Streaking Dolphins not considering grand possibilities
If the Dolphins let themselves dream — and many NFL players are dreamers because they imagine playing professional football when they’re maybe 10 years old — they can see the next three weeks as a chance to harden their position.
The Dolphins, 6-3 and winners of five consecutive games, can easily go to Denver this weekend and beat the reeling Broncos and their backup quarterback. They can and should go to New York after Thanksgiving and feast on the hapless Jets. They can and should defend their home field against the last-place Cincinnati Bengals the first week of December.
The Dolphins three weeks from now should be looking at a 9-3 record.
They’re going to be in the midst of an eight-game winning streak and on a fullblown playoff run.
And, just so you understand, all of this is freaking out coach Brian Flores.
The Dolphins coach is not into letting his players dream — at least not publicly. At least once every week this season and sometimes more often than that, Flores asks his players to concentrate solely on the assignment at hand.
He has asked them to forget the past and also put the future out of their minds. He has implored them to focus on the present.
So talk of a playoff run and thoughts of a possible December to remember for the Dolphins? Flores isn’t feeling warm and fuzzy about that at all.
“I think it’s important, and we’ve talked about it, we just try to take things one day at a time and not worry about what’s in the future or what’s happened in the past,” Flores said. “That’s a hard thing to do with young players. But I think just the way they responded in practice and how