I'm not one to complain about the media. Its a lost cause. But I have to share with y'all what I heard on the radio this morning. There were three guys on ESPN radio talking about this week's upcoming games: Trey Wingo, Mark Schlareth, and some other dude. They all not only picked the Pats to win, but they said it was the best bet of the weekend. Wingo said, and this is a direct quote, "the moon will fall to the Earth before the Pats lose 2 in a row." He backed it up with a stat that the Pats are 16-1 after a loss, but all three dudes didn't even give us a chance. Wingo even predicted that Bellichek will run up the score on us. As a Dolphin fan, I don't covet ESPN's respect, but this was downright nutty!
I would have thought the decade plus level of futility by the Pats indicated that they too of all the teams know how to **** things up pretty good. Does Schlereth still think Denver will win the SB every year?
The Sports Media is a "show me" business. They aren't apt to make any profound logical predictions. Its all about trends and reputation. The Dolphins are not yet out of that hole where people are going to give us respect. The tide is slowly turning though.
C'mon guys..they may have gone a little overboard, but what Wingo says has merit...every time I've counted the Pats out, BB has come up with a way to **** me up anyway...until they actually lose this game, as much as I think we should win the game, they have the advantage... Besides, let's think about this...if we lose this game, we're still in things beings that we've got a better schedule upcoming and still have the jests and jills left to play to make up for a loss to the pats, from a 'playoff' viewpoint...on the other hand, if the pats lose...it's just about over for them with Pittsburg, Arizona and barfalo coming up on their schedule...For us, we have nothing to lose because we aren't supposed to be here anyways....They also have some revenge factor from getting smacked by us in week 3... I just find it hard to bet against the pastsies, even tho I think we can win this game...
On the other hand, if we do beat NE and particularly if the jests fall to Tennessee, we'll be the media darlings...
The Pats also have an extra couple of days to prepare, rest and practice. On top of that, the Phins have not exactly lit the world on fire with essentially squeaking out victories over two of the worst teams in Seattle and Oakland. The media has been burned a countless number of times in counting the pats out and I don't blame them one bit for putting their eggs in with them. Even still, all of that aside, 2 of the three guys will probably change their mind 4 more times before the game on Sunday. It's no big deal. When the Dolphins become world beaters week in and week out, we'll get the respect from the media and deserve it too. Many times we've garnered too much pre-season hype/respect, and me personally, I'd rather my team get disrespected than get overhyped by the media.
You guys have to realize that Radio is a form of media, therefore a form of entertainment. Wild predictions and opinions are the norm. In fact, if they didn't say things like this, they would probably be fired. Think about it. It got you so incensed, that you created a thread on a Dolphins message board to complain about it, thereby, spreading their thoughts and views to people who would otherwise not be exposed to them. Now that is what I call synergy. Wingo and Co. can take pride in the fact that their words have garnered them that much more notoriety in the world. Most of the time, they don't even believe their own opinions, or at least they fill them with a ton of hyperbole to make sure people hear them. Nothign more, nothing less. Besides, he is probably fairly accurate on this one. The Patriots are good again and Miami has looked beatable against opponents that they should have mollywhopped. It is going to be an extremely tough hill to climb to beat the Patriots twice in the same year.
We play our best when we are overlooked and disrespected so I hope it continues .The only thing that matters is the score at the end of the game. We have always matched up well with the Patriots even in their SB years and I like our chances but the Patriots should still be favored
I doubt that. The media has always hated us for some reason. They never give us a break. IF we play good, it's a fluke. IF, we play bad, it's just the Dolphins as usual. So, I don't see us getting any respect, ever, from most of the media.
They never gave the '72, '73 team any credit. They were the cinderella team. I just don't ever see us being any media favorite.
I don't blame them, I am thinking something similar about this game. The Pats are a very well coached team and Matt Cassel has really grown as a QB over the course of this season since we beat them. The Pats D is still very vulnerable to the run, but I don't think our mediocre DBs can cover Randy Moss. Unless we get a buttload of pressure on Cassel, I think he burns us and they wind up outscoring us.
I think the line opened with us having a 2 or 2.5 point favorites, depending on which site you went to.
Did we not just beat Oakland by 2 points on our last drive? Thought so. Fact is, we're not that good. We've barley beaten two of the worst teams in the league. That said, I think we can beat NE, but it's not going to be easy.
The dolphins have not got much respect because we have'nt had an identity for a long time, we always seem to fold under big game pressure and there has never been a toughness about our team since the glory years. That is changing and we can thank bill parcells for all of it. The code will change everything.