Yes, if I may borrow a term from the very forgettable football film "The Replacements," Quick Sand is indeed what we experienced tonight. As explained in the movie, Quick Sand is what happens when you let one mistake lead to another, and then another until the next thing you know, you're stuck in a pit of turmoil that will swallow you whole. This team, in the first half, looked every bit the team that we believed they were. They were fighting, Davone Bess was making plays and our defense was keeping the Patriots offense out of the endzone. Henne made two bad throws and they took points off the board for us, but ultimately the score was only 7-6 and we were in the middle of a close game. A place this team has been many times before and managed to win. But then the KR happened, and that was a big mistake. Guys not playing in their lanes, giving up a huge play. Then our offense, feeling the momentum shift so quickly, went out and accomplished nothing. And then the quick sand sunk us even further with the missed blocks leading to a blocked punted. And to be honest, our offense deserves some credit for coming out and scoring a touchdown after all that happened. It means nothing in the grand scheme, but they didn't give just yet. And then the field goal block happened. Football is an emotionally charged sport. It's played with you're heart and the special teams unit tonight literally ripped out our teams heart and stabbed it. If you've ever played pop warner, pee wee, high school, or college football, you know damn well what it feels like to be sitting on the sidelines and watch your team give up points on special teams. It's emotionally demoralizing. All you can think about is what you have to get done on the field and then a bunch of your teams back ups go and lose the game while your getting ready to get on the field. Its the real life equivalent of an intern breaking the copy machine or a trainee waiter dropping coffee on a customer. After the first punt block, i knew this game was over. The kickoff return was bad, but the block was nail in the coffin. i'm not saying this justifies the loss, in fact im not sure im saying anything at all, but the team is better than they played. The idea of quick sand is that it makes you look worse than you are. You make plays you know you shouldn't make. Mistakes you would otherwise never make. It's a long season. We live for that feeling after a win, but part of that feeling is dealing with the feeling we're feeling now. We're not happy, i doubt anyone involved with the Dolphins is. But tonight we fell victim to self-doubt and lack of confidence. Theres a lot of bashing of sparano going around but for right now, i believe he's the guy we need to rally behind. We'll know just how good or bad he is by the middle of the season. Mental mistakes can be fixed, we need a coach now more than ever.
I wish Gene Hackman was our coach. Look what he did for Washington in that movie and who can ever forget the great job with Indiana in Hoosiers?
What in the world kind of drivel is this? We need a coach NOW? How about we needed to be coached before the getting beat by the Jets? How about we needed to be coached up before that meltdown last night? We had two big division home games....guess what? In those games we are 0-2. Gotta win those games. "Elite teams" (where have we heard this before?) win those games. I will rally for Sparano...to be fired. Question about our fine head coach that seem so enamored with: Has he ever even been on an NFL staff that has won a playoff game?
At this point I can't help but laugh at how bad the game was. At least once a year it seems I always get that "only a Dolphins fan/it only happens to us" feeling. Well statistically speaking last night only happens to Dolphins fans b/c the Patriots scoring was the first time any of those multiple TDs (punts, kicks, blocks) had happened in one game. I don't think the phrase FML has been any truer than last night
I can't remember the last time I was THIS upset after a loss. I was really upset after the Baltimore playoff loss but this is a whole new level. Seriously. I am literally disgusted. I put most of the blame on the coaches. There comes a time when you have to draw the line and say "It's not just the execution from the players." There is something SERIOUSLY deficient with this coaching staff. I've had it.
