Sitting here, in the aftermath of the 27-24 overtime loss to the Tennessee Titans, it's hard to say quite succinctly what my feelings are. The excitement of seeing the team come back from down 18 late in the second half to tie the game, thanks in large part to a miracle grab by Hartline, quickly gave way to disbelief when Henne threw his third pick of the game, anger when Camarillo was superflously penalized, and finally depression when Bironas made the gimme FG that ended the game, most likely our playoff chances, and in a sense our season. We simply shot ourselves in the foot the entire day. Suspect, and annoyingly conservative at times, playcalling, 3 turnovers in the red zone, penalties and poor pass defense hurt us more than the Unsportsmanlike call. For these reasons, I will not throw a pity party for the Dolphins. We made mistakes, Henne made poor decisions throwing, we got zero out of the return teams, and we let Vince Young carve us up all day long in the passing game. We lost to a team that was 13-3 last year and has won 7 of their last 8. The Titans are a good team and we played them hard and I'm not fan of moral victories, but if there's one thing I can hang my hat on it's this teams resiliency. Whether it be coming back from down 24-6 on the road with everything to lose to force overtime, or continuing to win despite season ending injuries to Pennington, Ronnie Brown, Patrick Cobbs, Jason Ferguson and Will Allen, the 2009 Miami Dolphins have shown great resiliency. Henne has led 4 game winning drives in the 4th quarter, Ricky Williams has stepped in as the starter and gone over 1,000 yards and 10 TDs, Paul Soliai is playing the NT better than expected and despite growing pains our rookie CBs look like the real deal. The key here is that we never give up, and that starts with the coaching staff. A spirit of competition has been instilled in this team. That's something we didn't see in the Cam Cameron era, Nick Saban era or even the Wanny era. If this team goes down 24-6 under any of those three coaches it's game over and you know it. Two years into the "rebuilding process" we're well ahead of schedule. We have an 18-12 record to show for it with an AFC East division crown. If you would have told me that at the end of the 1-15 season I would have gladly taken that. What's more is we have depth and young core players to build this team around. Sure we're still missing some pieces and hopefully we can improve the WR/ILB/S positions in the off-season, but we're headed in the right direction. Anyone who doubts that need just look at the past 2 seasons. Maybe we don't win blow out games but we're tough and we stick around in every game. And when you can do that you're gonna win some. And while I'm not quite ready to write this season off just yet, if we are playing for next year now, at least the future looks bright. Always proud of my Miami Dolphins. Always a true fan. Let's take an example for the boys we love and be resilient and bounce back from this loss. Don't let the negativity consume you. There are a lot of positive things going on in this organization and we will reap the benefits soon enough. Anyway, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.
I hate to make so brief a reply to so lengthy a post, but I'll say this: for all of the miscues that Sparano gets criticized for, he coaches a team that refuses to quit. I don't care what anyone says, he's a great coach that has completely changed the demeanor of a franchise. He's worth whatever they're paying him and then some.
The less than 2 FULL years into a rebuilding process often gets overshadowed, especially with the 11-5 season last year, and annual FANDOM expectations of why not us every year. But we do need to step back and remember the Roster that produced 1-15....and the # of new pieces, and improved pieces, and that includes scheme and message of what it means to be a Dolphin, play the right way, focus on the role, and execute, all of which this rebuilding effort has put in place, and additional pieces to come. Next year, its going to come down to execution....but clearly we should be very Happy with what we have in place, and how close we really, really, are with solid organization from Top to Bottom.
It's a little disappointing that people would rather participate in threads of negativity or ones that propose insane scenarios that get us into the playoffs rather than show their appreciation of what this team accomplished this year. I know today was disappointing but I ask you to look at the bigger picture of what we were able to accomplish this season. We swept the Jets, including a home win on MNF, we split with the Pats and Bills, we took the Saints and Colts to the wire, we almost won a truely ****ed up game against the Chargers, we **** the bed against Atlanta and Buffalo and we fought to keep ourselves alive till week 15 of the NFL season. I don't buy that the team has regressed from last year. Last years team got wins against San Fran, Seattle, St. Louis, KC, Denver, Buffalo x2 and the Jets after Brett Favre had hit his slump. This year we played the hardest schedule in the NFL and competed with every single team we played. Last year we had almost no injuries, this year we've been battling the injury bug the whole way losing our 2 best offensive players from a year ago and our 2 best defensive players who don't play linebacker. I know it's hard to see the silver lining after a loss. And while there is no actual silver lining to this loss specifically, I still think we should all be proud of this team and what they did this season and in the Parcells/Ireland/Sparano era as a whole. I know we're upset and dejected at the moment, but these times will make the good times all the better. Anyone can see that this team is not a fluke, not a gimmick, not a one year wonder, this is a tough, hard working, accountable, resilient football team who plays for each other and doesn't give up. And that's something to be proud of.
Really? There's another thread for that. And the personal foul, while the wrong call, would have never been an issue if we take care of business.
To go from 20-44 to 18-12 is a major step in the right direction and as long as Ross keeps his nose out of the football operations and Parcells doesn’t start taking advice from local newspapers or armchair coordinators, it’s only going to get better.
