A funny thing happened on the way to this year’s NFL play-offs: two Florida teams suddenly became relevant again.



From the wreckage of a combined 3-7 start to the season – and the distinct possibility of an eighth straight year without post-season play in the Sunshine State – Miami and Tampa Bay have unexpectedly bucked a disturbing trend and given the region’s football fans reason to hope again.

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And, whisper it quietly, there is even reason to think both teams may be playing meaningful games in January.

It is no secret the state’s three pro teams have turned this into something approximating the Natural Florida Losers league in recent years. The Dolphins have not had a winning season since 2008, while the Buccaneers have been lose-worthy since 2007.

This pigskin dystopia had taken on the air of a sporting wasteland through seven long years of failure but, while Jacksonville remain firmly in the realm of footballing futility, their two in-state compatriots have other horizons in mind after six weeks that have completely turned their fortunes around.

From 1-4, Miami have surged into a play-off position on the back of six straight wins, edging out reigning champs Denver. Tampa Bay have recovered from a 2-3 start to win four of six and, while they sit just outside the NFC’s post-season party right now, their current form and remaining schedule both suggest good things are in the offing.

In both cases, night has given way to day in dramatic fashion. The Dolphins were in a complete tail-spin after the first five weeks, including defeats at the hands of the less-than-formidable Bengals and Titans and their lone victory coming from a meeting with woeful Cleveland, and then only thanks to an overtime end-zone rush by Jay Ajayi (more of him anon).

The Bucs had managed a defeat to the equally challenged Los Angeles Rams in their opening stanza, and they had conceded an average of almost 30 points per game, a damning statistic for a team that was supposed to list ‘swarming defense’ under its 2016 resume. Warm, maybe. Swarming? Not so much.

Yet from those depths, both teams climbed swiftly out of the backwaters to the genuine mainstream, and it is time for the league to take them seriously. With five games to go, there are still 12 teams in with a realistic play-off shout in the AFC and 13 in the NFC, but Miami and Tampa each have separate reasons to be more hopeful than the majority.

For the Dolphins, the fact London-born Ajayi conjured up their sole early winning moment was significant. Through their first 12 quarters of play, the running backs managed exactly one rushing score, and Ajayi had been a fringe player at best, despite being touted in pre-season as the starter.

From that moment, even though the transition wasn’t immediately obviously, Miami scored four of their next seven offensive touchdowns on the ground, and a team that had been leaning heavily on the often-fragile shoulders of quarterback Ryan Tannehill had new poise and purpose. No longer one-dimensional, Adam Gase’s men have marched almost literally through their current six-game stretch with a balanced offense featuring eight running scores and nine through the air.

They have added touchdowns from special teams and defense. They have survived a defensive slugfest with the Rams and 55-point shootouts with San Diego and San Francisco. Just as importantly, they have beaten divisional rivals Buffalo and New York and hold the AFC East tie-breaker over anyone not called New England.

Gase and Co may insist they aren’t looking any further than this week’s clash with Baltimore, but the fact is these Dolphins should be good enough to finish at least 3-2, and 7-4 Denver would then have to win four of their last five to get past them in the wild card race.

Over on Florida’s other coast, another first-year head coach, Dirk Koetter, is viewing things with equal equanimity, if for different reasons.

Tampa’s 6-5 record has them a half-game behind Washington for the second wild card and, like Miami, topping the division seems a gridiron bridge too far. But, with only one winning team on their final slate – the mighty Cowboys, on the road – there is plenty of scope to think the Bucs could finish 4-1 and punch their post-season ticket amid a mediocre NFC field. Even 3-2 could be enough, as long as one of those three is against divisional rivals New Orleans, who they still have to play twice.

Crucially for Koetter, the former offensive coordinator who was promoted to get the best out of first-round pick Jameis Winston, the team’s transformation has come not so much on the offensive as the defensive side of the ball. In their current three-game win streak, the team has given up a total of 32 points, including back-to-back ‘Ws’ over tough perennial contenders Kansas City and Seattle.

True, they have lost shootouts to high-powered Atlanta and Oakland, but the fact Winston kept them in both games, and has a 14-3 touchdown-to-interception ratio in his past seven games, suggests this is a team that has found its identity and is ready to ride it into the playoffs. For, when it comes to the knockout stages, as we all know – say it with me now – defense wins championships.

Defensive coordinator Mike Smith insisted his men had some “soul-searching” to do following the defeats to the Falcons and Raiders but, with a fully-fit Gerald McCoy at defensive tackle and young linebacker Kwon Alexander a tackling machine in the middle, that search seems to have reached a positive conclusion.

With running back Doug Martin back after injury and Mike Evans catching touchdowns for fun – after his brace against the Seahawks, he and Antonio Brown lead the league with 10 – this is a team ready to erase those long years of post-season emptiness and finally give Florida reason to switch on the TV after the regular season for a change. Who knows – they might even win a playoff game for the first time since 2002.