There was a sense of pride and accomplishment in the Dolphins locker room Sunday night after their 34-31 wild-card round loss at Buffalo. Weary and battle-worn, players talked about their commitment to each other, the closeness of the team, and they said they want that bond to be even stronger.
Whether being a close team leads to more victories or better performance is up for debate. Dolphins players seem to think their closeness did help them win games, and watching them at work and play it’s tough to deny their claim.
Whatever the case, there’s no denying coach Mike McDaniel and his team built a strong bond, and it showed whether they were playing football, ping pong, cards, or just joking with each other in the locker room. They seemed to enjoy being around each other.
“I came in, made good relationships with guys,” said edge rusher Bradley Chubb, who was acquired in a Nov. 1 trade deadline deal with Denver, “but I want to take it to the next level and be there when their kid gets born and they’re saying, ‘Uncle Chubb,’ and stuff like that — take it to that level.
“I feel like we can do that, we’re going to do that and it’s going to be fun when it all comes together.”
There was widespread disappointment in the postgame locker room, to be sure.
Disappointment is the most expected sentiment after a playoff loss.
But players spoke with pride about what they accomplished despite the odds being stacked against them. They spoke of their locker room strength, their dedication to each other, and their more-than-respectable performance against Buffalo.
“With the people we’ve got in this locker room,” cornerback Xavien Howard said, “we didn’t bow down to them no matter the injuries or anything that was going on.”
And to be sure, this loss hurt.
“It’s supposed to hurt,” defensive tackle John Jenkins said. “It hurts because of the fact we know the type of effort we put in behind closed doors. So when a team is hurting like this with the results we had it just goes to show it was something internal.”
General manager Chris Grier liked what he saw from his young team. He, such as most others, deemed it a successful season.
“I would say successful,” Grier said, “but at the end of the day all 32 teams are trying to get to that ultimate goal. It was successful, I would say, not satisfied.
“To watch the guys compete [Sunday] knowing the injuries we had, we played the team three times, Buffalo, and what coach [Sean] McDermott, [general manager] Brandon Beane and those guys have done is tremendous. I have great respect for them and I told them that after the game.
“For our guys to go up there in that environment, and most of that roster hadn’t been in a playoff environment before, to go down 17 and not blink, and come back and fight and get into it and have a chance late in the game, to tie it up and have a chance to potentially win, [I’m] very excited. Disappointed we lost, but very excited, so I would say yes it was a successful season.”
Perhaps the Dolphins’ closeness is what got them into the playoffs, perhaps it’s what allowed them to summon the strength to edge the New York Jets, 11-6, in the regular-season finale to get into the playoffs.
No, it wasn’t an ideal season.
The Dolphins finished 9-8, and then lost their first-round playoff game.
But it was a successful season, and the way players tell the story, their success was at least partly because they forged such a tight bond.
“Overall, we had our ups and downs, had our streaks,” said safety Eric Rowe, whose hit on Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen caused the fumble that defensive tackle Zach Sieler scooped up and ran 5 yards for a third-quarter touchdown said, “but one thing we never really wavered from was playing hard, practicing hard throughout the week, having fun. We made it to the playoffs, kind of like limping in, but we made it.
“That was kind of our motto all year, just to keep playing.”
It worked. They kept playing and got into the playoffs.
“I’m super proud of the guys,” linebacker Jaelan Phillips said. “We’ve always known who we are, and the fight and the type of guys that we have so [the Buffalo game] was nothing new. Obviously, super disappointed for the loss, but just so grateful and proud of our guys.”
And proud to be part of such a tight-knit unit. Again, it’s debatable whether the Dolphins’ unity helped them reach the playoffs for the first time since the 2016 season, but there’s no denying these guys were close and they’ll tell you it was a factor in the season’s success.
“We were a team,” Jenkins said. “When a team is hurting, they were a team. We put it in for another. Nobody was selfish, nobody was malicious, nobody was anything. It was a team, not ‘I.’
“That being said, I think the organization’s [headed] in the right direction.”
