It will determine if the players have really bought in to what Philbin preaches. The other losses were pretty much luck. Every game could have easily been a win, except Houston. This last game was our first REAL beating. How the team responds tomorrow will be huge for Philbin's success here. If they come out fired up and play smart, disciplined football, they should win easily, if not.... We will continue rebuilding.
There is no question that it's Philbin's most important game to date. Can he keep this team from imploding?
This will not only show if Philbin really can coach, but also which players need to be here and which don't.
I thought the Jets game was. I thought the Colts game was. I thought the Titans game was since we were soundly beaten and that means we are horrible. But this game is the most important? Do go on....
I believe it's more about the latter. Expecting Philbin to change a bunch of losers into winners in one season is a tall order. The number of acorns that have already been scuttled tells me all I need to know.
Yep if we win, then every game here on out is "the most important". and really, in the grand scheme of things, this game is almost meaningless. we have very little shot at the playoffs. A short week, on the road, in cold Buffalo is overrated.
Why should we win easily? I never expect us to win easily. Is it important? Yes Is it the end of Philbin if we lose? No
That was my first thought. How many most important game of the seasons are Miami going to play this year?
we're rebuilding anyway. win or lose tomorrow, we aren't a playoff team. i doubt we even make it to .500 ..which would be right on par with the last 3 years.
Exactly, flipping rocks denotes a trial and error approach. Which exemplifies 3rd dimensional thought...Which sucks. Flipping acorns doesn't even make sense...
you guys are missing the point. we hadn't been beaten like that all season long. we were in every game at some point. this last games was a beatdown from start to finish. how they play tomorrow will show what kind of mentality this team has, this is our first true test in the face of adversity. and it hasn't happened yet this year. that is what makes it the most important game so far.
I don't usually agree with these things but yes I think tomorrow is one of a few remaining potential turning points. The path to the playoffs is a knife's edge, there's never just one game for you to **** yourself over. You can do it at any point. So winning tomorrow doesn't win you anything. But losing tomorrow definitely does create an unstable situation, in my opinion. The Dolphins could easily win this one. Prior to the Jets game I had mapped out a lot of what was going to happen the rest of the year. I figured on a Jets win and a Colts loss, but then I figured the next two games would be played as a pair and would PROBABLY end up 1-1, with the most likely victory coming against the Titans but if not it creates a higher potential for a follow up win against the Bills. Short weeks can create reactions. You react to a hard fought win by coming out flat (especially short week on the road) and then you lose. Or, you react to a loss by coming out guns blazing for a win. I didn't see the Titans game as I was overseas but obviously that game didn't end up looking like the most likely win of the two games so I was wrong there. But lucky for the Dolphins the horrifying performance does not seem to be very injury related...they just came out and ****ed themselves over, couldn't stop tripping on their own feet. From there the other side was apparently opportunistic enough to drive the nail in the coffin. The Bills meanwhile are walking wounded. That all means that it's within the Dolphins' power to perform better against the Bills who just came off a game they SHOULD have won against a team most agree is still one of the very best in the NFL. A lot of the things that were working against the Jets a few weeks ago are working against the Bills here except perhaps even magnified by the short week. The Dolphins have an awful taste in their mouth and will be looking to bounce back big time. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. But I think the Dolphins will start off fast. How many opportunities they blow early will determine whether the Bills make a late run to bring it back. As a bettor, I would probably go pretty big on the Dolphins winning here. You know there's going to be an over-reaction to the awful Titans loss (there always is). That should keep the lines favorable. But if the Dolphins don't win this then there really are no hopes for the playoffs and at that point everyone will know it. At that point, if you come out 4-6, then privately I think some coaches (and maybe even players) will admit to themselves the rest of this season is mostly about evaluation and development. Some players will be playing for their next contract. Some will be quitting. Some younger players may go in the tank because they just don't know how to manage their way out of bad records. Anyway that's how I've been thinking about this game and the way the season has and will progress. As I said before the only game that really surprised me as far as outcome was the Bengals game. That's why I moved off +/- 5.5 (with a lean toward 5) to +/- 6.5 (with a lean toward 6). I think we've got a Buffalo win coming up which will temporarily re-ignite the engines of optimism. But then I think we've got a back-breaking three-straight-loss stretch following that up. That will be unrecoverable. They'll probably beat Jacksonville but then quickly return to falling apart with two more losses to the Bills and Patriots. That Bills game is my last real tossup and represents the 0.5 in that +/- 6.5 but I think a win against the Bills here makes a follow-up loss in the re-match more likely.
I don't particularly even want to think about the direction of the discussion if the Dolphins do in fact finish the final 9 games of the season 2-7 as I've been thinking for a long time. I HOPE that the diseased discussion stays focused on Jeff Ireland, as it's been for quite some time (and much as it previously had been with Chad Henne). But I do fear that the disease could spread to Joe Philbin, Mike Sherman, Kevin Coyle, and maybe even Ryan Tannehill. The problem as usual is the what-have-you-done-lately thing. A 6-10 record can be acceptable for a new coaching staff if you did most of the winning late in the season. But ask Jim Zorn about the concept of the final record being lost in the details about when-you-did-what. I doubt in that scenario that Joe Philbin would be one-and-done. I do have trouble with that concept. Cam Cameron was one thing but we were talking about a 1-15 team there. Cameron's offensive scheme was supposed to be the card at the top of the card pyramid and instead it crashed the whole thing downward. I don't think there was the same mentality preseason this year so even finishing 2-7 in the final 9 games wouldn't bring down the ship and result in a new order being resurrected. But I do still see an embattled Jeff Ireland being the focal point (rightly or wrongly) and ending up replaced.
