Is the Jets a must win game?

[mecadonzilla]

MUST WIN means literally, you MUST WIN or your season is devastated.  There is no other definition.  Period. 
If it didn't mean this, another term would be used instead. 

I guarantee Sporano and the rest of the coaching staff isn't calling this game a MUST anything.  You can't blow your load on absolute terms by week 3 or your team will A) pack it in if they lost because you told them the game was a MUST and they just blew it or B) your team will be psychologically worn out because you've been labeling games as MUSTS all season long.

Fans have a bad habit of labeling games as MUSTS that really aren't.  I promise neither the Dolphins nor the Jets see the first of their match ups this way.  Absolute terms should be saved for when they are necessary, otherwise they lose their meaning.

[Dave Gray]

I don't stand by the literal definition of must win.

In a 7 game series, if you're down 0-2, is game 3 not a must win?  Of course, it's still possible to win the series, but in my book, that's a quintessential must win.

[BigDaddyFin]

Every game in the NFL is a must win game unless it's week 17 and you have home field wrapped up a couple weeks early. 

You want to beat the Jets and Patriots at home.  The last game of the year is in NE.  We're at the Jets late too.  Two good football teams on the road, late in the year and anything can happen. 

They're division opponents.  You want to beat them up because of the tiebreaker you may need later. 

[Dave Gray]

Here's my thinking (and I might be wrong, of course):

I don't think we're as good as we think we are.

We were supposed to beat the Bills, but the game was closer than it should've been.
We were supposed to lose to the Vikings, but that win (as great as it was) may be more telling about the Vikings, than about us.

I also think that I was surprised by the Jets in week 2, and it looks like they're going to be contenders in the AFC East.  Because of their recent misfortune, I think that if you're planning on winning your division, that this game is one that you need to win.  If we can't win at home, when they're short-handed, then we can't expect to take them on full-strength on the road.

I don't think that makes it a must win, because there is room to catch-up later.  ...but we need to win this game if we're going to be the kind of team that's going to make a playoff run.

[Pappy13]

I don't stand by the literal definition of must win.

In a 7 game series, if you're down 0-2, is game 3 not a must win?  Of course, it's still possible to win the series, but in my book, that's a quintessential must win.

Yes it IS a must win, but that's because the odds of coming back from 0-3 in a 7 game series are astronomical.

You don't even have to "come back" from a 2-1 record.  You can't compare the 2.

[Pappy13]

I don't think that makes it a must win, because there is room to catch-up later.  ...but we need to win this game if we're going to be the kind of team that's going to make a playoff run.

Exactly.  It's a "need to win" game, but it's not a "must win" game.

[masterfins]

I can't believe we're arguing this.  This is pretty simple, and I'm stunned by people's reactions.  It reminds me of the great Inigo Montoya line from the Princess Bride, "You keep using that word.  I do not think it means what you think it means."

A "must win" implies that failure is not an option.  Hence, it is a MUST.  A loss is certainly not optimal, but not a season destroyer...especially since there will be another game against this team in December.  That game will be more of a "must win" in all likelihood.  The Fins could lose this and continue on and win the rest of their games.  Would this game still have been a MUST then?  The notion is ridiculous.  There aren't many teams facing anything close to a MUST WIN situation in week 3 and none of them are 2-0.  

It would be an important win for sure, perhaps even vital, but not a must.  Maybe we're arguing semantics here, but by any stretch of the imagination this is not a MUST anything in week 3 for the Dolphins.

Amen

[masterfins]

every game is a must win. take it a game at a time.

If this is the case then why even ask, or respond, to the question?

[Pappy13]

Tell that to the 2008 Pats who won 11 games and didn't make the playoffs. Their Week 3 loss at home to Miami is what cost them the tiebreaker and cost them the division and a home playoff game.

So the other 4 games they lost that year didn't matter?  If they would have won all of them, then they still wouldn't have made the playoffs?  I doubt that.