DAVIE, Fla. — Late-game heartbreak has become synonymous with the Miami Dolphins. Eight times in the past two seasons they've had victory snatched from their grasp in crushing, and sometimes humiliating, fashion.
When no lead is safe it starts to work on your mind. Such losses leave a nasty scar.
"You're talking about eight in the last two years you lose in the last two minutes," linebacker Kevin Burnett said. "At what point do you say, ‘Let's just win one.' "
These losses, more than any other single characteristic, are now the calling card of the Dolphins (1-3), the only team in the AFC East with a losing record.
The players say they can shake off this mental torture.
"We feel great," center Mike Pouncey said. "We watched the film. We dominated, we played hard, we played physical. We've just got to figure out a way to make those plays at the end of the football game."
The problem is Miami hasn't figured it out. This year it's been the back-to-back overtime losses to the New York Jets and Arizona Cardinals.
"Those are pretty rough, because those are games we felt on the sideline that we won," wide receiver Brian Hartline said.
Last year, it was late-game losses to New England, Houston, Denver, Cleveland, the New York Giants and Dallas.
You might recall Miami is the team that gave birth to Tebow-mania. Last October, the Dolphins allowed Tim Tebow two touchdowns (touchdown passes!) and a two-point conversion in the final 2:44 of regulation to tie the game at 15. Miami eventually lost to Denver, 18-15, in overtime.
The real kick in the pants was Tebow was just 4-for-14 passing before those last two scoring drives.
To their credit, the Dolphins have developed a lot of scar tissue. They dust themselves off and come back for more, and they do it in a relatively good frame of mind. Where others see darkness, they find light.
"We do, and I hope everyone else does, feel the growth from Week One to Week Four," Hartline said.
The Dolphins have reason to be cautiously optimistic. They have a new coach (Joe Philbin), a new quarterback (Ryan Tannehill), new offensive and defensive coordinators, and the No. 1 rush defense in the NFL.
In that regard, the Dolphins are building for the future. As for the present, Miami has adopted an interesting way to force a week-to-week mentality this season, and it's been as simple as a laminated sign on each locker room door.
"You go week-by-week," defensive end Jared Odrick said. "You can see on our doors we have ‘1-0,' because you want to constantly be 1-0 each week."
This philosophical reminder is designed to prevent the Dolphins from living in the past, good or bad. The players claim it's working.
"The coaches do a good job at getting us ready, getting us into the ballgame and then putting it away and moving on to the next week," wide receiver Davone Bess said.
Still, you have to believe it's hard for the players to forget the stink of some of those late-game losses. No lead is safe when it's a one-score game. The players swear they don't think that way, and to back it up they talk a good game.
"You can go out there and believe that 1-3 record if you want to," Burnett said, "and we'll put a win in the win column in a hurry.
"So I think, and I say this humbly, we've served notice. It's on tape, that we're a better team than our record reports."
And they truly seem to believe that.
