Ya those Ravens and Bills games are looming pretty large at the moment. Really gotta have a good showing on those. Both Ds are great (and Detroit's).

Hopefully the Jests keep feeding their dumpster fire too!

 

We're certainly not pretenders , we have a tough schedule so we'll see re the playoffs , but we are not pretenders imo .

 

This team can go 6-2 over the back half of the season, and it needs to. That either means taking care of business with the division schedule, which is something the team certainly can do, or it means letting one of those games go but upsetting the Lions or Broncos (in Denver). That makes the team 11-5 and in the playoffs, likely with a division crown and a first round game against the worst wild card. Another 5-3 half makes the playoffs probably likely but in some level of doubt. An AFC team will probably go 10-6 and miss, but two or more will do that and make it in.

 

I was looking at the schedule after the Chicago game and thinking that 11-5 was not out of the realm of possibility. That would likely give us the division. It feels weird to be thinking that.

 

We're currently 7th in the AFC, tie-break behind Buffalo for the last WC.

 

I think that the team needs to win against Buffalo - and home teams on Thursday usually do very well. And then win one against either Detroit or Baltimore. Do that, and the games at Denver and New England are forgivable losses if it comes to that.

 

Denver effing up early at NE...and the refs didn't call a blatant PI on Browner that woulda kept Denver's drive going...should expect that by now I guess, but I still hate seeing it.

 

I loved that Sancehz played well today! Makes it that much worse for the Jets

 

Want Denver to win today...

I WANT THE DIVISION. **** THE WC.

 

Yeah, do we ever expect anything different? It isn't that the officials are biased against Miami when we play New England, they're biased against EVERYONE vs the Pats.

 

Yeah, we need to take control of our own destiny.

 

Got to beat Buff. They are built to beat us. No way around them. No idea how we do that aside from TO

 

Dolphins couldn't pull a repeat of last year, could they?? Nope, just could not happen. I am pretty optimistic, but still; there is....the history.

 

Things should even out. The teams in the North and West all have brutal schedules of their own.

 

Based on the playoff tool on ESPN we're 7th, anyway.

 

The way Miami played today- they are almost above the "contender" status. I know it was only one game but still, we would have dominated anyone this afternoon. That was a great confidence booster.

 

Bills game is massive. Dolphins have a 4-2 AFC record to their 2-3. Miami needs to win, negate the earlier loss to the Bills. Dolphins beat the Patriots so they'd have an edge over the Bills there as well.

 

Sorry, but unless you make the playoffs, you are nothing but a pretender. So if the Dolphins don't want to be seen as pretenders again this season, they need to step up and make the playoffs for the first time since 2008.

 

I think ESPN's tool was probably looking at it as us being ahead of both Pittsburgh and Baltimore for the moment with neither having played this week yet. I think it may actually be the case that a tie would keep us in 7th after the week shakes out, so who knows.

 

We disagree , being a pretender is more about the results you have produced not being real imo and we could end up not making the playoffs but still play well for the season overall and the last as half specifically.

We could win 10 games and not make the playoffs , that scenario wouldn't make them a pretender imo .

 

If's and buts the Green Bay loss we should be 6-2. We're not. Sturgis misssed FG. Can't punch it in on the goal line the GB theme sort of rears it's head now and again. We'll put that crap behind us by sweeping the Jets and beating Buffalo and Detroit. That'll be 9 wins. We'll need one more perhaps. The way the D is playing now though, we'll go 5-3 barring injury and perhaps by giving serious thought about replacing Sturgis we can win in the playoffs.

 

Yes..you are right about Sturgis..I wonder if Dustin Hoskins is available? I can't remember if he is with anyone or not..For those not familiar he was Florida State's kicker and graduated the same year as Sturgis..he was money and I watched him kick several game winners from over 55 yards..I would like us to bring him in for a tryout..I am very afraid about Sturgis having to kick a game winner for us.

 

Same. 10-6 is the same record either way. 9-7 teams have won the Super Bowl after all. Missing the playoffs because the league or conference is lop sided isn't a team's fault. We're 4-2 against the AFC. If we copy that in the second half, I like our odds.

 

Damn Pats being the Pats again, winning, Damn it,

 

How's that? We win division tiebreaker with one and conference tiebreaker with the other.

 

Could be that my Bills v the Phis determines a WC for one of the two teams. As a fan of either team at this point in the season at least both teams are still in it.
Damn Pats look to be running away again, they always play so good the second half of the season. They manhandled the Broncos...not good.

 

Neither of them are ahead of us already...one will be after tonight. We're "currently" 7th, Baltimore 8th, Pittsburgh 9th. Winner will move ahead of us, we'll drop to 8th, loser of this game will drop to 12th at best.

 

Quoted in the gameday thread but thought it was relevant, quote from JO.

Would like to see this specific mentality going into the bills game.

 

Here's the link:

http://espn.go.com/nfl/standings/_/type/playoffs/sort/conferenceRank/order/false

 

If we can get into December at 7-5, I'm happy. In that scenario a L, W, L, W would be preferred.

 

At this point, other than winning the games "we should win", the Bills game & Ravens game at home are really big games.

 

Almost must-win games, ya.

 

I have a suspicion that this mentality will last for the rest of the season, or at least I'd hope so. It would almost be hard for it not to with the way the defense is playing.