Follow Thursday night’s game between the Dolphins and the Bengals starting at 8 p.m. with the Blitz preview on RDS2 and RDS.ca.
CINCINNATI — The Miami Dolphins defeated the Buffalo Bills last week to win their first three games of a campaign for the first time since 2018.
The Cincinnati Bengals are also having an amazing start to the season, but for different reasons.
The defending AFC champions lost their first two games before regaining their 2021 season cohesion by beating the New York Jets 27-12 on Sunday.
The Dolphins won an expected showdown against the Bills by a score of 21-19 thanks to poor time management late in the game. The Bills ran out of time as they fell two points behind and tried to get into position for a game-winning field goal.
Both the Dolphins and the Bengals will have to quickly turn the page, as they face off Thursday night in Cincinnati. And the short week off comes at a terrible time for the Dolphins.
Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is hampered by back and ankle injuries. He was also stunned when he took a tough tackle against the Bills, but he came back into the game.
It is not yet known whether he will be in uniform on Thursday. If Tagovailoa is unable to play, Teddy Bridgewater will get the start.
“I’m getting treatments and doing everything in my power to be as close to 100% as possible,” Tagovailoa said Tuesday.
The 24-year-old quarterback has completed 71% of his passes and thrown eight touchdown passes in three games this season.
That’s already half of what he threw in 13 games last season. His 925 passing yards rank him second in the NFL behind Josh Allen of the Bills.
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said preparing for a second game in four days is never easy.
“Our team understands the importance of Thursday night games for the league and the fans. It brings in significant revenue. But it’s quite a challenge,” said McDaniel.
“There is no perfect formula,” he added. You need to sleep well and eat well. But it’s the same for both teams. You do it once during the season, so it’s unusual. »
As for the Bengals, quarterback Joe Burrow managed to find his bearings against the Jets, throwing three touchdown passes.
