I agree and disagree with that to an extent. I mean maybe some route running catch and throw sort of stuff. But it would be pretty infuriating if Marshall was out for the season because he lost traction in a practice and tore something. Especially if we didn't end up playing any rain games that year.

I may be crazy, but I really don't remember us playing that many rain games at home in the most recent years. My memory could be off, but I just don't know if its worth risking player health for a small advantage in the event one of those games hits.

 

I agree competely.

the performance of our starting QB and WR's was an embarrassment.
The wobbly ducks and the drops while Tampa's starting crew seemed unfazed.

Luckily this happened in a preseason game and they have PLENTY of time to address it.

If I was coach I'd have all the footballs soaking in a bucket for one segment of practice every day the next week. Making them throw and catch wet balls till they show it's not an issue anymore.

 

If Sparano keeps taking the team inside the bubble because of lightning worries, the team should just work with Nova to install a lightning rod somewhere on the campus. End problem.

Otherwise, if it's just injury avoidance, then that's silly. The team doesn't tackle to the ground in practice as it is. There's only so much you can do to avoid injury, and at some point you hamper your team's ability to perform in the elements. And eventually you're going to play a game in inclement weather. It's unavoidable, especially if we have to go on the road in December.

 

I think way too much is being made of the rainy night. It was our first preseason game and we came out and looked a little flat. I think the penalties we had on offense early killed the drives not the rain. That is what shot us in the foot. Ronnie ran the ball nicely and Henne didn't look totally horrible. Evreyone is freaking out and on suicide watch over a game that doesn't even count. Some people need to take a valium and relax.

 

Its because when it rains, most times they go into a bubble...

 

Crunch...home field should always be an advantage. We don't seem to have that any more, not in that stadium...Don't know why, although the general lack of talent on the team in the last 8 yrs could have something to do with it....

As for the rain...that can't be helped. Now, that muck ?? I don't know how you simulate that except by holding practice on the beach with the ebb tide...?? I don't know. That, to me falls completely on ownership. And for the pundits who say it was the same for the Bucs...nay, say I...all of their 1st team drives were in the grass, not the muck...


But there is one underlying theme here for me (call it my conspiracy theory) about this regime. While this group seems very adept at changing on the fly, adjusting during the game, etc they have left this team unprepared at times...Like unprepared for playing in the rain. Like not being prepared when Penny went down last year. Like pinning hopes on a second year FS who struggled his first year in limited PT. Like the team starting out slowly in the three years they've been here. Made some really questionable personnel moves (Wilson, Wilford, Smiley and a few others). Don't get me wrong, it's not a conviction...They've done some good things too. Started a new fad in the NFL with the WC, developed some young talent of our own for a change. Went out a got arguably the best offensive and defensive guy available this year. But that doesn't change the fact that, under them, this team starts our very, very slowly....JMHO, but is that a concern by anyone else ??

 

Well, coach, if you don't have those "sloppy, inefficient" practices in inclement weather, you wind up having "sloppy, inefficient" games. Like the one we saw on Saturday.

Wet ball drills don't simulate soggy turf.

 

Here's what I would do: rip all the turf off one practice field; put 6" of that red clay on it; SOAK it, and make players practice on it at the end of EVERY day.

It's shameful that the Dolphins have never made that goddamn infield part of their home-field advantage. A team with some common sense would have; teams with WINNING mentalities make natural adversities such as this into an advantage for themselves.

Teams with loser mentalities just throw up their hands year after year for 20 years and accept the status quo.

From top to bottom, this organization - obviously, by the results - does NOT even begin to address what has always been a real issue. From not practicng in mud, to not proving longer spikes or whatever other equipment solutions there must be to make playing on the dry clay or wet mud better, the team FAILS at having a proactive, problem-solving mentality.

I said it long ago, but as long as we had to have that goddamn infield, we should have been playing on field turf surface.

Other teams play on it and it's fine, not like the nasty astroturf of yesteryear; and adding turf over the infield would be a piece of cake, as opposed to just living with that crap and essentially living with a poor field all season, since grass takes weeks to root properly and there's not enough time between the end of bball and football season's end to get a good turf going.

 

Not singling you out personally but could you imagine the firestorm from this fan base if Coach has us practicing out in a monsoon and say Marshall or Henne tears an ACL. The world would end right there.
Now I know we run that risk everyday but the risk is higher in the rain. The fans would be upset if it was a sunny day but they would never forgive the man if a major injury occurred during a practice that could have been held indoors and was avoidable.

 

No one's advocating a full speed, 100% practice in the middle of a hurricane.

 

Don't matter. If we are practicing in the rain and something goes bad when it is avoidable. Sparano gets butchered.... guaranteed.

 

Again, it is entirely possible to conduct a slower practice in light to moderate rainfall. Heck, not even that: just wait until the rain is finished and then practice on the wet field.

Training camp itself is an injury risk. Your position makes little sense, because you assume that injuries are avoidable. You can mitigate the risk, but you can't eliminate them entirely.

 

You say my position makes little sense yet it is obviously how our head coach rolls. It's his stance not mine just reinforcing it. You think Dolphin world wouldn't go insane if my scenario with a major injury happened when it was avoidable then you might not be in touch with this fanbase LOL.
Also go back and read where I said injuries can happen even if it is a sunny day. I put that out there early because I was well aware beforehand that someone would try to use that argument against me. :wink2:

 

So, the head coach advocates it, therefore it is correct? Didn't we learn our lesson from giving this sort of professional deference to Wannstedt, Saban, and Cameron?

 

I think this whole thing is overblown. Everyone talks about how the Buccaneers didn't seem to have a problem playing in the rain but we don't have any evidence that this is because they practice in the rain. Maybe, just maybe, they simply played better regardless of the rain.

 

Anyone who has played organized sports seriously knows that a good coach will ananlyze and pick apart every single thing bad thing that you do in a practice or game setting in an to make you and the team better. It's not about "freaking out" it's about preparing to be a good team in all circumstances. Practice and preseason is for the exact purpose of becoming a well prepared team. As you go through you solidify what the team is showing they're good at while doing every possible thing you can to correct weaknesses.

If your team shows an alarming inability to perform in wet conditions then it's not something you just go "oh well who cares" and expect to be a solid team.
Conditions such as these can cause you a couple critical games over a season.

All of you playing this "we don't want to hurt the guys" angle to me is silly.
If the coach really thinks there is a major difference in injury potential with wet conditions (which I don't necessarily agree with) all you have to do is wet balls down in the pansy bubble and force repetitions from QB to WR's until they show they can handle a wet ball. They don't even have to get their tootsies wet.

Personally I don't favor that angle because I think they should practice in wet conditions but it would at least be an effort to correct the issue.

No one is "freaking out" like your attempting to insinuate.
People are saying that this is an issue that should be addressed and corrected. That's what you do in preseason. To ignore it would be ignoring the concept of perparing to succeed.

 

Does it matter why the Bucs were able to handle it?

It dosen't mean anything.
What does mean something is that the Dolphins were NOT able to handle it.
It's not overblown at all.

I don't know a coach I've ever played for that would ever tell you that focusing on correcting any mistakes a team makes is "overblown".

If your team shows they can't handle any situation then you practice to corrrect it. In this case, the problem was clearly wet conditions. If they don't work to correct that it may very well come back and bite them in the arse.

 

Who says Miami couldn't handle the rain? It's quite possible that Miami just played poorly regardless of the rain. You are making the connection between it raining and Miami playing poorly but they may not be connected. Correlation does not necessarily indicate causation.

 

If true all these posts by people blaming the rain on our poor performance are irrelevant then. All the complaints about the infield and wet conditions mean nothing to begin with. So were back to the issue being a poor performance by the starting team with no excuses.

Having said that, it's pretty obvious it was the wet conditions that caused an issue. when you realize it was a problem with ball grip and its a fact that wet conditions cause a slippery surface on a football. In addition, just about every single player interviewed after the game mentioned the wet conditions as being a challenge.

You can sit here and get cutsie philosophical with the "correlation not indicating causation" or you can connect the dots to what the most likely causation is.

 

The first drive was killed by a holding penalty by Carey. Ronnie picked up the first down then we were backed up remember. We had a little drive going on. You have a different stance than Coach we get it. Shall me move on now.

 

I don't know that I have a diff. stance than the coach.

All that's been said is that he does not favor practicing in wet weather because of injuries. Dosen't mean Sparano isn't addressing the issue in a different manner. We don't know.

What I have a different stance on is people forwarding the idea that someone pointing out an area the team needs to get better at are "freaking out" or are
"acting like the sky is falling".

 

The Bucs had as many fumbles (7), as they did points scored. Yeah, they handled it alright :no:. This whole Rain Gate thing is a media driven non issue. Don't feed into it...

 

But everyone freaked out and thinks the Dolphins season is over because we came out a little flat in the rain. There has to be something to blame it on. The first and second possessions were both stalled by penalties. People seem to overlook that.

 

Geez...... As stated before were talking starting units here.

Are you really referencing the Bucs 2nd and 3rd stringers for a direct comparison exhonerating our starters performance? I certainly hope our coaching staff dosen't have such similar low expectations for our starting teams performance.

People on this site developed this "rain gate" observation as soon as it happened. No media needed thanks. Team played in wet conditions. There were issues that are very common with a team unprepared to deal with such conditions. QB throwing wobbly balls and WR's dropping passes that would normally be caught. It's just an observation on something the team clearly needs to work on. No one is "freaking out" like Killer is trying to paint.

Simple issue the team needs to address and I'm sure they will.

 

Continued use of this argument in this debate with little else added as reasoning is just absurd.

No one has "freaked out", no one has said the entire season is in jeopardy and the angle has been explained to you in as simplified and intelligent a manner possible. I got it. You're belief is that a team dosen't watch film and practice to correct mistakes and weaknesses. They simply ignore them and hope for the best. Duly noted.

 

You have been freaking out since the game. I reinforced in this thread Sparano's take on it being he doesn't want to risk injury and it makes for an inefficient practice to be running around in the rain. You stated a good coach would change this meaning you don't think Tony is a good coach for having that philosophy. You want it changed because you think you know better right? I'm not sure what else to tell you except for that is how he is rolling so that is the way it is.
I'll stick to my stance though that Dolphin world would absolutely lose its mind if he changed his mind and held a session out in the rain and we suffer a major injury. You and some others are upset over us being flat in our first preseason game in the rain. If we lost a player practicing in the rain the world would end. Spararno would be tarred and feathered.

 

Your definition of freaking out is what's over the top.
Pointing out the obvious and discussing it is "freaking out" to you apparently.

As I said. Coaches analyze the most miniscule things to make their teams better. You saying they won't pay attention to the performance in the wet contradicts that completely. Again, there are ways to address problems of a wet ball without what Sparano may consider "endangering players".

In addtion I am able to disagree with a decision a coach makes. He's taking a calculated risk by avoiding all wet conditions and that's a fact. His decision but as past history has shown, just because a person is in position of power dosen't mean they always make the right decisions. You know that as well as I do.

I also don't agree that Sparano would be tarred and feathered if a player was injured in a wet practice. People would just realize that injuries happen playing this sport and it's pretty impossible to keep it from happening. Look at all the injuries we've had in perfect conditions. The wet field injury angle is pretty pointless. If you want to keep injuries from happening we should just opt out of Training camps and preseason altogether.

I'm done discussing this issue with you though because all I'll continue to get are irrational claims about "freaking out" and "sky falling" rather than lucid discussion about team performance.

 

The Dolphins practice with wet footballs but that isn't enough I guess.
We can end this discussion and let the topic die out.... at least till the next time it rains.