***SWAMP WILD-CARD WEEKEND GAME 3 - MIA @ PITT***

***MIAMI DOLPHINS @ PITTSBURGH STEELERS***

Alright ladies and germs it is time for round three of Wild-Card Weekend as the six seeded Miami Dolphins head into Pittsburgh to take on the Steelers in an attempt to prove that week 6's upset over them was no fluke. The Dolphins were 1-5 at the time and won that game over Pitt by a score of 30-15. It was a coming out party for RB Jay Ajayi as he officially introduced himself to the NFL world while rushing for over 200 yards and that win in particular launched Miami onto a 6 game winning streak, and finished with winning 9 out of their remaining 11 games. Miami QB Ryan Tannehill was also lost to injury in week 14 and backup veteran Matt Moore has taken over and gone 2-1 in his three starts to finish the season. Moore is a 'more' than capable backup QB that has been around for quite a long time and has shown us these past few weeks that he can still play. Miami has a plethora of offensive weapons behind Ajayi and their extremely talented WR core in Landry, Parker, & Stills. Needless to say, up against a Steelers defense that has proven to be beatable at times, one would think that the Dolphins have more than enough juice to hang in this one today and at least keep this one within the number. After analyzing the previous matchup between the two further, the outcome can be a bit deceiving. It needs to be mentioned that QB Big Ben Roethlisberger was injured in the second quarter and backup QB Landry Jones who in my opinion is pretty awful, relieved Ben until he returned in the second half where he was clearly hobbled and limited version of himself for the remainder of the game. We later found out that he needed a minor surgery and was out for some time afterwards. That next game was also at home against the Patriots mind you, the Steelers at the time were 4-1 and I think it is possible that this game was a classic letdown spot where they looked past Miami and the Dolphins caught them sleeping fair and square. As I previously mentioned, this game was Ajayi's coming out party, meaning the Steelers nor the rest of the NFL knew at that time what kind of RB he was about to be for the rest of the season. The Steelers are obviously fully aware of him now, and have publicly stated how much of a bitter taste was left in their mouths after that game where their defensive unit was pretty much manhandled and embarrassed. Pitt's defense has been playing much better as of late but I personally am not too high on them as a top notch defense but I do like the fact that they are getting some players back and will be as healthy as they have been all year and will concentrate on slowing him down. Without Center Mike Pouncey healthy, it will be tough for the J-Train to pick up consistent steam.

Speaking of healthy, and I am sure you have heard this a few times this week but it is true; this is the first playoff game that the "Killer B's" AKA Big Ben, WR Antonio Brown, and RB Le'Veon Bell are all healthy and playing in together. The excitement for these three to get out there on their home field and play together, doing what they do is a dangerous factor to an already lopsided matchup. The first time around the Dolphins were much healthier on defense, they were able to get to Big Ben and smack him up, hence him getting injured. The only difference today is that the Dolphins are pretty much without their entire secondary and LB core. We saw what Tom Brady and the Pats did to the Fish last weekend IN Miami nonetheless. Brady absolutely shredded that secondary at will. I know Miami made a late comeback and were essentially a fumble away from sneaking in the backdoor to make for a more respecatable score and you might say "it was a closer game than the score indicates." However, to be honest I think the Pats were straight up toying with them and were using the Fish as live practice dummies in the second half, experimenting with some situational football as they head into their bye week. As somebody who backed the Dolphins in that game, it was hard to watch at times. After that shalacking, I do think the Miami defense plays much better today and that Big Ben is a different QB than Brady. He holds onto the ball in the pocket much longer and should give guys like Suh and Wake on the Miami defensive line chances to get to him today. Despite a valiant effort, I think the Killer B's swarm will prove to eventually be too much for the Fish and I feel like they will pull away in the second half. The "pick your poison" option for defenses when facing this Steelers team is just too much to overcome without a top notch defense with a handful of studs. Even if Miami were healthy on defense they would struggle. While Miami played very well down the stretch this year, when faced against a top pocket passer in games against Brady and Flacco toward the end, they got torched. I see a hard-fought and close first half with Ajayi having some success, but eventually Moore will be forced to pass 'more' to keep up with Big Ben on the scoreboard and while I think the Miami WRs play well and most likely break one for a TD, I like the Pitt defense to feed off the terrible towels and eventually cause a big turnover or two. DE James Harrison will surely visit Moore in the backfield and the addition of the young LB Bud Dupree on the other end has proved to be a nice 1-2 punch for the Steelers. The Dolphins will struggle to slow down both Brown and Bell and in my opinion the levee will eventually break and Pitt will roll. STEELERS-11.5