Observations from today's game...

We aren't even competitive. This is the worst showing in every aspect of the game I have seen from us in a long time. These past two games have been worse than watching Cameron Worrell swat at Randy Moss's feet as he comes down with the catch play after play last year during that Pats game when they scored upwards of 40 something on us.

Here is a list of people who simply are NOT football players;
1. Joey Porter
2. Our entire secondary

Was it just me or did Joey Porter miss every single tackle he attempted to make? The worst being on that play on Hightower, where he could have stopped him for a loss and instead just melted off of him like a heap of spaghetti. Ship him out next year before the draft, use the cap room to bring in a big time receiver or someone effective at some position. The secondary was atrocious. I know Fitz and Boldin are maybe the best duo in football but they looked like they couldn't manage a single pass deflection or stick with their man for more than 3 yards after the line of scrimmage. Worse than that, the instances of both Larry and Anquan both being WIDE OPEN seemed to happen every other play. The Cardinals made maybe 10 catches today without a defender even being within 10 yards of the receiver. This is ridiculous. With the ridiculous penalties, god awful secondary play, and overall shooting ourselves in the foot any way we could our team looked worse than they did any game last year. That is of course until the 4th quarter...

I'm not saying bench Pennington, but the one bright spot had to be Henne. I mean, we play like crap, we're already going to lose...all I want at this point is for my team to show some signs of life, be competitive, prove that they can compete, see some positives to bring into next week, something to get excited about for the future, etc. It took until the 4th quarter to get some strong armed throws down field. We moved the ball and actually scored. I was relieved.

Also, although they didn't put up numbers today I thought Ricky and Ronnie did well. In a balanced game with some more time of possession and a passing game that would get those 8 defenders out of the box, I think the running game would be a lot more successful.

Ginn? At this point I'd give Ginn and a 2nd up for Boldin, though the Cards wouldn't take that I'm sure. We just need a tall "punch you in the mouth," hard running #1 receiver so badly. If we had one, Ginn would be a lot better without the entire secondary focusing on him. It was crazy to see Camarillo coming through as our best receiver (again). I like him but we desperately need some muscle at the #1 spot.

All in all, aside from Chad Henne and the subtle signs of a potentially effective running game... I thought we were atrocious and were more frustrating to watch bumbling things up out there than ever before. Aside from that, I would challenge anyone to give me 1 aspect from our play during today's game that shows progress or any positives we can take heading into next week's game.

I just don't get it. Even though we still have a lot of holes, all we did was get rid of people who sucked, and added better talent. Logic would tell you that we shouldn't be THIS bad.

I agree with you on Porter. The Steelers clearly knew what they were doing in not re-signing him.

I am not sure how our secondary can not improve what so ever over the past few seasons. We have had a horrendous secondary for the last three years; I am not sure how that is even possible. It seems you would find a decent player just by rolling the dice during the draft.

This what i Saw We Fired Mel Phipps as our secendoray coach from last year and we can't high school player. Chad P has week arm. Ricky doesn't look like want to run very hard Ronnie does. I the number REc should be Deveon Bess. I very disppointed in the offence. I say bring back Norv Tuner or Chain Gailey at least they gave ground game. Why did we trade chris chamberss wes welker and Justin Pelle. It time for us to get bring back Shula let him run the team. When this is bad.

It was very clear today that we still suck. Suck bad. Very bad. The whole team sucks. Bad. It sucks being a Dolphin fan. Bad. I won't be optimistic about Miami until they win 5 straight games. That won't happen for a few years because we suck bad.

We are finished for the year. We might as well look at the pool of talent for the next draft. I am not the type of guy who throws in the towel....but I am not watching anymore phin games for awhile...that game made the Parecells movement look like jokesters.

Panteraize Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
I would challenge anyone to give me 1 aspect from our play
during today's game that shows progress or any positives we
can take heading into next week's game.


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We went one for one on field goals at least........we got that going for us.............(sigh) damn

"We are finished for the year. We might as well look at the pool of talent for the next draft. I am not the type of guy who throws in the towel....but I am not watching anymore phin games for awhile...that game made the Parecells movement look like jokesters."

Don't let the door hit you on the ass on your way out.

TheFutt Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "We are finished for the year. We might as well
> look at the pool of talent for the next draft. I
> am not the type of guy who throws in the
> towel....but I am not watching anymore phin games
> for awhile...that game made the Parecells movement
> look like jokesters."
>
> Don't let the door hit you on the ass on your way
> out.


AMEN TO THAT!

Victor

"Sure, luck means a lot in football. Not having a good quarterback is bad luck." Don Shula

One positive is HENNE....Looks great for a rookie.....and those fine looking ladies they call the Phin cheerleaders.....NICE!

Truth is ... look in the mirrror ... our problem.

Each year we keep expecting something for nothing ... immediate miracle team that is competitive week 1.

Aint happening. I by the way disagree that this team is worse!

Why:

True this team is bad ... but they are young and will improve.

When Sparano got this team:
It was old, defense sucked, offense sucked , special teams sucked.

Now:
Good young line (needing tp fill 2 more spots (Donald returning)
Good young QB,
Good (not great DL that will improve)
Good RBs
Good special teams
Bad secondary
Bad WRs
Bad LBs

Bottom line: team needs some experience and some more talent.
Bad

I think this thread was a lesson. Things are never as bad as they seem.

montequi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> TheFutt Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > "We are finished for the year. We might as well
> > look at the pool of talent for the next draft.
> I
> > am not the type of guy who throws in the
> > towel....but I am not watching anymore phin
> games
> > for awhile...that game made the Parecells
> movement
> > look like jokesters."
> >
> > Don't let the door hit you on the ass on your
> way
> > out.
>
>
> AMEN TO THAT!


I'm happy I stuck with the team. I don't care if we would have gone 0-16 this year. I would NOT abandon my team. Now, of course, I'm a really happy camper

Victor

"Sure, luck means a lot in football. Not having a good quarterback is bad luck." Don Shula

I dont care what the score or record.......there will never be a better team than the PHINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have said from day one, our secondary & WR's were our weaknesses. If we can keep the pressure on Favre and keep their running game under control, he will force things and make mistakes. I love Fasano, what a great TD today

The miami dolphins are the bomb. We are about to make the playoffs.

10-5 soon to be 11-5 and playoff bound.

Miami Dolphins 24
New York Jets 3

What is once well done is done forever! 1972 Miami Dolphins.
[www.youtube.com]
Perfect!

[sportsillustrated.cnn.com]


Read D on #6. Nice to see this.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/2008 10:13AM by Aqua&Orange.

How can you consider yourself a dolphin fan?

Pfft....

Quote:

I think this thread was a lesson.

I think the lesson is Paternize (or Fleetloard, or whoever he is) is an idiot.

Yea, this team is horrible.

I though this thread was a put-on till I saw the date

In defense of the original poster, we were 0-2 at the time and had just gotten our butts kicked by the very mediocre Cardinals. They beat us 31 to 10, with our only TD coming in garbage time. Our defense looked awful and our running game was non-existent.

A lot has changed since then.

I was going to make a comment but I dont want to get my blood pressure up bashing a group of fake fish fans... Please tell me that this thread is just a joke.

If not those who think this team sucks need to jump off the band wagon cause news flash WE ARE 10-5 AND THE ONLY TEAM IN THE AFC EAST THAT CONTROLS THEIR OWN DESTINY!!! I dont care to continue cause most of you who are writing negative comments about this team are morons. What do you expect when a team only has 1 win last year? Ofcourse we have holes but do we belong in the playoffs... HELL YEAH!!! and those who dont think so can get the finger!!!

LOL Reppa look at the date of the post. I believe we were coming off our second straight loss. Coming off the loss to the cardinals.

I was pretty pissed of too back then.

What is once well done is done forever! 1972 Miami Dolphins.
[www.youtube.com]
Perfect!

Thank you ghotirule, let's rewind back to week 2 and pretend that it was obvious the way we played those two games that we would be 10-5 and on the verge of the playoffs at this point in the season.

I made this post September 14th, so I think you're an idiot. In my defense, we had just given up 51 points, 7 touchdowns, 557 yards through the air, 193 yards on the ground, surrendered 104 yards on penalties IN TWO GAMES, and looked like complete garbage while doing it.

Porter wasn't a factor yet, we weren't getting any pressure on the QB, and our secondary was playing awful. AWFUL! Aside from letting Kurt Warner embarrass us through the air, we were giving up ridiculous plays like the Brett Farve touchdown, where he threw that awkward punt-looking duck in the air that had about 15 minutes of hangtime on it and we let a nobody (Rodney Stuckey) catch it for a touchdown that ended up beating us.

Don't sit here and call me an idiot for being frustrated over how our team played those first 2 games. And I don't regret saying any of that stuff, it's not as if I was wrong. That was all true, the only thing that changed was that we started playing better. Our team was terrible and we were playing like garbage. That changed. That's not our situation now. That doesn't make me wrong about those 2 games.

No one's going to give you brownie points for calling me an idiot in hindsight, 16 weeks later when everybody on this message board knows that we became a completely different football team in week 3 after dismantling the Patriots (when we unveiled the Wildcat) than we were in the first two weeks. All that matters is we did improve. We started gelling, the D still has issues but we're solid enough now to be able to win games in spite of that. I'm ecstatic and I can't wait until 4:15 this Sunday night when the Dolphins go to NY and destroy the Jets, win the AFC East, charge full-steam ahead into the playoffs, and prove to the entire NFL that the Phins have arrived.

Quote:

No one's going to give you brownie points for calling me an idiot in hindsight, 16 weeks later when everybody on this message board knows that we became a completely different football team in week 3 after dismantling the Patriots (when we unveiled the Wildcat) than we were in the first two weeks.

Bravo.


This team was hardly worse than it was last year, even in September. That was clear from the personnel and coaching. Some weak hearted fans failed to realize that with this much turnover, the team wouldn't gel immediately. That's understandable to some extent, but to go so far as to say they were worse than 1-15 when they clearly were no is ridiculous.

I thought this post was way off base back in Sept. - as well as several other you mad back then. Now, with the benefit of hindsight, you are going to blame it on the AZ game?

Quote:

All that matters is we did improve. We started gelling, the D still has issues but we're solid enough now to be able to win games in spite of that. I'm ecstatic and I can't wait until 4:15 this Sunday night when the Dolphins go to NY and destroy the Jets, win the AFC East, charge full-steam ahead into the playoffs, and prove to the entire NFL that the Phins have arrived.

Agree. But you were way wrong.

"Now, with the benefit of hindsight, you are going to blame it on the AZ game"

This is so ridiculous, I'm not going to be called an idiot, when you're argument and that sentence makes no sense. I'm not sure you understand what the notion behind hindsight bias is. Let me help clarify it for you.

Hindsight bias is essentially making judgments about the actions, opinions, or behaviors that people in the past had in regards to events in the past based on information only available in the present. You're guilty of hindsight bias, essentially telling me "You're an idiot. Look how good we are. We're 10-5 and you thought we sucked after week 2. Obviously we didn't."

You see what happened there, you're taking information that we all know now, and using it to criticize opinions I had about our team's performance through week 2.

What you're saying makes no sense. I'm not using hindsight to blame my comments on the AZ game. In fact, just the opposite. I'm saying that unlike you, I'm not criticizing my opinions from week 2 based on the information we all know today, that the Dolphins are formidable. I stand behind what I wrote. Not a single word of my criticism of the secondary was wrong or stupid. They played two atrocious games that were as bad if not worse than any other they played the year before. All I did was look at 2 horrible performances and say the obvious.

"Right now, this team is playing worse than last year's"

The statement is debatable, but I'm not an idiot for saying it, because guess what, up to that point, through those two games, we were playing as poorly as we ever have.

And I didn't go overboard. It's not like I said fire Sparano, Parcells is a joke, our draft selection was terrible, this team will never get better, etc. Terrible or not, I still believed we had made the right moves in the offseason, made some good personnel decisions, hired a pretty good coach, had the right people making decisions in the front office, and were destined for success eventually. I just watched our secondary embarrass itself and said right now...through these two games...at this point...we look as bad as ever. And I don't think anyone would disagree with me on that.

And as more proof of that, if you take our numbers from those two games and project them over the course of the season, guess what? Over 16 games, we'd give up 4,456 yards through the air (by far the worst in the NFL) 408 points (putting us down below the cellar dwellers) 56 touchdowns (about the worst in the league) 832 penalty yards (making us the most penalized team in the NFL by far), and well you get the picture.

So the fact is, if we continued performing the way we did through week 2, which is the way we did when I made those comments, we'd be the worst team in the league, in just about every category, tied with Detroit's illustrious zero-win record. So the way I see it I'm not an idiot.

My sentiment was "right now this team is worse than last years" and if that continued, the projected numbers and performance prove that would have been more or less true, as we would have been about as bad as we were if we continued playing that way, playing in the way that convinced me to make those comments to begin with. So, get it straight, I'm not blaming my comments on anything, especially the AZ or NY game, I'm actually pointing to them as support for what I said.

The only thing bringing this post back up shows anyone is how far we've come from those two games. Aside from that, I don't see the point in drudging up old stuff like this, calling people who were frustrated over our early struggles "weak-hearted" fans, and dismissing ancient discussion topics by calling their authors idiots, all while being guilty of the worst kind of hindsight bias.

Quote:

You see what happened there, you're taking information that we all know now, and using it to criticize opinions I had about our team's performance through week 2.

I thought you were being a sky is falling idiot back then. Did you even look at anything besides the final scores?

Quote:

The statement is debatable, but I'm not an idiot for saying it, because guess what, up to that point, through those two games, we were playing as poorly as we ever have.

You are an idiot for saying it. Really, last year executing a damned handoff was risky. That is bad, and we weren't even close to that at week 2.

As for the individual games... The Jest game was a fluke. We lost when Farve throws up a prayer on 4th down and it is a TD.

The Cardinals game was bad, but not nearly as ugly as some of the games last year.

Really, it was crystal clear - not even debatable - that after two games we were not as bad as last year. Even in the first two games, the QB play was solid. We weren't turning the ball over. Certainly some elements of the team weren't gelling, but is wasn't even close to last year.

Quote:

And as more proof of that, if you take our numbers from those two games and project them over the course of the season, guess what? Over 16 games, we'd give up 4,456 yards through the air (by far the worst in the NFL) 408 points (putting us down below the cellar dwellers) 56 touchdowns (about the worst in the league) 832 penalty yards (making us the most penalized team in the NFL by far), and well you get the picture.

This complete BS. First of all, most of that occurred in ONE game - the Arizona game. But, win or lose, AZ puts up numbers like that against ever team they play at home - including the Giants. And that isn't unexpected: You have a team with two top flight recievers and Kurt Warner playing under a dome. I expected them to put up points on us (heck I called it on another thread), and they did. But look at the points and yardage they put up on nearly everyone at home, and you can extrapolate the same numbers. So don't give me some BS that after two games blah, blah, blah. Be handled the Jest and barely lost on a fluke. We went to AZ and got blown out by a team that most who knew anything about the game knew would put up numbers.

Really, this kind of creative stat extrapolation is like saying after the first NE game we were going to put up 400 points for the rest of the season. Ridiculous yes, and idiotic.

Jonathan Twilley Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It was very clear today that we still suck. Suck
> bad. Very bad. The whole team sucks. Bad. It
> sucks being a Dolphin fan. Bad. I won't be
> optimistic about Miami until they win 5 straight
> games. That won't happen for a few years because
> we suck bad.

That is what I wrote just over 3 months ago. Following the Cardinal game I was absolutely pissed. We looked so very bad that day. Personally I thought we looked every bit as bad on that day as we did when the Patriots ran up the score against us last year. At that point, I started thinking about the draft. I feel much better about things, but I guess I technically need one more win before I can start feeling optimistic.

Did I look at anything besides the final scores? Yes, only every detail of every play through every quarter of the 8 quarters of football in weeks 1 and 2. That was sort of my point. If you'll notice, I had less to say about the anemic offense than the god awful defense, because while bad and unorganized the offense at least looked like it had a prayer of potentially developing some promise or growth down the road. My real gripe if you read my post was with the defense and the secondary.

In regards to the whole stats thing and the first two games being an indication of the rest of the season...Jeez ghotirule, talk about splitting hairs. You can make any excuse you want "We all knew AZ would put up numbers..." the fact is they did, we didn't. NY a fluke? Well yeah, if you call letting Rodney Stuckey catch a duck-fumble-punt twirling in the air for 8 minutes without a single defender getting within 10 yards of him, close in on him, track the ball in the air, have a clue whats going on, or make an attempt to swat the ball down or god forbid intercept that Christmas present waiting to be picked.

The Arizona game may have looked even worse on paper given the enormous numbers they put up on us, where the Jets game which might have looked closer on paper, would be deceiving on paper, as that was a more 'you had to be there' to truly comprehend the horrific, jaw-dropping display of blown-plays. That game had a play or two that looked a lot uglier than the box score would ever indicate.

That being said, it was 2 games, 2 games in a row, the first two games of the season, and the only two games we had to judge the team on anything. So yeah, a snapshot declaration of how we looked at that moment (as bad or worse than we've ever looked) wasn't inappropriate or random. I was basing it on all the evidence and the only evidence we had at our disposal at the time. I have no problem with anyone coming on and responding to my post, and disagreeing with me that we were as bad as last year. But to sit here now, in week 17 and call me stupid for taking part in that discussion to begin with back then with the implication of 'hey look how dumb you are, we're good now, how could you ever say we sucked in those games' is ridiculous. No matter how good we are or whether we even win the Superbowl, it will never change the fact that we were atrocious for the first 2 games of the season, and like it or not, as the NFL is in the business of projections, if we followed suit in week 3, and so on, we were on pace to be as bad statistically as I said.