The Dolphins Got Little Help On Sunday

The Dolphins Got Little Help On Sunday

Heading into Monday Night’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Dolphins will technically be playing for their playoff lives. I say technically because they suffered bad break after bad break yesterday. Coming into the day, they needed the New England Patriots, Arizona Cardinals, Kansas City Chiefs, and Seattle Seahawks to win. Let’s see how those teams fared. 

The New England Patriots faced off against the Buffalo Bills; New England had their own reasons for wanting to win yesterday, outside of just wanting to sweep the Bills. Had the Patriots emerged victorious, they would have clinched the AFC East. The game started off great for New England, going up 21-0 and leading 24-7 at halftime. In the second half, they came completely undone, allowing 28 points and only scoring 7 of their own. When the final whistle blew, the Bills kept their hopes for another AFC East crown alive with a 35-31 final. 

The Arizona Cardinals played the Houston Texans and never really looked like they had any chance to win. The Texans jumped all over the Cardinals early and led 23-7 at the break. The second half was closer, with the Texans only scoring 17 points to Arizona’s 13, but the first half cushion enabled Houston to walk away with a 40-20 win. The Texans improve to 9-5, still behind the 10-4 Jacksonville Jaguars for the division, but good enough to currently be the 7th seed. 

In one of the more shocking games of the day, no pun intended, the Los Angeles Chargers went into Arrowhead Stadium and won a close match 16-13. This puts the 10-4 Chargers at the 5th seed, given that the Denver Broncos are leading the AFC West with a 12-2 record. It also eliminated the Chiefs from playoff contention and, more consequentially, saw quarterback Patrick Mahomes tear his ACL. An absolute disaster of a game for Kansas City and Miami alike. 

There was one contest that went the Dolphins’ way. The Indianapolis Colts started 44-year-old, formerly retired QB Philip Rivers, who visited the Seattle Seahawks. Rivers led a field goal drive to put the Colts ahead 16-15 with 44 seconds left before Sam Darnold orchestrated a field goal drive of his own to give Seattle the 18-16 win. This was too close for comfort, but at least the Dolphins didn’t suffer the indignity of being eliminated by a man who was recently sitting on his couch.  

The Miami Dolphins must win tonight to have any chance. If they do win, they will have a 1.9% chance of making the postseason, according to PFSN’s NFL Playoff Predictor. Until we know how tonight’s game is going to play out, there’s really no need to go over the long list of things Miami needs to do in order to qualify. The odds are bleak but at least they exist, I very much doubt anyone would have had the Dolphins outlasting the Chiefs coming into the season if you had told me that I would have been fantasizing about watching Miami’s first playoff win in 25 years.

Instead, I’m just desperately hoping they will have the opportunity to get that elusive win.

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