Don’t look now, but the Miami Dolphins are making some headway in the NFL’s power rankings. USA Today’s Touchdown Wire has released their updated power rankings for Week 8 of the NFL season and the Dolphins have been elevated from the basement — and they’re not 31st on the list either.
The Cincinnati Bengals, Miami’s main rival for the 1st-overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, have absorbed the claim of the cellar dwellar in Touchdown Wire’s power rankings, with the Dolphins now sitting all the way up in 29th place. The other teams to have fallen behind the Dolphins? The Washington Redskins, who beat Miami in Week 6 by a score of 17-16, and the Atlanta Falcons.
Here’s what Touchdown Wire had to say about the Dolphins’ current situation at 0-6.
Last week, the Dolphins were a two-point conversion away from beating the Redskins. On Sunday, they held a lead and scored a season-high 21 points against Buffalo’s impressive defense before things fell apart in the second half. Bills cornerback Tre’Davious White turned things around with an interception and a forced fumble, safety Micah Hyde returned an onside kick for a touchdown, and the star-crossed Dolphins were left with another loss. But in the grand scheme of things, perhaps we should start to believe head coach Brian Flores when he insists that the team isn’t tanking for anything. Miami is uniquely bereft of talent at the NFL level. But the Dolphins are playing hard, and they’re going to be more competitive on any given day than a few other sad stories in this league. – Doug Farrar, Touchdown Wire
Ultimately, the Dolphins held control of this past weekend’s game for the first 40 minutes of play — and without an untimely interception from Ryan Fitzpatrick on Buffalo’s 2-yard line, who knows what the end result of the game could have been. Instead, Miami has fallen to 0-6 and will hit the road against week to play the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday Night Football.
