Dolphins have shot at playoffs
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — A month ago, this game between AFC East rivals might have had different implications.
Both the New York Jets (7-9) and Miami Dolphins (8-8) were above .500 entering December and on track for their first playoff appearances in some time. Miami was challenging Buffalo for the division’s top spot. New York was off to its best start in years.
Both teams have lost their past five games, however, and now only the Dolphins’ postseason hopes remain alive. The Jets were eliminated with last week’s loss to Seattle.
Miami can make the playoffs with a win over the Jets in Sunday’s regular-season finale, coupled with a New England loss to Buffalo.
“You’ve got to win, that’s all it comes down to,” Dolphins safety Jevon Holland said. “Whatever you got to do, however you got to prepare. You’ve got to win.”
The Dolphins have looked like two different teams this season. The first featured one of the NFL’s most unstoppable offenses, with Tua Tagovailoa, Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle powering Miami to an 8-3 record.
That offense has not sustained its production late in the season, and now Miami’s injury-plagued quarterback room adds another roadblock to its postseason chances.
Tagovailoa’s return from a concussion doesn’t seem imminent, and Teddy Bridgewater dislocated the pinkie on his throwing hand in last week’s loss to New England.
Rookie Skylar Thompson figures to be the guy the Jets’ fourth-ranked defense will face.
“A formula for successful offensive play is a quarterback that’s willing to do whatever it takes and a bunch of teammates that fully believe in what he has to offer,” Miami coach Mike McDaniel said. “And so I see both.”
The Jets are starting Joe Flacco at quarterback in place of an injured Mike White and can only play spoiler Sunday, but coach Robert Saleh is choosing to view it as “another championship game.”
“I know it’s technically not,” Saleh said, “but you have to keep your mindset that any time you have a chance to step on the field, you’ve got to step on the gas and do the absolute best you can.”
After early wins over Miami, Green Bay and Buffalo, the Jets have fallen to Minnesota, Jacksonville, Detroit, the Bills and Seattle.
Jets players mentioned that even if they’re not playing for the playoffs, they’re playing for something.
“You’ve got to go back to the reason you come to work,” said linebacker C.J. Mosley, “and that’s to win, play for you brothers and represent yourself.”