Miami Dolphins' Week 16 playoff picture
The Miami Dolphins' stretch run begins in Week 16, and fortunately the Dolphins still have a touch of breathing room in the AFC East. However, they will have a huge fight to keep it. The Dolphins flattened the New York Jets 30-0 while the Buffalo Bills throttled the Dallas Cowboys 31-10. As a result, the […]
The Miami Dolphins' stretch run begins in Week 16, and fortunately the Dolphins still have a touch of breathing room in the AFC East. However, they will have a huge fight to keep it.
The Dolphins flattened the New York Jets 30-0 while the Buffalo Bills throttled the Dallas Cowboys 31-10. As a result, the Dolphins maintained a two-game lead over the Bills in the AFC East.
AFC East standings:
Miami 10-4
Buffalo 8-6
New York 5-9
New England 3-11
The Bills certainly did the Dolphins a favor, putting out a blueprint on how to take down what had been a red-hot Dallas team coming into last Sunday. The Dolphins and Cowboys face off on Sunday at 4:00 pm ET. A win by Miami would clinch a playoff berth for the Dolphins.
With the head-to-head edge on the Dolphins, the Bills need to make up only one game in the standings in the next two weeks to turn Week 18's Bills-Dolphins game into a winner-take-all matchup for the division. Given who the Bills are facing, that's a distinct possibility. The Bills travel to LA to face the Justin-Herbert-less Chargers on Sunday and host the three-win Patriots in Buffalo the following week. A loss to either team would honestly be shocking right now as bad as those teams are and as good as the Bills are playing. In the unlikely event the Bills lose one of their last two games, the Dolphins would clinch the AFC East with just one win over their next two weeks.
As such, in reality, that puts the onus on the Dolphins to win both of their next two games. After the Dolphins face Dallas on Sunday, they travel the next week to the Baltimore Ravens, the current top seed in the AFC. That game could have major implications not just for the Dolphins' AFC East race, but also for the top seed in the AFC altogether.
Here are the AFC standings through 15 weeks:
1) Baltimore 11-3
2) Miami 10-4
3) Kansas City 9-5
4) Jacksonville 8-6
5) Cleveland 9-5
6) Cincinnati 8-6
7) Indianapolis 8-6
In the hunt: Houston 8-6, Buffalo 8-6, Pittsburgh 7-7, Denver 7-7
It will be a major challenge for the Dolphins to get in position to claim the top seed from Baltimore, as the Cowboys are among the best teams in football even after their loss to the Bills. Miami is currently only a 1.5-point favorite against Dallas.
However, if the Dolphins can find a way to win on Sunday, that would put them in position where a win over the Ravens would put Miami as the top seed in the AFC through Week 17 and clinch the AFC East in the process regardless of what Buffalo does.
One step at a time, but the stakes are very high over the next two weeks, and they could be sky high in Week 18 if they don't take care of business before then.
Can Tyreek Hill still reach 2000 receiving yards? Here’s what he has to do
The Miami Dolphins’ superstar has three games left to make history
