Miami Dolphins have turned into a winning football team

There are still plenty of questions for the Miami Dolphins to answer in a schedule that only gets harder. They will be queried and tested, and it won’t be nearly so easy to find supporters outside of South Florida. This is what happens when a team blooms so promptly.

That rapid metamorphosis will leave many people dumbfounded, as if progress is only plausible when it’s easier to see coming. The actuality is that the Dolphins are legitimate enough when considering no team in the AFC is without its share of blemishes.

They’ve won six straight games after a 1-4 start and they would qualify for a wild-card spot if the postseason started today. So it really doesn’t matter if they’ve defeated only two teams currently above .500 on the way to their 7-4 record. It’s more significant that they’re beating the teams placed in front of them, and doing that in clutch circumstances.

The last five Dolphins’ wins have been determined by seven points or fewer. That includes Sunday’s 31-24 win over San Francisco, a game that ended when the Dolphins tackled 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick before he could reach the goal line on a potential game-tying touchdown.

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As much as heretics will diminish Miami’s latest win — the lowly 49ers are now 1-10 — there were plenty of positives to take away from the Dolphins effort. They won despite getting just 45 rushing yards from running back Jay Ajayi, who had been averaging 137 yards in the previous five games.

Miami’s defense also surrendered 475-yards, many of which came when San Francisco was trying to rally from a 17-point fourth-quarter deficit. It was the kind of game that the Dolphins typically discovered a way to lose in recent years, which says loads about how much they’ve progressed. This is promptly becoming a team that is showcasing the terminal mark of a winner.

Whether that’s Ryan Tannehill proceeding to culminate before our eyes or Ajayi coming out of nowhere or a skilled defense stepping up, the Dolphins are finding playmakers throughout their roster. They also have a first-year head coach, Adam Gase, who has kept them centered since that repulsive start.

He’s the significant reason this team has flourished over the past two months. Hours before Sunday’s game, Dolphins owner Stephen Ross was spewing over Gase to the point that he called him “a young Jim Harbaugh.” That’s no small praise coming from Ross, who went to Michigan and is a good friend of the Wolverines head coach and it speaks to where the Miami Dolphins think they are heading.

Harbaugh has become distinguished as a man who can turn a team around instantly. The 38-year-old Gase — who was the Chicago Bears’ offensive coordinator in 2015 — is demonstrating similar latent. When discussing the win over San Francisco, Gase pointed out how that contest reflected the way his team has approached the entire year. The same with special teams, where we’d allow a score and then, all of a sudden, we’d have a good return. It’s just that everybody is trying to pick each other up.

One of Gase’s biggest accomplishments thus far has been the evolution of Tannehill, who is enjoying the most efficient season of his career. Tannehill has thrown nine touchdown passes and only one interception over the past six games. He had some critical completions against San Francisco, including a 15-yard scoring toss to Leonte Carroo in the fourth quarter that made the score 31-14. Also using his legs, Tannehill added 34 more yards on the ground.

There’s utterly a greater ease to the fifth year’s quarterback’s game, a comfort that surely originates directly from his interaction with Gase. Bears quarterback Jay Cutler exhibited a similar calm under Gase’s guidance last year when Gase was Chicago’s offensive coordinator.

Peyton Manning also rhapsodized about Gase’s coaching style when they worked together in Denver from 2012 through 2014. These days, everyone is seeing what Gase can do with a quarterback whose teams have gone 36-39 when he starts. The Dolphins will have to maintain that focus as they fight for a playoff spot in their final five games.

Miami will play three games on the road during that time, incorporating meetings with Baltimore and Buffalo, both of whom are aspiring to find their own place in the postseason while the Patriots await in the season finale at home. Coming back from a 1-4 start was quite the fulfillment. That’s the ideal approach to take for a team that still has plenty of mountains to climb. It’s also an appropriate mindset for a squad that has the right makeup to get where it ultimately hopes to go.

The post Miami Dolphins have turned into a winning football team appeared first on Cover32.

Miami Dolphins have turned into a winning football team

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