Miami Dolphins Home-Road Mythology
It really bugs me when I hear people call the Miami Dolphins a good road team and a bad home team. The Dolphins are 5-5 after getting shutout at home by the Bears on Thursday night 16-0. They’re now 1-4 at home but 4-1 on the road. That makes them a great road team and a bad home team, right? Wrong.
Myth: Because they’re 4-1 on the road, the Dolphins are a good road team.
Fact: The Dolphins’ easiest opponents happened to be road games. They’ve faced Buffalo, Minnesota, Cincinnati, Green Bay, and Baltimore on the road. The teams they beat have a combined record of 12-24 while Baltimore (their lone road loss) is 6-3. The one good road win they had was at Green Bay, and it was the first week after the Packers lost several players to injuries (including Clay Matthews who missed the game).
Myth: Because they’re 1-4 at home, the Dolphins are a bad home team.
Fact: The Dolphins have faced some of the best teams in the league at home. They lost to the Jets on a Sunday night game, the Patriots on a Monday night game, the Steelers on a bad call, and the Bears on Thursday night. Those teams are all at least 6-3 and have a combined record of 27-10. Even their only home win came against the 5-4 Titans.
The reality is Miami is a solid team in the middle of the league. They’re good enough to hang with the best teams in the league but rarely beat them. They’re good enough to beat the more inferior competition and not play down to their opponents. Unfortunately they’ve had a difficult schedule, getting matched up with six teams that are at least 6-3. Now that’s some bad luck.
