Mike McDaniel on Dolphins' 'Cuteness' Label: 'There's Always Going to Be Something'

The Miami Dolphins are perceived as a flashy team predicated on a high-powered offense, but head coach Mike McDaniel believes his squad is much more than that.

Per ESPN's Marcel Louis-Jacques, McDaniel said he thinks the Dolphins haven't gotten enough credit for being able to grind out wins when necessary.

"To spend your time worrying about narratives, I would be a stressed out individual," McDaniel said. "I think it is kind of odd though. I feel like -- I haven't checked lately -- but I feel like we're pretty good at stopping the run and running the football. That's generally not associated with cuteness. Whatever. I mean, there's always going to be something."

The Dolphins are coming off a gritty 22-20 win over the Dallas Cowboys in a game where they scored just one offensive touchdown. Dallas entered the game as the league's top scoring offense, but Miami relied on its defense to win, continuing a recent trend.

Louis-Jacques noted that since Week 8, the Dolphins rank second in defensive EPA (61.98), first in scoring (15.9 points per game) and yards per game (253.8).

Miami (11-4) will have the opportunity to claim the No. 1 spot in the AFC when the team faces the conference-leading Baltimore Ravens (12-3) on Sunday, so that game will go a long way toward helping change the perception of the Dolphins.

"That was an ultimate goal of the team, so they'd be very happy with that," McDaniel said of earning the No. 1 seed. "It would be secondary in the moment to this game and winning this game. You want these types of games. You want to go against the best, and that in itself justifies 100 percent of our attention."