The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

Kind of odd that both NE and Jets will be playing their second game against each other and 3rd division game an Mia hasn't played a single division game.

Game has impact for Mia. 

If you think Mia has a legit shot at catching NE and winning the division, then a Jets win could set up the following week for a shot a the division.

OTOH, if you are worried about the Jets edging Mia out of a wildcard spot a NE win would help stop it. 

Either way this ought be an exciting match up.   

I think it's pretty stupid the Dolphins are so far behind. Unfortunately for the Dolphins they will get New England in much better form than when they started.

The schedule is a complete mess this year. When they moved division games towards the end of the season (to have more meaningful football in the last few weeks), they didn't say they'd screw up everything else.

I'm in favor of fixing the season into blocks where you have divisional games and blocks where you don't (same for all teams). For example, you could start the season off by playing a full set of intra-division games, followed by all the inter-divisional stuff, and end the season with the last four divisional games. (The blocks would have to overlap slightly to compensate for bye-weeks). I understand that there are scheduling issues at some venues, but seriously, the NFL is by far the most popular sport and most of the games could be planned for years in advance.

I think the division game schedule in the AFCE is weird this year. 

The schedule I would like to see is - 4 Inter-conf, 6- intraconf, non division games, 6 division games. 

Even a 2-8 team would still have a shot if they got hot.  And being 9-1 would hardly be lock to win the division. 

Miami has 2 games against NEP and 2 games against NYJ yet to be played.

I think, regardless of the outcome of this game, Miami can still control their own fate by winning all 4 of those games.

Or course, that's a lot to ask.

Miami control's its own destiny for a first round bye.  Win the next 11 games and Dolphins get a bye, regardless of what the rest to the league does.  The only thing Mia doesn't control its own destiny on is homefield for AFCCG.

Here is the downside of early division games: the Jets are the only 3-3 team that does not control their own destiny.  In theory the Jets could win all remaining games and still miss the playoffs at 13-3. 

The reason why NYJ doesn't control their own destiny is because they lost two non-division games; one to TEN, who can beat them on tiebreakers.

NYJ is currently 1-1 in division games.  It's silly to blame a single Week 2 loss for your lack of control of your destiny.

I'm pretty sure that's mathematically impossible.

Actually, you're correct.  NYJ does control their own destiny for the playoffs.

If TEN wins out, they would win the AFC South and IND would necessarily have at least 4 losses, so NYJ would get the #6 seed at a minimum.

Patriots take a pretty big hit, losing Jerrod Mayo for the rest of the season...

http://espn.go.com/boston/nfl/story/_/id/9832858/jerod-mayo-new-england-patriots-rest-season-put-injured-reserve (http://espn.go.com/boston/nfl/story/_/id/9832858/jerod-mayo-new-england-patriots-rest-season-put-injured-reserve)

true.

But....

Jets win all their games.

Chargers win rest of their games.  KC and Den split the two games, win rest.  NE loses to Jets and Den, win the rest.

All are 13-3.

NE beats out Jets for Div on conf record.
Chargers win AFCW
KC, Den, Jets WC is determined based on SoV tie breaker or later which the Jets do not control. 

Likely? NO!
Mathematically possible, for the Jets to go 13-3 and miss the playoffs? YES!! 

Its big.  Not as bad as losing Wilfork, though. 

Doesn't matter. They'll plug someone in without skipping a beat. It's the Patriots we're talking about.

I've got a pretty decent picture of their plug inventory, and I think it will be a pretty big hit. Mayo is a tackling machine, and they don't have anyone behind him who is even close to that level of play.

I'm not saying the Patsies' season is gonna go South in a hurry, but I think their defense is going to take a noticeable hit.

This is one of the benefits of playing division games later in the schedule... seems like NE has been losing a player every week.  (Not including Danny "Mr. Glass" Amendola, who yo-yos on and off the gameday roster.)

Maybe Vollmer and/or Mankins will be injured by the Miami game.

^^ Or Gronkowski - again.