Hey, you. Yeah, you. Stop painting your face aqua and orange for one second. Come over here where the rest of the population lives. This place is called Earth.

Welcome back.

I know you've been flying high over the last few days, enjoying the Miami Dolphins victory over the San Diego Chargers. It was a great win. It was the best game the Dolphins have played in a very long time.

But, um, it was one game.

Repeat that with me: It was one game.

And yes, that victory suggests bigger and better things are coming. I'll give you that. I see bigger and better things on the horizon as well.

But unlike many of you, I've been around here a long time. I've seen things. I know things. And I know that playoff berths aren't nailed down the first week of November. I know that singular games this early don't decide anything other than what happens on one particular day.

I know that winning the November championship is about as meaningful as winning the free agency title and the draft grades award and the training camp championship and the preseason Super Bowl.

And I know that the team I cover has won all those paper tiger honors before and it has resulted in nothing come January.

So pardon me while I ask you to save the champagne celebration for New Year's or the actual accomplishment of something significant -- such as earning a playoff berth -- which would happen around the new year, anyway.

In other words, pardon me if I ask you to calm down and return to reality.

I'm making this request because while the Dolphins seem to have a firm grasp on what they are working on, many fans and media do not.

They Dolphins are not working on celebrating last week or announcing the dawn of a new title era. They're simply working on adding another win Sunday to follow the ones they've had the past few weeks.

“The one thing about this team that I’m seeing, they know that it’s one week at a time," defensive coordinator Kevin Coyle said Tuesday, speaking for the team as coach Joe Philbin was away at his father's funeral. "We had a good win, we were happy about it. Then we come back in here and Tuesday is back to work."

Interesting that Coyle spoke for about 12 minutes on Tuesday and didn't make reference to the Dolphins winning a championship.

Oh, because they haven't.

(Yes, I know, I sound like a downer. But do you come here to read the truth or fairy tales? If you want fairy tales they are found elsewhere so ...)

Here you get present day reality. And that now is that the Dolphins are playing very well. But the NFL rewards consistency. The NFL requires teams winning on the road to succeed. The NFL requires teams prosper within their division first before the conversation can turn to playoffs and such.

The Dolphins kicked the Chargers in the thunder bolts on Sunday. You know what that meant?

“It’s still a small glimpse," safety Louis Delmas said. "Every win or loss doesn’t seem as good or as bad as it is. We definitely still have a lot of things to improve on. We’re going to go back to the drawing board and hopefully improve for the upcoming games."

Good attitude.

Right attitude.

The truth about the Dolphins is they are seemingly ascending. I believe I wrote that ascent was possible when I wrote Miami has the most stable roster of any team in the AFC East. I wrote that two weeks ago.

But now I see some pundits and national media types, such as the Monday Morning Quarterback, going all breathless on us, saying the Dolphins are suddenly the eighth best team in the NFL -- seven slots ahead of Buffalo, who, you know, has the same record as the Dolphins and beat them in their only meeting so far this year.

Now I get people on twitter asking me sarcastically if I think quarterback Ryan Tannehill is elite, knowing that I don't think he is because, well, through 40 starts he has not been and a great, outstanding, career game against the Chargers doesn't change that.

Elite?

Brady.

Manning (you know which one).

Brees.

Rodgers.

Not because they're good the last few weeks. But because they've been good this year and for a long time before that. One good game or even a string of three or four good games doesn't make anyone elite. Otherwise Bryan Hoyer would be elite. Matt Cassel would be elite. Josh McCown would be elite.

So stop with the elite talk. Please.

I read how Bucky Brooks over at NFL.com is saying the Patriots might not be the best team in the AFC East right now. Well, they are and anyone with eyes sees they are, based on their record and what they've been doing the past month and have done in past years.

Bucky makes the point the Dolphins are better.

Mando makes the point we would be smart to actually pass them in the standings or even get out of third place before we start pounding chests. Haven't you, as Dolphins fans learned the meaning of premature pronouncements before to understand this is the best course?

Look, I covered this team when it had the best record in the NFL at 9-2 in 1993. They didn't win another game that season, finishing 9-7.

I covered this team when SI picked them to go to the Super Bowl in 2006. They went 6-10 and the coach quit to go back to college.

I covered this team when they were 8-6 and all it had to do to make the playoffs was win one of two games against teams with losing records and nothing to play for. And then the Dolphins lost both those games. That was last year. Remember last year?

What I'm saying is hold off on the preening. Let the team prove itself. Don't get ahead of yourselves.

Wise people consider a thing and soak it in once it is fact. Fanboy fools jump on bandwagons, make bold pronouncements and then feel cheated if their team doesn't perform exactly as they predicted.

Be wise, friends.