My best friend lives in Florida and is an avid Miami Dolphins fan. He is not only a season ticket holder, but follows them on the road for away games.
When the season began he was in Foxboro to watch his beloved team butt heads with the longtime champions of the AFC East Division, the New England Patriots. After the Dolphins won the game, 17-16, he was not full of enthusiasm but rather acutely aware of the new Patriots quarterback.
“We were only on the field when the Patriots lost the game,” he reported from the airport before boarding his flight out of Boston. “And now, they’ve got a rookie that looks great to me and I’m going to have to watch that kid lead the Patriots to championships for the rest of my life.”
The rookie he was referring to is Mac Jones, the fifth quarterback chosen in the first round in the 2021 NFL draft. My friend has a good eye for talent, and Jones has developed into a sensation after that initial opening day setback and has the Patriots in first place in their division, a half-game ahead of the Buffalo Bills and three games better than the third place Dolphins.
After the Dolphins upset the Baltimore Ravens in a Thursday night game and followed that with a road win over the New York Jets, my buddy texted me a news clipping from a local Florida newspaper declaring that the Dolphins are now a legitimate Wild Card prospect.
I responded with a query on who the writer was, Rod Serling?
For those of you not familiar with Serling, he was the writer of a popular television show 60 years ago called the Twilight Zone. He had a number of memorable quotes, perhaps his most famous one; “There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man … a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination.”
After the Dolphins won that opener in Foxboro, they dropped seven games in a row and their high hopes before the season and with the opening day win was left in tatters. It seemed to require more than just an imagination to think the Dolphins were a legitimate playoff contender.
But, the back-to-back-to-back wins first over the Houston Texans, then the Ravens followed by a third straight victory against the Jets was followed by a fourth consecutive triumph last Sunday over the Carolina Panthers.
Can Miami turn prospects once left only in a person’s imagination to reality and crack the half-dozen teams playoff field out of the AFC?
Now, admittedly, they are playing out of the AFC East, home of two of the best teams in the conference, the Buffalo Bills and New England Patriots. So it would take more than a vivid imagination to think the Dolphins could catch either of those teams with five games left in the regular season.
But a Wild Card?
Miami’s four game winning streak has at least elevated them into the hunt and a victory this week against the New York Giants at home would send them into their bye week in serious contention.
It is a prospect that is moving out of Twilight Zone territory.
Qoxhi Picks: Miami Dolphins (-3) over New York Giants