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Was This A Successful Season?

Discussion in 'Miami Dolphins Forum' started by Bpk, Dec 30, 2012.

  1. krypto

    krypto Banned

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    I've been saying this all along. This is professional sports. If the season doesn't end in a championship, then the season was a failure. There are no moral victories in professional anything. As much as Sparano stunk and we had to play with an interim head coach last year, we only improved by 1 game from that scenario this year. Definitely a head scratcher.

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  2. DolfanTom

    DolfanTom Livin' and Dyin' w/ Ryan!

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    The thing now is to try and plug the holes we have that kept us from having a successful season this year, and will help us have successful seasons moving forward. This year, we were three close games from being 10-6 (Jets, Cardinals, Colts). That's just it, though, we lost those games - we need to figure out what it is we need to get over that hump and turn such games starting next year into wins. Good teams find a way to win those games, and bad teams sit at home stewing over how close they came.

    Right now, we're stewing. We need to be celebrating at this time next year.
     
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  3. Serpico Jones

    Serpico Jones Well-Known Member

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    This is pro football. Win or get the hell out. I don't want to hear or read any god damn excuses about rookie this and new coach that and blah blah blah. Win or take your *** home.
     
  4. firedan

    firedan Well-Known Member

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    The record may suck,but this year you had to figure they would take their lumps.They traded away their talented but headcase players and loaded up for next year.
    Ireland will more than likely be back and he better get it right or it will be blown up yet again.
     
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  5. Sethdaddy8

    Sethdaddy8 Well-Known Member

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    That's your time line. My perspective dates back to finishing last season out 6-3, with BM, VD, and more overall talent than this years #1 seeded Denver Broncos. Having potential guys like Jeff Fisher and Peyton Manning interested in our team, if not for one giant ginger road block.

    The rest of you can lay the birth of lame expectations on the weak preseason and Hard Knocks nightmare. This season was crapped out way before all that, and it didnt need to be yet another sub .500 snooze fest.

    The rest is history.
     
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  6. Bpk

    Bpk Premium Member Luxury Box

    I remember reading that Harbaugh had a good chance of being our coach if it weren't for Ireland being on that plane with Ross.

    Think about that "What If...." As you watch the NFC Championship game
     
  7. Itsdahumidity

    Itsdahumidity X gonna take it from ya

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    yup, by a no acorn gathering, first time gm i might add. yet we're stuck with someone still suffering from on the job training five years later.
     
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  8. cdz12250

    cdz12250 Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    No way.

    After that performance today, I have to say that there is not a single unit on this team that is anywhere close to being competitive. Not either line, not the linebacking corps, not the running backs, not the receiving corps, not the secondary, not the quarterback, not the special teams, not the coaching staff. All bottom half.

    Spare me the statistics. If you watched the game today, you saw the difference between a good team and a bad one. They shut us out, which is the worst possible performance an offense can turn in, and scored 28 points on our defense, including knocking our guys on their butts at the goal line twice and completing passes to open receivers at will. We looked like girls today, frankly. The fact that we beat Cincinnati and Seattle doesn't save us from low-end mediocrity, because we lost to the likes of Buffalo and Arizona.

    With all the changes we made, we achieved exactly the same record as we did last year, when everyone agreed that the team sucked and something drastic had to be done. We have not advanced at all from last year. This season at least, the coaching staff did not have the solution to our perennial problems. All of this adds up to a single conclusion: this season is a failure.

    Now we are about to go into the offseason with lots of cap room and extra picks and a young quarterback with one full season under his belt. Hopefully Ireland and the scouts do their homework this time. At least no one who is becoming a free agent this offseason will be able to honestly say that he deserves big money to re-sign. Hopefully we can keep some of them at reasonable salaries because they were unable to make a difference.

    I also hope Philbin has the sense to have everyone train until they drop from this point forward, especially the fat boys on the offensive and defensive lines who can't move anyone or get anywhere. This whole team needs to get a lot better on strength, quickness, fundamentals and execution.
     
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  9. shouright

    shouright Banned

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    I know you want to be "spared the statistics," but I figured in a thread devoted to talking about how successful the team was this season, you may want to know that it in fact won one more game than it did last year. ;)
     
  10. cdz12250

    cdz12250 Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    My bad. We won one more game. The season is a success. Ignore everything else I said. ;-)
     
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  11. oakelmpine

    oakelmpine New Member

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    :knucks:
     
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  12. dolfan32323

    dolfan32323 ty xphinfanx

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    Tough luck those past 2 games for Newcastle.

    As for the OP - we exceeded my prediction of 4 wins. It wasn't successful, but there were definitely positives and I think we learned a lot about the players on our rosters and where we need to improve.
     
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  13. Silverphin

    Silverphin Well-Known Member

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    Why is that though? I'm asking a serious question because I noticed that too.
     
  14. His'nBeatYour'n

    His'nBeatYour'n Glass Ceiling Repairman

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    The minimum goal of all NFL teams should be a winning season, 9-7 or better. Dolphins failed to reach that goal, therefore, it was not a succesful season.

    But I do believe it was a step in the right direction.

    Here is what I like:

    -The 2012 Dolphins improved their record despite a raw rookie QB who had limited weapons.

    -The 2012 Dolphins beat their peers. In the two games against their divisional "equals" Oakland and Cincinnati, they were 2-0.

    -The 2012 Dolphins beat two playoff teams, Seattle and Cincinnati.

    - The 2012 Dolphins had 4 wins by double digits, 3 were by 20 or more.

    -The 2012 Dolphins had only 4 losses that were by more than a touchdown. 3 of those were to the 3 division champ teams the Dolphins played, and NE, SF, and HOU.

    The 2012 Dolphins lost too many close games. Tannehill failed to put the team on his back in the 4th quarter in those games. It is fair to question whether he has the mojo to count on him in clutch situations. But he will get better, and he will have more weapons to do it with.
     
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  15. maynard

    maynard Who, whom?

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    I would like to say this is a successful season, because of the upside of Tanny and a good feeling from Philbin. But then I would be implying future success and we have all heard that before.

    Success is winning more than you lose, getting into the playoffs, being a legit threat to get to the Super Bowl and in this era, beating the Patriots. So no, I will not be crediting failure with future expectation in mind

    Only when Tanny becomes the player we think he can be and the team starts doing some of the above will I consider a season a success.
     
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  16. His'nBeatYour'n

    His'nBeatYour'n Glass Ceiling Repairman

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    A few more optimistic points:

    -The 2012 Dolphins went 7-9 despite being the league's 2nd youngest team.

    -The 2012 Dolphins went 7-9 despite forcing the least amount of turnovers (16) in franchise history.

    -The 2012 Dolphins went 7-9 despite having just one Pro Bowler.

    -The 2012 Dolphins went 7-9 despite a waiver wire revolving door at WR and CB.
     
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  17. MAFishFan

    MAFishFan Team Tannehill

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    Yes and No. I thought they'd win 4-5 games, so 7 is a nice surpise, but that's what it has come to with the Dolphins. We aim low and when anything other than 5 wins happens, it's termed "successful." I do think there are pieces to build on. I'm fine with Tannehill. I like him and think he will be the answer for some time. Does he over throw his WR's sometimes? Sure. But do his WR's drop lots of passes that are more than catchable? You betcha. The defense still can't cover a TE and have they never seen film on Welker? I like what I saw from Lamar Miller today. I was there and Martin wasn't spectacular, but I don't think he sucks at LT. The team is what it is. Should they have won 10 games, probably. But good teams win those games that Miami lost. Plain an simple. While at times it feels like this team is on a treadmill running in place, I do feel that there is some good things down the road. I don't view this year as a success, but I don't view it as an abject failure either.
     
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  18. Disgustipate

    Disgustipate Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    If you don't want to deal with reality there's plenty of people who have learned to avoid it by switching their team to whomever is successful at that time. You may wish to consider it.
     
  19. hazed819

    hazed819 Well-Known Member

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    Considering the moves we made in the offseason (or lack there of) we did better than I expected. I saw us in the top 10 of the draft next year so we did better than that. Tannehill showed he's got the skills now he just needs the players to make it happen and a little more work on his game of course. All in all the team did better than I expected but still a disappointing season considering how well Tannehill turned out to play.
     
  20. Disgustipate

    Disgustipate Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    This is code for "spare me from having even the smallest burden of proof"
     
  21. adamprez2003

    adamprez2003 Senior Member

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    The Miami 79ers have achieved their goal. Another 7-9 season
     
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  22. cdz12250

    cdz12250 Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    You mean like being the number one red zone defense statistically, and being knocked off the ball whenever the Pats got close to the goal line? That's what I was talking about. This game was your proof.

    I'm not suggesting that the team can't be good eventually, but right now it isn't. Until it is, there is no successful season.
     
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  23. Disgustipate

    Disgustipate Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    So what does that mean? Does that mean the run defense isn't good, and that anything that actually shows it as good is somehow illusory? Is it an optical illusion? Did someone take the stats down wrong? Are they not actually a measurement of a thing that happened?

    Throw a tantrum about a profoundly ****ty game if you want, but you need something besides "I'M MAD AND I FEEL THIS WAY". Anything.
     
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  24. djphinfan

    djphinfan Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    What up prez
     
  25. djphinfan

    djphinfan Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    We played an elite team that showed us how far behind we are...real far..Brady was toying with us..Tannehill looked very uncomfortable.

    A success?, I don't know how to quantify my answer..I'm too unsure of too many things.
     
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  26. His'nBeatYour'n

    His'nBeatYour'n Glass Ceiling Repairman

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    The first thing you should be sure of is whether one game determines the success of an entire season.
     
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  27. Disgustipate

    Disgustipate Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    And that really not being the case in the first game, or all season along means...what, exactly?

    That everything else that happened contrary to that is a lie, an illusion, or something along those lines and that last game is the truth, or do you put it in some sort of rational context?
     
  28. djphinfan

    djphinfan Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    I didnt think Brady was challenged that much in the first game..I think they had another level to spare..

    My point was the pats are an elite team in the league, our wins came against teams that were not..we saw today that we were completely outmatched, do you think that was an illusion, or a difference in the importance of the game for each team, meaning, when you have one team playing for something, and another team isn't, we should throw the game out?
     
  29. ckparrothead

    ckparrothead Draft Forum Moderator Luxury Box

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    Success has to be viewed from different perspectives.

    From a fan's standpoint this season was clearly not a success because the team had a losing record and once again the team's playoff chances never really materialized beyond the "mathematical" threshold with which bad teams are all too familiar.

    From the General Manager's standpoint this season was not a success because the improvement wasn't enough and the implication is that your running theory that you had supplied playoff caliber talent that was going to waste under old coaching staff, has been proven pretty wrong. You traded away players at the WR and CB positions and as a result you regularly had to START players that you had just picked up off waivers only weeks before, and not all of it (or even most of it) being due to injuries. That's bad. When that happens, it shows you went into the season with a bad plan. To say that this season has been a success from a General Manager's standpoint is to say that the General Manager is today on more sure footing than he was one year ago. That is simply not the case. The General Manager's margin for error next year narrowed, it didn't widen.

    From Joe Philbin's standpoint he achieved an increase in wins versus what he took over, so to him that is some level of success. There's not good history with coaches that aren't able to do that. Every now and then a good coach comes around that can't improve his team right away, but not very often. The overwhelming average of the good coaches is to achieve more in the first year than what you took over, and that even goes for coaches that take over 8-8 or winning teams. Philbin achieved improvement in the record, even if only modest improvement. The margin for success or failure for all head coaches necessarily narrows in the second year as opposed to the first. Yet after achieving improvement, I don't think Philbin's margin next year narrowed much, if at all.
     
  30. djphinfan

    djphinfan Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    Of course not, just matching us up in the division, against the best, we played them twice, it wasn't really close..your gonna have to compete with those guys for the next 5 years..we've got to get a lot of weapons, and our Qb has to get a lot better, and we have a lot of our own free agents.
     
  31. cdz12250

    cdz12250 Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    It means that the run defense, which got a lot of hype for not allowing a 100 yard rusher for a series of games, got exposed by a team whose offensive line can execute blocking assignments. No, it is not consistently good, and it has gotten worse as the season progressed. This run defense allowed the Pats 167 yards. the Pats' offensive line dominated the line of scrimmage over four quarters. It administered a physical beating. That performance belies all the previous hype based on statistics.

    Five games into the season, the run defense was allowing an average of 61 yards per game, and the hype began. It got progressively worse and ended up allowing 104 yards per game, culminating with today's total inability to stop the running game. Good run defenses don't melt down like that, absent injuries.

    Call it a tantrum, but I don't think that too many of our fans are happy with the performance of both lines today. Better to recognize a problem exists and try to address it.
     
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  32. His'nBeatYour'n

    His'nBeatYour'n Glass Ceiling Repairman

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    Dolphins played the Pats twice. We're not as close as the first game seemed, and not as far away as 28-0 seems. However, I'd still judge the 2012 Dolphins more upon how they competed when they still had a shot at the playoffs than a meaningless week 17 game.
     
  33. Disgustipate

    Disgustipate Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    You shouldn't throw the game out, but it belongs in the appropriate context.

    The first game, or for that matter, the 49ers, 1st Patriots, and the other games vs. actual elite teams and the issues involved there accurately represent the Dolphins in the context of elite teams.

    The Dolphins clearly are not completely outclassed by elite teams, but they clearly need to play very clean, mistake-free games that are beyond a team as young and inexperienced as they are at this point.
     
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  34. ckparrothead

    ckparrothead Draft Forum Moderator Luxury Box

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    I think that if you really want to judge success or failure you think about the heat of the seat, as I said. I think that's where the rubber meets the road and where success and failure can be thought of in real and not abstract terms.

    If you've been the General Manager for five seasons then your administration has reached beyond the point where your margin for error is diminishing by virtue of you just having another year under your belt. The depreciation has already locked in. So the question whether this was a successful season for the General Manager is pretty directly answered by answering whether the General Manager is closer today to being fired than yesterday. I'm pretty sure that after another year of "more of the same" then Jeff Ireland's seat got warmer to the point where most consider him lucky to remain in the job. This is a lot like where Tony Sparano was prior to the 2011 season. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if some scandalous behind-the-scenes flirtation with Bill Polian took place much as there was with Jim Harbaugh that year. I think next year if there's more signs of trouble you're going to hear more rumors and innuendo about Ross flirting with other potential GMs behind Ireland's back, you'll see a distancing between the two men, and eventually the local press and fans will consider firing a foregone conclusion. I could see that happening next year whenever the team gets to 7 or 8 losses.
     
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  35. Disgustipate

    Disgustipate Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    No, they didn't get exposed. If this was the first quality run game they faced this season, or they didn't perform well vs. any of the quality run games they played, then that would be getting exposed. That factually did not happen.

    They had a bad game. It does not erase the balance of the rest of the season. They do have to focus on issues, but those issues were there if you looked for them all season long, in good or bad performances.
     
  36. Disgustipate

    Disgustipate Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    This really needs to be pulled out and emphasized.
     
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  37. Onehondo

    Onehondo Senior Member Club Member

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    One thing is for sure and that is it is all on Ireland's head at this point. The coach, staff and roster can no longer be blamed on Parcell's in any degree. Additions and subtractions whether good, bad or whatever are all on Ireland. I can not see any part of this season as a success or I would just be fooling myself. Certainly not this as a successful year because we won one more game than last season. We have a lot of holes to fill this coming off season and our only hope is that Ireland can do some magic with our roster and can perform some miracles with the draft. Ross said we would make the playoffs this year but we didn't make it so now we will wait and watch.
     
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  38. djphinfan

    djphinfan Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    The Redskins, Seahawks, and Colts were worse then us last year, by a pretty far margin, they now all have rookie qbs, and are in the playoffs, we do as well, and are not..The pats, an even better team, beat us twice without maxing out..The win differential wasn't really close with those teams, I'm trying to find some context to categorize this as a successful season, but it's difficult..

    We have a lot of free agents Pate..
     
  39. slickj101

    slickj101 Is Water

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    That x100. We don't have enough natural talent to make up for our inexperience right now. But not by that much assuming we don't let all of our FAs walk.
     
  40. Dol-Fan Dupree

    Dol-Fan Dupree Tank? Who is Tank? I am Guy Incognito.

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    Seahawks went to the playoffs last year and beat the Saints.
     
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