The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

Unless you go out and win your last 2 games. Yes beating even a beat up New England is great, but the real goal is making the playoffs. You've now placed yourself in position to do just that, but that's ALL you have done, put yourself in this position. You have NOT arrived. You have NOT become a playoff team. You have not even guaranteed a winning season yet. This win means absolutely nothing unless you buckle down and play this way the last 2 games of the year and give yourselves a chance to win both of them.

Please do like Brian Hartline mentioned, win this game and turn your sights on Buffalo. They are standing in your way. They would like NOTHING better then to beat you TWICE this year. You have already lost to them once. You cannot afford to let them hang around. You must go out and get on top of them early and keep putting the pressure on till they break.

Don't forget what the goal is. It's NOT beating the Patriots, it's winning out and giving yourselves the best possible chance of making the playoffs. Do THAT and then you can start congratulating yourselves.

It doesn't mean "zero".....it means a lot to beat NE at home. They had to win this one to make next week mean something so it doesn't mean "zero"

I think next week is the game of the year because Geno Smith and the Jets have NO CHANCE IN HELL of beating Miami in Miami Week 17. None whatsoever.  Beat Buffalo next week and this will be a 10 win season.

The Patriots had won 7 in a row against the Dolphins. It did not mean "nothing", regardless of what happens next.

Which is why I said "unless". It's a great win, but unless they win at least 1 of the next 2 if not the next 2, it will all be for naught. All too often lately the Dolphins have had let downs after big wins. Remember the Bills and the Bucs this year? Nice win. Enjoy it tonight, but you had better FORGET it ever happened by Tuesday. Hartline understands. Ask him to explain it to you.

I don't need it explained to me, but saying this win means "zero" is silly. The Pats have owned us for a decade, any win vs them is a good win. I don't care what happens next week

Then stop putting words in my mouth.

I agree, but I didn't say that. I said the win means zero if they lose the next two. I stand by that. My greatest fear for the Dolphins is that they will also assume your attitude that beating New England is huge and will lose sight of the fact that they need to win all the remaining games, not just the New England game. In my opinion Buffalo and the Jets are just as dangerous opponents as New England was today and taking them for granted would be a HUGE mistake.

It would still all mean nothing if the Ravens win all three of their remaining games

No team or player is taking any game for granted in late December especially a game vs a team that already beat them. And IF they lose next week, its not because they overlooked Buffalo

Sounds like you would be happier if Miami lost today.

Games are not always lost on gameday, sometimes they are lost during the week of preparation.

Sounds like you have me confused with EK.  ;D I WANT Miami to win all 3 and finish 10-6. That is my ONLY motivation for my comments.

Maybe I need to quote Hartline (http://miamiherald.typepad.com/dolphins_in_depth/2013/12/hartline-beat-new-england-turn-attention-to-buffalo.html#storylink=cpy11) so maybe all of you will understand where I'm coming from. "(On what it would mean to beat them on Sunday at home with that in mind) –“Nothing more than another win.  Like you said every game is important.  It’s obviously important, we have three division games to finish the year, New England being one of them.  In the end, it’s always good to beat New England they are the division leaders, that’s always important to us.  To say it’s worth more or weighs more, I think that’d be wrong.  As soon as we win this game, if we do win this game, pull this out, which we do plan on doing that we have to turn our focus right away to Buffalo and move on.  It’s not really a big celebratory situation and obviously when you play a great football team, a good football team at that matter it’s a good time to test your team.  It’s a good time to test yourselves, the one on one match ups put it all to the test, the team as a whole and see where you are after all this work you’ve put in come the middle of December, so it’s a great opportunity like I said."

Don't pull me into this. Somebody else can argue with MikeO and try making sense out of his nonsense. -EK

ha ha ha....nice to see you show your face tonight!!! Still think Miami needs to kick Tannehill to the curb? Still think he is a bust? Wanna talk some Tannehill smack tonight? How was Mike Wallace's day today? ha ha ha!! 

Mike, wasn't it enough that your previous comments were removed in two separate threads?

Re. Tannehill, this is an honest question, not a knock- I didn't see the game, only the highlights, but both NBC and ESPN made it appear that his receivers bailed him out to a degree with some absolutely fabtasyic catches. Was it just they way they presented the highlights?

Wallace had a nice game. I guess if you feel like 60 yards/game for a #1 WR and less than a half dozen TDs for the season is a good investment, then you're happy. -EK

Honestly, I don't know where that came from. I didn't watch the entire game but I thought his accuracy was pretty darn good, put the ball where they needed to be. I didn't see any ridiculous catches.

ha ha ha... you were on this board the entire game. But you didn't see the game. Give me a break. You never see our wins only happen to watch the loses.

Don't know what highlight shows you are watching. Tannehill wasn't bailed out by anyone

Just told you that both NBC and ESPN made it appear that way. There was a catch late in the game right at the line of scrimmage that went much further than it should have and another one font down the sideline where the receiver adjusted a lot to make the catch. Those are the two that stood out to me.

I don't "happen" to see the wins or losses. I'm in the Carolina's, so unless I want to go out to watch the game, Miami isn't usually the CBS coverage. It's either NE or Pitt.

Cathal- thanks for the reply. I suspected as much but wasn't sure. -EK

Ek, I think they were talking about the 4th and 5 pass to Charles Clay. Yeah, Clay had to adjust but Tannehill had to adjust and kind of side arm as well because it was a screen pass but a pass rusher was in his face. It was a difficult catch.

Gotcha. Clay has been quite an asset. -EK

Wallace is no longer some unknown 3rd rounder... he's a high-profile receiver with a sizable contract.  As such, he will frequently receive coverage from the other team's top DB, like he did week 1 in CLE when he was held to 1 catch for 15 yards.

This week, Belichick decided to put his best DB (Talib) on Clay instead.  The result?  Clay had 1 catch for 6 yards, while Wallace had 6 for 105 and a TD.

If you think Wallace's role is to singlehandedly dominate a game like Megatron, then Miami is underpaying him (by a lot); Miami signed Wallace to an average of $12M/year, while they signed Brandon Marshall to an average of $11.8M/year three years ago.  Wallace is being paid like a Pro Bowler, not an All-Pro, because his role is more specific: take the #1 DB out of the play while clearing the field, and if the opponent doesn't respect that, get your catches where you can.  As long as Wallace puts up a highlight catch every few games, the opposing DC will be forced to gameplan for him.

Wallace is doing exactly what he was brought here to do.  Hartline is having a career season, so is Clay, and Gibson was on his way before he got hurt.

I don't think this is true.  I believe we control our own destiny, assuming Pitt holds this lead.

You are correct.

If Baltimore wins out they win the division and since we have the tie-breaker over Cincy, the Wild Card slot will fall to us (providing we win out as well).

Note that if Cincy wins out and Baltimore drops a game (against Cincy) and the Dolphins drop a game, the tie-breaker goes to Baltimore UNLESS the Chargers win out. Then it becomes a 3-way and our head-to-head against the Ravens no longer applies. The Dolphins WIN that tie-breaker on conference record.


All Most possibilities:

10-6 Dolphins win out:
+ Patriots lose out ----> Dolphins win AFC East.
+ Patriots win 1+ ----> Dolphins get a Wild Card.

9-7 Dolphins drop a game (doesn't matter which):
+ Ravens win out + Cincy drops both its games ----> Dolphins get a Wild Card.
+ Ravens win out + Cincy wins a game ----> Cincy gets the Wild Card.
+ Ravens drop a game + Cincy drops both its games ----> Dolphins get a Wild Card.
+ Ravens drop a game + Cincy wins one or both + Chargers win out ----> Dolphins get a Wild Card.
+ Ravens drop a game + Cincy wins one or both + Chargers lose one or both ----> Ravens get a Wild Card.
+ Ravens drop both games ----> Dolphins get a Wild Card.

8-8 Dolphins drop both games:
Somewhat complicated, but the Dolphins could still make the playoffs with 8-8.
The Dolphins lose the 8-8 shootout to the Jets, no matter what.
The Dolphins lose the 8-8 shootout to the Ravens, providing the Chargers or Steelers are not in the mix (in which case the 'phins win).

Note regarding the Jets: They would only hold the 8-8 tie-breaker over the 'phins and Chargers. If either the Steelers or Ravens win just a single game, the Jets are eliminated.

I think one more relevant scenario:

9-7 Dolphins drop a game (doesn't matter which):
+ Ravens win out + Cincy wins one  + Chargers win out ----> Dolphins get a Wild Card.

(note: BAL plays CIN in week 17)

In this scenario, BAL wins AFCN, and MIA/CIN/SD are tied for 6th seed.  Since MIA has beaten both of those teams H2H, MIA would win that tiebreaker.

Long story short: root for SD to win out

Cincy are 9-5 right now. If they win a game, they have more wins than the Dolphins would at 9-7.

Good point, I was thinking they would be tied for some reason.

I knew it. Say what you want MikeO, but the Dolphins lost this game last Sunday.

I don't know about that