Tony Sparano wasn’t kidding around when he said last week the starters will play in the final preseason game “until I’m satisfied.”
Sparano may be the only coach in the NFL who likes to get his starters significant repetitions in the final preseason game, and he doesn’t really care what you think about it.
“They worry about their team, I worry about mine,” he said. “When you come into this fourth game and don’t play it, and people who don’t play go out and lay an egg in Week 1, people are going to say, ‘You should’ve done this.’”
But will they?
The Dolphins have started the past two seasons 0-2 and 0-3, so it’s hard to argue that the final tune-up has much effect on the early part of the regular season. Then when the starters struggled against the Cowboys’ backups – scoring just three points on the first four series, with a turnover, plus a 42-yard touchdown pass from the third-string quarterback to the fifth receiver – it set the impression that the starters have a long way to go to get ready for the regular season.
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