Miami Dolphins fans are going to find out who Brian Flores is as a coach
By Brian Miller
Miami Dolphins fans are going to find out who Brian Flores is as a coach, soon.
Brian Flores has been impressive as the Miami Dolphins head coach but fans are about to see just how good he is or can be, and it will happen soon.
When you think of Don Shula you think of consistency and winning. You think of the 1972 team that took each week as a singular season without looking ahead to the next game. When you think of the plethora of coaches since Shula, you tend to think the opposite. Brian Flores? We still don’t know enough but so far, you have to love what you are seeing.
The last five weeks have been an amazing ride and Flores has been heralded as an up and coming great coach because last year he took a dismantled roster full of castoffs and won six games. This year, the second season of the rebuild, he has players playing extremely well and on a five game winning streak. Now the work begins.
It’s easy to coach up a roster when it is full of youth and inexperience. Add a few veterans to the mix and it gets easier. Even when you are losing, you can get players to work harder but as the team gets better, it gets more difficult, not easier.
Take this season as an example, mainly because we can throw last season out. Flores took a scaled down roster and started the season 1-3 before this current five-game winning streak. The Dolphins each week were considered underdogs despite the fact they were beating teams they shouldn’t be competing with, and doing it relatively easy.
The defense is playing better, the offense is playing better, but still the national media turned their backs and said Miami’s wins were flukes. Power rankings for some still had Miami tucked behind the Rams and Cardinals despite the fact Miami beat the both in consecutive weeks.
Now, the national media has their ears perked up and the Dolphins are no longer a shadow lurking in the corner. They are paying attention. The jibes and the talks of this team being a mirage are replaced with playoff talk and even some coach of the year discussions. Now is when the work starts.
Flores has to keep this team from buying into what the media is saying about them. Keep them focused more on the negative press than the positive. The positives are clear on the field Sunday when the clock ticks to zero and another W goes into the column. More than any other time in Flores’ career as a head coach with the Dolphins, he has to keep the team moving at a “one game at a time pace”.
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This is where we find ourselves with Brian Flores. He has the team winning, he has them beating good teams, and he had them motivated. He needs to keep it going. Now we need to beat the teams we should beat. Teams like Denver, Cincinnati, and New York. Teams like the struggling Patriots.
This is an exciting time to be a Miami Dolphins fan because we are all seeing the growth together but it’s not done yet. It’s not over by any means. This is year two of what should be a three-year rebuild. There is a lot more to go but Flores’ biggest challenge may be keeping this team focused week to week right now and that will allow us to see what coach we really have.