They pummeled the Browns....they went to Indy and beat the Colts who beat the NFC Champs yesterday and then the Phins beat Atlanta who is projected to win 10 games at least.
Where do you see the Dolphins not as good as their record?
The Falcons aren't playing particularly very good football right now. Part of that is their injury woes, among other things. Some people are still stuck in this mode of basing teams based on last year. Last year is gone and over with. None of that matters now. For example, the 49ers are terrible and are in some serious turmoil right now despite being the NFC champs of last season.
Realistically, the Falcons should have been beaten soundly by the Dolphins. Injuries to Wake, Ellerbe, Misi, Wheeler and without others like Soliai and Patterson really kept Atlanta in the game. Mostly due to Wake's absence the Falcons ran effectively with scrubs like Jason Snelling and Jacquizz Rodgers. Wake's fill in UDFA Derrick Shelby looked like a deer in headlights, especially in run support. Regardless, Miami still had trouble beating them. Their offense couldn't exploit a severely depleted Falcons defense. I haven't been overly impressed with the Dolphins so far this year. I'm even less impressed with the Falcons as they're presently.
As it relates to next week's matchup, a healthier, more physical and overall better Patriots defense right now should be than enough to handle them in their present injury-riddled state. Atlanta could barely get by against Miami's rag-tag defense that resembled a mash unit, missing basically 6 starters in the second half.
I get that a lot of people are stuck on such meaningless things like reputations from yesteryear, but right now as it stands, the Patriots should win that game because they are the better team than Atlanta. Last I checked, the team that's better almost always wins.
