Some thoughts on the offense & Sparano: His time here and in Dallas

After the debacle that was last season, it seemed pretty obvious the team quit on Sparano. From Ricky Williams, to Marshall, Hartline, and some other players(even some defensive players on other teams), we heard alot about how the team tuned out their head coach with due to his micromanaging, the approach of the offense, Dan Henning's playcalling, the failure of the run game, the mismanagement of Henne and Pennington, the predictability of the offense...it was apparent that Sparano had finally lost the locker room. We know what happened in the offseason: new offensive coordinator, new running backs, Henne as starter, laid back approach to camp...and still the team looks like they just aren't getting the message and that Sparano's offense whether Henning or Daboll are running it, just doesn't work.

Ask the Dallas Cowboys. I recall that sometime during Parcells' last season there, Sparano was calling plays. The offense did well at first, but eventually defenses figured them out and exploited it's weaknesses. Romo was starting to look like a QB lost, throwing untimely interceptions, miscommunication with the WRs,as well as his inability to audible when he saw the defense about to attack made him vulnerable to turnovers. Sound familiar?

And for all the hype about him being an offensive line guru, what further prove do you need than when he was in Dallas? Romo was sacked often and I don't remember Julius Jones and Marion Barber having monster seasons behind that O-line, which featured such "studs" as current Dolphins starting RT Marc Colombo.

So eventually, Jason Garrett was reluctantly given the role of playcalling on offense from Parcells(likely ordered from Jerry Jones) and Sparano found himself in an awkward position. Cowboys fail to win in the playoffs, Parcells resigns,and takes Sparano and Jeff Ireland with him so he could build this team without anyone else having a second opinion such as a meddling owner like a Jerry Jones. Huzienga and Parcells at first are a match made in heaven because Wayne is a hands off type of owner. Dolphins are ready to go into the season with Josh freakin' McCown as the starter, with the team looking dismal in the preseason with no clear direction as to where the team is heading.

Then comes in Chad Pennington, who's a veteran and knows how to play quarterback in the NFL. He knows the offense well. But despite his accuracy, efficiency and knowledge of the league, the Dolphins start off 0-2, already showing signs of offensive ineptitude with the inability to run the football or score in the redzone. Sparano has a meeting with his coaches to determine if there needs to be a change. David Lee, QB coach, suggests running the single wing to create an ultimate wall for the running backs, confuse the defense with misdirection and mismatches, and overload the line with extra blockers. Ronnie Brown shows hes the best at executing this in practice and the team stuns New England and San Diego the next two games with what comes to known as the Wildcat, a play borrowed from the Arkansas playbook when David Lee coached there. The Wildcat temporarily maskes the poor run blocking and keeps defenses honest, allowing Pennington to have success throwing in a high percentage, short passing offense, which also masked our pass protection problems. The coach wants to be a run team, that can't run.

2009 Wayne sells the team to Ross, Ross is Jerry Jones without the football background and immediately clashes with the Parcells mafia, with Ireland now ready to be anybody's lapdog.
So offense still shows same problems, O-line looks set but injuries hurt offensive production. Pennington gets hurt, Henne is brought in but is still raw, is put on a tight leash and the offense is not adjusted to his style of QBing, but is instead told to be Chad Pennington, be a game manager, check it down, despite his obvious arm strength and different attributes than Pennington's. Henne shows flashes but has a ceiling put over him. That same season, regime wastes a second rounder on Pat White, one of the ultimate examples of this regime's failure in drafting, evaluation, and player development. White fails to develop as an NFL QB, and Henne fails to progress due to coaching staff not paying enough attention and not adjusting the offense to his ability.

2010, Henne is given chance to start, but is still on a leash and still dealing with an offense that is taylor-made for Pennington but not him. O-Line once again looks set going into the preseason(with new emphasis on pass protection), but then just before the start of the season, the team cuts half its starters and backups and a new, makeshift OL is put together, which is a still a mess, but now Wildcat no longer works. Henne regresses as a QB, then is benched in a panic move, Pennington comes in and gets hurt again on the first play. Henne comes in and looks great. But then regresses again in the next few games, and the end of the year, offense still has same problems it did back in 2008, despite the changes. The coach now wants the team to be a pass team, but can't pass. Same redzone inefficiency.

2011 and we're 0-4, with a new OC, new OL, new RBs, and Henne showing improvement now that the coaching staff has FINALLY adjusted to his strengths, and yet we still have the same problems. Henne may not be an elite QB, and he has played poorly at times. But we had the same problems on offense with Pennington was a starter, he just happened to be playing in a short passing high-percentage efficient style offense under Henning that made it easier for him to move the ball, like we're doing with Henne with Daboll's aggressive approach, yet we still can't score. We couldn't do it well in 2008, in 2009, or 2010 either. The Dallas Cowboys under the trifecta had the same issues. Saprano was eventually revoked of his playcalling duties and found himself neutralized on the staff since his offense wasn't working for the players, they preferred Jason Garrett's approach after awhile. Parcells couldn't run the show the way he wanted to and bolted and we know the rest.

So my point being, Sparano is not just a bad head coach, he's a bad offensive coordinator and offensive line coach too.

 

The offense did do well under Sparano that year, but eventually defense figured it out and there were calls for Jason Garrett to take over playcalling, as I recall...