It’s an interesting group of on-the-bubble 7-5 contenders. In Baltimore, San Francisco and Pittsburgh, there are three recent Super Bowl teams with first-hand knowledge of what it’s like to make a meaningful late-season run. And then there are four other clubs that haven’t tasted either the playoffs or a postseason victory in forever: Buffalo, Cleveland, Miami and Kansas City. Of that bunch, the
Dolphins were the last team to win a playoff game, and that came in 2000.
Four weeks from now, who might emerge from this pack to make some playoff noise in January? Here’s our assessment of the seven striving 7-5’s, and who might be better or worse off after the close of Week 17:
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Miami -- Current position: AFC’s 6th seed -- The Dolphins’ gritty 16-13 comeback road win against the feeble
Jets on Monday night was literally a season-saver. Miami would have been toast at 6-6, but the victory vaulted it all the way from the 11th seed in the AFC to the lucky No. 6 spot, where, thanks to the intricacies of the NFL’s three-way tiebreaker rules, they somehow replaced a
Chiefs team that soundly beat the Dolphins in South Florida in Week 3. Go figure.
The good news is Miami is starting to break new ground, with five wins in its past seven games, and its first winning mark at the start of December since 2008, when the Dolphins were also 7-5 en route to an 11-5, AFC East-winning season -- their most recent playoff trip. The bad news is, with a home game against fellow 7-5 Baltimore on tap this week, then a trip to top-seeded New England in Week 15, the Dolphins haven’t accomplished anything yet. If they can at least split their next two games, then beat both the
Vikings (5-7) and Jets (2-10) at home in Weeks 16-17, Miami should be alive in January. Then again, losing to inferior opponents in December is a trend with which Dolphins fans are familiar.
