Breaking down the schedule
Ten things that stick out when it comes to the Dolphins’ 2009 regular season schedule:
1. Prime-time performers again
One of the rewards (or punishments, depending on your viewpoint) for having success is getting featured in prime time the following season. After being scheduled for only three prime-time appearances the previous g nin an four seasons combined, the M Dolphins are slated to play at on night four times in 2009. One of those is a Dec. 6 Sunday night home game against New England that could be switched to the afternoon because of flex scheduling, but the other three — Monday night games against Indianapolis and the Jets, and a Thursday night game at Carolina — are set.
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news is having to face the defending Super Bowl champions. Maybe the Dolphins will get a break and the Steelers already will have clinched their playoff seeding by that time. It will be the third time the Dolphins have closed a regular season against the defending Super Bowl champion; the other two were in 2005 and 2002, both at New England. The Dolphins won in 2005 when the Patriots rested their starters for most of the game because they were locked into the No. 2 seed in the AFC playoffs, but lost in overtime in 2002 to miss out of the playoffs.
close out the schedule in December, the Dolphins have to play on the road sometime — and that time will come during an eight-week stretch starting with that Nov. 1 game against the Jets. In those eight weeks, the Dolphins will play six games on the road. The Dolphins ended last season with four of five on the road, but a stretch of six of eight on the road has happened only twice before in franchise history, in 1975 and at the start of the 1970 season. The Dolphins won five of the six road games in 1975 after going 3-3 in 1970.
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7. Saying goodbye so soon
Another interesting twist in this year’s schedule is the Dolphins will play their last AFC East game on Dec. 6 against New England. The last four games are against Jacksonville, Tennessee, Houston and Pittsburgh. Not only will this be the first time the Dolphins won’t face a division opponent in any of their last three games, it will be the first time they won’t face one in their last four.
5. Home in October
There’ll be plenty of home cooking in October when the Dolphins do not play a single game on the road. Not counting the strike year of 1982 b when the entire month of au ch October was wiped from the tS schedule, it will mark the first time since December 1976 the Dolphins haven’t played a road game a particular month. And that year, it happened because the season ended on Dec. 11. The Dolphins also didn’t play a road game in November 1971 and December 1970. After their game at San Diego on Sept. 27, this year’s Dolphins won’t play on the road again until Nov. 1 against the Jets.
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2. Tough turnaround
It’s never easy to have to play on the road the weekend after a Monday night game, but the NFL made it doubly hard for the Dolphins in September. After playing host to Peyton Manning and the Colts on Monday, Sept. 21, the Dolphins have to turn around and travel to San Diego the following Sunday. It’s the kind of double play the NFL doesn’t impose on teams very often: Since 1990, 20 teams from the East Coast have traveled to the West Coast or vice versa following a Monday night, and their combined record in those games is 6-14. This will be the fourth time the Dolphins have had to do it since 1990 — in 2001 at San Francisco, in 1996 at Oakland, in 1991 at San Diego. The Dolphins lost all three of those games.
8. Houston, will we have another problem?
The Dec. 27 game against Houston hopefully will mark the end of what looks like a Texans jinx. The teams met the last three years, with the Dolphins losing by two, three and one point. For good measure, the only other meeting between the teams also ended in heartbreak for the Dolphins, with Houston stealing a 21-20 victory at Miami in the 2003 season opener.
6. Road warriors
With three home games in October and two to
3. Home for the holidays
The Dolphins get a rare treat this season with the opportunity to finish with two games at home, against Houston and Pittsburgh. The last time the Dolphins finished with two at home was in 2001, but that was only because a Week 2 home game against Buffalo was postponed because of 9/11. The last time the Dolphins entered a season with the last two games scheduled to be at home was 1987. The Dolphins also finished with two at home in 1983, 1978 and 1976, and they wrapped up their 1970 schedule with three at home.
9. Late starts
The Dolphins were 1 p.m. fixtures in 2008 when every one of their home games — and 13 of 16 overall — kicked off early in the afternoon. Things will be much different this fall. In addition to the prime-time home games against Indianapolis, the Jets and New England, the home games against Buffalo and New Orleans are scheduled for the late-afternoon slot. That’s five non-1 p.m. games already, plus the games at San Diego and the Thursday night game at Carolina.
Miami Dolphins 2009 Schedule
8/17 8/22 8/27 9/3 Preseason JACKSONVILLE (Mon.)........7:30 CAROLINA (Sat.) ................7:30 at Tampa Bay (Thu.) ..........8:00 at New Orleans (Thu.) ........8:00 Regular Season 9/13 at Atlanta ........................1:00 9/21 INDIANAPOLIS (Mon.) ........8:30 9/27 at San Diego....................4:15 10/4 BUFFALO ........................4:05 10/12 N.Y. JETS (Mon.) ................8:30 10/18 Open 10/25 NEW ORLEANS ................4:15 11/1 at N.Y. Jets ......................1:00 11/8 at New England ..............1:00 11/15 TAMPA BAY......................1:00 11/19 at Carolina (Thu.) ..............8:20 11/29 at Buffalo ......................1:00* 12/6 NEW ENGLAND ..............8:20* 12/13 at Jacksonville ..............1:00* 12/20 at Tennessee..................1:00* 12/27 HOUSTON ......................1:00* 1/3 PITTSBURGH ..................1:00* * – subject to flex scheduling
10. Dress rehearsal
This will mark the first time since the inaugural season of 1966 that the Dolphins will face every preseason opponent in the regular season.
4. Super test
Of course, the season finale against Pittsburgh is a case of good news, bad news. The good news is the locale, the bad
36 Dolphin Digest June/July 2009