The Dolphins were 8-3 entering December in 2022. Why they think 2023 is different

Even in a 21-point win against the New York Jets on Black Friday, a game the Dolphins were heavily favored to win, offensive coordinator Frank Smith saw signs of growth.

He watched from the coach’s booth as Miami, leading 20-6, began a drive at its 8-yard line with 8:58 remaining in the third quarter. Fifteen plays and 82 yards later, running back Raheem Mostert slithered his way into the end zone to cap a methodical drive that took nine minutes and three seconds off the game clock.

The drive didn’t feature the instant-offense deep pass to wide receiver Tyreek Hill that the Dolphins have become known for. It consisted of twice as many run plays as passes. And the scoring possession put Miami firmly in control for its eighth win of the season.

“At times we could do it last year,” Smith said of the long drive, “but then you can see now there’s moments where a lot of the games this season, we’ve had a lead that was a score or two. But that one, you have a lead or two, but we still felt like, ‘Hey, we have to put this away.’ And that was where you could just see the will of the guys working together, the resolve to what they wanted to do.”

The Dolphins are 8-3 for the second straight season and begin their December slate with a road game against the 4-8 Washington Commanders on Sunday. With a 2.5-game lead in the AFC East, Miami is in a good position to capture its first AFC East title since 2008.

The team only needs to look to last season, though, as a reminder of how quickly things can fall apart. A five-game losing streak almost cost the Dolphins a playoff spot before they beat the Jets in the regular-season finale to return to the postseason for the first time since 2016.

That second-half collapse, and Miami’s season-ending loss to the Buffalo Bills in the wild-card round, have been a driving force for this year’s iteration of the team. The Dolphins are confident they’re well-positioned to avoid a similar plunge.

“I see a team that understands what it means to build during the season, to continue the growth as a team so that we’re our best version of ourselves when it matters most,” coach Mike McDaniel said.

Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was asked what he learned last year about December football, and his initial tongue-in-cheek answer — “I learned how to fall” — underscored one of the realities for the Dolphins during the stretch run of the season.

Miami’s late-season slide in 2022 also coincided with Tagovailoa’s second stint in the NFL’s concussion protocol, which sidelined him for the final two regular-season games and the postseason matchup against the Bills.

Tagovailoa, one of the favorites to win the league’s Most Valuable Player award, has played in all 12 games this season, marking the longest stretch of games he’s played in his NFL career without injury. Injuries have the potential to derail any season — Miami’s defense is adjusting after outside linebacker Jaelan Phillips’ torn Achilles injury — and Tagovailoa remains the Dolphins’ most indispensable player.

“It doesn’t surprise me that we’re in the position we’re in at this point in the season where he’s played 12 games in a row,” McDaniel said, “because I’ve never seen someone attack an offseason with that much — it’s not a chip on the shoulder, he was just so motivated to control what he can control.”

With Tagovailoa under center, the Dolphins again have one of the most explosive offenses in the league but also one they believe has more substance. Despite a litany of injuries in the backfield and along the offensive line, Miami has a rushing game that ranks second in yards per game, complementing its big-play passing game.

“We can move people, get them off the spot. So we did definitely show the characteristic of our offense that’s really not in the spotlight when you look at that amount of speed that we have on the team,” wide receiver Jaylen Waddle said after Miami’s 20-13 win against the Las Vegas Raiders. “But we can get down and get physical, too.”

The most telling stretch of the season likely won’t come until Christmas Eve, when the Dolphins host the Dallas Cowboys, followed by games against the Baltimore Ravens and Bills.

Recently, some of the team’s most veteran players with championship experience spoke about how the Dolphins compare to their Super Bowl teams.

Hill, who won a Super Bowl with the Chiefs in the 2019 season, said the 2023 Dolphins are better than that Kansas City team. Cornerback Jalen Ramsey, who won a ring two seasons later as a member of the Los Angeles Rams, said Miami can be better.

Ramsey, though, also acknowledged the importance of building up to the point of being a championship-caliber team.

“I mean, y’all can do the same thing that I do,” Ramsey said. “Just look at it on paper and who we had on the roster in L.A. then and you put this Miami team on paper and look at our roster, and there’s a lot of similarities. So we have the capability of being that.

“I understand it’s y’all’s job to ask about our goals and our future and all that, but I’m being so serious, we cannot think about that all the time. We have to go game-by-game, week-by-week, day-by-day, really, because if you get caught up in all that, you’re going to get lost and there’s no need for that. You have to keep growing every day. But yeah, we definitely have the capabilities of doing that. We have to put that work in.”