(Sports Network) - If you believe in that old Bill Parcells chestnut that says you are what your record says you are, well, then the Miami Dolphins are a 7-5 football team in the thick of the AFC Playoff race.

Parcells, in his first year pulling the puppet strings as Executive Vice President for Football Operations in Miami, would definitely not want to hear you casting aspersions upon how the Dolphins have compiled that record.

No, Miami's recent victories over the hapless likes of the Seahawks (21-19), Raiders (15-14), and Rams (16-12) have not been things of beauty, and the 48-28 home loss to the only quality team the Fins have faced over the past month - the similarly 7-5 Patriots - might inspire some serious doubt about the team's potential staying power in the postseason hunt.

But the point is that Miami has continued to win enough to remain relevant in both the division and Wild Card races, and for a team that won only once in all of 2007, that is something about which to truly marvel.

In addition, the Dolphins have a concluding four-game schedule that looks eminently navigable, beginning with a trip to Toronto this Sunday to face the listing Buffalo Bills (6-6), losers of five of their last six games.

Get over that hurdle, and Tony Sparano's squad gets winnable fare against the likes of the 49ers (4-8) and Chiefs (2-10), prior to what could be a monumental season finale against Brett Favre and the Jekyll-and-Hyde Jets (8-4) at the Meadowlands.

In other words, Miami's first playoff berth since 2001 is right in front of a team just one season removed from an '08 Lions-styled nightmare, whether the Dolphins "look" like a playoff team or not.

For his part, Sparano has not placed a moratorium on playoff talk, nor does he expect his team to remain silent on that front.

"I think our guys know, they can count," said Sparano of the scoreboard- watching. "You're trying to tell them not to look ahead, you're trying to tell them not to do all of those things, but you're at a point in the schedule right now where not looking ahead is kind of a ridiculous statement. There's no question that when you get off of the plane [Sunday] night and you know that a couple teams in your division lost, you know that, you're well aware of it. It's something that you're keeping a finger on."

That said, Sparano knows that taking more of a passing glance at anything other than the Bills could have a detrimental effect on the opportunity the team has carved out for itself.

"When you're in those kind of situations, the best thing that I know how to do is to put your head down, eliminate the distractions and to think about the 'now' and what's in front of you right now. And what's in front of you right now is the opportunity to play another division opponent and maybe if you have success, put somebody behind you. If you don't, then you just put yourself right back in the middle of this whole deal again. Right now, our concern has to be to take care of this next game against Buffalo."

BILLS: Now 6-6 and alone in last place in the AFC East, the Bills are faced with the very real prospect of becoming the first team since the 2003 Mike Tice-coached Vikings to start a season 4-0 and go on to miss the playoffs.

Any notion of Buffalo turning its season around and achieving some momentum heading into an important game with Miami this week was thrown out the window when the 49ers came to Ralph Wilson Stadium and dealt Dick Jauron's club a painful 10-3 setback on Sunday.

Two missed field goals by Rian Lindell, an inability to coax more than one turnover from the most miscue-prone team in the NFL, and - perhaps most damning - a continued lack of offensive movement against a Niners club that ranks last in several league defensive categories, were all elements that helped move Buffalo to the back of the divisional pack.

Quarterback Trent Edwards (10-of-21 passing, 112 yards) started the game but didn't finish it due to a groin injury, and as of Monday, it was up in the air whether the second-year-pro would be able to go against the Fins in Toronto this week.

"He's sore," said Jauron at his Monday press conference. "They'll do some tests and whatever they do in the training room. We'll have more information, but I don't know how much significant information we will have unless the soreness goes away. He's very sore today....I would label him day-to-day."

If Edwards is unavailable, J.P. Losman, who has played poorly in limited opportunities this year, would receive his first start of the season.

"If Trent was injured and could practice partially, the second quarterback, which is J. P., would get more reps," Jauron said of this week's practice approach. "If Trent were completely healthy, he would step in and take his usual reps. He's very sore today."

JETS: The Jets received a lot of positive press after their back-to-back wins over the Patriots and Titans, victories that placed Gang Green on seemingly every pundit's short list of the top teams in the AFC.

On Sunday, in a 34-17 loss to the Broncos, the Jets played like a team that had spent the week reading their own press clippings instead of preparing for their next opponent.

Denver quarterback Jay Cutler looked to be running a flag-football-styled offense for much of the day, completing 27-of-43 passes for 257 yards with a pair of touchdowns and one interception. The Broncos' tight ends were apparently not part of the Jets scouting report, as Tony Scheffler and Daniel Graham combined for 13 catches and 149 yards.

Meanwhile, a Jets run defense that had been so good against the Titans one week prior made a star out of a rookie and converted fullback named Peyton Hillis, who finished with 22 carries for 129 yards and a touchdown.

The New York attack also played its poorest game in some time, getting away from running the football with the ultra-effective Thomas Jones (16 carries, 138 yards, 2 TD) after falling behind early, thus allowing the Broncos to sit back and guard against the big play from Brett Favre (23-of-43 passing, 247 yards, 1 INT) and the Jets passing game. After halftime, the Jets scored just three points.

The defeat was costly in terms of the team's position in both the AFC East and Wild Card races, as the team squandered an opportunity to open up a two-game lead on Miami and New England while keeping pace with Pittsburgh (9-3) for the No. 2 seed in the AFC.

When the Jets travel to San Francisco (4-8) to face an improving 49ers team on Sunday, they'll be looking to reclaim their previous mojo.

"To me, it's about consistency," said head coach Eric Mangini on Monday. "It's about the way that we do things, the way that we approach practice, the way that we approach our preparation and the way that we approach each opponent, each game. I thought that we've done a really, really good job with that. To me, you set the bar, you meet the bar and you exceed the bar. Each game in the season you should be getting better at that. You're either gaining an edge, a significant edge, or you're letting that gap decline, or someone is getting an edge on you."

PATRIOTS: Staying on the topic of recent media darlings who saw their reputations take a hit in Week 13, we have Patriots quarterback Matt Cassel.

After becoming just the fifth quarterback since the AFL-NFL merger to post back-to-back 400-yard games in strong performances against the Jets and Dolphins, Cassel's potential status as a free agent in 2009, and a much- coveted starter for another team beginning with next year, was a hot topic of conversation around the NFL water cooler.

Then Cassel played against the Steelers and their top-rated defense, and that talk seems to have subsided, at least for a week.

The quarterback struggled mightily in the telling 33-10 home loss to Pittsburgh, completing just 19-of-39 passes for 169 yards with no touchdown passes, four turnovers (two INT, two fumbles) and five sacks absorbed on the evening.

While Cassel's stat line would have been better had the conditions been better at Gillette Stadium (a cold rain fell for most of the game), and had the team not been victimized by Randy Moss' dropped passes (including two in the end zone) and a devastating hit by Ryan Clark that knocked Wes Welker out of the contest, there is no doubt that Cassel looked little like the confident, first-rate signal-caller he had been earlier in the month of November.

Following the loss, Cassel admitted he wouldn't be listening to much of the media buzz about his play that had likely been impossible to escape for the previous two weeks.

"To be completely honest, I am not going to read anything you guys [media] write," remarked Cassel. "We have to go out as a team and get better. That is what we have to do. It is not about Matt Cassel. This is about 11 guys on offense trying to get better and a team trying to get better. This isn't about one guy's performance or Matt Cassel and his stock rising or dropping. I could care less about that. I care about winning ball games. Tonight we lost, so obviously I am upset."