Ryan Tannehill excited about playoff hopes but others more cautious

Written by Matthew Cannata | Twitter: @PhinManiacs
With the Miami Dolphins pulling off some impressive wins while hanging tough in losses to some to the best teams in the league, Ryan Tannehill has been gaining confidence, sees the potential in the team and knows the possibility of reaching the playoffs is very real.

"I really like this team," Ryan Tannehill said. "I like the talent we have. I like the leadership we have, the way that we are trending right now in the season as a team that can play really well. I think the next step that we can take is to win those close games in the fourth quarter. I think you can look at our last two losses, and they came down to the wire in the last 30 seconds of the game. As a team, whether it is offense running out the clock in four-minute offense or defense getting a stop, we have to find a way to win those games.”

Tannehill said that they have all the pieces and now it's just a matter of putting it all together.

“I feel confident in this team. I feel like we are a good team. I feel like we have all the pieces. The defense is playing really well right now. Offense is continuing to get better week-in and week-out. Obviously, we’re not perfect. We want to get better, but I feel like we are headed in the right direction coming up in the last six games of the year, the most critical part of the season, we are headed in the right direction and certainly have momentum.”

Of course, on the other hand, Joe Philbin was much more guarded and reserved when talking about the current state of the Dolphins and their outlook for the rest of the season.

“It’s a week-to-week proposition. I think our team is playing better. I think we’ve certainly improved as the year has gone on, but the beauty of the NFL is you can’t sit around and analyze, ‘So we’ve done this over this period of time,’ because you throw the tape on and every week you have a new set of challenges, good teams that are well-coached that you are playing that have good personnel as well. It’s kind of one day at a time really. Certainly, that’s the case this week. We are going to play an excellent football team. They are well-coached, on the road in a tough place. They play really well at home. I think they were 7-1 last year in the regular season. I think they are 5-0, if I’m not mistaken, this year. You don’t really have time to sit around and say, ‘Boy, we’ve been playing good.’ We kind of have to keep moving.”

If the season were to end today, the Dolphins would be sixth seed in the AFC playoffs but Philbin said that stat doesn't matter to him or his players. 

“We have six wins. We’ve only played 10 games. There is a ton of football left and really it’s more about preparing our team for Denver than it is, we’re here, we’re there, if we do this this week than we’ll be in this spot next week. There are too many variables. We’ve got to get back on the practice field. We had a couple of days off. We have to play a good, sound, fundamental football game with great effort. That’s really what the focus is going to be.” 

As with everything though, it's about execution and doing the right thing on the field. Brent Grimes put it best when he answered a question regarding the state of the team. 

“It’s the same as every week. The same amount of time. You look at the film, you’re going to run your game plan, they’re going to run theirs, and just compete. Whoever makes the most plays at the end will win the game.” 

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