The Miami Dolphins may still have a day before their Monday Night Football matchup against the Titans, but that doesn’t mean that their playoff position didn’t become more clear today.
A win tomorrow night is still a requirement, but it is fair to say that the Dolphins did get a little bit of breathing space tonight.
The Bills beating the Chiefs on a controversial (not really) call will push them a tiny bit closer to the Dolphins in the AFC East, but the real result of this game is that the Dolphins are now essentially in a two-team race for the top spot in the division with the Ravens.
Today’s results for the Chiefs does two things. First, it shows us that even Patrick Mahomes isn’t enough to make that team genuinely scary, although it would be silly to rule them out completely. Second, it creates a clear hierarchy in the AFC with the Ravens at 10-3 and the Dolphins at 9-3 with a chance to add a tenth win tomorrow.
Come the end of the Monday night game, there could easily be two teams at 10-3 with their next closest contenders (Kansas City, Cleveland, and Jacksonville) at 8-5.
Two games is a pretty big difference at this time of year, and while the Dolphins need to be careful about getting complacent with a difficult stretch coming up, it would put them in a great position to control their own destiny in the playoffs.
The other thing worth noting here is that the Bills did get a bit closer to the Dolphins given their win, but any confident Dolphins player or fan has to be comfortable with that contingency considering the Dolphins still have two easy games coming up and and opportunity to level the yearly series with the Bills.
The AFC playoff race was never going to be easy for Miami, but it sure does look like it is going their way right now.
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