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  Good Riddance to Suck for Luck
    | Home | News Wire | Roster | Depth Chart | Schedule |  
         

by Chris Shashaty, Phins.com Columnist

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I get the idea of “Suck for Luck”. Dolfans and local media types have been served empty promises and broken dreams for a dozen seasons since You Know Who retired. Patience is now exhausted, to the point of extreme measures.

Or, perhaps, desperate ones like throwing an entire franchise at the feet of a college junior (QB Andrew Luck) who may (or may not) be the next great QB in the NFL.

I get it.

Let me be clear: I’m as frustrated and disgusted with the state of affairs as the next loyalist. I want change, too. I want to see the Miami Dolphins get back to their customary station among the league elite.

But root to go 0-16? As Meatloaf would sing, “No I won’t do that”.

And, thanks to Sunday’s dominant 31-3 win over the Kansas City Chiefs, and the Indianapolis Colts remaining winless at 0-9, we don’t have to. So I bid a hearty “good riddance” to the nonsense referred to as “Suck for Luck”. It was, without question, one of the more pitiful and silly campaigns I’ve ever heard come from fans and media alike.

As Herman Edwards once said, “You play to win the game”. Any serious football player, coach, or fan demands that each and every week. It shouldn’t matter if your team is 7-1 or 1-7. Give your best effort and let the chips fall where they may.

Call it Pride, Honor, Character. But mostly, call it Integrity. Anything else is unacceptable and shameful.

And besides, the chances of “Suck for Luck” working out for the Dolphins were a long shot given the talent and level of play thus far relative to the Colts. So in essence, the proponents of “Suck for Luck” were making a laughing stock of themselves for nothing!

Don’t misunderstand me; I would LOVE to have Luck quarterbacking the Dolphins next year. He’s as fine a QB prospect as we’ve seen in sometime. And if the Dolphins get him through the natural course of events, I’ll jump up and down with glee like the next fan. But if it doesn’t happen I will be happy to see the next General Manager of the team pick from the next tier of fine QB prospects, not exactly chopped liver, and remember that Luck doesn’t guarantee Super Bowls or anything else for that matter.

The Colts would do well to remember that if they select Luck and weigh him against a new contract for Peyton Manning. Something has to give and that means divorce could be coming.

Meanwhile, the Dolphins got off the schneid in a big way last Sunday when they throttled the Chiefs. They showed us so many things we were expecting from opening day forward, especially a dominant defense and explosive offensive weapons in Brandon Marshall and Reggie Bush. The win left most of us gleeful yet wondering where it has all been hiding during these terrible two months.

We were also reminded what could be possible with quality QB play leading the way. That’s what Matt Moore delivered, a refreshing performance we’ve not seen from a Dolphin QB since Chad Pennington led the team to the 2008 AFC East title.

The stats show Moore was 17-of-23 for 244 yards with three touchdowns and no picks for a sparkling QB rating of 147.5, the best of his career. Moore was accurate, did not dink-and-dunk, was not sacked, and once again flashed excellent mobility. Good stuff across the board, and that football tucked under Moore’s arm as he came off the field tells you he understood the difference he made.

A one week aberration? His inconsistency thus far suggests that it is. But we now have to pause just a bit to watch further because there are QBs in this league, like Ryan Fitzpatrick, who suddenly “get it” in Year 4 or 5 for some inexplicable reason.

Could Moore be next in line? Sometimes it is a virtuoso performance like the one Moore delivered on Sunday that cements confidence in a guy, the “I can do this” conviction that changes careers. One game can’t tell us if that’s happened, but the possibility certainly exists.

For now, let’s not get carried away. Let’s see Moore do it again next week against the Washington Redskins, and the following week against Fitzpatrick’s Buffalo Bills during this upcoming home stand. Let’s see if he can impress in front of the faithful at SunLife Stadium. Then let’s chat again.

Meanwhile, it’s impossible to forget that the Dolphins are still a woeful 1-7. Nothing has really changed, except the avoidance of the ignominy of 0-16. The badly needed and complete change will be coming soon enough.

The good news is that the Dolphins will have multiple attractive options at QB in the draft. And it will be up to the next GM to make the right call, be it Luck, Landry Jones, or Matt Barkley. One of those three prospects should become a Miami Dolphin on April 26, 2012.

So get up off your knees and say good riddance to “Suck for Luck”. Instead, hope the next GM doesn’t botch the job the way his predecessors did.

Now that’s an outcome worth praying for.

 
     
   
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