The message Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores delivered to his team this week
One key message Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores delivered to his team this week leading up to Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bills?
Don’t buy the hype.
Don’t get comfortable with success.
Don’t become complacent.
Crazy, right. The Miami Dolphins are 2-7. They’re by any measure a bad football team.
But because they’ve won consecutive games the past two weeks and competed well the past five weeks, the Dolphins’ coaching staff has been concerned their young players will start to lean on those modest accomplishments...
...And stop pushing for the improvement they have urgently sought since the early part of the season when losses were embarrassingly lopsided.
“Look, we’ve got – this is a tough opponent,” Flores told reporters, repeating words I’m told he shared with players. “When I see Josh Allen running around on film, I’m confident in our guys; but I know this is a tough challenge. Whether it’s Allen or (Frank) Gore or (Devin) Singletary or John Brown, that offensive line, defensively they’ve got guys everywhere.
“Yeah, I have confidence in this team, but I also know and I’d be – I know this is the National Football League and every game is tough. They’re going to come in here and try to knock our heads off and we have to be ready for that. Confidence – I don’t know how to really explain it, but I’ve moved on from that.
“We’re on to Buffalo and this is going to be a tough, physical game, and we have to be ready for that. More than anything, we’ve got to be ready for a tough physical game.”
Flores has made the point to his players that they must remember what they learned in victories over the New York Jets and Indianapolis Colts. But they must forget the accomplishment. Because past accomplishments do not guarantee future accomplishments.
“You forget about everything you’d done,” Flores said, speaking about rookie cornerback Nik Needham, but again repeating words he uttered to his football team. “You forget about the last couple games or you forget about any success you had.
“I don’t know much about social media, but people are saying he’s this or that. Your friends, your family, they’re going to congratulate you. That’s great. But if you start listening to all that too much and – I don’t know, maybe it’s one minute (more) on one more text and one minute less on film.
“You’ve got to try to put that away and focus on the task at hand, which is preparing for Buffalo and the receivers they have and our scheme and trying to get that right so that we can string them together, because the world will make you think that you’re this superstar. And maybe you are, but it doesn’t really matter. The only thing that matters is the guys in that room, in that locker room I should say.”
The Miami Dolphins are a very young football team. And their coach is concerned the apparent absence of adversity lately -- in the form of losses -- might make some players believe they’ve arrived.
This just in: The Dolphins have not arrived.
Fans are happy. Media is not being critical (or as critical) of late. But, again, this is not a team that has achieved anything of note other than it won’t be winless.
Flores knows this. This week, he’s tried to make sure his players know this also.
