The Miami Dolphins are 0-7 on the season, a record that indicates they're one of the worst teams in the league. That's probably accurate because a winless team coming up on the halfway point has to be making a lot of mistakes.
But it's not like the Dolphins are getting blown out every week.
They've lost by a combined six points in their last two games, including an overtime loss to the Denver Broncos. They've been leading at some point in all but one of their games.
They're bad, yes, but it's not like they can't keep things close. That's what Chiefs head coach Todd Haley recognized about the Dolphins when asked about the team's misfortunes in his Thursday press conference (via KCChiefs.com).
"I think without a doubt," Haley said of the Dolphins being better than their record. "Paying attention to just the record with this team would be very dangerous and you can pay for it dearly from our perspective.
"This is a well coached team, a team that like you said has been in close games but teams that they've played [are] pretty strong teams. They've been in every game, really the only score that wasn't real close, the Jets game up at New York on national television, a sloppy game on both sides of the ball, but everybody has those. That game was still within reach pretty deep into the second half.
"The tape shows this team's ability and they are a very dangerous team with a lot of good players on both sides of the ball and special teams. Like I said, statistically, they're an enigma because they're up near the top portion in a lot of statistics, better than us in a lot. We gotta be ready to play our best game."
Haley always says the upcoming opponent is going to be difficult and while that's usually true considering there are so few gimmes in the NFL I don't think he's totally blowing smoke when talking about the Dolphins. They have major issues but it's not like the team is devoid of talent. They can rush the ball decently (12th in the NFL) and stop the run a little bit (13th in the NFL) so they're not a walk-over.
The Chiefs definitely should win this game. There's no doubt about that. But the Dolphins will probably play the Chiefs close enough to make this a one-score game. That's my feeling, at least.