Dolphins-Bills scores big TV ratings. And Barkley responds when pressed on Miami Heat

A quick six-pack of media notes on a Wednesday:

▪ CBS was very fortunate that Dolphins-Bills was far more competitive than oddsmakers and many others expected.

Nationally, the game ended up as the most-watched Sunday AFC wild-card game in nine years (30.6 million viewers), with the audience peaking at 40 million at one point.

Locally, the 15.0 rating in Miami-Fort Lauderdale (15 percent of homes with TV sets) was the highest for a Dolphins game in at least four years.

That was also a big jump from the 9.8 local rating for the Dolphins’ regular-season finale against the Jets.

Dolphins games this season generally have drawn between 9 and 11 percent of Miami-Dade/Broward homes with television sets.

As context, Game 7 of the Heat-Celtics Eastern Conference finals in May drew a 12 local rating, though that game was on cable and available in fewer households.

▪ ESPN’s “NFL Live” had a spirited discussion about the Dolphins’ time management issues in the Bills game, with Dan Orlovsky explaining here how “long and wordy” it is to call plays in this type of offense, but Marcus Spears seeming far less forgiving.

“It likely doesn’t happen with Tua [Tagovailoa] or Teddy [Bridgewater],” Orlovsky said of the delay-of-game penalties and need to call three timeouts with the play clock running down.

Host Laura Rutledge offered two interesting stats: 1). The Dolphins had eight delay-of-game penalties this season, but only two with Tagovailoa at quarterback. 2). The Dolphins used the third-most time on the play clock among all teams this season.

On ESPN’s “Get Up,” former Jets coach Rex Ryan was highly critical, saying Mike McDaniel “kind of froze in the biggest moment. I’ve seen it happen a million times.”

Julian Edelman, on Paramount Plus’ Inside The NFL: “They burned three timeouts that could have been very useful at the end of the game because of communication, getting the play in and out of the huddle. That happened way too much. Four offsides penalties that put them in a hole. Three delays of games. These are penalties that you cannot have if you’re going to try and beat one of the most talented rosters in the Buffalo Bills.”

▪ NFL postseason media notes: Fox gets two playoff games both last weekend and this weekend (compared with one each weekend for CBS) because of lucrative new deals that Fox struck with the NFL. In all, Fox is doing a record six games in one postseason, including the Super Bowl. That means two playoff games for No. 2 team Joe Davis and Daryl Johnston (including Giants-Eagles Saturday night) and four games for lead team Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen (including Cowboys-49ers Sunday night)...

Tom Brady will move to Fox’s No. 1 team if he decides to retire from playing and begin his broadcasting career next season…

The NFC Championship on Fox will be the first game on Jan. 29 at 3 p.m., with the AFC Championship on CBS at 6:30 p.m.

▪ Before TNT’s Heat-Hawks coverage on Monday, Kenny Smith asked Charles Barkley if he still believes the Heat needs to break up its team.

“I don’t think they’re a contender,” Barkley said. “They need to do something. Either you’re a contender or you’re not. If you just want to be 6, 7 or 8 and lose in the first round, I would not construct my team like that.

“They got a good little solid team, but it’s going to come down to Philadelphia and Brooklyn; we know Milwaukee and Boston are going to be there.”

Former NBA guard Jamal Crawford, who replaced Dwyane Wade in TNT’s Tuesday studio, said of the Heat: “Their style of play, the way they grind things out, they’ll win games. But in the playoffs they’re missing another scorer. They need another go-to scorer who can demand that kind of attention and attract easier shots for the rest of this team.”

Wade left TNT by choice to spend his time on other business interests.

▪ Amber Wilson, the former 790 talk show host and a practicing attorney, landed a national radio show. Wilson and Joe Fortenbaugh are hosting Joe & Amber from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. weeknights on ESPN Radio.

▪ Quick stuff: ABC will air a documentary on the 1972 Dolphins at noon on Sunday, Feb. 5, the week before the Super Bowl. Here’s a tease… The Heat has a fifth national TV appearance in 16 days on Friday, with Mark Jones and Jeff Van Gundy calling a game against Dallas on ESPN…. Gators-Utah reportedly will be among the nationally televised college football openers on the Thursday before Labor Day.