coaching!

I have to actually agree with mikeO on this one. The oc and dc are really making some goofy calls this year. I even have to question Sparano with the personel and clock management decisions

Sparano will SINK or SWIM with these guys. If he doesn't have the guts to remove them and replace them...then its gonna be his head. Sooner rather than later

DId we have Ronnie Brown, Jason Fergusen & Channing Crowder when we played NO and Indy?

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"When you suck long enough, you get a Hickey"

Oh yeah, and a 100% healthy Jake Grove?

Just wondering..

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"When you suck long enough, you get a Hickey"

Every team has injuries. No excuses. Running to the "injury" excuse is weak.

New England had injuries. Pitt had injuries. Cincy had a death! Denver had injuries. Jacksonville lost damn near their entire o-line you don't see them running to the injury excuse. I could go on and on....every team has injuries and crucial ones. It's the game.

You just named all teams that are about the same record as us except New England who *BARELY* made it through.

So Mike, your argument is weak at best.

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"When you suck long enough, you get a Hickey"

MikeO, I know you love being one-dimensional but you're too general with saying "good teams should overcome injuries".

You're not taking into account that all of those teams you listed have had their head coaches in place for longer than Sparano. They've had time to build depth behind their starters. Aren't we ALWAYS saying about the lack of talent on this team? If our starters aren't that great, what makes you think our backups can step right in?

Furthermore, you fail to account for the position where these injuries are occurring.

I know you didn't think that far ahead because again, you're one-dimensional like that, but allow me to put this "argument" to bed.

We lost:
Our starting QB
Our starting RB
Our starting CB
Our starting NT
A key player in the wildcat (hint: not Ronnie)

...and those are just the guys who are out for the season...not accounting for the nicks and dings we had week to week.

So go ahead, I urge you to do a comparison of the injuries from those other teams that you listed.

And while I'm rolling with this injury thing, I'd like to point out another thing this forum LOVES to miss:

Sparano and crew OBVIOUSLY were planning extensive use of the WILDCAT this season. We drafted Pat White, we design plays where Ricky is throwing, Ronnie is throwing, throwing kinks and tricks and clever execution into the mix. Sparano went all-in with this. It was a gamble and it came back and bit him in the ass, but considering how far it got us last season, do you blame him? So props to him for getting us this far with what he had to work with.

Knowing how much you guys love to MMQB...you probably do blame him, but that's OK. Most of the people on here are as clueless about football as they are about management, and you need both to understand how the game works.

So anyway...down goes Cobbs and the wildcat takes a hit. Then down goes Brown, and the wildcat is done.

This left us without the players who execute the most productive formation that this team had. Think that didn't affect things? Do you really need me to hold your hand for you to see how that royally F'ed things up?

So c'mon MikeO, I'll be eager to see your response. I'm willing to bet serious money that you can't even begin to come up with a legitimate rebuttal, but if you do, I really want to hear it.

Aside from the Ronnie Brown injury, no other injury really hurt the dolphins this year. Let's be honest. Henne played like a vet this year for the most part and I don't see much of a drop off from Pennington, if any. The guy won his first few games vs Buffalo and NY and the offense was better than it ever was with Penny. So that excuse is lame. Our run defense was near the top of the league so you can't say the Furgerson injury hurt us in any way. We never missed a beat. And Will Allen was getting lit up before his injury as well. And I like Cobbs, but if our season hinged on Cobbs then we got bigger problems than any of us think. Ronnie was the ONLY injury that killed us because it took away the wildcat out of our offense. And Ronnie's back-up did rush for 1,000+ yards so lets not shed too much of a tear here.

You play the hand that's delt ya!!

Now, I don't hear any crying in Pittsburgh. They lost their best defensive player for the entire season esentially. They lost their 1st and 2nd string QB and were forced to start Dennis Dixon for a week. Willie Parker went down early and never truly rebounded. Yet they aren't blaming injuries and are still fighting for a playoff spot AND they play in a much much MUCH tougher division. They are playing the hand that's delt then

Want more examples, lets go. Philadelphia lost Brian Westbrook for most of their season, he is their best offensive player. Not to mention Elliss Hobbs, Shane Andrewes and a bunch of other starters. They are gonna be a 2 seed possibly and they also play in a much togher division. The Jets, good lord they lost Jenkins and Washington their best offensive and defensive players (among other people) and they are about to make the playoffs. The NY Giants, Kenny Phillips, Antonio Pierce, Jay Alford...tons of "key injuries" and you don't here them using it as an excuse. Atlanta was without Michael Turner for the stretch run and missed Matt Ryan in big games late. TEAMS HAVE INJURIES IT HAPPENS! It's not an excuse to be used. Get over it, adopt and move on.

And EVERY TEAM has nicks and dings, not just the Dolphins. That's another weak ass excuse to be used. The only team with nicks and dings are the Fins so feel bad for us. Please, every team is nicked and dinged.

There is a bigger picture here. Miami is a team in the 2 biggest games of the year (tenn and houston) came out flat, which in my opinion is all coaching. And in other big spots all year had horrible coaching decisions (new orleans, buffalo, indy games just to name a few). And some of you want to give a coach 5 or 6 years to build something. This is the NFL....you get a year or two to build things. Eric Mangini's first year in NY he was 10-6 and in the playoffs. His last year he was 9-7 and he still got fired!!!!!! It's 2009 going on 2010. The league has changed........fans, owners, cities, they aren't gonna wait years for something to be turned around. You get 2 or 3 years then thats it'. Your gone if your not producing

Tony S. had a great first year. There is clear regression this year. And if there is more regression next year he's gonna be on the streets. Im sorry but its true.

Now, what's regression. Well we will win 7 or 8 games this year. If he wins LESS than 7 or 8 next year, then he's gone. That's an easy firing, easy decision. I mean you can't be in the league 3 years and have your record get worse each year and hang around. But also, if the record is the same or a game or two better yet no playoff success....that is also regression. I mean 3 years in the league and no playoff wins that is also a reason to fire in my book. We gonna keep him around cause he's a nice guy?? Please!

Jim, I agree. We were not out-talented in the HOU, BUF or TEN games. We should have won against IND and NOS. In fact, only in the ATL, NE and SDG games would I say we definitely should have lost, with all of them being win-able.

Mistakes have cost us 5+ losses this year. It's truly admirable that we've achieved so much with the injury bug that has hit us. However, there's no way around it - we could (and probably should) be about 12-3 right now. We've perhaps won a couple we shouldn't have, so maybe 10-5.

I'm already excited about next year because we have the talent to win in this league. For most of the middle part of the decade, I didn't truly believe that. Tony will need to get this team back to near-mistake-free play.

Yep.

Another draft and a little more talent and Tony will likely get this club playing tighter again. He doesn't strike me a loose in any way.

MikeO, how can you talk so much and yet still say nothing of substance??

You think injuries haven't hurt Pittsburgh? Are you on crack?? Seriously, the defending SB champs are 8-7 and barely have a playoff pulse. And the fans aren't complaining? HA! I should just stop there because that's asinine, but there is an entertainment factor at work here, so I'll keep going.

So they start Dennis Dixon for what...a game? Guess what...they didn't overcome that. They lost the game. Nice try, though.

And Troy Polamalu has been hurt all season and if you've noticed, the games he's been out, Pitt generally loses. Go look up the win-loss stats when he plays this year.

And I can't believe you even brought Philly into this discussion. That team is so unbelievably loaded with weapons on offense it's ridiculous. Yeah Westbrook is out, but the reason they haven't missed a beat is due to depth. If you don't know the players I'm referring to, then forget it. They have more depth than we do. Reid has been around for 10+ years and has had time to build and shape that roster and build DEPTH. Westbrook being hurt is insignificant.

You're actually doing a great job of reinforcing my point, MikeO, so I'll keep going.

You then go on to talk about how the Jets, who are barely alive and not nearly a contender whatsoever, and THEN in the same breath say that injuries haven't hurt the Giants. Uh...what? I'm not even going into how stupid that is...did you catch the Carolina score last week?

And then you bring in Atlanta...dude they are banged up too and their record shows it.

At what point did you think that anything you typed was any sort of rebuttal? You only FURTHER PROVED MY POINT THAT INJURIES PLAY A FACTOR AND ARE NOT AN EXCUSE BUT A REALITY.

That's it, I'm cashing it in. The entertainment factor is about shot, so I'm going back to ignoring you.