I’ll tell you what, losing against the Super Bowl Champion Kansas City did not really stink. Losing and the injuries for the Miami Dolphins piling up stinks.

Listen, this team gave it they’re all on Sunday. No Myles Gaskin and Matt Breida due to COVID, Savon Ahmed still has not returned to practice. In the middle of the game, 3 of Miami’s pass-catchers went down in Devante Parker, Jakeem Grant, and Mike Gesicki. Gesicki’s injury from first sight looked like an injury that would at least end his regular season. Let’s not forget that Preston Williams is still on IR after injuring his ankle against the Arizona Cardinals. Let’s also not forget that before the season started, Allen Hurns and Albert Wilson opted out of the season due to COVID concerns.  Ereck Flowers might be a week away from returning after injuring his ankle on a running play against the Bengals on the offensive line.

On the defensive side of the ball, No Kyle Van Noy, Elandon Roberts. Davon Godchaux is still on IR, though he is progressing. Bobby McCain went out of the game in the middle of the 2nd half, and Mahomes was able to beat McCain’s backup in Clayton Fejedelem for a score. The defense did prove that they can make even an elite Quarterback uncomfortable and into making a mistake; Patrick Mahomes had plenty of them on Sunday, with 3 INT’s(one by Byron Jones, Eric Rowe, and Xavien Howard), a botched snap in the middle of the first Quarter that almost led to a fumble recovery by Andrew Van Ginkel, and a 30-yard sack for a loss by Jerome Baker, which led to flipping the field when Kansas City punted the ball away, resulting in a short field touchdown drive by Miami. The Dolphins were also able to recover a fumble by Kamu Grugier Hill after Byron Jones popped it out of Mecole Hardman on a 26-yard reception. Brian Flores was 2-0 against a Patrick Mahomes team before Sunday (beat him twice in 2018 while the defensive coordinator in New England), so this was not his first rodeo. Mahomes got the best of Flores’ defense this time around.

Tua Tagovailoa did have an interception in this game by Tyrann Mathieu after Jakeem Grant was unable to secure a catch deep downfield. That made Sunday’s turnover differential 4 to 1 in favor of the Dolphins. Most times, the way to beat an elite team is to win the turnover battle, but this Sunday was not the case; it was due to gifting Kansas City points. How? On the offensive end/special teams end, a missed field goal by Jason Sanders, and a sack in the end zone for a safety, that’s 5 points there alone. There was also a 67 punt return Touchdown for the chiefs at the beginning of the 3rd Quarter by Mecole Hardman; add an additional 7 to that the Kansas City gift points. You can’t beat a contender like the Chiefs if a team gift’s them points.

Credit to Miami, though, for limiting their penalties in this one. After a sloppy game against the Bengals where Miami was committing penalty after penalty, Miami cleaned it up on Sunday, where they only committed 3 penalties the entire game. Tony Romo of the CBS broadcasting team sung praise to the coaching staff on a punt return where Miami was close to blocking players in the back, and then the players backed off. That’s on coaching, teaching players to be disciplined, and those blocks in the backs are mental errors more than anything.

We knew going into this season that the WR corps needed an upgrade, even before the opt-outs and injuries, but the Dolphins need to work with what they got for the moment. Despite all these obstacles, Tua Tagovailoa could bring Miami back to a possession deficit at the end of the game, getting players like Lynn Bowden Jr. and Mack Hollins involved. I would expect Antonio Callaway to get more involved and Isaiah Ford to be elevated from the practice squad next week. Was it too little too late? Yes, but it is a sign that Miami can keep up with the powerhouse teams in the NFL. Lost by 3 to Buffalo, Lost by 8 to Seattle, and by 6 to Kansas City.

Yes, there are no moral victories in the NFL, but think about where this team was about 15-16 months ago, after being blown out 59-10 in Week 1 against the 2019 #1 seed in the AFC, the 14-2 Baltimore Ravens. Now in 2020, in Week 14, the Super Bowl Champions and the likely number 1 seed in the AFC, Miami was able to challenge them; despite being down big midway through the game, Miami was able to come back and make a game out of it, losing by 6. So 2019 Week 1, -49 point differential, to 2020 Week 14, a -6 point differential, in year 2 of a rebuild, an 8-5 record, and still having 2 1st round and second-round picks, Miami is still trending in the upward direction.

Miami did receive a little bit of help from other AFC teams, with the Indianapolis Colts beating the Las Vegas Raiders in the CBS late window. With the New England Patriots losing 24-3 on Thursday Night Football against the Rams, that means, in the next two weeks, Miami can officially eliminate both New England and Las Vegas in back-to-back weeks and possibly stamp their ticket into the playoffs. Miami does not have a head to head against the Baltimore Ravens. Still, the ESPN Playoff Machine has quite a few scenarios where if the Miami Dolphins and Baltimore Ravens finish with the same record, Miami will own that tiebreaker. In that scenario, the tiebreaker is conference record; Miami is 5-4, Baltimore is 5-5 but has one more out of conference game left against the New York Giants in Week 16, while Miami has AFC opponents the rest of the way.

The Pittsburgh Steelers did not do Miami any favors by losing to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday Night Football, meaning that the Bills are a win or a Dolphins loss away from being crowned Division Champions. However, Buffalo winning the division before Week 17 might be a blessing in disguise because there’s a chance that Buffalo could rest their starters. It’s tricky for the Bills; they own the head-to-head tiebreaker against the Steelers, but Tennessee owns the head-to-head against Buffalo, so maybe they will play for the number 2 seed, still a ways to go before that.

Here are how the scenarios for the Week 15 Matchups for this week. I will update the scenarios every week for your Miami Dolphins. It’s simple after Cleveland beat Baltimore on Monday Night Football, Miami wins out, they’re in. However, we will go one week at a time and break these down in the case that Miami drops a game in the next 3 Weeks because winning 3 in a row is far from easy.

Scenarios for Week 15, based on the ESPN Playoff Machine:

If: Miami Beats New England, Las Vegas beats the Chargers, Baltimore beats Jacksonville, Indianapolis beats Houston, and the Giants beat the Browns, Titans beat the Lions: Titans will be the 4th, Indy at 5, Miami at 6, Baltimore at 7. Cleveland would be outside looking in a 3-way tiebreaker, Miami would own the tiebreaker based on conference record, and Cleveland goes under Baltimore based on head-to-head sweep.

If: Miami Beats New England, Las Vegas beats the Chargers, Baltimore beats Jacksonville, Houston beats Indianapolis, and the Giants beat the Browns, Titans beat the Lions: Titans will be the 4th, Miami at 5, Baltimore at 6, Cleveland at 7. Indianapolis would be outside looking in a 4-way tie based on losing to the Ravens based on losing to them earlier this season.

If: Miami wins out and Buffalo loses out, Miami wins the division. Buffalo is one win away from a division crown, so Miami is unlikely to catch Buffalo.

Honestly, I can’t see a scenario where the Jaguars beat the Ravens, but one more conference loss for the Ravens, and Miami will have to win 2 of the next 3 to punch their ticket in the postseason. If their one loss comes against the NFC’s New York Giants in a few weeks, it dramatically changes tiebreaking scenarios, but I will break that down when we get there.

Though it would help if the Los Angeles Chargers beat the Las Vegas Raiders on Thursday Night Football this week, it’s not the end of the world if the Raiders win because of Miami having a head-to-head in Week 16. If Miami wins that game in week 16, they will eliminate the Raiders. It does not matter what happens on TNF; Miami still needs to go out there and beat them.

This loss against the Chiefs feels like a missed opportunity to really increase their chances of getting into the playoffs, but there are still 3 games winnable games left. New England is trending in the wrong direction, and the Raiders got blown out by the Atlanta Falcons, and they are one bad defensive play call away from losing to the winless New York Jets. These next two games are winnable, and Sunday’s close loss should not only give Miami confidence that they can go out against lesser teams and have that feeling that there is some unfinished business when they take the field in Week 15 against the New England Patriots at Hard Rock Stadium. The team will be ready to roll, Sunday was a Bump in the road, but the Miami Dolphins are still in control.

BE SURE TO FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK:  CLICK HERE 

BE SURE TO FOLLOW US ON TWITTER:  CLICK HERE

BE SURE TO FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM: CLICK HERE