Players and coaches looking for every advantage against the Broncos

Written by Matthew Cannata | Twitter: @PhinManiacs
When going against one of the greatest players in NFL history, a team is going to look for every advantage possible. During preparations this week leading up to the game on Sunday as well as during the game itself, the Dolphins will be doing just that. They started off the week watching film from the Rams vs. Broncos game, where the Rams dominated.

“It’s the NFL, sometimes you’re going to have off games," Brent Grimes said. "The Rams competed all game, got some pressure on him, some of their players went out, it was just one of those days. They had one of those days, but they’re still a great offense with a lot of weapons and, like I said, one of the best quarterbacks to ever play. They’re going to do their thing. We’ve just got to go out there and know it’s going to be a great atmosphere, fans are going to be hyped, it’s probably going to be cold, and just go play ball.”  

Joe Philbin said that they took away a lot of various things from that game and have been utilizing and game-planning for it throughout the week. One specific thing he mentioned though was the need to play well in all areas of the game.

“The Rams played well. Their whole team played well. I looked at all three sides of the ball and it looks like the Rams played well. Certainly, Denver’s, if you look at their body of work over the course of this season and you watch the tape, you watch the week before against Oakland, you see the San Diego game and you see some of the other games. We’ve glanced at virtually everything, all of their games this year. This (Denver) is an excellent football team.”

Before the week started, Philbin watched 'a lot of tape' on Peyton Manning. Philbin noted that he saw him in 2004 and 2008 and this will be the third time he's gone against him and called it a great challenge for the Dolphins' defense. The key to rattling Manning will be to get pressure from the defensive line but Philbin noted that it's not that simple.

“They have a well-coordinated passing game. He’s obviously is very decisive with the football. He knows where he wants to go with it. He has good timing and rhythm, their whole offense does. It’s not easy, but it certainly will be one of those things that we are impressing on the defensive line is the timing of the passing game and how quickly it comes out. You’ve got to have tight coverage to discourage maybe some of those quick throws.”

So, are the Dolphins hoping that Manning and the Broncos have another off day like they did against the Rams? Brent Grimes, of course, says yes and gave them permission to do so.

“Yeah, that’d be great if he could have two of those day like that. If he wants to take a day off he can, whatever (joking). I doubt he’ll do that, he’ll come and play his game. Our job is to go out there, we’ve played a lot of tough quarterbacks this year, and just make it as difficult as possible.”

The Dolphins will have a great game-plan in place and it will be up to the players to execute it in all phases of the game. Whether that happens or not will be found out on Sunday when the ball is kicked off at 4:25 PM Eastern Time.

---