Dolphins vs. Bengals: Keys to victory in crucial Thursday night matchup

Thursday Night Football features the red-hot Miami Dolphins traveling to Cincinnati to visit the Bengals. The Bengals are coming off a road win and their first win of the season after narrowly losing in weeks 1 and 2. Cincinnati seems to have sorted out their woes on the line and Joe Burrow has worked off the rust after a preseason lost to an emergency appendectomy. However, Miami is not the New York Jets.

They feature speed to burn on the outside, an underrated defense, and a quarterback playing the best ball of his pro career in Tua Tagovailoa. Meanwhile, the Bengals lost their best interior player, and perhaps best defender overall in DJ Reader for at least the next six games, and Joe Mixon is nursing an ankle, so Cincinnati has some injury issues.

Miami Dolphins vs. Cincinnati Bengals Week 4 Preview

For the Miami Dolphins, they enter the short week on fire after beating the consensus best team in the NFL in the Buffalo Bills. They beat Buffalo despite 400 passing yards from Josh Allen. How? They kept the Bills’ big-play threats — Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis — in check and forced Allen to spread the ball around or check down short. Allen completed passes to an insane 11 different players with Devin Singletary catching 9 to lead the team.

Buffalo is not a threat to run outside of Allen, and Miami held him in check with only 47 yards. Miami has their own injury issues on a short week, as Tua took a nasty blow to the head Sunday and is considered questionable, as are Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. It’s likely all three will play, but how will they hold up on a short week?

Let’s dive into some of these questions and take a look at both teams’ keys to victory Thursday night.