2025 NFL Thursday Night 9/18

Thu, Sep 18, 2025
by BondMoney.cappertek.com

Something reeks. What’s that smell? Oh, it’s my Miami Dolphins. I could paint a rosy picture and talk about how, yeah, we’re 0-2 but so are the Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans—perennial playoff teams!—and how our offense could ignite at any second. (Fingers crossed.) But the truth is if they don’t ignite tonight, on the road, on a short week, against the Super Bowl-destined Buffalo Bills, it probably ain’t gonna happen.

I’ll be honest. I’m not the most objective guy when it comes to my squad. I’m usually the last person to realize how bad we are. During our 1-15 season almost two decades ago around the start of this prison bid, it took me until around week 6 to finally give up hope. But I’m older and more jaded now. And what I’ve seen so far is a team that lacks discipline, lacks intensity, can’t run the ball, can’t tackle, can’t rush the passer, gives up on plays, and lacks overall fire. But the worst thing about these 2025 Dolphins is that they are completely bereft of any physicality. They lack the toughness of blue collar rust belt teams that can line up and run it straight down your throat if the passing game isn’t working. Under McDaniel, Miami has become a soft finesse type of team. Which is fine when you’re hanging 70 points on the Broncos, but that ship has long sailed... along with the alphas we needed to keep that locker room together in times of adversity.

That said, there is still a small window of opportunity. A win on the road against the bully of the AFC East could turn the momentum and begin a historic run. Unfortunately, this is also the team that began Tua’s scary string of concussions a couple years ago. They also dealt him the last one—on an ill-advised run in a blowout game—that sat him down for the heart of the season last year. Six games. And then there’s Josh Allen, one of the most dynamic QBs in the NFL. Damn near impossible to beat in his house. Lots to overcome. But if it’s going to happen, it needs to happen now. The season either begins or ends tonight. I would love to call for an outright upset but I’m already down big against Claude GPT or whatever his name is. I will, however, take my Dolphins +12. That’s too many points for a divisional game on a short week.

But if they decide to not get off the plane, at least I’ve got Carson Beck and the Hurricanes to look forward to on Saturdays for a while. Stay thirsty my friends.