If the Miami Dolphins are going to successfully finish their 2020 run to the postseason, they may very well seal the deal in the national spotlight. The Dolphins found out this morning that the NFL has flexed their Week 16 matchup with the Las Vegas Raiders into a Saturday night time slot at 8:15PM EST on the NFL Network. The Dolphins have been teased as a possible flex candidate for this football game for the past several weeks and with the AFC playoff picture shaping up to be one that sees both the Raiders and the Dolphins firmly in the mix, the NFL made the call today to push Miami’s game to Saturday night.
It’s an exciting development for the Dolphins, who have played just one game in a primetime slot this season — that came back in Week 3 with a road game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Miami won that game handily and will hope for similar success with their second primetime game of the season.
The Dolphins are currently sitting at 7-4 and if the NFL playoffs began today, they would serve as the AFC’s No. 6 seed. The Raiders entered the weekend in the driver’s seat for a playoff berth but were blown out by the upstart Atlanta Falcons by a whopping 43-6 decision, which helped push the Dolphins into an active role as a sitting playoff team.
The Dolphins can still add further distance this week between themselves and the cutoff of the playoff field as well — should the Pittsburgh Steelers defeat the Baltimore Ravens on Tuesday night, Miami would hold a game lead on both of the two teams most close to threatening for a postseason berth. That’s a great place to be, especially when considering one of those two teams will be hosting Miami on Christmas for a clash of playoff hopefuls.
The Dolphins have plenty of business to take care of between now and then, however. Miami will host three consecutive home games between now and then against the Cincinnati Bengals, Kansas City Chiefs and New England Patriots. If the Dolphins can go 2-1 over that stretch, they’ll likely be facing the potential of clinching a playoff berth in the primetime showdown with the Raiders.
Game on, Dolphins fans.