With a 4-5 record the Dolphins are hanging on for their playoff life by a single follicle of Rapunzel’s hair. I loved the win this week and I think we have a several games that are very winnable, but right now nothing exciting comes to mind when you look at this record so far because of our standing in the division. A deeper look shows that the Dolphins are 0-4 against the AFC East (with each of those teams having winning records), but against the rest of the teams that they played, which are all from the NFC East and AFC South, they are a combined 4-1. What blows that nice looking statistic up is only one of those teams has a winning record.
For starters, most sports gambling fans would agree that the AFC East is THE best, or one of the best divisions in football (The NFC South is tied with a combined 23 victories, but they only have two teams with a winning record). We all thought before the season that the AFC East had the potential to be the best and most competitive division in football, and thru 9 games it is becoming a reality.
Unfortunately for the Dolphins, so far they are the worst team in their division, and have not even been competitive in any of their division games. This is something that probably isn’t going to get fixed this season, especially since they only have two more division games, and one is against a team that looks poised to have an outstanding record. However, the Dolphins are going to have to focus their off-season acquisitions on getting players that can help them better compete in their own division, because if you can’t win in your division they you are never going to get very far. At this moment, Miami has not displayed enough physicality to compete within their own division.
When looking at the other games the Dolphins played outside of their division, it is clear that these teams are all mediocre. Fortunately the Dolphins do have play makers on their roster, so they can compete and win against mediocre or sub-par teams. However, a true playoff team needs to be able to win against other teams that have winning records. In that regard the Dolphins are 1-4 against teams with winning records. Once again this problem comes back to being able to win against their division foes, because those teams have each made improvements from last year, whereas the Dolphins are still treading water, and playing like a middle of the road 8-8 type of team, that is still searching for it’s identity.
Just based on this analysis of their record, there is evidence that there’s not many very good football teams in the league right now, and most of the teams are around the same mediocre level. However, with the best franchise in the league is in their division as well as two young and competitive teams are also in their division, the Dolphins need to be far more than mediocre to become a relevant football team in the NFL going forward. What does the rest of the Miami Dolphins News fans think about the Dolphins chances for success in their own division?