FanPost

Then & Now: Flores v Gase v Philbin: Game 28

This is part of my series tracking my own feelings and confidence levels at the same stage at each of the last three permanent Dolphins head coaches.

My post for the previous game, Game 27, is here.

Background to Game 28

Philbin: In late November of 2013, Joe Philbin's Dolphins lost a tough one to a hard-nosed Carolina Panthers team, and was sitting at 5-6. The team was still reeling a bit from the Bullygate scandal and having two starting offensive linemen gone for the season, but there was still an outside chance that they might get it together enough for a run at a Wildcard spot. Next opponent: the always-hated Jets.

Gase: Four years after that and three years before now, Adam Gase's injury-riddled and floundering squad sat at 4-7, thanks to a thorough drubbing at the hands of the Patriots. Hope was pretty much lost as the team was set to host an equally pathetic 3-8 Denver Broncos team.

Flores: It wasn't very pretty, but Brian Flores's squad bounced back from an ugly loss in Denver with a 20-3 win over the utterly pathetic Jets, dropping that disgrace of a team to 0-11. Ryan Fitzpatrick took over QB duties for Tua Tagovailoa after the rookie sustained a nagging injury to the thumb on his throwing hand. Fitz did just enough, while the defense choked the life out of a hapless Jets offense, upping the team's record to 7-4.

Game 28 (or Season 2, game 12)

Joe Philbin's 28th: The Jets came into town with Rex Ryan's coaching seat growing ever hotter. He was now nearly three years since his unlikely back-to-back runs towards the AFC championship game, and his teams had become supremely mediocre. Philbin's Dolphins made sure they stayed that way, as the defense put the Jets' offense in a complete choke hold. Jets QBs Matt Simms and Geno Smith combined for a grand total of 108 passing yards, no TDs, and two interceptions. This allowed plenty of room for Ryan Tannehill and the Fins offense to comfortably rack up 23 points in the 23-3 victory. It even featured a couple of nice, long TD passes from Tannehill - a 31-yarder to Brian Hartline and a 28-yarder to Mike Wallace. The Fins were back to .500, now with a 6-6 record.

Adam Gase's 28th: Lo and behold, Adam Gase's bruised up Dolphins team actually had a good game! This one had a little bit of everything: a Kenyan Drake 42-yard rushing TD; two TD passes from Jay Cutler, a 9-yarder to Julius Thomas and a 23-yarder to Kenny Stills; a 30-yard pick-6 by then-second-year man Xavien Howard; and not one but two safeties by the Dolphins defense (though one was self-inflicted by Denver). It was an actual, real-deal rout. It put the team at 5-7.

Brian Flores's 28th: What an ugly game. First there were a bunch of injuries, then we started seeing some highly questionable calls and non-calls. Mix in some pretty dirty play by Cincinnati, and we then got scuffles and ejections all over the place. The outcome was very much up in the air at halftime, with the Dolphins down 7-6 and floundering. But they came out with renewed purpose and focus in the third quarter, most noticeably on offense. The second half was a real manure show in terms of professionalism, but the Dolphins were very clearly the better team, even if the final score didn't fully reflect it. Still, the Fins bagged the 19-7 victory to up their record to 8-4, maintaining a hold on the 6-seed for the playoffs with four weeks left to play.

Comparative Emotions

I think this may be the first of the half dozen or so of these posts where all three different Dolphins teams actually won. Anyway...

My memory is hazy, but I'm pretty sure that I watched this one at my normal venue, my friend Clint's place. We were actually pretty excited, given that it was a beatdown of Rex Ryan's Jets, and we always found Ryan supremely obnoxious. And it featured Ryan Tannehill connecting on a couple of longer TD passes - something that his detractors often erroneously thought he couldn't do. Now at 6-6, this team seemed to have regained some of its footing after the initial Bullygate blowup, and it was back "In the Hunt" for a Wildcard spot. There was reason to feel cautiously optimistic, which is what I was.

Like the few games before it, I didn't watch the 2017 convincing win over the Broncos live. I was about 70% checked out on the season after that beating the Panthers had given us three weeks prior, and after the next two losses to the Bucs and Pats, I was about 95% checked out. Sure, the Dolphins still had a mathematical chance at a Wildcard spot, in the same way that I have a mathematical chance to end up in bed with Salma Hayek. I wasn't going to put any mental effort into fretting about either one of them. In terms of the Dolphins, I was starting to look at potential college prospects. In terms of Salma, I just watch Desperado and From Dusk 'Till Dawn a bunch.

I write this a day after the Flores team's win over the Bengals, and I actually feel pretty damn good about the team. No, we didn't witness the prettiest game, but if you look past the bad officiating, the injuries, and the Bengals' dirty play, you could see some really nice progress. The defense was lights out, I don't care that it was against a bad offense being run by a third-stringer. You hold an NFL offense to 7 points, and you're doing a good job. More importantly, I think we witnessed Tua and this offense develop right in front of our eyes. After a very lame first half, the offense came alive in the third quarter. Chan Gailey made the wise move to switch to an up-tempo offense, and Tua flourished. No, it wasn't the Kansas City Chiefs, but there was a nice run/pass balance and Tua was actually throwing to guys not named Jakeem Grant. He especially got in really nice sync with Mike Gesicki, finally seeming to trust that he truly can just throw it in the athletic tight end's general vicinity and have him come down with the ball far more often than not. On top of that, I saw a coach and team that was fighting for each other and defending each other against an opponent who was trying to ugly things up. So we now have a team with an 8-4 record, a defense that is making a strong case for being among the absolute best in the league, and an offense that looks like it's finally starting to put things together. Oh, and an entire group that isn't going to take any nonsense from wannabe-thuggish opponents. These all make me very happy.

Looking Ahead to Game 29

Back in 2013, winter had set in and the 6-6 Dolphins were headed up to the chilly climate of Pittsburgh to face a then-struggling Steelers team. If you watched this game live like my buddies and I did, then you're sure to remember it.

Four year later, Adam Gase's 5-7 Dolphins would next be hosting the Patriots down in Miami. At this point, it had been pretty well established that games in Miami were an odd sort of kryptonite for Belichick, Brady, and the boys. Still, this was a 10-2 Pats team marching down there, so they would surely just put our guys out of their misery, right? Right?

As for now, play time is over. Our current Dolphins team has done a very solid job thus far of winning nearly all of the games that they should, racking up wins against bad and mediocre teams, and even beating a few above-average teams like the Rams and Cardinals. Next up is the video-game offense of the defending Superbowl champions, complete with the human cheat code that is Patrick Mahomes. It really doesn't get any tougher than this, so we're going to see just how our up-and-coming Dolphins team can hang with the big boys. I'm really excited for this game, even if I don't give our guys a great shot at winning it.

As always, please share your thoughts and memories on any of these games below.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of The Phinsider's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of The Phinsider writers or editors.