Is it hitting anyone else as hard as me right now, knowing we should be out there tomorrow against the bengals. We were handed the playoffs and just blew it.
It's true, we need to get someone in there to give our players a spark..we have the talent now we just need the coaching!
Not at all. We had no business being in the playoffs this year which is why we aren't. Pretty simple. I hope every year, but at the end of the day I've learned to have such low expectations from this franchise at this point that it does not bother me that much anymore.
Thank god I'm in Cali for the MNC and am 3 hours behind. The game starts at 10 AM here so I'll still be asleep for a little and won't get to be reminded of it. These whole playoffs give me a bad taste in my mouth thanks to our meltdown.
Same, I can't even stand to watch NFL football right now. But I take it this way, we just didn't want it bad enough, we literally were handed the playoffs..
No, the offense scoring only 7 points total in their final two games against the Bills and Jets is what hurts me. After those two losses, the Dolphins didn't deserve to be a playoff team. In fact what hurts even more is that the Dolphins lost twice to the Bills and finished behind the Jets in the division and yet both those teams will select players in the next draft before the Dolphins get a chance to select a player. That is what really upsets me right now.
If only..... If only Clabo could stop being such of waste of a human being..... If only O-line would do anything...... If only J.Martin took medication..... If only Cogs would stop getting into ****..... If only home games could be packed and loud and actually give us some advantage.... If only there were no refs in Foxborough.... If only D.Jordan saw more than 2 snaps a game.... If only Tanny would run when he has the space.... If only Sturgis could be relied upon.... If only Fireland...... If only we could stop giving up 3rd and longs.... If only Thigpen could get more than 3 yards after the punt and more than 22 after the kick-off.... If only we could stop losing to the garbage Bills in the most embarrassing ways.... If only we had common-sense play-calling...... Add to a broader list of: If only Marino/Shula weren't forced into early retirement..... If only Ricky liked playing in the NFL more than pot..... If only Pennington's surgery was successful.... If only Henne became somebody....
Bottom line is as much as it stinks that we are not there.....we no way near deserved to be there. Period
Get used to this feeling. As long as Jeff Ireland is in control of the roster, the Dolphins will be out of the playoffs.
If only we hadn't passed on Drew Brees TWICE. If only we hadn't traded for Culpepper. If only Marino hadn't torn his Achilles. (We would have gone to the SB that year IMHO.) If only Pete Stoyanovich had made that FG against San Diego in 94. If only my mom hadn't been from Miami and my parents hadn't lived there together for 10 years...then I might be a fan of a team that had won a SB since I was in first grade or appeared in one since I was a teenager.
I said it was built okay, not good or great. Pouncey, Clabo, and Cogs looked good on paper pre-season. It was only until week 4 that the paper-pillars collapsed.
Other than Pouncey you had a line made up of 2nd string or practice string players. There is no A1 sauce that makes hamburger in to steak in football.
Sure, but the issues with the OL we're far beyond just coaching. They're just not good. Martin is garbage. Incognito is serviceable but was having a pretty bad season. Pouncey is good. Jerry is a slob, and awful. Clabo was the definition of a turnstile. Garner, Garbage. Same thing. Brenner was serviceable at first, but later got benched for Garner. I mean like... come on, lets be serious. The OL troubles went far beyond coaching, it was all about player and talent evaluation, that was beyond horrific thanks to our GM
One was almost a pro bowler, one was a decent starter, another was a good enough starter and then there was Martin. Of the 4 linemen who were not Pouncy 3 of them got way worse than the previous season. None of the young back ups were even coached up to be decent.
If you ask me I would take Long back with all the injuries and that huge contract....because we would still be fathoms above our OL right now.
Jerry did better in 2012, Clabo did better in 2012 and Incognito did better in 2012. I am serious. That was terribly coached offensive line. The entire pass protection looked lost the entire year. Yet coaching kept on calling plays and designing an offense based on having good protection
Well, thats one of the primary jobs of the OL... pass protection. Even when it was evident they were failing at it, what did you want us to do? You still have to protect, if your going to pass the ball, which we had to do, because that same OL couldnt run block well enough to generate positive yardage on the ground. Coaching only goes so far, at some point players have to perform. These guys on the OL were loosing one on one matchups, that's not coaching, that's poor execution, poor play, by poor players. Past success does not guarantee future success. Jerry has consistently been out of shape and a problem. Incognito is getting up in age, Clabo as well. It was a poor, poor decision on behalf of our roster builder to think those were wise decisions, and a good group of guys to trot out there for our coaching staff to work with in building an offense. This team was going nowhere fast even if we did manage to claw oursleves into the playoffs. The physical intensity of playoff games ramps up 10 times, there's no way in hell that OL would have survived. No way. It's far beyond coaching.
roll out, draws, screens. With them just pass protecting and doing really crappy at it while being coach like ****, they still were good enough to win 8 games, with 4 of those being against teams in the AFC playoffs. Also, "Claw themselves into the playoffs?" with good coaching they would have sailed into the playoffs. They just had to win one of two games against teams they were better than.
Again, we're far beyond just lacking good coaching IMO. We have no OL talent, No effective RB's, poor LB's, and after Grimes, really not much of a secondary. In fact you can make the argument there that good coaching/scheme on Coyle's part is why our secondary was as good as it was. Of course, that doesnt explain the regression of the front 7 and the regression of the run D. Personally, I think theyre both equally to blame, but the roster hampered this coaching staff, more than the coaching staff hampered the roster IMO. That's not to say I dont think coaching is a problem, I just dont think it was the only problem. If I had my way, Sherman would have been dismissed halfway through the season.
They were coached no differently in 8 wins than the 8 losses.The talent simply isn't there on the O line and had they made their way into the playoffs it probably would have been an embarrassment.
Coaching isn't the reason those players got beat off the snap consistently. Coaching isn't the reason those players lost one on one match ups. If you want to blame the coaches for running a zone blocking scheme, then that's fine. Just realize that this group of linemen can't play in a zone blocking, man blocking, or gap blocking scheme. This team doesn't have many players at all that can win one on one match ups.
The regression of the front seven and run defense is due to the linebackers that Jeff overpaid to get. In fact, the reason we haven't gotten a decision from Stephen Ross yet is because he set up two tackling dummies. One has fire everyone on it, and one says keep everyone. Whichever one Philip Wheeler tackles first is what he will do. It's taking a while.
Hate to say it but we would have gotten steamrolled by the Bengals in their building. It would have been an ugly loss to say the least...Like 62-7 Jacksonville ugly...We weren't ready for the playoffs. Each team I watched today took their skills to another level, and we unfortunately could only show flashes of doing so during the regular season.
Truly golden opportunity dropped. Not often you get a year where 9 wins is more than good enough (and 8 wins was nearly good enough for Pitt). Also can't be often a team beats 4 playoff teams and misses the playoffs for losing to The Bills x2, Bucs and Jets... I also think it probably would have been another brutal playoff exit...though not as bad as 62-7. Maybe they would have finally scored double digits! The last 3 playoff games they scored: 0 points, 3 points, 9 points. So I'd say 12 points would've been scored this time around. With the Bengals getting 23+. The 2000 win isn't just the last win, its the last time the Dolphins actually showed up to a playoff game. The other three have basically been the Bills/Jets games, so I guess these Dolphins decided to get the season ending blowout(s) done with in December instead of January. So that's the other sad part about that last playoff win, it's also the last game the Dolphins looked competitive in the playoffs. Not that there have been many chances, but they haven't even had a thrilling loss like KC did.
I'm just dissapointed we havn't seen any changes yet. That's what I'm dissapointed about! Somthing happening down inside and this team flat out didn't care about the playoffs. I want an agressive owner. Part of me, most of me, thinks he was aggressive last time with Harbaugh, and is now gun shy...
Also meant to add, I'm still pissed off, will be for awhile at this team. I havn't watched a minute of the playoffs yet. Doubt I will till the Superbowl.
'' the power of the read option'' collinsworth.. it hurts to know we smoked the bills last year with it, and didn't use it all in our last two games.. wtf is wrong with that dude..lol..like seriously..how do you not use misdirection, hesitation in your gameplan.. you have a qb that can run it, and run and throw, and you don't do either.. gives me some extra hope when it comes to ryan.
My advice is to allow it to hit you hard, do not shy away from it. Embrace the way the season progressed and then assign responsibility to the failures. Do all of that and demand a change only to have the owner do nothing but put on a helicopter show.