‘Nobody’s panicking.’ Despite 0-3 start, the Dolphins remain optimistic
Nobody likes to lose.
And at 0-3, the Miami Dolphins’ losses have certainly began to pile up. The team, however, doesn’t believe its winless record means the season has to be over.
“I think that we are frustrated and disappointed but not discouraged and definitely haven’t lost any confidence in ourselves and even that frustration is just with us,” edge rusher Jaelan Phillips said Tuesday. “It’s frustration knowing that we can play a better brand of football and we haven’t. So nobody’s panicking, nobody’s pointing fingers. This is far from a crisis within our team, so really we’re just composed and attacking each day the way that we need to, and we know that the wins and the production will come.”
Despite the optimism, the team does find itself on the wrong side of history. Only four of the 165 teams that started their season 0-3 have gone on to make the playoffs since 1990. That’s roughly 2.4%. To say the odds are against them would be an understatement.
Still, the team’s play through three quarters against the Buffalo Bills has inspired a bit of confidence — even if moral victories bear no weight in the NFL.
“We played a great team last week and as we watched film, there was a lot of stuff we could've done better,” tailback De’Von Achane said. “Going into the fourth quarter, the score was 21-21, so I feel like if we just keep focusing on the details and not having those mistakes in critical times, I feel like we will be good.”
One factor that certainly could help the Dolphins will be the long layoff between Thursday night’s loss to the Bills and Monday’s game against the New York Jets. After a little more than 72 hours between their Week 2 and Week 3 matchups, the Dolphins will have nearly a dozen days to prepare for the Jets, a period that can be used to focus on areas of weakness.
“Fresh off of two division losses and still in September with a young team, I think it was fortuitous to have some extra time because you’re really pressing,” coach Mike McDaniel said, calling the mini-bye week “beneficial.” “Realistically, besides the weekend before the Week 1 prep, you don’t have that time off for all your young players starting the third week of July on. So for them to collect their bearings and get proactive with their schedule, as well as a team, just being able to collectively focus on what’s important, which is our football team, our football as it relates to our next opponent.”
Additionally, there are several players who have been a part of drastic, midseason runs. Of course 2024’s 6-3 finish immediately comes to mind but don’t forget about the 2021 season when the Dolphins had a seven-game losing streak only to finish with an 8-1 run.
“I’ve seen almost every year on both sides how things change in an instant,” Phillips said. “You can go on a winning streak and then lose a bunch of games and vice versa. So I think what’s important is to take it week by week and not be concerned about our record now or anything like that. Obviously it’s a pressing issue — look, we need to start winning games — but it’s not a death sentence for us, and it’s not indicative of how the rest of the season is going to go.”
If the Dolphins want to make a playoff run, the wins have to start sooner rather than later. The four teams that made the playoffs despite a winless record through three games — ’92 San Diego Chargers, ’95 Detroit Lions, ’98 Buffalo Bills and ’18 Houston Texans — finished the season either 11-5 or 10-6. That means the Dolphins can only afford two or three losses for the rest of the year. With another game against the Buffalo Bills plus matchups against the Baltimore Ravens, Los Angeles Chargers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the near future, the margin of error is slim.
The first step: channeling the frustration that Phillips mentioned into something positive.
“We need to emphasize the things we need to emphasize on a daily basis and doing that each day is going to ultimately lead to us improving,” Phillips said. “It’s not like this explosive anger. It’s more so just kind of reaffirms our resolve in a sense of, ‘all right, we know what we need to do so let’s attack every day and just channel the frustration and the disappointment into making sure that we’re doing those little things every day.”
