Breaking Down This Weekends Playoff Picture
By Brian Miller
With the loss to that northeastern team that shall remain nameless the Miami Dolphins find themselves sitting one game back of the AFC Wild Card race. Each week becomes important on two fronts. What the Phins do, and what the other teams in the AFC do.
So starting this week and running until the Phins either get in to the PO’s or get knocked out, I will look at what needs to happen or what you should want to happen each week that will help the Phins get in. Here is a look at this weeks playoff picture.
Week 13:
Where it stands:
"Division leaders: NY Jets, Pittsburgh Steelers, Tennessee Titans, and Denver BroncosWild Card Leaders: Baltimore Ravens and Indianappolis Colts"
Records:
"Dolphins – 2-2 in the division, 5-4 conferenceNE – 3-2 in the division, 5-4 conferenceIndy – no head to head with Miami – 6-2 in the conferenceBaltimore – owns H2H, 6-3 in conferenceBuffalo – 0-3 in division, 4-4 in conference"
This weeks games:
"Baltimore @ Cincy – Baltimore will likely win this game….root hard for a Bengals upsetIndy @ Cleveland – The Browns lost Brady Quinn for the year and Derek Anderson has been horrid this year.Pittsburgh @ NE – A loss by NE puts Miami back in the driver seat over NE for another week as they Pats would fall to a 5-5 conference record. Buffalo @ SF – A loss by the Bills here and a win by Miami drops the Bills back into sole possession of last place.Denver @ NYJ – Another loss by Denver and SD could be breathing down their neck for the division with a record of 5-7 for SD and 6-6 for Denver. The Broncos know this so expect them to come out and play hard.Miami @ St. Louis – The Dolphins must take care of business when they have a chance and the Rams are a team the Dolphins should beat. A loss does not knock them out of the playoff race mathematically but for all intent and purposes the Phins will be playing strictly for pride if they do."
As of this weekend, only one playoff contender owns the H2H over the Dolphins and that team is the Baltimore Ravens. Should the Phins end the season in a tie with the Ravens and one other team that was not on the Dolphins schedule then the tie breaker formula will not be H2H and will be conference records. In this case, the Ravens need to lose conference games more than out of conference games. The Ravens have 3 conference games left on their schedule. Cincy this weekend, Pittsburgh in two weeks, and the Jaguars at the end of the season.
The Phins have one less victory in the conference than the Ravens with 3 left to play. Buffalo, KC, and NYJ. This is going to come down to the wire. For now, enjoy Thanksgiving because none of the game will impact the Dolphins or the AFC playoff races.