Phins Edge Browns to Keep Hope Alive!

Everything is falling Miami’s way to make the postseason… so far

The Miami Dolphins shocked fans with Tua being downgraded to doubtful Saturday for their critical matchup vs the Cleveland Browns leaving playoff hopes in serious doubt. What made matter worse was the Broncos lost to Cleveland making Tua’s absence even a more bitter pill to swallow. But everything continued to fall the Dolphins way with the Colts losing and Tyler Huntley playing well enough to beat a terrible Browns team 20-3.

Amazingly, Miami is now on the cusp of a playoff appearance and needs to only beat the New York Jets and the Broncos to lose to the Chiefs to seal the deal. The Dolphins are nothing if they aren’t surprising. Now, with Tua’s status uncertain, Huntley may again play a big role in this season.

Huntley looked sharp passing & on the ground

The wind was fierce, and the rain was steady making throwing the football difficult. Huntley had a couple of excellent throws on deep posts, although most were short. Still, Huntley took care of the football with zero turnovers and had a stellar completion percentage while under duress.

The Phins offensive line was poor in pass protection and in the ground game. Huntley was sacked 4 times and the run game nonexistent with Achane rushing for 25 yards on 10 carries, Mostert 3 yards on 6 carries, and Wilson 5 yards on 3 carries. Tyreek Hill was clearly a big part too with 9 catches for 105 yards. But Huntley was the offense completing 22 of his 25 passes for 225 yards with 1 touchdown and rushing for 52 yards on 7 carries.

There’s no doubt that the Browns are terrible except for their defensive front led by Myles Garrett who had 2 sacks and 3 stops. To be fair in the evaluation, Dorian Thom pson-Robinson isn’t an NFL quarterback and had 4 intentional grounding calls and was erratic all day. You can bet with the best pay per head that it was a curious decision by the Browns to make him throw 47 times. Part of this decision was that starting running back Jerome Ford went down early. While it did feel like losing was the goal for the Browns, their players played hard and if Huntley didn’t rise to the occasion, Miami might have lost the game.

Can Miami seal the deal?

The Dolphins always seem to flop in the crunch and losing or beating the Jets is key for fans to having any belief in this franchise. Losing to the Jets would be a gut punch of gut punches. I want GM Chris Grier gone, but it does look like Ross is going to bring this whole thing back no matter what I or many Phins fans feel. For me, making the postseason isn’t enough. The Dolphins need to do more than just show, this very tall order because if Miami ends of making the postseason they’ll have to face the Bills in Buffalo. But, if Grier’s coming back anyway, at least making the playoffs and showing up against the Bills, win or lose, will give me a miniscule drop of hope for the future.

We are a long way from the postseason though, so seeing Miami in an important game in Week 18 after this depressing season is a pleasant turn of events. I am a Dolphins fan after all, and beggars can’t be choosers. Let’s see if we can shock the world. Go Phins!!!