, the defense has given up an average of 436 yards per game.
And here comes Ajayi again.
Pittsburgh enters Sunday’s game as one of the NFL’s hottest teams. Tomlin said that Burns is much improved in his tackling but “if you’re talking about the corners as your first line of defense in terms of stopping the run, that’s a bad discussion”. “Their offensive line won the line of scrimmage and won it consistently, whether it was interior runs or perimeter runs”. No, it was very real.
“I think people probably take that comment as he did nothing like that’s a negative”, he said. “There is tangible evidence that we need to respect this preparation process”. That gives the Steelers an advantage in experience but Tomlin downplayed it. What is on video is that the last time we saw these guys, they flat out got after us. “Coming to the next game, we can’t do that at all”. The forecast Sunday is a high of 20 degrees and a low of 11 with no precipitation and winds at 15 miles per hour. Gase didn’t rule out the possibility of Tannehill playing, but he made it clear he won’t risk his long-term health. “I never really have”. The coach didn’t say whether Jones, a pending free agent, would be back next season as the backup QB but said: “I like Landry, but I liked Landry prior to that performance”.
But, Pittsburgh players (and their fans) shouldn’t get too cocky-the Dolphins may actually be one of the most unsafe teams remaining in contention for a championship.
After all, it’s playoff time and just 12 teams remain in the hunt to reach the Super Bowl. He understands what I can do out there, how I can help this team out, how I can help him out. “It’s a global game at this level”.
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Miami Dolphins defensive co-ordinator Vance Joseph is drawing interest around the National Football League as a head coaching candidate. It’s an unenviable task, surely, but given where the Steelers were at 4-5 following two post-bye week losses, it’s the task they got and the task they’ll happily take. I don’t want to jeopardize his career, or next year.
