MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — With all due respect to Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel — who instructed his players to tell any media who asks them this week to look ahead to respectfully “eff off” — we’re going to look ahead.
The Dolphins have a monumental game against the Dallas Cowboys this week. They have another monumental game next week against the Baltimore Ravens.
But if the Dolphins happen to lose one of those games — which is the likeliest of the three scenarios — then it very likely sets up the most monumental game played at Hard Rock Stadium in a generation.
Assuming the Buffalo Bills beat the woeful Chargers and Patriots the next two weeks, and the Dolphins have one or two slip-ups against the Cowboys and Ravens, then Bills-Dolphins in Week 18 is for the AFC East title.
That game, in the words of ESPN’s Damien Woody, would be the Dolphins’ “worst nightmare.” Woody, appearing on Get Up Thursday, went on to call the Dolphins a “fun” team but the Bills a “scary one.”
That’s all a nice way to suggest that the Bills, and not the Dolphins, are the division’s true Super Bowl contender — even though Miami owns a two-game lead over Buffalo with three games to play.
“Did I stutter?” Woody wrote on the social media platform formerly known as X when an apoplectic Dolphins fan pushed back.
Did I stutter?
— Damien Woody (@damienwoody) December 21, 2023
Miami Dolphins Will Have Doubters — Until They Prove Them Wrong
Woody’s not alone in his skepticism of this version of the Dolphins. While they have the third-most wins in all of football, many in the national media view the Dolphins as a bit fraudulent.
The teams they’ve beaten this year have a combined winning percentage of .321 — by far the worst among the 14 teams that would make up the postseason field if the season ended today.
And one of their four losses was to the Bills — who blew the Dolphins’ doors off, 48-20, in Week 4.
“That’s going to be the narrative at the end of the day,” Dolphins linebacker Bradley Chubb said Wednesday.
“All we can control is how we go out there and handle it. [The Cowboys] are a great team that has won a lot of games and done a lot of good things and put up a lot of points.
“On the defensive side of the ball, we pride ourselves on not giving up points, so it’s going to be a battle on that end. They have a great defense as well, and we feel like we’ve got a great offense, as well. It’s going to be a battle.
“Like I said, people feel like we haven’t beaten a team, but like I said, it’s a chance to go out there and prove it. We’ve got to go out there and make sure we handle business.”
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