Said Moore, who works for the Dolphins as an advisor to CEO Mike Dee: “Defensively, I think this team is playing as good as any team in football.”

Give them a chance

But Moore is apparently hoping the overall team confidence improves to levels he experienced during his career.

“When I look at this football team, I see a young team that is going through what they call growing pains,” Moore said. “You’ve got a first-year coach. You got a new offense, a new defense. They’re at the point where they know what each other can do, but you’re still making the little mistakes.

“Once you get over the hump where you start walking on the field expecting to win … one of the great things when I came in the league was we walked on the field and we didn’t hope we were going to win, we knew we were going to win. At the start of the year, it wasn’t about whether we were going to be in the playoffs. We knew we were going to be in the playoffs.

“I think that’s something that develops once you get that winning attitude, that winning spirit. And this is a young group, just put together, and as they start to grow, you’ll start to see that confidence.”

How long is that going to take?

“Give this franchise a chance. Give Coach Philbin a chance,” Duhe said. “I think we can have a good team in two or three years. Next year is still going to be learning and growing and building — not rebuilding — they’ll still be building.

“In about three years, this franchise will be something I can be proud of and hopefully you [reporters] can be proud of as well.”