An inside look at Sunday’s Jets-Dolphins Week 11 matchup at MetLife Stadium:

Jets WR Corey Davis vs. Dolphins CB Xavien Howard

The Jets signed Davis to a three-year, $37.5 million contract in March to be their No. 1 receiver. Though Davis has had some good moments in his first year with the team, he has not had a dominant game yet. This week, he figures to match up with Howard, one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL.

Davis had a bad fumble in last week’s loss to the Bills, costing the team a chance to score points before halftime. He has 29 catches for 442 yards and four touchdowns this season, but only one 100-yard game. Howard has two interceptions this season after pulling in 10 last season.

“He’s a stud,” Jets coach Robert Saleh said of Howard, “heck of a football player, deserving of everything that he has coming to him. When you have those guys on the outside, who’ve been in the league, who can get the ball, who can lock people down, you can be a lot more aggressive in coverage and do the things that they’re doing.”

The decision to start Joe Flacco is a head-scratcher, but I think he’ll play well. Maybe we’ll be debating whether Flacco should remain the starter after this one. The Jets defense will look better against a bad Miami offense, and Flacco does enough to get the W.

Jets 29, Dolphins 17

Tua time: The Jets did not see Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa during his rookie year last season, facing Ryan Fitzpatrick in both meetings instead. This could be the first of many meetings against Tagovailoa, or one of a few if the Dolphins trade for Deshaun Watson in the offseason.

Tagovailoa put up good numbers in his last three starts before a broken finger sidelined him. He came off the bench last week against the Ravens and helped Miami win the game.

“The young man is getting better,” Jets coach Robert Saleh said. “He gets the ball where it needs to go, he’s good with his reads, he’s got some good playmakers to get it to. They do a really good job with their RPO scheme, they do a really good job taking shots, he’s got the arm strength to go anywhere on the football field, he’s got good mobility.”

Stopping the bleeding: Early in the year, the Jets defense did a good job of keeping things in front of them. They gave up some yards, but were not getting beat by explosive plays and not giving up tons of points. Over the past four weeks, that has changed.

The Jets have allowed 175 points in that span, and a big reason why are big plays. They have given up 21 plays of 25 yards or more in their past four games. The Patriots (8), Bengals (3), Colts (6) and Bills (4) have all hit them with big gains. It is something the Jets have to stop if they have any hope of turning things around.

Rivalry no more: Remember when Jets-Dolphins used to feel like a big game? It’s been a while. The Jets are 2-7 and the Dolphins are 3-7, making this game pretty meaningless for anything other than draft position and bragging rights. It has been about a decade since these games felt meaningful for the Jets. The Jets got knocked out of the playoff hunt at the end of the 2011 season with a loss to Miami. Since then? Yawn.

The all-time series is tied up at 55-55-1 entering this game. The Dolphins have not led the series since 2000, but have won six of the past seven meetings. In the 111 lifetime meetings, the average score is Dolphins 22, Jets 21.

More than zero: The Dolphins defense is going bring the heat against the Jets and Joe Flacco this week. That was one of the reasons the Jets chose to start Flacco. Miami is blitzing like crazy, especially “cover zero” blitzes when they leave no safety deep.

Against the Ravens last week, the Dolphins safeties blitzed a combined 38 times and sent defensive backs on 24 of the 48 plays when Lamar Jackson dropped back. It is the most defensive back blitzes since NextGen Stats began recording the statistic in 2016.

If the Jets don’t make the Dolphins pay early for blitzing, it could be a long day for Flacco.