Joey is right. You cannot take away what we did last year. We won the division after going 1-15. Now, this team is better and hungrier. The disrespect we are getting is unbelievable. I'm sure it will fire up our players.
Joey and Chris are right, we are the Division Champs and remain so until someone takes that away from us. The FO has done all the right things to improve this team dramatically during the offseason, again. And this being the 2nd year in these schemes, training, and under this staff, the players should be far better positioned for success than they were last season going into game one.
In reality, gauging anything by the strength of schedule is pointless. Take Jacksonville for instance. They are in the title chase two years ago. The following September they have at least four injuries tallied on the offensive line. That team was jinxed from the start of the preseason. Now they will become the 2009 "surprise" team.
the beginning of last season the: -Chargers were so suppose to be great -Falcons were suppose to suck -Pats were already crowned AFC East Champs -Bills looked improved -Jacksonville was suppose to make some noise -Dallas was going to better than they were I am sure there are more, but I am just making a point as the quoted post did. There is no way in hell you can gauge schedule strength by the previous year. If this was the case, wouldn't the SB champion be the same every single year?
Reminds me of those commericals the NFL does every season where the fans make predictions. You left out that the Jets were supposed to have 12 wins and go to the Super Bowl.
with farva at the helm As for the luck thing all I can say is "chance favors the prepared mind". We won the div because of chance and we were prepared. If it was easy to do the jets or bills would have won.
Well the entire idea that we are going to take a step back due to strength of schedule is really this one sided thought process. Why not another team? Maybe ATL will take a step back. Maybe they were the fluke. Or NO, or Carolina, Houston, SD, Jax, etc. There's this assumption that every team will be as successful as last year........ ..except us. And the reason given for us not being as successful is that everyone else is going to be. Okay. Again that's a very one sided kind of logic all stated in support of the notion that our season was a fluke.
An overwhelming majority of media types consider Miami's 11-5 record a fluke and that Miami shouldn't have beaten the Patriots and taken the division title. They attribute most of Miami's success to "gimmick" plays while discounting any improvements Miami made last year. I would love to hear Parcell's opinion about the treatment Miami is receiving, but he probably loves it as a motivator for the team this year with their tough schedule. I love it because we were underdogs last year and look at the results. Now we are underdogs again this year even though we won the division thanks to the media. Go Dolphins
I hate sports media as much as I hate mainstream media. For some reason, the media has been against Miami for a very long time, and they want us to lose. We have Chad Pennington, and the media hates him as well. They loved Parcells, but while they won't say it, they want him to lose because he's with the Dolphins. The Jets and Patsies have basically the same schedule we do except for 2 games. Where are the stories about THEM struggling? You won't see them, and I'd bet that the Jills will get better press because of TO. That being said, I like the bad press. Let all those "good" teams over look us. They won't see the beat down coming just like last year. GO PHINS!!!!!
In my humble opinion, trying to project the results of the 16 regular season games in advance is fundamentally flawed. It's impossible to take into account all of the variables that will undoubtedly change each successive matchup (injuries, players ascending, players declining, suspensions, etc). Sure, the schedule looks hard on paper, but I for one am just going to take it one game/week at a time. I have no real interest in projecting regular season records. I'd rather focus on particular position battles, matchups, etc..
So true. I heard this on Sirius NFL, so no stats to back it up, but going into last season the Colts on paper had what was supposed to be the 2nd most difficult schedule of any team. After it was all said and done it turned out to be one of the easiest schedules.
Don't forget the Cleveland Browns. They were supposed to make some noise this year, while the Ravens weren't. And the Titans weren't supposed to win the division, the Colts were.
you can generally be fairly confident in really good teams, and really bad teams ... namely because good coaches don't get bad - and bad coaches never get good ... why did Herm Edwards have to leave the JESTS ..... Man-jellous was over-rated, but Edwards was just plain terrible. good coaches: New England Carolina (but not consistent) Tennessee Pittsburg Atlanta (hard to tell after 1 season) average coaches: Buffalo San Diego (at best average) New Orleans (again, at best average) Jacksonville Houston unkowns: Tampa Jests Indy We can beat the average coaches ... we should be able to beat the unknowns (maybe split with the JESTS) it's the road games at ATL, CAR, TEN, NE (not to mention NY & BUF) that will go a long way in determining the success of this season .... 3 Division games and 4 against expected above average teams heading into the season.
Well, to me, the key for us, overall health, has not been determined as of yet. We have not made it through Training Camp and the preseason injury free as of yet, once we know who will play and who won't, then "us" fans will have a much better idea of how we will do this season. And we still have spots up for grabs, Cb, Rg, Wr, and let's not forget how terrible our Special Teams unit was for 10 games last season, it was so poor that even greatly improving in the last 6 games we still were 30th in kick return yards allowed, and 29th in yrds gained on kick returns.