It took eight games and nine weeks for the Miami Dolphins to win their first contest in Brian Flores’ first season as coach last year.
This season, they secured their first victory in three weeks.
And the Dolphins believe — although they will face a potential Super Bowl contender this week — that already having one victory under their belt can make a difference for a team pursuing steady progress, and more victories, in the second year of their rebuilding process.
Dolphins receiver Jakeem Grant likened the first victory of the season, last Thursday night’s 31-13 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars, to an incentive for another marine animal.
“It’s a big motivation to the team,” Grant said Monday to start Week 4, which will see Miami (1-2) host the Seattle Seahawks (3-0) at Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday.
“I always look at it as blood in the water, as a shark. As soon as you smell blood in the water from miles and miles away, all you just want to do is go find it, go hunt and go eat. And that’s what it is for the team.
“We got the first win, the blood in the water, and we smell it from a mile away. And now we’re chasing it down, finding out what’s dying in the water, and what prey we’re going to eat.”
Well, it sounds like the Dolphins are confident.
And that’s an encouraging sign for a team that has won just six out of 13 games dating back to the start of their rebuilding effort.
After an offseason full of roster retooling, Flores and his Dolphins players began to hear the unrest following their 0-2 start this season, which could have increased tremendously had they fallen to 0-3.
The Dolphins were not favored to win their game against the Jaguars, according to oddsmakers, and many NFL pundits also believed Miami’s poor start would continue in Jacksonville.
“Winning is hard in the league. … We are going to use this motivation going into next week,” receiver Preston Williams said after the victory over the Jaguars.
“We’ve got a good opponent coming up so we just want to play a good executed game like we did, and see what we’re going to do. We’re going to work hard this week and see what the outcome is going to be next week.”
Flores is not understating the difficulty star Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson and his team will present in Sunday’s game.
Miami enters the matchup as an early 6.5-point underdog, and hopes the South Florida heat in its home field advantage can help like it did in Week 2 when they took a 20-17 lead in the fourth quarter against the Buffalo Bills before ultimately losing the contest.
Afterwards, the Dolphins have back-to-back road trips against the San Francisco 49ers in Week 5 and the Denver Broncos in Week 6. The Dolphins’ next potential victory could come either this week against Seattle or on the road in the upcoming weeks.
But that unrest could return if the Dolphins string together more losses than wins this season, especially for a team that spent nearly $150 million in guaranteed salary on free agents, rebuilt its core with rookies through the NFL draft, and retooled its coaching staff.
Flores hopes his players develop the maturity to understand if they continue to work together and improve, the positive results will come from their efforts.
“That’s the message we as a staff try to give to the players. And I think they take it to heart. They understand it,” Flores said.
“I think we’ve seen improvement over the first three weeks, and hopefully we continue to improve. Hopefully, we’re a better team down the road a week from now, or two weeks from now or 10 weeks from now than we are right now.”
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