Thurs. Nite Football - Bengals or Dolphins - who to root for?

[PATRIOTSFANINPA]

Not as easy as one might think,the obvious answer here to many might be for the division opponent to lose another and fade off into the bottom of the division thereby making it easier for NE to win the division early.

The Bengals are a top solid team worthy of obtaining a #1 or #2 seed and a very dangerous team to watch down the road and also they have a tiebreaker advantage with their win over NE weeks ago.

Do you want Cincy or Miami to win this game?

 

[Dufflebagz]

I'll be rooting for Miami.

I know there are some people, for whatever reason, who think we don't have much of a chance at a 1st round bye. I think our chances pretty good to be honest. One of KC or Denver will almost definitely have the 1st, or at the very least, 2nd seed. That leaves Indy and Cincy as our only real competition for the other bye. I know divisional games are always tough, but the AFC North takes it to a new level, I could see Cincy falling to 11-5 or 10-6. Indy worries me a little more though. Hopefully they drop one of their two games against the Titans, they play at Cincy, at KC, and Houston still has a very talented team and might be able to win at Indy.

While we have some tough games left also, a win this week will put us into a great position for the second half of the season. We have three tough games Coming off the bye and if we can even come out of that at 1-2, I think a 12-4 season isn't a longshot.

 

[varjao]

Obviously Miami.

 

[supafly]

I'll be rooting for Miami.

I know there are some people, for whatever reason, who think we don't have much of a chance at a 1st round bye. I think our chances pretty good to be honest. One of KC or Denver will almost definitely have the 1st, or at the very least, 2nd seed. That leaves Indy and Cincy as our only real competition for the other bye. I know divisional games are always tough, but the AFC North takes it to a new level, I could see Cincy falling to 11-5 or 10-6. Indy worries me a little more though. Hopefully they drop one of their two games against the Titans, they play at Cincy, at KC, and Houston still has a very talented team and might be able to win at Indy.

While we have some tough games left also, a win this week will put us into a great position for the second half of the season. We have three tough games Coming off the bye and if we can even come out of that at 1-2, I think a 12-4 season isn't a longshot.

I think we'll need a 12-4 season to have a shot at a first round bye with the #2 seed. Anything less than 12-4 probably won't get it done considering there will be one of KC/DEN, along with CIN, and IND as our major competition.

Beating PIT on Sunday to go to 7-2 would be huge, as we could realistically go 5-2 down the stretch in the last 7 games and still be 12-4 at the end. Losing to PIT would drop us to 6-3, and we'd likely need to go 6-1 over the last 7 which may be too tall of an order all things considered.

 

[SVN]

division first.especially when every pats game is a grind. bengals the one and only choice. seeding is irrelevant right now.

 

[james87654]

I will be rooting for the Dolphins. They're 3-4 and we have already beaten them once, while Cincy is 6-2 and we lost to them. If we can't beat out the Dolphins for the division then I feel like it won't matter anyway. I want that bye.

 

[YearbookCurfew]

I can't root for the Fins. Plus, the Bengals smacked around the evil Jets.

 

[patsfan-1982]

the bengales still have to play the ravens twice the browns steelers and indy they will loss 2 or 3 more games, im not rooting for anyone but I think the fish will win cincy is not the same team on the road

 

[PatsDeb]

I'd say root for Miami because we have the tie breaker with them (for now), and they are less likely to be there at the end of the year anyway. We need the Bengals to start losing!! Um...go Miami?! I think the Bengals are going to win anyway. Miami can't be feeling too good about how the last game ended and now they have to play a tough team on short rest.

 

[Froob]

division first.especially when every pats game is a grind. bengals the one and only choice. seeding is irrelevant right now.

I disagree, if we let the fins back in it and win the division then we have no shot at a title. Need to get that bye. By that reasoning, would you root for denver over buffalo or only rooting for the bengals because fins are 2 1/2 behind?

 

[nabwong]

Obviously the Buffalo Wild Wings guy and an overtime tie.

 

[Kontradiction]

The Dolphins are no threat to win the division, so I'll be rooting for them unfortunately. That said, the Bengals are going to beat them into oblivion. Miami reporters are reporting that the coaching staff has completely lost the team and there's a lot of finger pointing in the locker room. They had better have a casket ready for Tannehill as well. If he thought he was getting hit a lot last week, he hasn't seen anything yet with that Cincy pass rush.

 

[patsinthesnow]

Rooting for the Doofins, but it's close. If it was the JEST vs. Cinci it wouldn't be close.

A Bengals win does further demoralize our only viable threat for the AFC east though.

 

[Brady2Gronk]

The Bengals. They will rack up some losses when Dalton comes back down to earth, but I dont think that happens this week.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

miami
It's simple. We control our fate vs Miami while we can do nada regarding the Bengs. We already have advantage vs the Phins and we get to pay them again while the Cats have a potential tie breaker vs us. Therefore the rational choice is miami.

Unfortunately the Phins have about a 4% chance of winning. See Kontra post above.

 

[ausbacker]

Bengals. I don't enjoy rooting for divisional rivals at all.

 

[102 Pat]

I went back and forth on my pick and went with Bengals, I'll join the take care of the AFC East first crowd.

 

[dannydyn]

I'll be rooting for Miami. The dolphins will have plenty of other opportunities to lose, but the Bengals need to be stripped of their high seeding.

It's a simple question of who is posing more trouble for the Pats.... and right now, the Dolphins look like an afterthought, whereas the Bengals are a legit threat.

 

[Ring 6]

This is a no brainer.
If we need Miami to lose this one in order to win the division, we would be so bad we arebn't going anywhere.
It is very conceivable we could be strong SB contender but stuck in a 3 seed because Cincy went 14-2 or 13-3.

 

[50-yard-line]

I think the bye week is overrated - it's great because you only have to win two games, but...

I'd like to see the statistical breakdown of the winning % of teams coming off the bye week for the last few years. My bet is that it's gone way down because of the NEW PRACTICE RULES for teams on the bye.

They often look "soft" the following week.

I'd also like to see the % of Superbowl teams for the last few years who had the bye, and who didn't. I don't think it's that big a deal anymore.

Giants in '08
Packers in '11
Giants in '12
Ravens in '13