Well, I think this team does have some talent. Where I think the team is thin at is game changing talent.

It is very clear that the talent we have, we should be using better.

Along with that talent though, there have been some major personnel blunders that were committed by the front office.

Reggie Bush, even though he isn't being used properly. Still, he's a match up, space player that they are paying as a starter. Mistake.

Kevin Burnett. The staff was familiar with him, and he came in with the reputation of being a good coverage linebacker. However, he has been as lost as a ball in tall grass in coverage this year and has been a clear downgrade from Channing Crowder when it comes to defending the run. The team is paper thin behind him and Dansby at inside linebacker.

With Marc Colombo, did they sign him only because they were familiar with him and he was cheap, or did they simply ignore the last two years worth of film on him?

There is no credible back up tight end on the team. The secondary is littered with guys who have poor ball skills. The linebackers as a group have a lot of trouble locating the ball and reacting to the run.

 

Some of these don't make any sense.

That's really not a particularly heavy workload in that area, and isn't really separating out stuff like draw plays.

This really isn't all that baffling. He's not in coverage that much, nowhere even close to what teams like Pittsburgh do with James Harrison or Lamarr Woodley.

Daboll didn't call a play to throw to Clyde Gates deep. He called a play which had a single player run a deep route, which Henne chose to throw. It's not close to the same thing.

 

Not that we have the highest caliber of players on our roster, but to a degree, the Dolphins this year remind me of last year's Dallas Cowboys.

If you recall, prior to last year's season, the Dallas Cowboys were favored by many to reach the Super Bowl, sporting one of the best teams in the NFL...on paper that is, but the Cowboys lacked the chemistry to achieve that pinnacle and as a result, faltered and failed to live up to expectations.

The Dolphins this year, although the questions were present (and still reamin) concerning the offense and whether or not Chad Henne would shine under new offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, our defense had been hearlded as probably one of the top 10 defenses in the league. In fact, I remember a thread entitled, "Can the Dolphins Ride the Defense to the Super Bowl", or something to that effect. Our defense was supposed to be the ones that actually won the games for us.

Alas, despite a roster of talented defensive players that had our defense christened as elite, despite the return of Brandon Marshall, despite the trade for playmaker Reggie Bush, despite an offensive scheme that has Chad Henne making downfield throws he previously did not have, our team is lacking the chemistry to live up to expectations or potential.

Sadly, the 2011 Miami Dolphins are the reincarnation of the 2010 Dallas Cowboys. :pity:

 

Not to defend Ireland, i personally believe we should clean house from top to bottom, but I lay much more fault at the feet of the coaching staff than the GM. No matter how bad Colombo is, he was brought in at the time as a minimun player to be a backup at tackle. It was Sparano who moved Carey to RG and made Colombo the starting RT. I cant believe Carey has regressed that much to not be able to do better than Colombo at that position.

Its this coaching staff that is using Bush improperly. I have no issue trading a later pick for Bush and even though he is getting paid a decent amount, the man is a bona fide weapon if used correctly. He is a huge threat that teams have to account for if we can get him the ball in space and it is on the coaching staff to do that.

If this team is not conditioned well enough to finish games i put that on the coaches. Calling stupid fades to Hartline on the one yard line is on the coaches. Pulling Thomas, who was running all over cleveland, on a potential drive to seal the game and to replace him with Bush who they subsequently (GASP) ran up the middle to stall a drive, i put on the coaches.

Dansby played like an all pro all of last year so im not gonna knee jerk and call him a bust signing after 3 games in which he seems to have a groin injury. This team is not devoid of talent. We beat the super bowl champs last year and we would of beaten the other super bowl team in Pitt if the refs didnt steal it from us. But to lose to teams like Buffalo, Detroit and Cleveland at home when we could of wound up being a winning team is inexcusible.

So while i have issues with Ireland in terms of not getting us more solid safety play, getting us another legitimate TE, spending a 2nd and a 3rd on Jerry and Misi and not bringing in other lineman after Sparano decided Colombo was starting material, the mistakes the coaches have made weigh more heavily on me.

Dont get me wrong, Ireland has made his share of mistakes. Personally, I think Parcells had as much to do with the blunders of Pat White, Wilson and Wolford but Ireland was the GM and should be held accountable. However i can point out some good things he has done........Marshall, Dansby, Long, Davis, Langford, Starks, Wake among others where i find it difficult to find much of anything i like about Sparano. For better or worse, this FO did build a top 6 D last year but those horrific losses at home at the end of last year I put mainly on the coaches

 

The poor conditioning is probably due more to the lockout than the coaching. This team has been pretty well conditioned in prior years. Seems the players, particularly on defense didn't put enough time when they were home alone

 

Now I will fart in the room. Who was missing from that 2010 Dallas Cowboy offense?

 

There are a number of criticisms in there that are off-base IMO.

1. Reggie Bush has run 7 times up the middle. So? You can't run EVERY play to the outside. The criticism admits that only 7 of his 28 carries (25%) go up the middle. Were any of those 7 runs draw plays on 2nd & 11+? I notice that Reggie has 2 runs for -1 yards on 2nd & 11+ this year. So we're going to call out those plays as a mis-use of Reggie Bush? Bull farts in a paper bag to that notion.

2. Reggie Bush averaging only 3.5 catches per game versus 5.5 or 6.0 in New Orleans. You know why? Because we actually, you know, want to RUN the effing ball, and so Daniel Thomas has to get in there and take snaps. And you can't afford to tip the defense off 100% that every time Daniel is in the game it's a run and every time Reggie is in it's a pass. Plus, is there really that much reward for throwing Reggie the ball? Reggie's averaging 5.9 yards per attempt his direction this year. That's not abnormal, he averaged about 6.0 yards per attempt for his last 3 years in New Orleans. Throwing the ball to Reggie is inefficient. He's better as a decoy than an actual pass catcher.

3. The Dolphins send Cameron Wake into coverage a few times a game. This one is just ridiculous. Cameron Wake pass rushes on 85% of all passing downs. That's a HIGH percentage for a 3-4 OLB. Any higher and you're not really playing a multiple, 3-4 based defense. His percentage is almost identical to Demarcus Ware. You NEED to send him out into coverage every now and then just to get the opponent's offensive line thinking and confused. This was a very naive criticism, IMO.

4. The deployment of cornerbacks. Listen, they cut Benny Sapp. That means Will Allen is the ONLY slot corner we have, until/unless Jimmy Wilson gets up to speed at that spot. So yeah, when Vontae Davis is out injured, Nolan Carroll has to be the guy that takes his place on the outside rather than Will Allen. If you put Will Allen on the outside you have nobody that can play the slot well. After they cut Benny Sapp and grabbed Will Allen back, this was the only choice they could make, to have Will focus on being the slot corner.

Now, some of the criticisms...I get. I think they're fair.

1. The deep ball to a rookie in that late game situation where all we needed was basically one first down to try for the FG. I didn't get that call.

2. The Dansby absence probably deserves criticsm, but not as much as people might think. Bottom line is in that package most teams have only one linebacker and they feel Kevin Burnett is a better coverage linebacker right now than Karlos Dansby. However, I will say that with their receivers, I wouldn't mind going with a nickel package that involves two linebackers even though they're putting all those WRs on the field. On the other hand, I think this package is what got us that interception earlier in the game...so it's a difficult call and to criticize it seems fair, but kind of cheap to me.

3. All of the personnel decisions deserve criticism. The criticisms above that are off-base all highlight problems in the personnel department. Reggie Bush should not be a Miami Dolphin. Benny Sapp should not have been cut, nor should Will Allen have been cut before the season started. Marc Colombo should not be a Miami Dolphin. Jason Taylor should not be a Miami Dolphin. The personnel department needed to do better with those positions, and they didn't, and so now the coaching staff is forced to make uncomfortable decisions that are going to get criticized one way or another.

 

One guy the Dolphins should consider trading for is Marcus Benard of Cleveland. He was very productive and efficient last year and I think maybe the year before, as a 3-4 OLB pass rusher. But he's kind of wasting away in that 4-3 defense where Jayme Mitchell and Jabaal Sheard start at the DE spots and rarely come off the field. Benard has 20 snaps this year, only 10 in pass rush, and he's still got 1 sack and 1 pressure.

But no I suppose we should just keep on with Jason Taylor. Especially if we want a shot at Andrew Luck.

 

Dime to a dollar says I already know who you're talking about...Tony Romo, right? If so...

Tony Romo went down with a broken collar bone early in the second quarter on October 25th in the game against the Giants. At that point, the Cowboys already had a dissmal record of 1-4 and Romo's performance up to him being planted...5/7, 39 yards, 1TD. Dallas trailed the Giants by only 4 at the half and still went on to lose that game, making them 1-5.

If you're referring to the Cowboys not having Terrell Owens, let me get something for your fart.



That pass dropping, route surrendering, scared to get hit infantile egomaniac hasn't impressed me one bit...and the Cowboys actually did better in 2009 without him than they did in 2008 when they had him. That's probably the reason why they released him in March 2009 before the '09 season.

 

To be fair, Romo was playing with Wade Philips as coach. Romo didn't play a snap with Garrett as HC last year.

 

............and at the point Romo went down they had a 20-7 lead over the Giants eventually losing 41-35.

Although we have 3 losses in which 2 losses have ended with the ball in the quarterbacks hand, have you seen anything remotely close to this season opening loss?

http://www.nfl.com/videos/dallas-cowboys/09000d5d81a7e14e

 

This regime has been making these same blunders for years and this is the first time the press has written an article about it?
I've been making the same point since '09. You can analyze players mistakes all you want and in many cases its legitimate, but overall its about confidence and the players don't have any in this regime, how could they, with the way things have gone? No confidence equates to poor play and that is the single biggest problem with this team imo.

 

This. I think we should have gotten rid of Sparano last year, but we're 0-3 because of Jeff Ireland, not because of Tony Sparano. He does not bear the majority or even a plurality of blame for this team right now.

Absolutely. I discovered him doing background work for the GM League (I had the Browns). Benard can definitely rush the passer, and he can do so with a relatively limited amount of snaps. He's pretty efficient in that role, and could potentially be the secondary pass rusher we want opposite Wake. Misi doesn't seem to be growing into that role.

I wonder if the scouting department even bothered to ask Bryan Cox about Benard. Probably not.

 

If they did ask him about Benard, do you think Bryan Cox would have given them an accurate assessment of his talents? I tend to doubt it.

 

4th and 4, dropping Wake into coverage when you have a chance to end the game was simply dumb.

 

The way I see it looking at the whole Parcells Regime is this. Bill is awesome at evaluating talent and finding the right guys. He finds all the guys who would work in "his " system. Then he goes and gets a coach who will not challenge him on "his" system. The problem is that he is not on the field. He is not the face on the sideline you have to walk by after making a bad play. His effectiveness falls short. I think the only reason Dallas did as well is because Wade had better coaching experience than Tony and was able to add a little bit.

Step 2 of the problem is the reason for incomplete projects. Jerry Jones had to have TO. At that point Parcells started distancing himself away from the project and looking for an exit strategy. Parcells has a system. I strongly believe if he took GM and head coaching responsibilities in Jacksonville for next 3 years, they would be a powerhouse. With Ross and his thirst for publicity, I have to believe Marshall was more his idea than Parcells. Queue the Parcells exit strategy again.

I would not be surprised if Ross paid him even more money to stick around after the Marshall move to keep the franchise from imploding publicly. Now we are left with the pieces. Sweep them all up and toss them out. They were all puppets hired to "not" challenge Parcells decisions. They do not belong in the capacity in which they reside in.

IMHO we look at Detroit, Buffalo, and even New England for staffers that could possibly come in as a GM. Nobody has left NE and actually succeded. That one is all Bill and for some reason people can not transform there experience with him into success elsewhere. What this team needs is TOUGHNESS ATTITUDE TENACITY. I love what the Raiders are doing.

Lets look for someone who will bring a no prisoner approach. Im not going to sit on the lead I am going to run the score. You get paid to stop us so stop whining. I dont care if they one a superbowl or if they are on a hall of fame ballet. What are they going to do for us next year? Who is going to get the most out of the talent we have? I guarantee you Hue is not the best coach in the league but his players would knife someone without even thinking twice if he was in trouble. We need that coach.

 

If you're referring to Cox not being the LB coach in Cleveland, sure, I'd agree with that. But Cox still has actual experience watching Benard in games and in practice. You don't assign his opinion too much weight, but IMO you still ask, because a potential source of information is a potential source of information.

But my greater point is that I don't think the pro scouting department is very intellectually curious about players they have little past experience with (yeah, I made a Dallas reference just now). Given that their scouting efforts on Reggie Bush seemed restricted to watching old episodes of SportsCenter, you can't blame me.

 

Haha. I can't blame you. You're right they probably never did ask. But over-reliance on the coaching staff's opinions may be why we keep getting Dallas players over and over again, so just saying sometimes these pro personnel scouts need to actually earn their money by identifying potentially available talent and knowing the talent levels of those players.

Which they don't do.

 

Jon Kitna. They were 1-6 in games Romo played and 5-4 with Kitna starting. 5-5 in games Kitna played. Extra game being an overlap loss to NYG in which both played.

 

They were 1-4 and Romo played 1 quarter in the 6th game.

 

1-5 I mean. Your point doesn't hold water. They lost when he played. They won more with Kitna than Romo.

It's not like Washington, Jacksonville, Minnesota and Tennesse were particularly good last year.

 

How do you credit Romo with a loss that Kitna played 3 quarters of? As I stated earlier, the game was 20-7 (Cowboys) when Romo left the game.

Honestly though I have lost interest in this conversation. I don't see the resemblances of the two teams and I have lost interest in the topic. Of course, the resemblance topic could change if the Dolphins D quits as the Cowboys D appeared to in 2010.

 

And even with that 20-7 lead when Romo went down, the Cowboys were STILL 1-4...
at Wash 7-13 L
vs Chi 20-27 L
at Hou 27-13 W
vs Tenn 27-34 L
at Minn 21-24 L

Now, if I have to actually start pulling numbers out of my *** to illustrate the similarities between the 2011 Miami Dolphins and the 2010 Dallas Cowboys...

The first three games of the '10 season, Dallas scored 54 points
The first three games of the '11 season, Miami scored 53 points
(both offenses not generating many points)

The first three games of the '10 season, Dallas allowed 53 points scored against their defense
The first three games of the '11 season, Miami allowed 78 points scored against their defense
(Both defenses giving up points although Miami's getting scored on like a high school team)

The first three games of the '10 season, Romo's stats were as follows: 88/128, 940 yards, 4TD/2 int, 313 ypg average, 68.7 comp %, QB Rating: 93.9
The first three games of the '11 season, Henne's stats are as follows: 61/108, 841 yards, 4TD/3 int, 280 ypg average, 56.6 comp %, QB Rating: 82.1
(Nothing truly noteworthy in the difference individual QB stats...a "virtual" tie (2 of Henne's int's, one at the end of the half vs NE, one at the end of the game vs Cle)

During the first 3 games of the '10 season, Dallas's defense gave up 898 total yards, 672 passing yards, 251 rushing yards, with only 2 Ints, 6 sacks
During the first 3 games of the '11 season, Miami's defense gave up 415 total yards, 311 passing yards, 104 rushing yards, with only 2 Ints and 4 sacks
(Wow, Miami's defensive stats the first 3 games look alot better than Dallas's, but like Dallas, the one stats Miami's not prevented is points on the board)

I can keep going and pulling stat after stat, doing my impression of Sheldon Cooper and just seem like nothing more than a numbers geek, but my original point still stands...the 2011 Miami Dolphins are the reincarnation of the 2010 Dallas Cowboys...a team with substantial talent on the field, but the inablity to win games.

 

Miami's defense has given much more than 415 yards.

 

You are correct. That was a typo. That was supposed to read 415 yards per game.

Dallas's would read 299 yards per game.

Thanks for catching that. :up:

 

Can't believe no one has gone here already but,,,, if your referring to marc columbo getting abused like a step child and committing a penalty, then yes i've seen something just like this here in miami this season.

 

I return to this thread with my head down in shame. We are the 2010 Dallas Cowboys. The defense has quit and heck - we included the quarterback injury one game earlier than they did.