Gase may hear it from fans
Jets coach trying to get N.Y. first win in front of 13,000
The season is trending so badly for Adam Gase that he might hear boos Sunday.
The New York Jets coach has been spared at home games because his winless team isn’t admitting fans during the coronavirus pandemic.
But the Jets play Sunday at Miami, which is allowing crowds of up to 13,000. A sizable percentage will likely be disgruntled New York fans, and some Dolphins rooters might boo Gase too, just for old times’ sake.
He was fired by Miami owner Stephen Ross in 2018 after going 23-26 in three seasons. Gase was quickly hired by the Jets, and he’s on the hot seat again thanks to an 0-5 start, the team’s worst since 1996.
Gase’s successor in Miami, Brian Flores, is by contrast riding high thanks to a blowout victory last week at San Francisco that he ranked as his best win yet. The Dolphins are 2-3 and have a chance
to reach .500 for the first time in the Flores era.
Seeking a turnaround
Gase said he’s mindful of his first season as an NFL head coach, when the 2016 Dolphins started 1-4 and rebounded to finish 11-6. That remains Miami’s only playoff team since 2008.
“Short-term focus and not looking too far ahead were big reasons for us to be about to turn things around,” Gase said. “That applies to what we’re going through right now.
It’s not easy. It’s a test of can you handle adversity, and how you stick together.”
The Dolphins are favored for the first time this season, and facing a winless team creates a new kind of challenge for Flores.
“Every team has good players,” Flores said. “If you walk into a game thinking that somebody is going to lay down, you’re probably going to get the opposite, in my experience.”
Scrambled schedules
The Jets were expecting to face the Chargers, and the Dolphins were to play at Denver. Both teams’ schedules were altered because of coronavirus outbreaks involving several other teams.