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When a team
drops back-to-back prime time losses at home to divisional opponents, it’s fair
and objective to question the credibility and viability of its playoff chances.
For the Miami
Dolphins, that time is now.
Really, what
are we to make of this team at the quarter point of the season? They could just
as easily be 4-0 right now as 0-4. Perhaps this means that their 2-2 record is
right after all.
It’s just a
darn shame that both losses had to come at home versus big rivals in front of rabid,
prime time fans. For a franchise trying hard to rebuild its winning tradition,
those sorts of setbacks really hurt
the team’s credibility in the eyes of the fans and the media. All the glitz and
stars and yards of orange carpeting can’t make up for the one thing craved most
of all: winning.
But all is
not lost here. Not by a long shot. There is still time to get this season back
on track. And IT IS off track now, no debate necessary. So the first thing to
be done is to improve the execution of responsibilities, both by coaches and
players. If they do this, the Miami Dolphins have the talent to win. They just
need to start winning again, like right now, if they are re-gain what they lost
under the lights of the past three weeks.
To put it specifically,
they need to win three of their next four games to re-gain credibility lost.
They need a winning record at the midway point if they are to be considered a
truly serious playoff team.
It’s a tall
order, made taller by the fact that their next four games are at Green Bay
(3-2), at home versus Pittsburgh (3-1), at Cincinnati (2-3), and at Baltimore
(4-1).
So just how
is this team going to hit the halfway point with a 5-3 or 6-2 record facing a
murderers row like that?
It’s simple
to understand really when you realize that the biggest obstacle here is not the
aforementioned opponents. It’s that old foe “inconsistency”, the single best way
to describe the play of this year’s Dolphins; world beaters on one drive and
chumps the next.
Coach Tony
Sparano seemed to understand this when he decided to fire special teams coach
and long time pal John Bonamego. Painful as it was for Sparano, the move was
long overdue as Bonamego just wasn’t getting through to his guys, and hadn’t
been in two plus seasons. The dogs just weren’t eating the dog food, so Sparano
replaced Bonamego with assistant Darren Rizzi. Rizzi, with heavy input from
Sparano, took full advantage of the bye week by working on fundamentals and
other assorted breakdowns straightaway. It was good and meaningful work.
I know…what
about the players?
Yes, the
players have to be accountable. And no one holds players accountable better
than Sparano. But that wasn’t going to go far enough here because these issues
were not the result of one horrific game, but rather the sum of two plus
seasons of sub par play involving, literally, dozens of players. The one
constant through it all was Bonamego. He had to go.
If Sparano
learned anything from last year, it’s that sometimes you add to your team when
you subtract from it. Case in point: Gibril Wilson, a safety who cost the
Dolphins several games due to poor tacking and cover skills. Nothing was going
to make
Meanwhile, the
Dolphin defense is giving itself a chance to get better simply by getting LB Channing
Crowder and DE Jared Odrick back from injury. Both men are welcomed sights, and
will immediately solidify the front seven. This will help alleviate the
inconsistency issues we’ve seen over the past two games, which is why we should
expect the defense to return closer to the form we saw at the start of the
season.
Then there’s
the offense, that everlasting source of frustration. The answers are far less
straightforward here, but I will tell you that firing Dan Henning isn’t one of
them. As passionate as some fans and media are in criticizing Henning’s
playcalling, and I have been in the chorus on a few occasions, he is still one
of the most innovative minds in football. The Dolphins are much better with him
than without.
Rather, I’m
afraid the answers here begin with QB Chad Henne. The inconsistency on offense
is a simple mirror of Henne’s own inconsistency.
While his
learning curve is hard for us to endure, patience is a must if the Dolphins are
to have a chance at greatness. Would it be easier having Chad Pennington play?
Of course it would. Yet staying the course here is something Sparano must be stubborn
about.
Will the sum
of these moves and non-moves be enough to propel the Dolphins back to the land
of credibility? We shall soon find out.