While the National Football League had their first game of the season struck by weather conditions that could affect play on the field Thursday night, the snow game was a treat to watch and landed the Cleveland Browns on the right side of the contest against the Pittsburgh Steelers. No such weather conditions exist today, although rain is in the forecast for Seattle where the Seahawks host the Arizona Cardinals.
His third season as head coach got off to a rocky start for Mike McDaniel and his Miami Dolphins this year. In his first two seasons at the helm, he had guided the Dolphins into the playoffs and when his quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa, is healthy the Dolphins offense can be dynamic.
When Tua is sidelined, which has been a common occurrence during his career with Miami, the Dolphins go in the tank. The Dolphins quarterback suffered another severe concussion early this season, and there was some talk that he may decide on retirement over risking further injury. He has been a concussion protocol magnet in his five professional seasons.
His loss and injuries on the defensive side of the ball made the Dolphins seemingly one of the worst teams in the league, and they lost six of seven games on Sundays while Tua was mostly watching from the sidelines.
Now back, the Dolphins quarterback has engineered a couple wins over the Los Angeles Rams and Las Vegas Raiders to regain the possibility of a late run and possible playoff berth. For the Dolphins to crack the six team AFC playoff field to extend McDaniels streak to a third season would require not only Miami to continue on their winning ways but a few collapses by teams currently with better records.
The chances of the Dolphins landing a playoff spot is not as good as the Dolphins doing their part, that is winning a number of games over the second half of the season.
That is, as long as Tua stays healthy … which he is at least today at the start of play when his Dolphins host the New England Patriots. Miami giving the touchdown on the line is one of our money rated plays today.
In other major quarterback news this week, the New York Giants granted Daniel Jones his unconditional release. This is a situation where the Giants had figured out that sitting him would avoid a big pay day for the sixth-year signal caller out of Duke. The Giants also made a decision not to play the man listed all season second on their depth chart at quarterback, Drew Lock, because of the financial burden they would have incurred if Lock played as many games as are left in the season.
While the quarterback shuffle in New York is business driven over football, the starting role this week in their game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers falls to Tommy DeVito. The only good thing that came of their roster moves was giving Jones his requested release, which allows him the best opportunity of finding a new team before next season.
As for the public this week, their favorite play today is the Detroit Lions (-7½) over the Indianapolis Colts. The next two most-bet teams by the public are the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (-6) over the New York Giants and Denver Broncos (-5½) over the Las Vegas Raiders.
All the Qoxhi Week 12 selections are now posted on this site, and if a Bullet Play develops in the final hour leading to the first kickoff of the day, that game will be added to the list of recommendations by 9:45 a.m. Pacific Time.