The ways in which this 2020 season has been a breath of fresh air for the Miami Dolphins are plentiful. The team has found themselves firmly in the realm of winning football teams this year and at 8-5 will avoid a losing season for just the second time in the last six years. That’s not a high bar to set, but when your last 15 years have been as uneventful as the Miami Dolphins, incremental progress can go a long way in energizing the team’s rebuild.
The last three weeks of the season will go a long way in defining just how successful the 2020 season will be remembered. And there’s plenty of focus on the Dolphins’ playoff standing and how Miami plays at the quarterback position over the final few weeks of the regular season. But there’s another chase on for these Miami Dolphins and head coach Brian Flores, who is in pursuit of one of the most complete, full team performances that the Dolphins have seen in forever.
The Dolphins enter Week 15 with a +85 point differential, positioning Flores’ 2020 team as one of the better units in team history as it relates to outperforming the opposition on the scoreboard. And, if the Dolphins can go +15 in point differential over their final three games, Flores will be joining the Dolphins’ exclusive +100 point differential club.
The club only has one member as things currently stand; Hall of Fame coach Don Shula. Shula was able to see his teams score 100+ more points than the opposition ten times over his 26 seasons as the lead man in Miami. Former Dolphins coach Dave Wannstedt came close in 2000 (+97), but that mark came mostly thanks to the team’s best 16-game scoring defense in franchise history (226 points allowed).
Of course, if the Dolphins fall off the pace over the next three weeks, the Dolphins’ point differential will dip and Flores will not reach the +100 point differential club. But even if that comes to be, Flores’ Dolphins appear ready to close the season with just their third positive point differential in the last 15 years — so no matter how you slice the Dolphins’ 2020 outlook, there’s no questioning Flores has positioned this team into their best position in more than a decade. But we’d be lying if we said we weren’t hopeful for Flores to join Shula’s exclusive club in the final three weeks of the season.