“The crowd, the energy, that’s kind of something that we haven’t really had yet this season,” tight end Mike Gesicki said.

The Dolphins have been outscored by 138 points (180 to 42), third-most through a team’s first five games since 1940, according to Pro Football Reference. If they continue imploding at this rate, they will allow the most points and score the fewest since the N.F.L. regular season expanded to 16 games in 1978. Speaking at his locker after the game, right tackle Jesse Davis said that he had been able to compartmentalize each defeat, moving on the next day, but that he was tired of “dragging our names through the mud.”

“It’s already Week 6 and we’re scratching our heads about what’s going on,” Davis said. “Days like today, when you have progress, that’s what makes us go, ‘O.K., there it is, we can do it.’ Just because you’re 0-5 doesn’t mean that you’re horrible. It’s still the N.F.L.”

That is how Giants guard Kevin Zeitler felt in Cleveland, where a 1-15 fiasco in 2016 preceded a winless 2017, all so the Browns could maximize their salary-cap flexibility and land a bounty of draft picks. The prize for the Browns is an enviable core, their 2-4 record notwithstanding, but all that losing lingers for Zeitler, who said it exacted a mental toll.

“No one thought it would get to that,” Zeitler said last week at the Giants’ headquarters. “We realized what the organization was trying to do, but no one thought 0-16. Then something happened and another thing happened and every possible thing happened.”

The inherent truth about members of a sinking team is that they prepare hard every week, studying film and practicing and extending worthy efforts, all so the organization can bring in who they believe are better players. In all likelihood, most of the current Dolphins will not be part of the team whenever they contend again.