Dolphins Fans Week 14 Rooting Guide

The Miami Dolphins will have their bye this weekend but they still could get significant help in their quest to get back in the thick of the playoff picture

The red-hot Miami Dolphins will be taking a break this weekend when they have their bye, but their playoff hopes still could get a boost based on the outcome of several games in Week 14.

The Dolphins sit at 6-7 after their five-game winning streak and stand only a game and a half out of fifth place in the AFC standings, though there are five teams between them and seventh place (which provides the last playoff spot).

To that end, there are seven games this weekend involving AFC playoff contenders. games that Dolphins fans should be monitoring.

It started with the Thursday night game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Minnesota Vikings, which produced a positive result for the Dolphins with Minnesota's 36-28 victory, and ends with the showcase game late Sunday afternoon between the Buffalo Bills and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Here's the rundown (with odds from SISportsbook.com), broken down by significance for the Dolphins:

BIG GAMES FOR THE DOLPHINS

Pittsburgh at Minnesota, Thursday, 8:20 p.m. ET: The Vikings gave us a scare after jumping out to a 23-0 halftime lead, needing a pass breakup (or drop) in the end zone on the final play of the game to drop the Steelers to 6-6-1, just a half-game ahead of the Dolphins in the standings.

Baltimore (8-4) at Cleveland (6-6), Sunday, 1 p.m. ET: The Browns are favored by 2.5, but it would help the Dolphins for Baltimore to win and drop Cleveland into a tie with them at 6-7.

Las Vegas (6-6) at Kansas City (8-4), Sunday, 1 p.m. ET: The Chiefs are heavily favored (10) and it certainly would help the Dolphins' cause for them to keep winning and knocking off AFC playoff contenders like the Raiders.

Detroit (1-10-1) at Denver (6-6), Sunday, 4:05 p.m. ET: The Lions are coming off their first win of the season, but it might be a stretch to expect them to help out the Dolphins here and bring the Broncos to 6-7. After all, there's a reason Denver is favored by 9.5.

N.Y. Giants (5-7) at L.A. Chargers (7-5), Sunday, 4:05 p.m. ET: The Chargers truly are one of the most up-and-down teams in the NFL and they're coming off a big win at Cincinnati, so maybe they're due for a letdown here — except that former Bills fourth-string QB Jake Fromm is expect to start for the Giants and the Chargers are favored by 10.

San Francisco (6-6) at Cincinnati (7-5), Sunday, 4:25 p.m. ET: This is kind of a good news/bad news game for the Dolphins, who want the 49ers to win to give Cincinnati a  loss but also want the 49ers to lose to help the positioning of the San Francisco 2022 first-round pick that belongs to them.

Buffalo (7-5) at Tampa Bay (9-3), Sunday, 4:25 p.m. ET: It's going to be interesting to see how the Bills respond to that deflating Monday night loss against New England,. Even though a loss would drop them to only a game ahead of the Dolphins, remember that the Bills own the tiebreaker and have home games remaining against the Panthers, Falcons and Jets — making it hard to expect Buffalo to finish any worse than 10-7. It actually probably would be better for the Bills to keep winning because multiple-team tiebreakers for wild-card spots get settled within the division first and that would eliminate the Dolphins if they're tied with the Bills (whereas maybe they win the tiebreaker if it becomes a tie with only a team outside the AFC East).

LIKELY NOT IMPACTFUL FOR DOLPHINS

Jacksonville (2-10) at Tennessee (8-4), Sunday, 1 p.m. ET: The Titans have a two-game lead over the idle Colts in the AFC South and swept the season series, making it essentially a three-game lead. The bottom line is that it's highly likely Tennessee will win the division, which means what happens with them probably won't affect the Dolphins.