Playoffs? Miami Dolphins have put themselves in a bad spot

The Miami Dolphins remain in the 6th seed of the AFC playoff race but if we are being honest with ourselves, they have hurt their chances.

After two consecutive losses on the west coast, the Dolphins will next travel to wintry Buffalo for what should have been an AFC East winner take all game. Now, the Dolphins are playing for their post-season lives and the Bills are playing to take a step closer to locking up the division.

Shame on Miami Dolphins fans for thinking this season was different. We were duped despite all of our internal reasoning telling us to not buy in. We didn’t listen.

The Dolphins are not only going to be underdogs against the Bills, but early lines also opened with the Bills six-point favorites, which will likely go up. Miami hasn’t played well in Buffalo in a long time.

I’m not ready to say the Dolphins will absolutely lose this game but if I were predicting it, I would say they were. Assuming that they do, the Dolphins will fall to 8-6. The Chargers currently sit in the 7th seed at 7-6. That will change if the Patriots win tonight.

A loss to the Bills will drop Miami and allow the Patriots and Chargers to potentially gain that one game on the Dolphins. The Chargers play host to the struggling Titans and the Patriots will play the Raiders in Las Vegas.

Next Sunday night, the Dolphins could find themselves in the 7th seed and we have to ask, is there any confidence that the Dolphins will beat the Green Bay Packers? Will they beat the Patriots and their tough defense with the way the offense is playing? In Foxboro in January? Or how about the New York Jets at home in Miami?

The Jets are playing extremely good football despite losing to the Bills on Sunday. They have a very good defense and an offense that isn’t playing horribly.

If we predict the last four games of the season based on how the offense and defense are playing over the last two games and two quarters, they didn’t look good in the 2nd half of the Texans game, we can’t be certain that Miami is a lock to get into the postseason.

Games that looked to be easier given the production of the Dolphins’ offense, now look like games Miami will have a hard time winning. Miami was more than 85% likely to make the postseason heading into last weekend’s games but that number is going to drop and if they lose to the Bills, it’s going to drop more.

Miami currently holds tie-breakers over the Bills for at least another week but remains two games behind them in the AFC East. The Jets, one game behind Miami, hold the tie-breaker against the Dolphins. Now, so do the Chargers who join the Bengals in holding sway over a head-to-head tie-breaking process.

Overall, Miami has dug itself into a hole that will not be easy to get out of. They went all-in this year with the additions of Hill and Bradley Chubb and now, if something doesn’t change quickly, they will be looking at the postseason schedule without their names on it.

Given the talent on this team, they shouldn’t be in this position.