Sparano’s First Win Was Just The Beginning

There had been a demolition after a poor season and it had gotten quite bleak. In late July Sparano described a very cold, scary picture to his players. "Right now, it's very, very dark out," Sparano said. "There's no light at the end of the tunnel, so don't look for it. We'll find it somewhere down the road."

In week 3 of the regular season the Miami Dolphins pulled off an upset victory over the New England Patriots to achieve their first win of the season. It meant a lot to the players where at the end, players celebrated by drenching Sparano with water.

After the win, players gathered inside the locker room surrounding their very emotional head coach. Pennington stood at the middle of the room in front of Sparano holding the game ball in the air. “We saw the light today” Pennington shouted “We saw the light today. That’s what’s about. That’s how all the hard work pays off and we owe it to this man right here” Pennington said handing the game ball over to Sparano as the locker room cheered and rumbled the new head coach.

In a game where the Dolphins trounced a playoff contender (albeit a Bradyless one) the players may have bought into the new beginning -The Sparano era. This win wasn’t just about trick plays or gimmicks, this win was about a team coming together. The offensive line is a force to be reckon with. We saw Long handle Vrabel and Seymour, Smiley and Carey being dominant, a vastly improving Satele against Wilfork and a surprisingly strong Ndukwe. Fasano and Martin provided great push as well. To be consistent on offense you have to dominate the line of scrimmage.

On their first scoring drive they engineered 74 yards and only used the Wildcat inside the 5 yard line to score. Pennington saw the field well getting good protection from the line and connected with his receivers and tight ends against a good, well disciplined secondary unit. He threw with more zip in his throws on Sunday. On their second drive the Dolphins went 80 yards and scored without the Wildcat. Before the half ended the Dolphins drove 77 yards while using the Wildcat twice, when Ricky ran for 25 yards to the Patriots 17 yard line and Ronnie for a TD again from inside the 5 yard line. By half time Miami was up 28-6. With the second drive of the second half the offense moved 60 yards from their own 20 yard line only to use the Wildcat on the Patriots 20 yard line for the throw to Fasano and lead 28-6 before the 4th quarter.

My point is, we moved the ball against a great defence using our base offense and the Wildcat has made the success of the offense a bit deceptive. It did however provide sparks. The headlines and TV spots will emphasize on the Wildcat but the Dolphins have something better; a fundamentally sound offense with a much improved, young dominating offensive line that’s gelling. With a secondary that’s minimizing mental errors and miscommunication, a stout defensive line and improving linebacking play that’s put excellent pressure against a good offensive line, this Dolphins team is going places. There’s still a lot of improvement like cutting down on penalties, special teams play and playing mistake free coverages but don’t underestimate what his team can do. The Chargers, as a bigger threat will be a test, so the Dolphins will need to show consistency with their fundamentals. This is not last years team, this is a good team.

They see the light. It’s in the distance and it’s a long way away. It’s more of just a sparkle but they’re getting there. It’s just the beginning to that journey towards the light.

 

Thanks. Well I'm probably a bit more optimistic about this team than a lot of people. I think we are further ahead in our progression than everyone thinks because when i watched the game again closely we won mostly with the basics.

The Wildcat was just the cream on the top of the game plan imo. Both offensive and defensive lines played great and there are far less break downs in the secondary. They have 2 more weeks of practice and can actually challenge the Charges.

 

DJ, watch fins-tv in miamidolphins.com. The first 10 secs of the clip shows the locker room i described. That gave me goosebumps and so it made me write about it.

 

Yep it sure did unfold like i described. Its even better when you watch it and you can see it on the dolphins website aquavision - yesterday's edition of fins-tv.

 

If we look at the age NE's front seven. Ty Warren DE 27, Wilfolk NT 26, Seymour DE 28, Vrabel OLB 33, Mayo ILB 22, Brushci ILB 35 and Thomas OLB 31. The only dinosaurs there are Vrabel and Brushci. Our offensive line dominated these guys in our base offense with almost perfect execution.

Chargers have a younger faster team in Olshansky, Williams, Castillo, Tucker, Smith, Wilhem and Philips. They also play the 3-4. On paper you would think NE's front seven looks better than SD's. I think the Dolphins OL can bring it to the Chargers. We'll be looking for consistency here. Success breeds confidence. They'll think if they can do that to NE they can do it to anyone.

Our defense will be tested greatly though. SD's offense is one of the best in the league.

As you said i all comes down to is execution. I believe the talent is there to pull off another upset victory. To have a another game with great execution will be tough for this young team but it's possible.

 

You know what else is not too shabby? We had 461 yards in total offense on Sunday. Of those 461 yards, 342 yards came from just our base offense. You know how much the Chargers gained against the Jets on Monday Night?......357 yards. Our offense is definitely improving