Miami Dolphins Facing Early Season Must Win?
By Brian Miller
Are the Miami Dolphins facing an early season must win? The answer is no but it is a critical game and a win will go a long way to fixing what is wrong with this team. The Dolphins are 2-3 on the season and are facing a non-conference opponent on Sunday. The game itself will have little or no meaning on tie-breaking procedures outside of the division. A loss will put the Dolphins at 2-4 obviously but the bigger impact is what lies ahead for the team.
The Dolphins have a talented roster but their quarterback is too inconsistent and the head coach is too soft. Looking ahead it’s hard to imagine the Dolphins making a run at a playoff birth should they lose today. It’s reasonable to assume that the AFC East winner will have at minimum seven losses. That would mean that Miami would need to finish out the season losing no more than three games.
In the AFC three teams have only two losses heading into Sunday. The Indianapolis Colts, Cleveland Browns, and Baltimore Ravens. Both the Colts and Ravens have played six games and have four wins. Three teams have only one loss. Cincinnati is 3-1, Denver is 3-1, and San Diego is 3-1. Miami faces Denver and San Diego later this year. In their own division the team is already down to Buffalo by one game and head to head and down by three games to New England who are 5-2 despite playing poorly most of the year. A loss today would certainly hinder the Dolphins chances.
After the Chicago game the Dolphins will face the winless Jacksonville Jaguars in Jacksonville and the Dolphins are no stranger to losing to winless teams. Last year the team fell to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who had yet to win a game when they played. Miami will then return home to face the San Diego Chargers who are real contenders for the AFC West and at minimum a Wild Card birth.
The team will then face the Lions, Bills, and Broncos before heading down the home stretch against the Jets, Ravens, Patriots, Vikings, and Jets again to finish the season. On paper you would think Miami should beat the Jets twice and the Jaguars and Vikings but there is no guarantee of another victory over the Patriots and Miami has not beaten Buffalo with Ryan Tannehill at QB. The Lions are going to be tough in Detroit and Miami is not playing well enough right now to beat the Chargers or Broncos.
A loss today would leave the Dolphins needing to win at least eight of their remaining ten games in order to finish 10-6 or seven games to get to one game over .500. It’s very early in the season but not early enough to put yourself between the proverbial rock and a hard place. Miami simply can’t afford any missteps moving forward. 9-7 isn’t an improvement over previous seasons. Except on paper.