Too early? I say no! It's midseason. Let's take a look at our path to the playoffs... AFC Division Leaders Pats 6-1 (Best record in football. Ugh! I hate them!!!) Ravens 5-2 Colts 5-2 Chiefs?!!! 5-2 (Wow.) Wild Card Jets 5-2 Steelers 5-2 In the Mix Titans 5-3 Fins 4-3 Texans 4-3 Raiders 4-4 Jags 4-4 The game against the Ravens is huge for 2 reasons... 1. If we beat the Ravens they drop to 5-3 and we advance to 5-3. If we end up with the same record as the Ravens at the end of the season, and we are both in contention for the Wild Card, the first tie-breaker is head-to-head record. 2. Since we would lose a tie-breaker to the Steelers, we now want them to to win the AFC North, and beating the Ravens would help them do that. ...so that's the implications of this week's game. I know our offense is lacking right now, but every team has holes. Except for maybe the Pats ($--#*&%!!!). On INSIDE THE NFL they went around the table and named the five best teams in the NFL right now. All of them agreed that the Pats, Jets, and Steelers are among the Top 5. Those are the three teams we lost to!! And we very nearly beat the Steelers and the Jets. Unfortunately they also named the Ravens as one of the Top 5 as well. Time to finally win one against the big boys!!!
These next 2 games against the Ravens and Titans are huge, and that can't be understated. Both these teams will be hanging around late in the season. We need these victories
I know I'm looking ahead but... If we win our next two games we will be 6-3 and the Titans will be 5-4.
If it is not too early for some to give up on our team, it is not too early for others to look ahead to a playoff chase. These next two games will make a difference in the playoff chase.
I think it's pretty simple. We win these next two against Ravens and Titans, we will most likely be a playoff team. If we lose them both, we're not. If we split, the jury is still out. Ok, it's not that simple.
Still gotta beat the Jets and Pats to split with them even after that. Honestly, I'm just gonna sit back and watch this season unfold. My expectations are currently as low as they can get at this point; gotta figure I'll have more fun that way. I'll still suffer coronaries every time they'll play but I will damn sure have more fun.
We must beat one of those, record wise, by the end of the season. We don't, absolutely, have to beat them both to get into the playoffs. Though, it sure as hell will make things easier and more than probable that we will have to beat them both. Edit: I agree 100% with your added text after I quoted you.
The sad part is we were saying the same exact thing last year in the last 5 games of the season saying we needed to win out, then we needed to just win 3 games then 2. After this stretch of games we still have the Jets and Pats games which honestly I don't understand how they are doing it but the Pats will probably win the division and the stupid Jets are somehow managing to win games. If we don't win the Baltimore / Tennessee games and the jet and pat games I dont think we will have a chance at the wild card. It looks like 3 of those 4 teams will be in the wild card hunt and we will probably end up with the same record as them. WE NEED TO HAVE TIE BREAKERS AGAINST THEM if we have a chance.
It's definitely not too early. Once the calender strikes November, every game is a playoff game especially against AFC Teams! There are only 16 games.
I actually don't think the Pats are that good. I don't think they are their record. I've watched about half of their games and I thought they were outplayed but were lucky to pull out the victory. While there is something to be said for "knowing how to win", I find that over the course of the season the bounces tend to even out. My guess is that by the end of the year nobody will have them as the best team in the league. They'll still be considered dangerous of course, but there will be several teams I'd be more worried about facing in the playoffs. In fact, I wouldn't be all that surprised if they went on a losing streak that kept them out of the playoffs.
Well, whatever the Patriots are, I think that of the two games we have on the road against the Patriots and Jets, the one we're most likely to win is that Week 17 game in New England...and not because I figure they'll be playing for nothing. I just really want a crack at that team when Special Teams aren't such a detriment...because I think we can move the ball on them on offense and keep them contained on defense.
If the Dolphins wish to control their own destiny, they win at least the Ravens game, it is that important, otherwise "we" have to hope for the Browns pulling an upset along with another team, even then, we have to win out. This Ravens game may as well be a "WildCard Division" Game. No wins in the next two games means a Pretty Pony season of 10-6 and no real chance of making the playoffs.
I think the Jets are a better team than the Pats and I think Miami matches up better against the Pats.
In my opinion.... These next two weeks ARE THE PLAYOFFS for this team. First, these are the quality of teams you will see in the playoffs. Our team needs to define itself as a team that is a dominant team to be reckoned with. Likely one of possibly both of these teams will be fighting for our spot. We cannot afford to lose either one IMO. I don't care if the refs bumble it or what...make sure its not in the refs hands. NO EXCUSES IN THESE TWO GAMES. Even if we make the playoffs somehow by losing these games, I think these games will prove we are a one and done team. Next weeks game is huge because so many people are making a big deal of the win less mark at home. We cannot allow that to get into our heads....otherwise you start wondering when the axe is gonna come and send your team packing yet again. We are good enough to win both of these games...and I believe we will.
That game is on Jan 2....and living up here in the north east, I can tell you theres a VERY GOOD CHANCE, that game is going to be sub zero with howling winds. I have no idea how we would fair in those conditions....
the PATSIES are having the antithesis of our season ... they have had more luck in the last 3 weeks then we will have all year for sure .... but that's what it takes nowadays. agreed these next 2 weeks will go a long way in determining our outcome this year ... especially since both are coming off of bye weeks when we play; and 4 games: BAL, TEN, JESTS and the conclusion in Foxboro will define our season (3 are on the road). The other 5 games are absolutely winnable games against competition we should beat (4 are at home). We can easily be a wild card team if we take care of business against the '5' and win at least 2 of the 4 ..... that would bring us in at 7-2 and 11-5 .... I see TEX, OAK, and JAX falling away .... and if'n we beat TEN, BAL and the JESTS .... that reins all of them in ...
we should be able to beat the bears even though its a short week because we play them on thursday, but its a short week for them too. the other teams we should beat is the raiders, brown, bills, and lions. the 4 games that are scary is the ravens, titans, jets and pats. i think we should win 7 games from here on out. 11-5 here we go!
Home Teams have a huge advantage on TNF, something like 5-1 last season, and we were the one TNF team to win on the road. I do think heading into the last 4 games of the season, this will be a Top 10 defense is nearly every category, Scoring, Yds, Nolan has these guys dialed in and he has far better personnel than he had in Denver. This is going to be fun to watch.
Andre Goodman and Renaldo Hill were in Denver with him during his slide late in the last season. I think that says alot about why it might have happened.
Crowder and Dansby are just a better duo than DJ Williams and Andre Davis as well, the best Dlinemen in 09, Vonnie Holiday, would be our 5th dlinemen this year, he would not play ahead of McD, let alone start.
Simply winning the 5 remaining home games isn't going to be good enough. We need Baltimore plus either NE or Jets to have a chance. I don't consider Oakland to be a slam dunk and even Cleveland and Etroit are playing better. This is not going to be an easy task, particularly if we can't get our scoring numbers up
AFC Division Leaders: Jets 6-2 Steelers 6-2 Titans 5-3 Chiefs 5-3 Wild Card: Pats 6-2 Ravens 6-3 In the Mix: Colts 5-3 Raiders 5-4 Fins 4-4 Texans 4-4 Jags 4-4 This week's game against the Titans is huge for obvious reasons. I don't need to spell them out. Other games of interest are New England at Pittsburgh (one of them is gonna be 6-3) and Houston at Jacksonville (one of them is gonna be 4-5). Go Falcons! Way to beat the Ravens!!!
we absolutely must knock out this 2d half at 6-2 or better .... due to our conference record, since we've already put ourselves in a bad spot. We almost even need to run the table against AFC foes to have any shot at the playoffs - regardless of who they are against. 1 more loss against an AFC team would put us at 7-5 best case in conference .... probably about the worst we could be and have any hope to catch a WC spot.
I wish we could go 6-2 and make the playoffs. The reality is we need to go 7-1, and that still might not be enough.
Today, we can catch up with two of the playoff contenders. Beating the Titans gives us the edge by tie breaker. We win, Pats lose, we are a game behind, and tie the Pats by beating them. The playoff run starts today.
Right on, this is a huge week, our rivals play intra conference games, we play 2 games in 4 days. So atm, we would be best served: Steelers over Patriots Jags over Texans (of the two, the Texans are a far more talented team) Browns over Jets (jags next week, the Browns can really help us out by winning the next two games) Colts have the Pats in New England next week as well. Basically, we could vault up 4 spots maybe 5, in 4 days. And folks wonder why Pennington is starting..
And then the pats have the colts next week while we are on our second bye week. Win these two, two pats losses, guess who is #2 in the AFCE and I think #7 in the final WC slot?
This is a DEFINING game to our playoff chances. Win this one, and I can easily see us being 8-4 going to the Jets.