Jarvis Landry suddenly has the inside track on the NFL receiving title.
The Dolphins wide receiver currently is second in the league with 98 catches and trails Antonio Brown of the Pittsburgh Steelers by three receptions, but Brown likely will miss the rest of the regular season because of a calf injury he sustained in a loss against the New England Patriots on Sunday.
Landry is averaging exactly seven catches for per game, which would give him 112 for the season and help him break his own franchise record of 110 set in 2015. His pace would allow him to pass Brown next Sunday at Kansas City.
The biggest challenge for Landry will be holding off the receivers behind him. New Orleans' Michael Thomas is third in the NFL with 94 catches, followed by Houston's DeAndre Hopkins and Arizona's Larry Fitzgerald with 92 each.
Landry is attempting to become the second player in Dolphins history to lead the league in receptions. O.J. McDuffie did it in 1998 when he had 90 receptions, which stood as the Dolphins record until Landry eclipsed that in 2015.
Parkey still near-perfect: Speaking of records, kicker Cody Parkey continues to be on track for the Dolphins single-season field goal accuracy record. After making all three of his attempts against Buffalo on Sunday, Parkey now is 18-for-19 on the season, good for a .947 percentage. The franchise record, based on a minimum of 15 attempts, is 91.3 and was set in 2007 by Jay Feely — the same Jay Feely who served as color analyst for the Dolphins-Bills game on CBS on Sunday — when he made 21 of 23 attempts.
Weather watch: The Dolphins didn't have to play in a blizzard Sunday, but they had to deal with cold conditions at New Era Field. The game-time temperature in Buffalo was 22 degrees, making it the fourth-coldest game in Dolphins history. It was the coldest regular season game for the Dolphins since December 2008 when it was 10 degrees at kickoff time in Kansas City — the Dolphins went on to win that game, 38-31.
Gray on the ground: Tight end MarQueis Gray again was used in the role of fullback against Buffalo on Sunday and he delivered with two important runs. He converted a third-and-1 with a 2-yard gain in the second quarter and had a 5-yard run up the middle late in the third quarter when the Dolphins were pinned back at their own 1-yard line. Gray now has four carries on the season, which is the highest total for an NFL tight end since 2014 when Philadelphia's Trey Burton had seven. The four attempts aren't even a career high for Gray, who was a quarterback at the University of Minnesota. He had six rushing attempts in 12 games for the Cleveland Browns in 2013.
Playoff picture: Head Coach Adam Gase said Monday he never worries about the playoff picture, basically taking the approach of preparing his team for whatever opponent is placed on the schedule — regular season or postseason. That said, the Dolphins still have a chance to reach the postseason this season if they win their final two games and get some help. The Dolphins would need for Baltimore to win one of its final two games (vs. Indy, vs. Cincinnati); for Tennessee to lose its last two (vs. the Rams, vs. Jacksonville); for Oakland to lose one more game (at Philadelphia, at Chargers); for the Chargers to lose one game (at Jets, vs. Oakland); and for Buffalo to lose at New England next Sunday. Under that scenario, the Dolphins would finish in a four-way tie with Buffalo, Tennessee and the Chargers for the second wild-card spot at 8-8 and would get the nod by eliminating Buffalo via division record and the Titans and Chargers because of their head-to-head victories against them.
