Mondy Night Football Preview

Added on Sep 21, 2009 by sbworld in

NFL

Indianapolis vs. Miami

This game’s spread opened with the Colts favored by 3.5 points but it has dropped to a 3-point line.

Jim Caldwell’s head coaching debut for Indianapolis was not overly impressive, but the team managed to walk away with its 10th consecutive regular season victory as it defeated Jacksonville by a count of 14-12 with the difference being a stopped two-point conversion attempt in the fourth quarter.

Huge question marks exist for Indy at the wide receiver position after starter Anthony Gonzalez was lost for probably at least half the season with an injured knee. A position already with depth issues is now even thinner with recent signee Hank Baskett likely seeing only limited action versus the Dolphins tonight as he attempts to learn the new playbook. That leaves Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark as the main options for Peyton Manning, who has a long history of loving to spread the ball around to all of his targets. Running back Joseph Addai has always been a capable receiving threat and might even be asked to do more of it now.

The Dolphins are a little healthier on the injury report coming into this Monday nighter and have the home field advantage, but they are also coming off a very uninspired effort in a 19-7 loss at Atlanta. The patented Wildcat offense with Pat White running the show wasn’t working, the normal offense under Chad Pennington wasn’t working, and while the Miami defense played respectable football it could not make up for the four offensive turnovers that put them right back on the field.

At the end of the game, the Dolphins had methodically gained 259 total yards against the Falcons and were not really outplayed too badly from any aspect except when looking at the turnover difference as they had the only four of the contest. Creating turnovers by Manning and company while not giving the ball away as it did a week ago will be essential if Miami wants to give itself a fighting chance of winning this game.

While the Dolphins defense played decently in their game, Indianapolis’ was a huge reason it managed to squeak out a victory in its opener. The Colts held Jaguars quarterback David Garrard to 122 yards passing and running back Maurice Jones-Drew to only a couple big plays as he ended with 97 yards on 21 carries.

With one week in the bag, these teams should have a better handle on what their weaknesses are and adapt to better use their strengths to the fullest possible advantage. Indy has a solid running back rotation with Addai and rookie Donald Brown, so with the injury to Gonzalez look for Manning to use those backs as much as he can until defenses show they can shut it down. On the other side, Miami has shown little big play ability and needs more out of the potentially explosive former first round draft pick Ted Ginn Jr. He needs to show he can be that threat the Dolphins desperately need, because if not this could be a long season for the Dolphins.

The last time the Colts played in Miami was in 2006 when they defeated Chicago to win Super Bowl XLI. Indianapolis is 3-9 against the spread in its last 12 meetings with Miami.

Prediction: Indianapolis 20, Miami 12