The Miami Dolphins have to beat the teams they are supposed to

The Miami Dolphins are in a great position to make a run at the playoffs. They will need to take care of business in order to get there.

Sitting at 7-4, the Miami Dolphins have already surpassed expectations for a team in the second year of a full scale rebuild. Head Coach Brian Flores has done a commendable job creating a solid defense and maximizing the output of his players on the offensive side of the ball.

This team is nowhere near complete, but they have played well enough over the course of the season to legitimately have a shot at the playoffs. The playoffs are not guaranteed, however, but Miami can get there, if they win the games they should win.

This should be an obvious statement: win more games than the other teams and you make it to the playoffs; win the “winnable” games. Yet, in recent years, Miami has struggled often in the games that they “should win,” generally playing down to the level of the opponent resulting in losses which have ruined potential playoff chances. Miami can’t afford to continue that trend if they want to build a sustainable level of success for this team in the future.

Over the course of the next few weeks, Miami has a number of those “winable” games with a few challenging matchups sprinkled in. Even if Miami loses those tougher matchups, they could still get enough wins to make the playoffs. Here’s the schedule going forward:

• Bengals at Dolphins – 12/6 @ 1PM
• Chiefs at Dolphins – 12/13 @ 1PM
• Patriots at Dolphins – 12/20 @ 1PM
• Dolphins at Raiders – 12/26 @ 8:15 PM
• Dolphins at Bills – 1/3 @ 1:00 PM

Miami should be able to win against the Joe Burrow-less Bengals this coming Sunday. The Bengals have struggled all season and losing their starting quarterback isn’t going to help their chances. They should also be able to beat a weaker New England squad, especially in Miami, and an inconsistent Raiders squad. That puts their winnable game mark up to 3 of the last 5.

Of the other two games, Miami’s best chance to win is against their division rival the Buffalo Bills. Buffalo and quarterback Josh Allen have played well this season, but they can be a bit inconsistent on defense and Miami’s defense is much more improved since their first matchup in week 2. At this point, despite the way the Miami offense has been playing, the Buffalo game should be considered a toss up.

The game against the Kansas City Chiefs, however, is a bit more concerning. This is the only game in the final stretch where it’s more than likely that the Dolphins may lose. I don’t see a way that Miami’s offense can keep up with the explosive nature of the Chiefs’ offense. We may be surprised, but I’m not going to get my hopes up.

Even with a loss against Kansas City, Miami should be able to reasonable make it to 10-6 or 11-5, depending on how that Buffalo game plays out. With a double digit win total and an expanded playoff format, Miami should be able to make it into the wildcard round, assuming they win the games that they are supposed to and shrug off this terrible tradition of blowing it at the end of the regular season.