The Miami Dolphins have gotten out to a strong start to the 2023 season, as they’re now sporting a 2.5-game lead over the Buffalo Bills in the AFC East and carrying just a half-game deficit to the conference-leading Baltimore Ravens.
The franchise has caught some criticism, however, for its lack of success against teams with a winning record. Is there merit to those claims?
Miami Dolphins’ Record Against Winning Teams
The Dolphins sit at 9-3 on the year and are coming off three consecutive wins heading into their Monday Night Football showdown with the Tennessee Titans (4-8).
Looking back on its schedule thus far, Miami currently has one win over a team with a winning record through the first 12 weeks of the season. The Dolphins blew past the Denver Broncos with a record-setting 70-20 victory back in Week 3, and the Broncos have since rebounded to reach 7-6 after Sunday’s 24-7 win over the Los Angeles Chargers.
Miami’s three losses came at the hands of the Buffalo Bills (7-6), Philadelphia Eagles (10-3) and Kansas City Chiefs (8-5). All three were expected to be among the NFL’s contenders this year.
Philadelphia has lived up to the billing thus far as one of the league’s top teams. The Chiefs have hit a recent rough patch with three losses in their last four games, while the Bills have been very up and down this season and are 3-3 across their last six contests.
By contrast, the Dolphins’ nine wins this season have come against teams with a combined 37-79 record. They have defeated the 3-10 Patriots twice, the 1-12 Panthers once, and only have one win over a team that is currently better than 5-8 — the Broncos.
Those realities have sparked criticism of Miami and its inability to deliver in games against the league’s top teams. One such example came in an Associated Press article published after Miami’s loss to the Chiefs titled “Dolphins’ trend of struggling against the NFL‘s better teams was on display again.”
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Star quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who is amid a strong season, was asked by reporters about those criticisms after the game and responded with the following:
“All we can continue to do is work and not lose sight of where we want to go as a team,” Tagovailoa said. “We’ve got to continue to stick together and not deviate from that, regardless of what everyone outside is saying, and we’ve just got to put our head down and keep going.”
Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel was also asked about the narrative of Miami’s struggles against the league’s best teams following the game.
He pointed to teams with losing records being undersold, perhaps more than they should be.
“I know that NFL games, each and every one of them is tough,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said. “I think people undervalue poor records. It is hard to win in this league. To win in any right against any opponent is something not to take for granted. As long as you continue to get better, ultimately that narrative will subside.
“But that’s on us collectively from coaches and players alike to — if you want the narrative to change, change the narrative.”
Is the Criticism of the Dolphins Justified?
Although there is plenty of nuance to the subject, the short answer is that the criticism is certainly justifiable.
Miami has failed to get the job done against three of the league’s top teams while racking up wins against many squads that are well outside the playoff race or approaching that point. Although there is plenty of variation in NFL games that can make it tough to tell how much a single result truly means, the Dolphins’ track record thus far against top-tier competition is less than stellar.
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To be fair to Miami, though, it lost to Kansas City by just seven points and was neck-and-neck with the Eagles quite a bit in a 31-17 loss.
Additionally, the Dallas Cowboys (10-3) are another of the league’s top contenders that had yet to beat a team with a winning record before Sunday’s win over Philadelphia. Just because a team has yet to knock off one of the league’s contenders does not mean it is incapable of doing so on any given night.
The Dolphins will get several more chances to win big games over the remainder of the regular season, as they finish with a daunting three-game stretch against the Cowboys, the AFC-leading Ravens (10-3), and the Bills.
If Miami is again unable to win in those big moments, then criticisms of its struggles will become that much more justifiable, but the Dolphins will also have every opportunity to put that narrative to rest.
Time will tell whether they rise to the occasion, or crumble on the big stage.
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