Miami Dolphins Still in Running for Playoff Spot

I tend to follow the National Football League...sometimes I wonder why with some of the controversy surrounding the sport in recent years.  But it's been a solid tradition for me since 1968, when I began rooting for my then-hometown team, the Miami Dolphins, in their third season of existence.  Since then I've ridden the roller-coaster of great-to-awful seasons this franchise has produced including their undefeated 1972 season and that awful year in 2007 when they went 1-15.  Currently, under third-year head coach Brian Flores after a near-playoff surprise 10-6 season in 2020, this year they got off to a horrible start at 1-7, culminating in a humiliating loss to lowly Jacksonville in a game played in London, England.  No, I don't know either why the NFL keeps staging games in a country where virtually nobody plays the game, much less demonstrating any degree of interest in watching it.  That said, the Dolphins under this inspiring coach never said die and has now won five games in a row to bring their regular season record to 6-7...and back into the playoff discussion.  This Sunday they play at home against their divisional rival New York and should beat the last-place Jets.  If they accomplish this they will have already merited special mention for coming back from so far to a .500 record.  Now I'm more keenly interested in how teams in the AFC with slightly better records in the Dolphins fare, creating the unusual situation where I'm pulling for hated New England to beat the Indianapolis Colts in their upcoming contest Sunday night...the Patriots are already too far ahead of Miami in the standings with just four games to go in the new 17-game regular season and the Colts sport a 7-6 record, making them one of the teams the Dolphins will need to hurdle over to get to the playoffs.  Of course, should Miami fail against the Jets then, oh well, that's how it goes sometimes.  But I've been impressed with this team coming together both on defense and offense, the latter highlighted by the marked improvement of their second-year quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.  I'm not one of those sports fans who expect their team to win the championship every year or it's all a disaster...just get me to this point in the season and if they're still in the hunt, that's all I ask for.  Go Dolphins!