Sure... Tony is a good guy. Probably, it seems... a pretty decent motivator too. As a football coach though, he leaves alot to be desired. Maybe, and probably given this franchises record, he'll figure it out in his second try. However, theres nothing this team can do but let him go. Its, unfortunately over for him. I feel the lockout had quite a bit to do with it this season, but still, its over for him. New HC's like Harbaugh in SF are doing more, and are way improved with no offseason because of a lockout, so... why isnt Tony? He's stayed positive. Yes, but that's his job. He's stayed motivated... yes, again, that's his job. His integrity as an individual, and his will to succeed though, is second to none. So, good for him. Personally I think he'll figure out the coaching side eventually... its just not going to be here, that's how it always goes. Kinda like Walden didnt figure out how to play LB with this team until GB picked him up... what? who said that..

 

Have you seen the house that Sparano has been trying to sell for the better part of the year?

$$ is what he's coaching for.

He lost his integrity when he showed up for this season after Ross & Ireland got left at the alter. Just look at Sparano's face during the press conference charade after the Harbaugh incident. Any self-respecting man would have quit after being made the laughing stock of the sports world. He came into the season with his tail tucked between his legs. His players knew it and that's why they showed up to training camp how they did.

I think the players only started playing hard after the first month because they hated the media saying they were genuinely tanking games for Luck and felt bad for Sparano.

 

That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever read.

I like Sparano a lot. I really wish he would have worked out. I have been one of his biggest supporters on the site.

I think he should be fired on Friday.

 

Character? From a professional sports person! I'd rather have wins! When and where I want Character is from the person next door, my own children or mebby even the President and political leaders of this country!

Al Davis said it best "Just win, baby!"

All this said with all due respect!:up:

 

In other words, nice guys finish last.

 

If Shane Ghram doesn't miss the field goal we win the game. That simple.

 

He is classy and a very nice guy, he'll make millions being the head coach here so I don't feel for him. Being a head coach is judged strictly by wins and losses, he deserves to be fired because he hasn't done his job as a head coach. I wish him and his family the best, he's good people but he can't win in the NFL so he needs to go back to being an assistant.

 

How do you figure that?

 

No, because the way the Cowboys' offensive line was owning our front seven during the final drive with consecutive runs of five yards or more, they could have scored a touchdown if they had needed one.

 

I like Sparano as a person but he is an offensive coordinator trying to be a head coach-I don't blame him for takeing the job and not quiting when they courted Harbaugh.

 

and if Romo does not thow the two INTs, that gave MIAMI 6 points, he wins the game... Ohh wait he did win the game...

Dallas overcame their mistakes that could have cost them the game...

Tooo many Field goals against a good Offense, Tony said it in his Press Conference...

We needed TDs... not FG's...

and Tony good person and probably good family man... Good HC??? well that is why he won't be having that job next year...

 

I like Tony, but he will be fired and deservedly so. Last night was the ideal outcome. Played hard against Very Good opponent. Didnt embarrass ourselves, and got better draft position.

 

He is playing too conservative. Like he has always done. He talked of changing, but when it was on the line, he went back to being conservative. Time for a new HC.

 

Who cares how much class he shows honestly?? What are we're trying accomplish here win football games or run running for class president??

 

Blaming the kicker for this loss is absurd. The Dolphins offense did not score a single touchdown once they reached the red zone. It was the kicker who kept them in the game by constantly having to kick field goals. The defense also was not able to make plays at the end of the game to stop the Cowboy offense.

Sparano also should have called for a two point conversion after the one Dolphin TD. What good does it do to kick the extra point and only taking a six point lead? If the Dolphins had converted on a two point conversion, the Cowboys would have needed a TD to win the game. Bad decision making by Sparano and the inability of the offense and defense to make plays when they needed to is the reason the Dolphins lost to the Cowboys. It certainly wasn't the one missed field goal by the kicker.

 

Let's see.....

Because if they DO NOT convert, there's a 5-point lead, and the Cowboys would only need two FGs to win the game?

The second part in bold is pretty much the reason ANY team in the history of competitive sports loses a game or match......

 

The Dolphins ended up losing the game by one point. Even if they had gone for the two points and failed, they would have only needed a field goal at the end of the game to win it. So not going for two points and having a chance to to take a seven point lead makes absolutely no sense at all. Stating that the Cowboys would have needed only two field goals to win the game is obvious, but the fact is that since the Dolphins only led by six points after only going for the one point conversion, the Cowboys only needed ONE TD to win the game.

I think the vast majority of the coaches in the NFL, college, and even high school would have gone for the two point conversion under this same scenario. The Dolphins were already 3-7. Exactly what did Sparano accomplish by going for only one point. OH yea, he allowed the Cowboys the opportunity to come back and win the game with an easy field goal with no time left on the clock. Great coaching job Tony.

 

You are what your record says you are Sporano is a 3-8 coach that should have been fired last year and is proving it this year.
Who can say he's a good motivator for goodness sake we are 3-8 who is he motivating

 

I'd be happier if he was a total ******* who won us superbowls.

 

if they could have scored a td they would have

 

holy crap we now have people making excuses for Sparano. Sure he is a nice guy and is likable but so was wanny and he won a hell of lot more games and he was fired so why should we keep a coach who settles for fieldgoals and has our team in 4th place ing the east. after 3 years the team should show marked improvement not as the laughing stock of the nfl. I hate to brake it to some of you but two 7-9 seasons and finishing 3 rd or 4 th in the division is not improvement. Dallas had better linemen on both sides of the ball , they were faster then us at tightend and wr . they had way better coaching then us and they most likely will be in the playoffs while Miami players will be turning in their equipment at the same time.its time for a change , until Miami gets into the same century we wont be in the playoffs we have been a outdated offense for tweenty years and I pray for some changes on offense.

 

Beg to differ. Why risk a fumble or a sack if you can run the clock down to one second and kick a chip shot to win the game?

 

Sparano is a nice guy. Great. Nobody cares. I want a coach who can actually, you know, coach! Don't care if he's a nice guy or an ******* as long as he's winning games. Sparano can't coach his way out of a ball pit at Chuck E Cheese. That's all that matters to me.

 

I agree. Heck, Wannstedt was a really nice guy too. He always showed a lot of class and character after a Dolphins loss. Unfortunately, just like with Sparano, there were far too many losses and Wannstedt needed to go. In fact I would prefer that instead of Sparano showing all this character and class. He should really come out and state the obvious. In fact I would have more respect for him if he got up after a loss and told the reporters what we all know is the truth.

That would be the following. The reason we lost today is because after four years as the GM of this organization, Jeff Ireland has not given me enough play makers to win against the better teams in the NFL. The offensive line today played like they were more interested in eating Thanksgiving dinner then blocking anyone on the Cowboys defense. The offense cost us the game because they couldn't score a TD once they got into the red zone, which they did four times. The defense played well for three quarters, but just as it has done so often since I have been the coach. It failed to make a play to win the game in the fourth quarter.

Sparano should end his press conference by admitting that he and Ireland have done a piss poor job of turning around the Dolphins since they took over and that without their Godfather Parcells, they are completely lost and over their heads in their present positions.

The best thing anyone will be able to say about Sparano once he is fired is that he was a nice guy. Because they certainly won't be able to say he was a good head coach.

 

Look MF, nice article you wrote, and like your FP, mostly every Dolphan agrees with it...

Not every assistant coach has the ability nor talent to be a HC, to different areas of expertise, IMHO...

Just as a talent scout might not be as knowledgeable as a well groom experienced GM...

Tony has endured a great deal, and still has a hard road ahead, but as we all know, the qualifications for an assistant coach is not as strict as a Head Coach...

He will be Ok and have a job in this NFL...

 

Have you ever tried to get out of the ballpit at Chuck E Cheese? It's a MOFO.

 

You mean like Rex Ryan?

Oh wait.

 

He didn't have a complete meltdown ala pizza the hut, so good for him. I don't like being co-opted from New Jersey, however...

 

Huh? You're making this more trivial than it is. The Dolphins took a 6-point lead with four minutes left in the 3rd Quarter. There's plenty of football left in that game. I honestly do not understand where you're going with this. You TAKE THE POINTS when they are there. It wasn't as if at that point, the game was on the line. Sparano didn't have a Magic-8 ball at his disposal.

And let's see, we weren't going to run the ball on the Cowboys in that situation (I think most would agree), and their D-line was teeing off on Miami most of the game on passing downs. So what do you does Miami do in that situation? Miami couldn't score a TD in three consecutive red zone opportunities up to the point of the Marshall TD. Our O-line would not have stood a chance running against that D-line in that situation. Who does Miami put in there? Daniel Thomas? Lex Hilliard? Soliai??? Oh, well, the second option would have been to pass it. Yeah, that has been working well all game, esp. since they already sacked Moore twice in the red zone, ending up with FGs instead of TDs. Well, hey, let's spread everyone wide and QB sneak it up the middle, given Moore's incredible escape skills, that would've worked!

EXACTLY what would you have done in that situation, coach, given there was almost 1/3 of the game left in regulation when Miami scored that TD??

 

Pretty much. Tony Sparano being a nice guy makes it easy for me to root for him to have success in whatever job he's able to attain next. But as the coach of the Miami Dolphins, good riddance.

 

I can tell you exactly what I would have done, because I was sitting with three Cowboys fans and several Dolphin fans waiting for Thanksgiving dinner when the Dolphins scored the TD. Every single person watching the game, including the Cowboy fans were waiting for the Dolphins to go for the two point conversion. The basic feeling in the room was that the Dolphins were already 3-7 and why not go for two points and take the lead by seven, if they made it.

Yes, they may have failed, and what exactly would the outcome of the game been if they only led by five instead of six? They would have ended up losing by two points, instead of one. I agree that the Dolphins didn't play well inside the red zone, but they had just scored a TD and going for two points made a lot more sense at the time than kicking the extra point. If you are happy with the Dolphins going for one point in that situation, great for you. I just totally disagree with your reasoning and the conservative call by Sparano at that point in the game.

 

actually we do have some playmakers now with Clay and Gates in the fold ... problem is that they are rookies, additionally - we are actually having Marshall run downfield, unlike last year when he was consistently double and triple covered coming back over the middle play after play.

Sparano has had his time ... and it isn't the players (less the OL, which is his presumed area of expertise) ... good dude or not, he hasn't put a winning product on the field since Pennington fell into our lap unexpectedly. But the statement about why he didn't quit ... why would anyone 'quit' when they have MILLIONS on the table (less Ricky of course), if you force your employer to fire you.

 

Look, while I agree that Miami was 3-7 with "nothing to lose", you're taking the entirety of the season into context when you should be looking at what was going on in the game; hence, the saying, "Any given Sunday". The record does not matter within the game.

Miami was winning at that point in the game, which, IMO, is all that matters at that point IN THE GAME (not the season).

I don't care if you were with President Barack Obama, you guys were cutting turkey while Sparano and Co. were coaching an NFL football game. It's really a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' situation. The 6-point lead puts pressure on the Cowboys to TRY to score a TD to win the game. Our defense was putting pretty damned good pressure on Romo. The guy was making impossible throws. You cannot account for that. Romo was having an OKAY game before his second TD (17/25 with 1 TD/2 INTs), but nothing that this defense couldn't handle. The pressure was on THEM to try to score a TD, not tie the game with two FGs and go into OT. With that pressure, they potentially make a mistake. Turns out, they did not. Good on them.

I mean, if you are going to blame ANYONE, blame Moore for going 3 and out on the drive before the winning FG. Blame Jake Long for 87 false starts. Blame Mike Pouncey for going back to his horrible snapping college days. Geez, we were outclassed all the way around. And with that, STILL almost pulled one out. That has to account for something. Hell, even blame the thrift store kicker for missing a potentially game-winning FG. You simply cannot put this on a 'maybe' 2-pt conversion that, if not made, gives the Cowboys 19-plus minutes to score two frickin' FGs to win. Given the way Miami's offense was playing, it would not have been outside the realm of probability.

Miami lost this game because of the mistakes that were made ON THE FIELD. Not because of the coaching.....

 

Great coaches minimize mistakes. Its pretty rare for a heavily penalized team to have a good coach. Teams that turn the ball over, make mental mistakes and get penalized generally have poor coaching. Coaching has a ton to do with gameday mistakes and penalties.

 

how can you blame the defense? the offense was horrible. the defense dominated and when your offense just goes 3 and out every time the other team is going to eventually score. hell the first TD should have been a TD by the dallas D instead of being score on our defense.

fire the coach, should have been done at 0-7.

 

horrible snaps? it hit him in the chest on all the drops. what are you talking about? he wasnt ready for the snap. obviously a communication error, hence the "87" false starts on our best player on offense.

 

Not what I said, though you may see it that way, Pro sports is an entertainment business thus my concern is with performance only! I have no idea if said person is of good character or bad, quite frankly, its none of my business. My hero's don't come from that area of the world and I pity any who would put such figures on any sort of pedestal. To each his own!