Veteran Dolphins on what it took to achieve a perfect November, get back in playoff hunt
Dolphins coach Brian Flores has brought a lot of things from his roots in New England to Miami.
Former players. Former coaches. And, maybe most importantly, a penchant for heating up late in the season and winning games when it matters most.
In 2019, the Dolphins won three of their last five games to finish 5-11 after losing the first seven games of the season. In 2020, the team started 1-3 but won five straight and again won three of their last five to finish 10-6, one win shy of a playoff appearance.
The Dolphins dug a deeper hole in 2021, starting 1-7 with seven consecutive losses. But a four-game winning streak has the team at 5-7 and just 11/2 games back of the seventh seed in the AFC ahead of Sunday’s home game against the New York Giants.
Flores is 10-3 as a coach in the month of November and if the Dolphins can continue their winning ways, it could make for a historic close to the season. No team in NFL history has rebounded from a 1-7 start to make the playoffs. The Dolphins’ playoff hopes are still slim but obtainable, which seemed unfathomable a month ago.
There’s myriad reasons for the winning streak: the return of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who has played well since missing three games earlier in the season with fractured ribs. The development of the 2021 Draft class, which has seen Jaylen Waddle, Jaelan Phillips and Jevon Holland all flourish while taking on significant roles as rookies. The return of a defense that’s back to its hyper-aggressive ways.
Three Dolphins veterans gave insight Thursday on the little things it took behind the scenes to jump-start four straight victories.
“I think we talked about [improving] more than we did it,” said wide receiver Mack Hollins, an offensive captain. “We said we practiced hard but we weren’t really practicing hard. We said we were studying extra film; we weren’t studying extra film. We said we were coming into a meeting and we weren’t. I think when guys realized we can win if we do it, we started doing it. And now it’s like, ‘Oh, it’s second nature. It’s what we do.’ We come in and get extra work in. We come in and we lift hard. We come in and we practice hard. And now we’re getting the results.”
After the team’s Week 11 win over the New York Jets, Flores credited the team’s victory to a good week of practice. Multiple players were asked how they can tell if there is a good week of practice and while there was no consensus, many said the elimination of mental errors is where it often starts.
“We’re a young team,” wide receiver Albert Wilson said. “I think guys kind of figured out what they needed out of those meetings and out of that practice and out of those film studies. Instead of being there for an hour and a half just wasting time, guys are actually putting in the work in those sessions. So, I don’t think we weren’t actually doing anything. I think we just didn’t know what to get out of those meetings and out of those film studies and out of those practices. I think guys are kind of coming into their own and figuring out, ‘when I’m in the meeting room, I need to look at this. When I’m in practice, I need to work on this.’”’
Linebacker Jerome Baker, one of few players who have been on the team since Flores’ first season, echoed his teammates’ comments, saying there wasn’t a particular moment that sparked their turnaround, but “we understood how to win.”
“We kept hearing what we’re doing wrong and we really took that and learned it, as far as, penalties [are] going to set us back,” Baker said. “We knew certain things we did well, we do certain things not as well. We saw that and we tried to avoid those things we did wrong. It sounds simple but football — it’s simple but it’s a complex game.”
