In 2008 the 'phins were a flawed but interesting team. Played hard and won games. 2009 saw a lot of inexperienced players in key positions. Played hard but were gutted by injury. 2010 - ??? Nolan has the defense moving in the right direction, but the offensive side of the ball is looking like Wannyball has returned. But worse than that the team doesn't look spirited or enthused. It seems to me that there is some kind of internal conflict going in within the Dolphins. IN 2008 the whole team seemed to be on the same page and were committed to achieving what they could. Now in 2010 we have a much more talented team than what we had in 2008 yet that spark is missing. What is the missing spark? My theory is that there is a breakdown in the confidence of the coaching staff and the quarterbacks which is leading to uninspired play calling which leads to uninspired play which leads to uninspired play calling ... Maybe also we are missing Ted Ginn, not for his productivity but for the fact that his raw speed needed to be accounted for. Now opposing Ds don't need to worry about Ted Ginn getting deep behind the safeties. From what I've seen of Ted Ginn over the last two years his confidence is completely shot which is a bad thing for a WR, but something that might be able to be remedied with the right coaching. Despite the improvement I'm still not sold on the Defense either. There's a shortage of momentum shifting plays from that side of the ball too.
Dan Henning flushed it down the toilet. I'm sure it's gotta be incredibly frustrating for the players to know their own coach is already handicapping them before they even take the field.
There may be more "talent" on paper, but we had a much more cohesive unit in 2008 and very consistent play from Penny rather than the rough season of Henne. Throw in a much easier schedule, Brady injury, the Jets collapse at the hands of Mangina and Favre, and the explosion of the surprising Wildcat, and that got us a nice conference championship. Now I do have to wonder if you put 2008 Penny on this current team, and you replace Henning with someone who isn't certifiably insane and senile, could we have made some serious noise?
Tougher schedules,alot of different offensive linemen,Pennington got broke again,questionable coaching and bad tackeling in the return game.
Its obvious...Pennington was the leader of the team and got the team to play and execute together with energy and the emotion to inspire...Henne has not been able to accomplish that. I believe most of our struggles stem from the qb position...Its why the benching was the right call.
A LEADER [video=youtube;l5P0LvE8Glk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5P0LvE8Glk&feature=more_related[/video]
