Green Bay Packers vs Miami Dolphins
It’s a full-on battle of the conferences between the Green Bay Packers and Miami Dolphins as it pits the NFC North against the AFC East. With stars of the past like Brett Favre and Dan Marino and the present such as Aaron Rodgers, Tua Tagavailoa, and Tyreek Hill, you can feel the excitement in the air when these two squads meet up for a rare match as they’ve played just over 15 games since the series started back in 1971. This is a money maker too so don’t stop reading or you’ll miss out on where to put your bucks.
The Matchup
For a series that is more than 50 years old, you would think these teams would have played double the amount they have in this series. They only played each other every three years or so early on in the series but after the NFL realignment of 2002, the games have been scarce as they happen once every four years. There is relevance to the games here and Rodgers as he has played in almost 20 seasons and yet has only played the Dolphins three times, going 2-1.
With so few to choose from, the game that stands out first and foremost is back in 2010 when the Dolphins would squeeze out a 23-20 overtime victory in Green Bay. It was important because it was also the season that Rodgers and the Packers would win their last Super Bowl. Another classic game was a 23-18 thriller in which quarterbacks Favre and Marino would go at it with Favre coming out on top with 253 yards and two TDs on the day compared to 240 yards, a TD, and an interception for Marino.
Odds and Ends
Looking at the series overall, we’re going to work with 15 games from 1971 up until 2018. In that time, the Packers have averaged 23 points in 15 games from 1971 to 2018 while the Dolphins have averaged 19.1 points a game in that span. As for the margin of victory, the games were not close early on but definitely got more competitive as the years went on. Over the first five games of the series, the winner won by an average margin of 16.4 points a contest but the next five games after that saw a big change with the winner only winning by an average of 5.8 points a game. The five matches from 2002 until 2018 saw the margin of victory jump back up again to 9.8 points a contest.
Only three games out of 15 had a score of 50 points or more with teams averaging 38 points a game over five contests from 1991-2002 while another stretch of five games from 1971 to 1988 averaged 40,8 points a contest. The highest average number of points over a consistent stretch would be four games from 2006 to 2018 that yielded 48.8 points a game.
Why You Should Bet on This Game
Check it out, we’re going to look at the spreads going back to 1985, which gives us a 12-game sample. First, although the Packers have scored more points in the series than the Dolphins, it’s been relatively close against the spread with Green Bay going 7-5 ATS from 1985-2018 even though they’ve only gone 2-4 ATS at Lambeau Field over that time. With that being said, the Packers are 4-1 ATS in five games from 2002-2018 including 2-0 ATS in Miami so strongly consider the Pack if they’re on the road. You may want to stay off the over for this matchup as it has performed poorly at 4-8 and lost five in a row at one point from 1998 to 1997. From 2000-2018, the over traded wins and losses, splitting six games for a 3-3 record over that stretch.
Now that you’ve got all the data you need for this matchup, you can feel confident placing your bet on this game when it comes around.