MIAMI GARDENS \u2014 Miami Dolphins coach Jeff Hafley knows who and what he has in his locker room. The same goes for his players. This isn\u2019t a team with an identity crisis.<\/p>\n
Ask anyone. Veteran edge rusher Josh Uche. Promising left tackle Patrick Paul. Upstart safety Dante Trader Jr. They know who they are. They simply need to find a way to turn their identity into victories.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re a team that plays really hard and gives great effort,\u201d coach Jeff Hafley said after Sunday\u2019s 31-24 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals<\/a>. \u201cI think we\u2019re a tough, physical team. If you look at identity, those are who we are.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to take the next step and we need to be more efficient and we need to execute at a higher level. And again, that\u2019s not talking about players only, that\u2019s coaching, too.\u201d<\/p>\n The Dolphins fell to 0-5 heading into their bye week. But they have played a physical brand of football, which is good and lives up to the credo of physicality and aggression that Halfey and general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan declared after being hired in January.<\/p>\n Of course, that line of logic gets old when it\u2019s not followed by a win or two<\/a>.<\/p>\n At some point an identity change becomes necessary when your current identity doesn\u2019t lead to victories.<\/p>\n The Dolphins aren\u2019t at that stage yet. But it\u2019s approaching.<\/p>\n Granted, there haven\u2019t been any major surprises for Miami through these first five games. You kind of figured if the Dolphins didn\u2019t beat the Las Vegas Raiders in the opener there was a good chance they\u2019d be winless going into the bye week, which is the current situation.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s one thing that I\u2019ve learned and have written while covering previous rebuilds in my 30 years of professional sports \u2014 success isn\u2019t linear.<\/p>\n There will be setbacks. That\u2019s been the deal for the Dolphins.<\/p>\n