The Dolphins will not be playing until Monday against the Jets, but all of their other AFC competition will be playing on Sunday. Can Miami get some help on Sunday that will be beneficial towards their playoff hopes?
The Cleveland Browns travel to Buffalo to take on the Bills, and even though Buffalo is in the East with the Dolphins and they have the same record at 6-5 it would be more beneficial if Buffalo won the game. The reason is two fold, one because the Browns have a better overall record of 7-4 and two because Cleveland has the better conference record of 4-4 compared to the Bills conference record of 3-5. The best sportsbooks in the world have the Bills as the hometown favorite at -3, and the action is coming in pretty much split. Hopefully the Bills can win and help Miami gain a game on a team that currently has more wins then them.
The other AFC match up that features two AFC teams in the hunt is the San Diego Chargers at the Baltimore Ravens. As long as there is not a tie, then one of these teams will be hit with a loss, which is a good thing. It’s hard to say which team the Dolphins would prefer to lose though. Both teams are 7-4, but the Chargers have the better conference record of 5-3, whereas the Ravens are 3-4 in the conference. The Dolphins do have the head to head tie breaker against the Chargers, however if San Diego wins they will now have 8 wins, compared to Miami’s 6. The other thing is that after Miami plays against the Jets they will be playing the Ravens, so they will definitely need to win that game, which would be a huge tie breaker type game at the end of the season. As long as Miami can win against the Jets then they will still trail one of these teams by a game. So I guess if you really had to choose then it would be better to trail Baltimore by a game considering that the Dolphins play Baltimore the following week. If Miami can win against Baltimore as well then they will have the tie breaker over both of these teams.
The Denver Broncos take on the Kansas City Chiefs and both teams have the head to head tie breaker against Miami. However the Broncos have 8 wins and the Chiefs have 7 wins. I would say that it would probably be better if the Chiefs lost, because I think most fans would say that Denver will probably win the AFC West. The best sportsbooks in the world have the Broncos as only a -1 point favorite. The scary part is that this game opened at -1 ½ and all the action is coming in on the Broncos, however the line moved in the wrong direction. This usually means that the action on the opposite side, which in this case is the Chiefs is usually where the smart money is. Don’t be surprised if the Chiefs win this game and both the Broncos and Chiefs are tied for the AFC West lead with 8 wins apiece.
The New England Patriots are playing a tough game in Green Bay against the Packers. The best sportsbooks in the world have the Pats as a +3 point underdog, and all the action is pouring in on the Pats. I think the Pats finally suffer a lose, because Aaron Rodgers will be able to outscore Brady on his home tundra turf.
The last two games that involve AFC playoff hopeful teams are the Bengals at the Buccaneers and the Saints at the Steelers. In both games the Steelers and the Bengals are favored to win, and barring any upsets they will in all likelihood win and stay a game ahead of Miami. Hopefully some type of miracle does happen and one of these teams takes their opponent too lightly.