Tua Tagovailoa will face Joe Burrow in a Thursday night showdown.

The first-place team in the AFC East will face the worst team in the AFC North on Thursday night. To be fair to the Bengals, it’s only the start of the season and it’s not time to worry yet.

Last week, the Miami Dolphins found a way to beat the Buffalo Bills, arguably the best team in the entire league. They did this by playing great defense for all four quarters.

When they face the Cincinnati Bengals, the formula will be the same. They need to find ways to get to Burrow often and play a “bend but don’t break” defense.

Miami has started their season with a 3-0 record, led by Tyreek Hill and Tua Tagovailoa. These two have combined for an incredible season so far with a lot of promise in the future.

As a team, the Dolphins average 291.3 passing yards per game, ranking third in the NFL. We’d like to see them improve their running game, however, as they only average 64 yards per game.

Defensively, the Bengals allow an average of 18.3 points per game, slightly under what the Dolphins defense allows. Still, Miami averages 27.7 points per game, ranking eighth in the league.

Cincinnati actually comes into this game as the favorites (-3.5) although they have a worse record than the Dolphins.

The reason for this is because they’re at home and Tua Tagovailoa is still listed as questionable but he’s likely to play.

Although the Bengals are favored to win, they don’t have an answer for wide receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. Because of this, we’ll take the Dolphins +3.5 over the Bengals.

Ricky’s Pick: Miami Dolphins +3.5, UNDER