Well, it’s been another interesting week. In the span of eight days, the Miami Dolphins played substantially better in two road games, one of which was in prime time, in two of the toughest places to win in the NFL, Ralph Wilson Stadium and Heinz Field. Despite racing out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter, the Dolphins ultimately couldn’t quite cut the mustard, and lost again.
However, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t remain optimistic about this team’s future. Someone said after the Monday night game that Brian Flores is ‘coaching the bejeesus’ out of this team, and it’s hard not to agree. I look for them to beat the Jets convincingly this weekend and make Adam Gase’s seat even warmer. Of course I don’t want them to win too many games this season and ruin their chances of getting a top quarterback, but I’ll be goddamned if I’m going to hope they lose to the Jets, anytime, anywhere, period.
When we look at what he was given, in terms of talent, it’s hard to argue that Flores hasn’t been a real find for Miami thus far; just imagine how good he might be with some better players and a couple years of experience under his belt. Take the game at Buffalo, for example. If you don’t think it would have been a monumental upset for the Dolphins to have won that game, consider this: the Bills haven’t been favored by a point spread that large in nearly thirty years, since 1992. Vegas is seldom wrong, and when you can cause the bookmakers to lose money, you’re doing something right. But I get it -- they didn’t win. Alright, but the team played hard and looked good doing it. The game was essentially decided by one play that didn’t go our way. When you’re able to get more out of your players than you should have been able to, that’s a nice, tight definition of good coaching.
What Flores has been on the field, Grier has been in the front office. This week, he pulled off two more Houdiniesque moves, trading running back Kenyan Drake to the Arizona Cardinals and acquiring former Rams corner-back and five time Pro Bowler Aqib To Leave -- I mean, Talib. Los Angeles needed to clear some cap space and Grier was right there to snap him up., basically buying a fifth round pick from L.A. in the process. With Xavien Howard headed to injured reserve, the timing of the deal could not have been more fortuitous. In all my years following the Dolphins, I’ve never seen a year in which almost every move by the GM has been about as good a move as he could make. Miami wasn’t going to resign Drake anyway, so moving him for any kind of pick was a win.
Now, I want to talk about something that I find a little bit concerning. We’re getting dangerously close to ‘troll’ territory with some of the comments here recently. Not long ago, I was told, essentially, that I’m not allowed to make a casual observation about the team because I don’t work for the Dolphins’ front office management. There is nothing wrong with constructive criticism within the context of a genuine debate, but when we come here to try and tear down someone else’s work and make inflammatory comments, it serves no real purpose. Heck, Jonman has been one of my harshest critics, but at least I can say he’s honest. I was surprised to see him back me up last week, when he brought up a statistic that supported my argument. He’s tough, but he’s also fair. When we have to twist ourselves up into a pretzel for the sake of being against someone, that’s a pretty good indication that our mind was already made up before we even walked into the room. Ultimately, an article on this site is only as good as our readers decide it’s going to be. All we can do, as writers, is throw a topic up on the wall for us to talk about that day. It’s the very knowledgeable football fans who come here for the discussion that make or break a column.
I get it; we’ve got a lot of folks who aren’t real happy right now. That’s why I suggested a few months ago that we’d probably be best off if we view 2019 and ‘20 as a single entity, and not get too carried away with what happens this season. Call me crazy, but for the life of me, I don’t know how we shouldn’t be excited as hell about the next couple of years for this team. But, we have to get there first, and we will. Because human beings are emotional creatures, we tend get caught up in the heat of the moment and can sometimes lose sight of the big picture. Keep the faith, guys, we’re going to start winning games again soon, and yes, we’re going to beat the Jets, and beat ‘em good.