Rams-Dolphins: Saturday confidence thread

“How good are the LA Rams?” That might be a question best left for later in the season. While the Rams organization should not look ahead, I have no such dire consequences from doing so and that brings me to what happens in two weeks. Though the Miami Dolphins present challenges of their own to LA, they are an AFC team and losing on the road to a non-conference opponent tends to be less of a worry than intradivisional games.

Those are coming soon.

The Rams are already 0-1 in the NFC West and after the bye week that follows the Dolphins, they face the Seattle Seahawks at SoFi Stadium, the Buccaneers in Tampa Bay, the San Francisco 49ers at home and the Arizona Cardinals on the road. An 0-4 record ends speculation of a playoff run.

A 4-0 record would make the Rams the most dangerous team in the NFL. And 2-2 could be perfectly acceptable, especially if the two wins are against the NFC West.

That’s the future staring down Los Angeles that I can’t ignore, but they have to. This weekend, it’s all about the Dolphins.

At 3-3, Miami is well ahead of their 0-7 start under Brian Flores last season. They went 5-4 in the final nine games with a convincing Week 17 win against a New England Patriots team that desperately needed a victory. That makes the Dolphins 8-7 in their last 15 games and Miami has allowed the third-fewest points per game in the NFL so far this season. Flores has not only led his team to a win over last season’s Patriots, but also a 43-17 blowout against the defending NFC Champion 49ers two weeks ago.

In their three losses they were within three points of New England in the fourth quarter; within two points of the Seahawks in the fourth quarter; led the Buffalo Bills in the fourth quarter.

Now this above-average team has made the switch to what they hope is going to be well above average play at quarterback. While veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick has the support of seemingly everybody in the world, rookie Tua Tagovailoa was the fifth overall pick in an era where waiting isn’t the hardest part for QBs — it seems to be the unnecessary part in many cases. While Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert are basically thriving, Tagovailoa has been waiting.

That wait ends on Sunday as he makes his first start and if he’s anywhere near as good as Herbert or Burrow, the Dolphins could be competing to win the AFC East and at least play the part of spoiler in the conference playoffs. If he’s not, questions about pulling Fitzpatrick following back to back wins will be asked.

While the NFC East looks even worse than pre-season expectations, a road game against the Miami Dolphins may be more difficult than presumed a month ago. How do you feel about it though?