Miami Dolphins just scratching the surface of what they could be

Written by Matthew Cannata at 8:30 AM EST | Twitter: @PhinManiacs

Throughout the entire season so far, the Miami Dolphins have looked like they could be an explosive team with the amount of talent they have on both the defensive and offensive side of the ball. On Sunday against the Chargers, they flashed that potential and played a complete game in all three phases. However, the coaches and players said that this is only the beginning.

“Yeah, we’ve talked to them a lot about how we’re kind of scratching the surface,” Joe Philbin said. “We still haven’t put it all together. There’s a lot of football left to be played. I think they have some confidence in themselves. We’ve got to go out there every single week and prove it. We certainly have a real challenging opponent next week.”

Branden Albert said that this victory proves that they can play with anybody and as long as they are on and focused, they’ll be on top of their game and can go head to head with the best of the NFL. Brent Grimes and Reshad Jones both echoed those words and said that when they play together as a team, with all phases clicking, then it’s going to be tough to lose.

Mike Pouncey took a more subdued look at it and said that while the victory was great, he realizes that they need to keep focusing on each week and taking it one a time. If they do that, then they’ll have a really good season.

Ryan Tannehill went along with Pouncey and said that now that the game is over, it doesn’t matter what they did in that game because it all changes when they kick off against the Detroit Lions.

“I think it’s fair, but you have to show up every week. Once this game hits 0:00, it doesn’t matter what we did this week. It matters what we do next week. I think it was a great day on all sides of the ball, but we have to show up every week and we have to build on it.”

Cameron Wake is looking forward to what the remainder of the season brings and like Philbin, said that this is only the beginning.

“It’s something that we’ve been scratching the surface of for weeks – talking about playing a full game complete to complete, complementary game, from offense to defense to special teams – everybody playing together as one unit. I think it’s just a game where we came out and delivered.”

However, Mike Wallace put the icing on the cake when he was blunt and direct when asked about the perception of the team around the league and whether or not this victory sent a message.

“I don’t know. I don’t really care. Hopefully not. So we can do the same thing next week. We got our guys in our locker room. That’s all that really matters. We’ll keep proving them wrong. We’ll see them in December/January. I don’t care about what other people say. It is what it is. Hopefully nobody ever catches on. Hopefully, they can keep saying the same Dolphins from four-five years ago, or however long ago when we didn’t have a good record. Hopefully, people just keep taking us easy so we come away with wins like this.”

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