At least someone in the Press is offering a Mea Culpa

It's too soon to declare them anything. Once we are done in Foxborro we will have better idea.

 

Love the mentality and enthusiasm of the team..

They are angry..justified anger.

 

I thought you were going to say something like "...since 2001 when Marino retired." The mainstream media has been hating on us for a very long time and our defense will quickly shut them up this season.

 

I don't think it is too soon to declare that the Dolphins are not the worst team in the league

 

I am happy with our resiliency(RT included). We have been far from perfect and still have come out with a W. Our defense deserves a lot of credit. I would say, right now, they are playing better than our offense (ranked 6 in team defense). I thought our offense would be more explosive (ranked 13 in team offense),but that may come.

 

LOL, I didn't think about that.....there were A LOT who said we were the worst in the league without Landry or Suh. It's definitely not too early to call those "expert analysts" complete idiots.

 

That's what the Browns are for.

 

I don't think this offense was designed to be "explosive," so it probably won't be in most games, but that doesn't mean it can't be great. I think for Adam Gase the ideal offensive possession is a 15 play, 75 yard drive with a 5 yard TD run at the end to cap things off. It seems as if our offense is built primarily to frustrate the defense more than to make explosive plays. He is trying to make the defense play the way we want, not the other way around.

 

The big key is to keep them 2nd guessing and match-ups. I think that will eventually be deeper routes but at the same time, Gase isn't going to try to force anything unless he has to. I think we will be explosive at some point this season.

 

I guess I never realized that.
Thank you for setting me straight. That may help me keep our offense in perspective and not feeling like we just aren’t there yet.

 

I would go Bill's right now

 

It just shows how the media can only give an opinion on a subject and are not always right .The media also said Trump had no chance but look how that turned out.

 

Exactly! I like to look at the teams at the quarter pole rather than after two games b/c there are so many anomalous results those first two weeks each season. But it is clear that we are not the worst team in the league. It's also clear that the loss of Landry and Suh have not hurt us on the field. Our receivers and our DL have been better than what we had last season. The loss of Pouncey is more of a toss up. Our C play was bad last year and it's mostly still bad. On the financial side, moving on from those three were clear wins. I also think it appears that we are better off now in terms of locker room/culture as well. Obviously there were more changes, but losing those three players was most often cited by "experts" as the reason we'd suck.

 

So far, Landry, Suh and Pouncey don't seem to be missed at all...but you do have to look at the bigger picture. We traded those three for Wilson, Amendola, three linemen AND Quinn. All have been upgrades so far. I'd say the worst of the bunch has been Amendola but he's been the biggest leader off the field....I really can't second guess any of those moves.

As far as "who can replace Landry", the answer is five other receivers getting equal playing time and opportunities. That alone has been the biggest change in my mind, and I think it's going to pay huge dividends in the weeks to come.

 

I almost fell out of my chair.

 

Oh man, mea culpa, she is so hot.

 

I found the pre-season prognosticators stupidly lazy. Every one of them had us either third or fourth in the division, most with 3-6 wins. Now, I still don't believe this is a playoff team, but there is no way in hell I ever thought we'd only win 3 games, not unless Tanneyhill goes down early in the season. (If he does, we're royally screwed.) This is about a 500 team in my opinion. They might squeeze out one more win or they might drop one off, but they will not lose more games than they did in a season without their starting QB.

 

These early wins will be HUGE in December if they continue winning enough to make a play off run.

 

I think this team as it is now could win a wild card game

 

I didn't really have high hopes at the beginning of the season, but people who were picking us to be one of the bottom 2-3 teams I never got. I mean, we were a fair bit better than the bottom most feeders last year already and improved at QB (pretty much anyone would be better than Smokin Jay).

Our only major loss was Suh, and I get docking us for that, but still, call that even with QB. The only other major "loss" was Jarvis. I guess the national media really liked him and his catch numbers without seeing anything else.

Yep. We gotta knock off the Raiders too. A very very beatable west coast team travelling is a gotta win. It's the type of game good teams win consistently.

 

I’m being very cautious and can’t seem to enjoy the early success because well history. let’s wait till week 8 we could be 2-6 and everyone will be saying we’re complete ****. I know it’s a negative attitude I just seen this movie before!!

 

I feel the same. This team, without signifigant injuries to key players, should be in position to win around 10 games. If they take care of business against Oakland on Sunday, that would mean needing to go 7-6 the rest of the way, which seems fair. Especially considering that we still have all three home division games left to play.

Then the question becomes where we would play on the road in the playoffs, which for this franchise makes all the difference. One road playoff win since 1973, and that was in the old Kingdome in Seattle. Play at Houston, Indy or LA, and we've got a fair shot. Go to sub freezing temps and a stadium full of passionate loud fans in the Northeast, then probably not.

 

If you always wait until the second half, you're rarely going to ever be happy....

 

I am being cautious and not gearing myself up for a letdown, but I am still enjoying the early wins. Join me!

To be honest, I think it helps to consciously try and divorce oneself a bit from sports. Just enjoy the good moments, and don't let the downs take hold. If you get called bandwagon, whatever.

I get more interested in things like the draft these days.

 

We each can of course watch however we like. But to me, taking that advice would take absolutely everything away from what the Dolphins and the NFL are to me. Without the agony that comes with losing, you can never have the true, pure joy that comes with winning.

I've crossed that bridge with college football, and there's sadly no going back. I watch games now as if I'm watching a scripted drama or comedy. Can it be enjoyable in the moment? Sure, but when its over its over. I don't feel connected to it, or that I'm a part of it any more. And I don't think much about it during the week until Saturday.

I absolutely could never do that with the Dolphins. They are my 365 passion, for better and worse. And I both want and need those feelings.

 

How can you say the team with the best defense in football (after two weeks) can't be a playoff team? It's long been said that defense wins championships and so far, we're the best in that category by a wide margin (check out the other thread on the Football Outsiders stats).

 

A big part of being a sports fan is hope. Often, its all you have. One day, things will be good. Just have to deal with the heartbreak until it is.

 

I agree....yet we're 2-0 and have managed to score more points than our opponents twice. Don't lose sight of what actually matters here. =)

 

I think you overestimate wild card teams

 

The last time I heard that guy talking he didn't even acknowledge that the Dolphins had to scramble to find a QB last season after their (veteran) starter went down.

Clearly this guy--who seems to make a living off of snarky, hot takes--doesn't really prepare himself that well. That makes this #8 ranking just as meaningless IMHO.

I really don't care what Adam Schein thinks. He's a puppet inside a machine that creates nonsense news. He'll change this as soon as Miami loses their first game at which point he'll go back to the narrative that Miami is garbage.


The question was never about one person, rather if the lack of media attention in general signaled something. Well, apparently it didn't. Miami is doing just fine without the media coverage. In my view, this just signals that the media would rather report on other teams with bigger markets or higher profiles regardless of who's good and who's not. So tonight they'll cover the Giants, Pats, Cowboys, and Jets like always.

The bigger media outlets like ESPN, NFLN and FS1 tend to push only the high-profile stuff.

Miami isn't high-profile and they're probably not going to be regardless of their record.