The New York Jets and Miami Dolphins are hoping that a change in scenery can help them get back on the winning track after both suffered deflating losses last week. The AFC East rivals will face off at Wembley Stadium in London, the first of three games to be played in the UK this season. While the NFL has been playing games overseas for years now, this is the first divisional battle at Wembley.
Jets vs. Dolphins 2015 picks and predictions: Gang Green is slight favorite in London
The Dolphins are coming off two ugly losses and will look to get back on track against a Jets team that was embarrassed last week against the Eagles. Hey Brits, this is American football!
The two key elements that had contributed to their surprising 2-0 start were nonexistent against the Eagles: their aggressive, play-making defense forced just one turnover (compared to 10 takeaways in the first two games) and their ground game screeched to a halt with just 47 yards on 16 carries (averaged 128 rush yards in the first two games). After last week’s meltdown, it’s still unclear which version of the Jets is the real one and which will show up in London on Sunday.
The Dolphins are in a freefall, having dropped their last two games, and the latest blowout loss to the Bills in Week 3 has raised a ton of questions about this team from top to bottom. One issue is that Miami is getting manhandled in the trenches on both sides of the ball. The Dolphins rank 27th in rushing offense and 31st in stopping the run.
Perhaps a bigger concern is that they have fallen behind early in each of their first three games -- they were in a 10-0 hole against Washington in Week 1, faced a 17-6 deficit against the Jaguars in Week 2 and were down 27-0 to the Bills last week -- and that is clearly not a recipe for winning football. We're only a quarter of the way into the season, but it looks like head coach Joe Philbin's seat is already getting quite warm in Miami.
There isn’t much consensus among the experts on this key divisional matchup. Over at CBS Sports, the panel is split down the middle -- four are taking New York and four are taking Miami. Here at SB Nation, our world-class prognosticators are mostly favoring the Jets, with only Joel Thorman and the OddsShark computer picking the Dolphins.
| Ryan Van Bibber | Stephen White | Joel Thorman | David Fucillo | Danny Kelly | Matt Ufford | PFT Commenter | OddsShark Computer | |
| NYJ vs MIA | NYJ | NYJ | MIA | NYJ | NYJ | NYJ | NYJ | MIA |
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