On the day after the most appropriate tune emanating out of Music City to describe the Dolphins' playoff hopes would've been "Taps," coach Tony Sparano opted for an old Bee Gees hit instead, "Stayin' Alive."

"The message to the team this week is: The way I know it, we're still in the race," Sparano said Monday. "The best chance we have is, we got to win two football games. We've won two football games (in a row three times) before, so we'll worry about one football game right now.

"We've got a chance to play at home. We still have a pulse; we're still in this race, and we prepare that way."

Actually, the Dolphins are better off than most of their fellow 7-7 AFC counterparts, a group includes the Jaguars, Jets, Steelers, Titans and Texans, who all trail the 8-6 Ravens and Broncos.

First, the Dolphins are the only one of the six 7-7 teams that have both remaining games at home, where they're 4-2. Second, they could knock off two of their competitors, with Houston and Pittsburgh coming to South Florida. Of course, the Dolphins are 0-4 all-time against Houston, including a 29-28 loss last season, and they've gone 0-3 since last beating the Steelers in 1998.

"Even though things haven't gone how we want them to go, we still can control the next two weeks," Dolphins linebacker Reggie Torbor said. "We can go out and win those games, and whatever happens from there we can't control, so there's no need in worrying about it."

Suffice it to say the Dolphins need lots of help, and not necessarily from their friends. Their only hope of successfully defending their AFC East title would be to sweep their last two games and for the 9-5 Patriots to lose to the Jaguars and Texans. The Dolphins would then win a tiebreaker, as they'd have the better conference record.

Miami's chances would be more fathomable if the host Patriots helped out by knocking off the Jags this week, and if the host Steelers beat Baltimore, with Miami taking care of Pittsburgh in their season finale. Then the Ravens still have to deal with the pesky Raiders.

The Dolphins hold the head-to-head tiebreaker edge over the Jets, and New York is headed this week to face 14-0 Indianapolis, which seems intent on completing a perfect regular season.

As for the inconsistent Broncos, they have to play this week at Philadelphia, where the Eagles are still playing for the NFC East title and home-field advantage in the playoffs.

There are still too many permutations to decipher, as it's still possible that the AFC could have seven 8-7 teams competing for the two wild-card slots heading into the final weekend.

"You approach this game as the most important game that you probably played in your career," linebacker Akin Ayodele said. "Knowing there are some circumstances outside we can't control, but we still feel if we take care of our business, hopefully things will work itself out."

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