The NFL expanded their postseason field to seven teams per conference in 2020 for the first time — and the Miami Dolphins obliged by winning 10 games and somehow finding themselves on the outside looking in. Only two other occasions in the NFL’s Wild Card era (since 1990) has a conference finished the season with eight teams equaling or surpassing 10 wins in a season. That includes the 2020 AFC Conference standings with the Miami Dolphins.
The other two instances of such hard luck came in the NFC in 2010 and 1991. The 2010 NFC standings saw both the New York Giants and Tampa Bay Buccaneers miss the postseason in a 6-team field with 10 wins apiece, while the 1991 NFC playoff field excluded 10-win teams in San Francisco and Philadelphia.
If the Dolphins are looking for any inspiration about the hard luck that closed their season, they’ve got quite the precedent set for them. Because each of the NFL’s last two occurrences of a No. 8 seed missing the playoffs with 10 wins has spawned a much more successful encore in the following season.
In 1992, San Francisco followed up their postseason miss from the year prior with a 14-2 campaign; the best mark in the league that season. The 49ers would go on to lose to the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC Championship game, but never the less it is hard to envision any Miami fans turning their nose up to the idea of a 14-win season and a conference championship game appearance. Ironically enough, the last time Miami reached the conference finals as that very same year in 1992.
In 2011, the near-miss New York Giants saw a slight record regression from the 2010 10-win team, finishing the regular season 9-7. But, more importantly, the New York Giants won the Super Bowl at the end of the year, defeating the New England Patriots, 21-17 courtesy of 12 unanswered points in the final 20 minutes of play.
Here’s hoping Miami rebounds from their heartbreak in 2020 in a fashion that somewhat resembles anything close to what we’ve seen each of the last two times an NFL team has been so unlucky. If they do, we’ll forget about Miami’s 2020 hard luck pretty darn quick.
