Seems like eons ago. Man, do we stink! Our front 7 is really good at defending the rush. The rest of this team is pretty bad. Ugh...........
In some sadistic way, I think this season is playing out how the 2008 season SHOULD have played out. Parcells, Ireland, and Sparano have all said that to some degree after that 2008 season they overrated their own team/players. They ended up drafting luxury guys like Pat White instead of filling true holes, but it was masked because the team went 11-5, beating mostly pretty bad teams (and not by much). I think that this season IS actually showing what the true holes are (strangely, they're pretty much the same holes they had after 2008, imagine that) and it's going to help Miami this offseason, especially having a boatload of draft picks and free agent money. Now, it's an entirely different debate as to whether Jeff Ireland can (should he even be able to?) make the right moves to get Miami back on track. Some of it's got to go on the coaches though as well. Kevin Coyle's defense has been figured out. It's the same blitzes week after week that get picked up, the same coverages week after week that don't work, and Jimmy Wilson. Mike Sherman's made some really questionable play calls since the Indy game, and the O-Line is downright awful outside of Mike Pouncey. When John Jerry's your 2nd best lineman, you've got problems. With Seattle, New England, and San Francisco coming up, this Dolphins team is going to be sitting at 4-9, and probably a 5-11 season staring them right in the face. To me, that sounds about right, given the expectations I (and a lot of others) had about this team going into the season. There's no masking the talent deficiencies on this team this year. That gives Miami a chance to properly rebuild from the ground up. The question(s) remains is Jeff Ireland up to the task (or should it be someone else)?
It's pretty weird that you keep saying his defense has been figured out when they aren't playing that poorly. We held the Colts to 23 and Bills to 19. I don't see why you keep questioning his defense.