Discussion on what went wrong since the Shula/Marino days

Whether you like it or not those teams were considered by many to be legitimate Superbowl contenders.

 

What went wrong was after the 1988 draft, I mailed in my resume' to be hired on as the Director of College Scouting, and since I never heard back from The Don, I can only conclude my application got lost in the mail. Had it made it's way into the hands of The Don, I'm sure we'd have won a SB or 2.

 

Only by many dolphins fans. No one else did. We won one playoff game. You can't win only one playoff game over a series of years and be considered contenders.

 

I'm sure those "many" also think running the ball is the key to winning.

The Wannstache teams were not Super Bowl caliber rosters.

 

Well Ross thinks this group of Dolphins are a playoff team. So all that proves is that even the owner, can be as delusional as some of the fans. Perhaps you remember that after the Dolphins signed Dante Culpepper, Sports Illustrated picked the Dolphins to win the 2006 AFC conference championship and play in the SB against the Carolina Panthers. Of course we all know how that turned out.

The fact is that the Dolphins were a decent team during the first three years of the Wannstedt regime. The problem was that they never really had the offense to get beyond the early rounds of the playoffs and predictions or not, they were never really a serious threat to make the Super Bowl during the Wannstedt years.

 

Gameday!

 

A clean slate. Sort of. We are still carrying the baggage described in this thread, but Rome wasn't built in a day, and everybody has the same record today.

Say what you want. But we don't really know what's going to happen today.

 

I'm getting the sense that the point spread and the underdog role are reaching the proportions that usually make men find that extra source of drive and motivation that can result in an upset.

You can only bludgeon somebody so much before they fight back with all the anger they've built up and whip your ***.

 

Marino still had 2 or 3 left in him. I have no doubt.

 

coaching, coaching , coaching
Philbin & Co. understand this & hopefully will answer the call
Tannehill is the Franchise QB & by game 5 the team
will be acclimated to the new systems of play

a 500 season with answers to questions & team development would be a winner

 

Ricky's first year here, they were two wins away vs. non-playoff teams to close out the season and get home field advantage throughout the playoffs.

Is that a super bowl contender?

 

The 2002 Miami Dolphins statistically where the best Dolphin team in the last 20 years.

#2 in Point differential in the AFC.

15th in total offense
12th in scoring
2nd in Rushing
9th in takeaways (only 1 away from 4th)
4th in Scoring defense
5th vs. the Run
8th vs. the Pass
3rd in Total defense

Those stats indexed historically place that team as a 11-13 win team.

If we go with being #2 Running team and #3 in total defense, they are the only team up until then that had failed to make the playoffs with those rankings and the average finish of the ones previous was the conference championship game.

Since then, there have been two super bowl champions with similar composite rankings and 5 conference finalists and 4 super bowl participants that fit in that group.

So, long story short....the 2002 Miami Dolphins were absolutely Super Bowl Contenders.

 

If they do it. They did not.

 

I wonder who's fault that was.....

 

Those two games were the Vikings and Pats, right?

I'll never forget EDIT: MOSS (!) throwing a TD to EDIT: BATES (!) almost a full two seconds after the playclock hit zero. And then Mark Royals. Oh, Mark Royals. His wife was a client of mine about 5 years ago. She was doing something for the Buccaneers, charity stuff or something. I mentioned that I remembered her husband from his Dolphins days, she said totally unprovoked that Dolphins fans were the WORST, and that Mark had received death threats after that game.

 

Yes.

Two wins versus two non-playoff teams= Home field advantage throughout the playoffs, and the #2 seed would have been a team we had already beaten. (Raiders)

We are cursed.

 

that Raider game featured one of the best plays by a CB i have ever seen

[video=youtube;uiL1nNu56pM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiL1nNu56pM[/video]

 

I'll never argue that. He was a POS of the highest degree when it came to football...but he was also in charge of the team, which made him part of the team. When that big a moron is in charge of your team and you win one whole payoff game, then you cannot be considered a contender. That was my point. We should have been contenders, but weren't.

 

Barry Sims is STILL holding Jason Taylor.