Admit it — you want to believe in the Dolphins after Sunday’s 37-0 win against San Diego but you just can’t do it yet.

Not after five straight seasons without a playoff berth. Not after they’ve gone on winning streaks in the past only to collapse. Not with a head coach who is still unproven.

So that’s why we’ll say the Dolphins are legit*

* = It’s the Dolphins so we won’t be stunned to see them fall apart. But forgetting their recent history, this looks like a dangerous team.

Receiver Mike Wallace doesn’t care if you — or anyone in the NFL — believes in the Dolphins. In fact, he hopes they fly under the radar.

“Hopefully nobody catches on,” Wallace said. “Hopefully they just keep thinking it’s the same Dolphins from four or five years ago.”

Last year all the statistical odds pointed to a Dolphins playoff berth. They were 3-0 at one point. Late in the season they had the easiest schedule of teams competing for the final AFC postseason berth. And they blew it.

But the difference last year was that Miami was in the running for a playoff spot despite obvious deficiencies.

We knew the Dolphins had the worst offensive line in the NFL. We knew they couldn’t run the ball (partly because the offensive line was so bad). We knew the linebackers were a bottom-tier bunch and couldn’t stop the run or opposing tight ends.

This year, the Dolphins don’t have a major weakness.

They’re still average at linebacker. They still entered the game allowing 17 sacks which was tied for 15th in the NFL. They still need a skilled receiver or tight end with size. They could still struggle against tough defensive lines like Buffalo.

But there’s no glaring hole. With Ryan Tannehill emerging as more-than-adequate quarterback, there’s no unit on this team you can say needs a complete overhaul.

Yet there’s an area where the Dolphins are as good as anyone in the NFL. The defensive line continued its dominant play on Sunday, sacking quarterback Philip Rivers three times — one each by Cam Wake, Randy Starks and Earl Mitchell. Wake added three quarterback hits.

Rivers was pressured early and often and finished with a 31.0 passer rating. Not 131.0. This is a quarterback who entered the game with a 102.6 rating. His season low before Sunday was 75.9 in Week 1 opener against Arizona.

The constant pressure helped Miami’s secondary rack up three interceptions — two by Brent Grimes and one by Reshad Jones. Grimes nearly had a third but Jones was also going for the ball and the timing just didn’t work out. That’s a good problem.

Rivers threw for 138 yards against a secondary that entered the game giving up the third fewest yards in the league.

And then there’s Tannehill. Since coaches considered benching him in late September, he’s responded with a 103 passer rating in his last five games.

Even last week at Jacksonville, when the offense was held to 56 first-half yards and Tannehill finished with a 73.3 rating, he made several big plays down the stretch. That offensive stinker against the Jaguars was as much on the receivers as it was the quarterback.

Tannehill is clearly getting a better grasp of Bill Lazor’s offense. When the season started, he and Miami’s receivers said they had the offense down. They said it was months in the making and it was second nature at that point.

Perhaps they believed it. Or maybe they didn’t want to publicly admit that a new offense takes more than training camp and the preseason to master.

You can’t say they’re there yet — not after what we saw in the first half against Jacksonville last week. Running back Lamar Miller’s shoulder injury could be a concern. He said after the game that he’s fine, but linebacker Dannell Ellerbe said the same thing after the season opener and he missed the rest of the season. So you never really know.

But at the moment the Dolphins are averaging 26.4 points per game which puts them top 10 in the league.

You don’t have to be a mathematician to know that a top 10 offense and a dominant defensive line makes you a real contender in the NFL.

“This is the second offense (Tannehill) has been in,” guard Mike Pouncey said. “Anytime you switch to a new offense it takes time to adjust to it and get all the kinks out.

“Bill Lazor is doing a great job. He came in and brought the intensity we needed on offense. He’s brought in the playbook that matches our skill set.”

Center Samson Satele believes that the best indicator of Miami’s success on Sunday was the Chargers defenders mailing it in when the Dolphins went up 17-0 — with 8:53 left in the second quarter.

“As soon as it went to 17-0 you could see guys on the other side. Some guys were still playing hard. Some guys weren’t,” Satele said. “That’s what you want to feel on offense. You want them to give up.”

An opponent giving up in the second quarter because they were getting crushed by the Dolphins? What alternative universe is this?

If you put this same Dolphins team in, say, Pittsburgh, you’d probably start calling them a contender.

This isn’t Pittsburgh. This is Miami. So if you can’t trust them quite yet, no one blames you. But there’s reason to believe this team is legit*.

Click here for our full coverage of the Dolphins win against San Diego