Dolphins Paint Themselves into Win-Out Corner for Playoffs

The Miami Dolphins are not without playoff hopes, but they have a very intricate yet simple route to take if they want to end their five-year playoff drought.

Their only choice is to win out the remainder of the season. 

The Dolphins fell to 7-6 following a 28-13 loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, effectively eliminating them from a deep playoff race.

The Ravens (8-5), Pittsburgh Steelers (8-5), Cleveland Browns (7-6), Cincinnati Bengals (8-4-1), San Diego Chargers (8-5), Kansas City Chiefs (7-6) and Buffalo Bills (7-6) all sport similar records. Those seven teams are competing for three playoff spots (with the AFC North all in the mix for the division title and the wild card). 

Team	Division	Record
San Diego Chargers	AFC West	8-4
Cincinnati Bengals	AFC North	8-4-1
Pittsburgh Steelers	AFC North	8-5
Baltimore Ravens	AFC North	8-5
Kansas City Chiefs	AFC West	7-6
Cleveland Browns	AFC North	7-6
Miami Dolphins	AFC East	7-6
Buffalo Bills	AFC East	7-5

Barring a huge letdown, the magic number for a wild-card spot appears to be 10 wins. The Dolphins' only prayer of getting there is to win their final three games.

The Dolphins couldn't afford to lose down the stretch, particularly at home, but they couldn't have picked a much worse opponent to lose to than the Ravens. That loss means the only team they hold a head-to-head tiebreaker over is the Chargers.

The game was theirs for the taking in the early stages, with the Dolphins sporting a 10-0 lead after 15 minutes of play, but they let things slip away as the game wore on.

Dolphins defense	First half	Second half
Points allowed	7	21
Yards allowed	193	254
Third down conversions	2/6 (33.3%)	3/6 (50%)
Rushing yards allowed	61	122
Passing yards allowed	132	132

The defense started off as stout as Guinness and finished as weak as Bud Light. The offense started out deadly efficient and finished dreadfully erratic. The offensive line looked like its old—2013—self, and the defense looked nothing like the elite unit it appeared to be early in the season.

Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco shredded the Dolphins secondary, hitting on 25 of his 33 passes (75.8 percent) for 269 yards (8.2 yards per attempt), two touchdowns, one interception and a 106.8 passer rating. The Dolphins defense only sacked Flacco one time.

Their defensive front was pushed around quite a bit in the running game, as well, and allowed more than 180 rushing yards for the third straight game.

Quarterback Ryan Tannehill has been completing his passes at a ridiculous rate over the past six weeks, but he is also not creating any big plays. In the past six games, Tannehill has completed 71.9 percent of his passes but has completed only 14 passes that gained 20 yards or more. That was the case once again on Sunday, with Tannehill completing 69.7 percent of his throws while the Dolphins had only two pass plays of 20 yards or more.

No offense can be successful over time without an ability to create big plays, which have been notably absent from the Dolphins offense for at least the past three years.

But as usual, the blame doesn't fall on one player, or even just on the players themselves. 

There appears to be a rift growing between the players and the coaches, as evidenced by an outburst from defensive tackle Jared Odrick directed at head coach Joe Philbin.

The coach didn't make much of it, but he did acknowledge the situation after the game, saying, via Andrew Abramson of the Palm Beach Post, "It was an emotional game. We had a discussion. It gets fiery out there."

Philbin is now 22-23 in his three years as a head coach, but he may need to make it to 25-23 if he is going to keep his job for a fourth year. Barring that outcome, this will be his third year on the job and his third year out of the playoffs. This will also be the second year in which the Dolphins had a shot at the playoffs with four games to go and failed to capitalize. 

The Dolphins needed three wins in their final four games even before Sunday's disappointing loss, but now their margin for error has dwindled even further.

Wins over the New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings should come easily, but they can't think about those games yet. The Dolphins will need to pull off an upset in a road trip to Gillette Stadium to face the New England Patriots in Week 15 in order to have a shot at 10 wins.

If the Dolphins are going to pull it off, they will have truly earned it. But they may also need some help along the way.