When the Dolphins were 1-4, plenty of their fans were ready to abandon ship. But first-year coach Adam Gase continued to believe.
His belief has paid off with a pair of wins, heading into the bye week. Appearing on Monday’s PFT Live, Gase attributed the surge to one primary factor.
“I think the fact that we got our five starting offensive lineman back has been obviously a big part of that,” Gase said. “It’s changed the whole way that we’ve been able to play the game where the offense is staying on the field for a longer period of time. We have better time of possession. Our defense is actually getting to do what we built it to do, which is rush the passer and really not play 75 to 80 plays a game. It was a little ridiculous there for the first five games of the season where they were playing just way too many snaps.”
Gase helped weather the early-season storm by shutting out the noise.
“I think it’s easy when you don’t look at the Internet and don’t look at Twitter and don’t listen to radio and don’t watch TV,” Gase said. “So that makes it easy. You just kind of live in your own little bubble and just keep working every day. Our players, I think, did a great job of trying to do the same thing. I know it’s a little tougher for them because they’re out in the public a lot and people have family members and agents and fans. They have more access to them so they probably have to hear a little bit more than what a lot of our coaching staff has to hear. So I’m sure it’s a little tougher to just kind of stay in that tunnel and just keep fighting.”
Why doesn’t Gase consume any media about his team?
“I think it’s just putting negativity in your head,” Gase said. “I just stay away from it. I think we’ve been so busy, there’s so much going on for us right now as far as kind of what we’re trying to do down here. I know our coaching staff is working really hard to keep coming back every day and giving our players a great plan and try to put them in a good position. We haven’t had a lot of time for anything out side of football.”
Whatever they’re doing (or not doing), it’s currently working. And with some extra time to further heal up and plan for the final nine games of the season, Gase and the Dolphins could still make plenty of noise in the AFC.