Ryan Tannehill, the Dolphins’ newest quarterback, called Sunday’s matchup against the Patriots “just another game.”

What the rookie apparently doesn’t realize is that until his franchise has that elusive stability, that unless first-year coach Joe Philbin is the coach it’s needed and unless it discovers that Tannehill indeed is the top-level quarterback it’s been searching so long for, Miami won’t have a chance of beating that “just another” opponent in New England.

Maybe it isn’t fair to compare the other franchises with New England. Robert Kraft was shrewd enough to take a chance on Belichick, whose first head coaching stint, with Cleveland, was memorable for the wrong reasons, and Belichick listened to Dick Rehbein when the late quarterbacks coach wanted to take the skinny kid from Michigan with the 199th pick in the 2000 draft.

In all of the years since, the other teams in the AFC East have been searching, mostly in vain, for that front office and coaching stability, for that quarterback who can raise the standard for his teammates and the entire organization.

Belichick and Brady wound up being a marriage made in football heaven, the once-in-a-generation matchup of the right coach with the right quarterback.