November 3, 2013
Prior to seeing a single snap, did you honestly think the Dolphins would have beaten the Patriots, Ravens, Saints, Colts, Falcons and Bengals? You expected wins vs The Browns, Bills and maybe split a victory or possibly two vs The Colts and Bengals.
We got lucky and somehow pulled off a victory against the Falcons, Bengals and Colts and blew a game we should have won vs The Bills. I think its a wash. Do Miami fans rationalize like this? No. They want 17-0 every season. Miami standing at 4-4 at the midway point on the season is a success.
When the 2013 Miami Dolphins schedule was released, you looked at that schedule and said, "we'll probably be 3-5 at the halfway point on the season. You grumbled to your friends, family and coworkers prior to preseason about how it's going to be another 7-9 season, 8-8 at best, if we're lucky. Instead of appreciating the free-agent acquisitions we landed in the offseason, you focused on the players we didn't sign, or who we missed in the draft, and made sure to take your shot at Jeff Ireland.
However, after the 3-0 start, South Florida caught 'Fin Fever and suddenly expected results like the Lebron James-era-Miami Heat.
Then Darren Sproles and The Saints came to town and ran all over the place. Fin Fever ended with a single loss, and everyone went back to being negative fair weather fans.
South Florida fans have tremendously short memories. I remember when the Miami Hurricanes 58-game home winning streak came to an end, the fans were furious and wanted to fire the entire coaching staff after a single loss.
The suspension of reality happens often down here. The same people who were predicting 7-9 were suddenly thinking it's 1972 all over again because we beat the Atlanta Falcons.
The Saints brought reality back to our region. It seems that the fans negativity fed into the team and The Dolphins didn't win a single game in October until the very last day, on Halloween, vs The Bengals, on a safety in overtime. Now we're sitting at 4-4, one game better than most people predicted the Dolphins would be at this point in the season.
The good news is, heading into the next 5 weeks, our opponents are a combined 14-22. There is no reason Miami shouldn't pull off 5 consecutive wins and be sitting at 9-5 before facing New England at home.
The next five games are vs The Bucs (0-7), Chargers (4-3), Panthers (4-3), Jets (4-4), Steelers (2-5). After we play the Patriots (6-2), we face our other division rivals, The Bills (3-5) and Jets (4-4). Those should be two more victories. Lets say we lose one of those 5 winnable games, and lose to the Patriots. We will finish the season 10-6. Heck, throw in another loss. Ending the season at 9-7 is not bad. Winning the AFC East is unrealistic at this point because the Patriots have an easier remaining schedule and will probably only lose to the Broncos.
Dolphins Playoff Picture:
Right now Miami has the 8th best record in the AFC. We know only 6 teams make the playoffs. We can assume that New England will win The East, the Colts will win the South, The Broncos will win the West, and The Bengals will win the North. We can also all but guarantee The Kansas City Chiefs have secured the first Wild Card spot. That leaves one spot up for grabs. The teams vying for that spot are:
Miami (4-4)
San Diego (4-3)
New York (4-4)
Baltimore (3-4)
Tennessee (3-4)
Depending how the chips fall after today's games, we might move back into that 6th spot. The two teams ahead of us are San Diego and New York. The Chargers play the Redskins in Washington today and The Jets play the Saints. I expect both teams to lose, and Miami to regain it's tie for the 6th seed.
What I want to drive home into Dolphins fans is, if you roll with this team, you gotta have faith, remain positive, and you gotta see the glass is half-full until we are mathematically eliminated. Stop spreading negativity. Winners see opportunity to improve, losers put their heads down and kick the can and make excuses.
You also need to observe the rest of the conference. We are not eliminated, in fact, we are in the best position to get that 6th wild card spot. The sun is shining in South Florida, and we are going to make the playoffs if we keep a positive outlook and eliminate the negative feelings.
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