http://walterfootball.com/offseason2009mia.php 124? I never knew that you wrote for Walter football. We were lucky, we will suck, wildcat is a gimmick, Chad won't stay healthy, no recievers, Ginn sucks, defense is old...blah blah blah. I guess well just have to do it all over again. And it will be as sweet as it was the first time around
Yes if Brady had been healthy maybe we don't make the playoffs but that doesn't mean that we weren't a good team. We still went 11-5 whether we made the playoffs or not.
I thought I was reading the Lions season preview. We have issues this season, but so does every team we play, these preseason prediction articles are giving us -0- credit going into 09.
Not this exact piece. In general. Alot of folks wrote us off as a 1 hit wonder. Sprano and co can keep on pushing us vs the world mentality.
If, If, If, If... If a worm had a machine gun, then a bird wouldn't try to eat it. If I knew what the winning Powerball numbers were, then I'd be a ****ing gazillionaire These guys can shove the "ifs" right up their ***, and give us our much deserved respect. "IF" we hadn't gone 11-5 and whipped the Jets *** at home in the final game of the season, we wouldn't have been AFC East Champs
Well if thats the best Doomsday analysis he can muster, then I detect a sweet scent of optimism in the air! WOO HOO!!!
Like I heard Levon Kirkland say once after a heartbreaking Steelers loss...if IFs were 5ths, we could all get drunk.
Like one of my all time favorite people I ever knew, Richard A. Price, used to tell me...if IFs and BUTs were candies and nuts, we'd all have a Merry Christmas.
Hm. Adding a former league defensive MVP in Jason Taylor and CFL MVP the last two years Cam Wake (almost 40 sacks in two seasons, albeit in a lesser-talent league) and the guy says we have done nothing to improve the pass rush. I would say we have done 'nothing'. To say he is pessimistic would be an understatement. He's simply not objective in his anaylsis. Of course, neither are we. lol.
The guy seems very age obsessed. So here are all the times he says age is a problem with a position on our roster: - Ricky Williams will be useless since he's over 32 now, according to this guy. I agree that Williams, and runningbacks in general, decline fairly significantly over 30. I won;t complain about his 'age' point here. - JT can't rush the passer because of his age... nor can Joery Porter at 35 and 32 respectively. Yet two of the top three ten pass rushers in the league are over 30.... Porter (32yrs - 17.5 sacks) and John Abraham (31yrs - 16.5 sacks). I agree JT has probably declined a bit, but to say a guy who is the active player with the most sacks in the league does not help your pass rush, is far-fetched. - - "Unfortunately" Will allen is 31 (oh NO!). Of course among the leagues top DB's Ed Reed (Pro Bowl) is 30, Charles Woodson (Pro Bowl) is 32, Ronde Barber (34), Andre Goodman (30) who are all in the top 15 in either INTs or Passes Defensed in the league. Again, it's not as big a deal as this age-obsessed writer makes it out to be. The weird thing is, this guy even says it won;t affect Will this season, yet he can;t resist bringing up the age ANYWAYS. This guy REALLY has issues with anyone over 30. Maybe he is 29 and still living in his parents' basement? Note to buddy: your life doesn't end at 30! - As for our run defense: "The latter ranking could worsen in 2009 because nose tackle Jason Ferguson turns 35 in November." -sigh- Yeah, well Casey Hampton will be 32 and the Steelers won a Superbowl with him. Jamal Williams is 33 and he's even better than Hampton. Should this be the FOURTH position-analysis where the writer points out a player's age as a problem? Clearly the league has other players performing fine at this position well into their thirties. Anyone remember Ted Washinton?? PLayed til he was 39. Sam Adams? Played til he was 34. So, yes Ferguson is getting to the end of his career... but he ain't in unknown territory. Guys have proven they can play NT at this age. I mean, i general I agree that age tends to make a player decline, but this guy brings up age as a reason for most of our players being weaknesses. Come on, not everyone automatically sucks over age 30. He puts too much emphasis on this factor.
Why do you guys let idiots like this fool get you so worked up? We know what we have, and we will enjoy one of the most fun seasons we've had since, well, last year! Sparano and Staff will keep this team competitive, and I seriously doubt Tony gives a rats a$$ what anybody writes about our team.
He certainly does have an issue with age, however, Porter, as great as he was last year really tailed off later in the season last year and we still pulled it off. Whether that was due to a lack of any other source of pass rush the opposition had to defend or not is also up for debate. The thing is, other than Fergy, none of the other guys he refers to are key to major decline of performance of the team. There may be a question as to whether or not Soliai can fill Fergy's shoes, but at OLB, we've still got JT and Wake if Porter goes down. At DB, we have Davis, Smith, Green and potentially even Jason Allen should Will go down. What I don't see, other than NT is a complete dearth of backup talent as we had last year. If Will Allen or Goody had gone down last year, there really wasn't much there. Same with Porter's spot. At RB, there were questions as to whether a) Brown would recover well enough to be effective and b) would RW be able to fill those shoes had he been called on. Well, Brown was effective. But even this year, if Brown or Williams go down for whatever reason, is there much of a question as to whether one or the other could tow the line without the other ??? Not really. As others above me have said, too much is place on age and ifs and not enough on what we've done to answer some of the questions we had prior to this season....
And I could argue that the Dolphins still would've won the division last year. Think about it, we scored 38 points against the Pats in NE. Of course Brady is capable of putting up that many points, but we also ran out the clock for the ENTIRE 4th quarter of that game. So either way, we probably win. That means the Pats would have to have won 10 of their final 13 games of the season to finish at 12-4 and win the division (given they were already 2-0 going into that game) Sure, thats possible. But I don't believe it was as cut and dry as everyone believes.
Everybody has written us off, and I am thinking more and more that they are all leaning the wrong way on this team. This team is motivated, cohesive, well coached, and now believes in itself. ALL of the above. I would never write off any team that I can make that statement about.
I've said this before and I'll say it again...The sports media....nevermind. I love it. Lets all write these bums after the season, and ask them how that plate of crow tastes.
I am sure this is an opinion of many people out there. Winning one year is fun, however it doesn't make the Dolphins a good team. Remember it was just a few years ago that the Bengals with 12-4. That seems like so long ago as the team hasn't been that good again. The question is that will Miami be able to win over 10 games next year. Their is some stuff against them. For instance no one was taking them as serious and they got lucky with injuries. It wasn't the Wildcat that punched the Patriots in the mouth. It was that Miami came to play that day. The Wildcat didn't make it so Miami's defense stuffed the Patriot's defense or Pennington having an amazing day. The Patrtiots just didn't get hyped to play Miami. This year they will be ready. Another thing is the fact they went from not having a diciplinarian to having a diciplinarian. A lot of times teams who have that situation have a big turn around and then fall back to earth the next year. I am not saying that Miami is going to be a bad team. I am just saying that they are going to have to prove themselves next year.
A couple things.. 1. Are you saying that the reason we beat the Patriots was because they were looking past us? They "just didn't get hyped to play us"? ..Please....I think every successful coach in the NFL knows if you want to win you need to bring your best every single week. Belichick maybe more than any. That team didn't go 16-0 the year prior by dropping into cruise control on a team. We beat them - they didn't let us win. They were out coached. 2. Cincy is a bad example. To begin with I think you mean 11-5, not 12-4. And Cincy has had their reasons for their struggles. Palmer's ACL injury. A group of criminals on the team. The OchoCInco sideshow. I doubt we'll experience any of the above to drag us down. 3. The highlighted sentence confused me
1. I am saying that the Patriots looked really flat that day and even though Belichick is an amazing coach, he isn't perfect. If you have a team that won over 20 regular season games going against a team that has won 1 out of the last 20 regular season games, then it is not as easy to get up for them. They were not only out coached, they were out played. Miami's defense was on fire and Miami's offense was clicking. I do not believe Miami had a game like that again during the season. 2. You are right 11-5. Doesn't mean they weren't good and became bad. There are other teams that have had one good year only to fall back to earth. Also those are just excuses to why they fell flat. The question is next year, will other people be saying things like that for Miami? 3. I meant to say that it wasn't just because of the Wildcat Miami won that game. The wildcat didn't make Miami's defense play like gang busters or Pennington from having an amazing day.
Thanks. That gave me a little better understanding of your thoughts. IMO, the Pats' offense was probably still trying to find their groove with Cassell at QB. But I thought their defense looked like "more of the same" until we turned their world upside down with the WC. From that point on, they were tentative. As to next year.... Injuries - sure, no one can predict. If we see injuries then we're in trouble. But the other issues Cincy has experienced? No way. I don't think very many are saying we will be a bad team; so much as we won't have such a good record because of all these great teams on our schedule this year. Which is pretty silly. Why not them instead of us? ATL is one team who the media seems to be really hyped about. Houston is another, as is SD. Those 3 teams have just as much chance for taking a "step back" as we do. Jax and Carolina are 2 others. Ultimately, as you allude to we need to prove it all over again if we hope to shut people up.
Can't say that I really much care about what Walter Football or any other mainstream media pundit has to say. I'm more into listening to the opinions of folks that actually track the team day in and day out throughout the season (local media, local bloggers, and fans like the folks on this site).
The Dolphins drove it down the field 3 times on them before they used the wild cat. It was the third drive at the end when they used it to score. By then they scored 17 points.
It is also human nature. Miami has been terrible for the last two years. The Patriots were awesome the last two years. Bellicheat is a good motivator, even the best, however that team was not motivated that day. The defense looked flat before the wildcat and the offense just never looked like they were there. Miami's defense played really well and Miami's offense played really well as well.
They sure were motivated when they came down here and whipped our butts..That game gives me a good barometer as to how much we need to improve. It was one of those hyped games that this team had to experience first, to learn what to do the next time around when put in that situation.. Our execution was poor, and our lack of size and athletisism was exposed imo. The main reason why i loved our draft so much. Our crowd needs to be better as well when in big games like that.
I agree, They had a different type of hate in their eyes down here.. For me, we had to prove that we belonged with that team {that we were to be taken seriously}, and we did..but as great teams do, they recognized that we were legit after that 1st game, and what did they do? upped their intensity for the next game, a game that they are used to playing in, games that we were not, hence the 2nd game result. I think its all good moving forward, and they know now who they are going to be dealing with, but the good thing is, we now know what type of intensity we need to bring to the table in a game like that. Its all part of why we should be a better football team.
