So the Dolphins beat the Panthers tonight to get their record up to 5-5 with 6 games remaining. Next week it’s the Bills, then the Pats. If the Dolphins win those two, they will win the division and make the playoffs for a second straight year (tell me that in week 3 of last year and I’d think you’re absolutely insane). To be fair, I wouldn’t mind if the Dolphins could win a little prettier. Tonight it was only assured after the last flailing pass of Jake OfTheMan fell to the ground as time expired. The Dolphins had a chance to put it away 45 seconds earlier when Tony Sparano decided to go for it on 4th and 3 at the 27 instead of kick a field goal.

Now I’ve read Gregg Easterbrook plenty, and I agree with his “You should go for it a lot more than conventional offenses do and practically never punt” strategy (to a point) but I think in the Dolphins’ situation tonight, they best play was to kick the 45 yard field goal, make it a 10 point game, and end the game that way. Sure, a Carolina block could tie it up, but up 7, you’re not going to lose the game, simply send it into overtime. A missed field goal gives Carolina 7 yards, but given the need to drive 75 yards, saving 7 yards isn’t that huge of a help (under 10% of the remaining field, I always was good at math). However, it worked out for the best even though the Dolphins didn’t get the first down.

That doesn’t mean that I avoided my weekly heart attack. Carolina drove down the field and was about 27 yards out with 6 seconds to go before OfTheMan threw a heave into the end zone that had no chance of being caught by a Panther as soon as it was released. The Dolphins will do their best to try and snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory, and a few times this year (Indy, New Orleans), they’ve succeeded.

In my quest to find an adequate viewing facility for the Dolphins game tonight, I spent about half of my afternoon trying to find a sports bar near my work that had High Definition TV, and a sports-like atmosphere that I could heckle my two co-worker Panther fans. I didn’t realize it was going to take me 15 phone calls. If you’re running a sports bar, why would you not have the most top of the line product out there? Why not just make a sports bar with a bunch of radios that let you listen to the game? You know why? Because nobody wants to enjoy football on a medium of technology when there’s a much better medium that’s easily available. I’m not asking for much, I have HD service in my house (and NFL network, could’ve just made it easy), and it’s not like there’s any shortage of TVs in many sports bars, but almost a dozen flat out said “no” when I asked “This may sound silly but do you guys have HDTVs?” another three failed to answer. Finally we were given a sports bar on a recommendation, but upon arrival, there was no game audio. *sigh*

In other news, the Coyotes took a game from the Wild last night and lost in OT to St. Louis tonight. A 3 point road trip, which I would call a success. The team really needs to succeed on the ice if it is going to remain in Phoenix for more than 3 years. I, unfortunately, don’t think that Glendale is a long term solution for the Coyotes franchise.

Apologies for the lag in between posts, I’ll do my best to get one out on Saturday as well.