Dolphins 2008 Schedule Thoughts

As anticipated, the Miami Dolphins were awarded no primetime games in 2008, but a sliver of hope remains that if the Dolphins can get to around .500 on Nov 16th or after, and their opponent has playoff aspirations on the line, one of their seven final games may become a candidate to be moved to primetime due to schedule flexing rules. For some odd reason, other teams coming off of pathetic seasons in 2007 such as San Francisco ( 2games) the Jets, Baltimore, and Oakland were awarded primetime games.

Interesting note right off the bat shows the Dolphins will begin and end their regular season playing against the pathetic New York Jets. This will be the fifth year in the last seven where Miami ends their year on the road.A home game in week one and on the road in the week 17 finale. The bye week comes early this year in week four.

The Dolphins’ first-ever visit to Glendale’s University of Phoenix Stadium occurs on Sept 14th. In fact, it will be the first time they have faced the Cardinals in Arizona since October 20, 1996. That was a road game I had the good fortune of attending becuase I lived in Phoenix at the time and it was my first ever experience sitting in a game from a luxuary suite. Each of the past two meetings between these teams has taken place in South Florida.

Miam host San Diego, October 5. This will be the first matchup between these teams in South Florida since November 24, 2002, when the Dolphins emerged with a 30-3 victory. There have been two meetings since that time, one in Tempe, Ariz., and the most recent at Qualcomm Stadium (12/11/05). The Dolphins will be looking for their seventh straight win in this series, a streak which dates back to 1995. Lets hope its eight against the cocky Philip Rivers;a former QB from my alma mater NC State.

From October 19th through November 23rd, the Miami Dolphins will play five of six games at home. The bad news however is Miami will play 4 of their final 5 games on the road to end the year. The Dolphins will face back to back road games three times in 2008, with the final pair coming to end the season at Kansas City in week 16 and at the Jets in week 17.

Two of the Dolphins first three games will be against conference foes, week one against the Jets and week three at the Superbowl choking New England Patriots.

The Dolphins return to Houston for the third consecutive year this year on Oct 12th. The last two years these games in Houston have be decided by a field goal or less in the final minutes so I anticipate a respectable game against the Texans. The Dolphins lone victory last year came against the overhyped Baltimore Ravens and the Ravens will be looking for revenge when they return to the scene of the overtime loss the week following Houston on Oct 19th.

On December 14th the 49ers roll into town. This will be the first matchup between these clubs in South Florida since November 20, 1995, when the 49ers came away with a 44-20 victory. The two most recent meetings took place at Candlestick Park, including November 28, 2004, when the Dolphins recorded a 24-17 win.

The Dolphins and the Giants were the first teams to play a regular season game in London last year and this year Miami and The Bills travel to Toronto to play the leagues first regular season game in Canada on Dec 7th.

All eight of the Dolphins home games are slated to begin at 1pm ET, and there are only three road games that begin at 4pmEt on Sundays. So 13 of 16 games will begin at 1pm ET.

Being the idiot that I am, I predicted this team would win 8-9 games this year. My lesson was learned, and I will go into details game by game before the beginning of the year, but I am anticipating the 2008 Dolphins to win 5-6 games. Truthfully, I anticipate most of their games to be quite competitive. You have to assume the Patriots will sweep Miami, and although they are home games, I anticipate the Dolphins will lose to San Diego and Seattle. West coast teams traveling to the east coast usually play sluggish, so I am guessing the Dolphins will cover the spread at the very least on both occasions.

Games at Denver and especially Kansas City will prove challenging as they are both very unfriendly arenas for visiting teams. Outside of that, I think Miami has a shot to at least win 5-6 games. Parcells can work miracles you know.

2008 Primetime schedule for ESPN, NFLN, and NBC is posted to the Left hand side of this webpage.

WK DATE OPPONENT TIME (ET)
1 Sun, Sep 7 NY Jets 1:00 PM
2 Sun, Sep 14 at Arizona 4:15 PM
3 Sun, Sep 21 at New England 1:00 PM
5 Sun, Oct 5 San Diego 1:00 PM
6 Sun, Oct 12 at Houston 1:00 PM
7 Sun, Oct 19 Baltimore 1:00 PM
8 Sun, Oct 26 Buffalo 1:00 PM
9 Sun, Nov 2 at Denver 4:05 PM
10 Sun, Nov 9 Seattle 1:00 PM
11 Sun, Nov 16 Oakland 1:00 PM
12 Sun, Nov 23 New England 1:00 PM
13 Sun, Nov 30 at St. Louis 1:00 PM
14 Sun, Dec 7 at Buffalo 4:05 PM
15 Sun, Dec 14 San Francisco 1:00 PM
16 Sun, Dec 21 at Kansas City 1:00 PM
17 Sun, Dec 28 at NY Jets 1:00 PM