Look, I LOVE our coaching staff overall, well - at the very least - our head coach Tony Sparano. He's been a remarkable leader so far, and I trust his overall judgement. I think he is the right man to lead us to victory over the next few seasons and I look forward to him being our coach for quite some time .... BUT I want some answers after yesterday. Or, at least a "my bad" or two or three. As we all know, yesterday's offensive playcalling was not Henning's best, right? The Ricky pass was insane, and I couldn't believe my eyes as I watched it from the upper deck in Orchard Park. The reverse to Ginn, another baffling call. Not to mention running a screen play to Lou Polite. All of these are baffling because we were running the ball down the Bills' throat at will for the most part. We should have let Ricky run, and Lou block. It was working, it would have worked, and it - at least in all probability - cost us seven points which ultimately could have made a huge difference if we were up 21-14 in the fourth rather than tied at 14-14. Anyhow, like I said, I want answers and accountability. Instead, you get things like this from coach: Hells no Tony, that's not what I want to hear. How can you honestly sit there and defend the call. Instead, say something like, "We saw something on film that we thought we could take advantage of, but in retrospect, it was the wrong call. We should have run the ball there. That's ultimately my fault." Something like that. It was so obviously a dumb call. It just made no sense. So, why defend it? I can see, he's not the type to throw any of his coaches under the bus, and he wouldn't have to. He can take responsibility for the bad call w/out tearing Henning a new one (which, by the way, he better be doing behind closed doors, but that's another matter). I'm sorry, I just don't like this. As fans, we expect the coaches of our fav team to be smarter than us. There's a reason they are who they are, and we are who we are, etc. etc. But when you see something like this, and then you try to defend it, it seems a bit disingenuous. Be honest, say you goofed up, and move on. And then get back to the basics next week as that's the only chance we have of winning. Please please please, do not defend idiocy!!
not going to engage in this banter time to collectively set our sights on next season got holes to fill & needs to be met @ NT, WR, TE, ILB, depth to added @ C/G, maybe even another QB lets coach-up, groom, acquire, gain experience & evaluate lets move on there is no post season
Tom. You went to the game knowing full on how the Phins fare when you attend their games in Buffalo. In addition to that you did not urinate on the Ralph as you had promised. If anyone needs to be held accountable it's you. I know it was you Tom. You broke my heart. You broke my heart!
Don't engage then. I agree, we should set our sights on next season, etc. and I am. That doesn't mean I don't want to see us do everything we can to win as many games this season, and part of that is playcalling, etc. And when one play call is so hopelessly out of step w/ the reality of the game (as well as a few others), I don't want our head coach acting like it's no big deal, acting like it was just Ricky not executing Peyton Manning-like feel with his pass. That's all. I love the guy overall, but this one had me scratching my head. I want to know that he and his staff have learned from this, and will not repeat it again in the future. I don't expect every decision to be perfect, but I would like to think the obvious will be done in very obvious situations. I did urinate on their practice facility ..... guess it wasn't enough
I'm going to be honest here about this. I'm really glad he isn't back stepping away from the decision. I love the fact that they made a decision that they believed in and stuck by it. I can't say that I agree with the decision at all, but I'm at least glad they are standing by it. If you come back the next day and say yeah that was a bad call, that means yesterday you should have said the same thing. Its like everything else its always about results. It that was an easy TD everybody would have thought it was a great play and would have been raving about Ricky throwing for a TD. Of course Tony would like to have that play back, but whats done is done. They thought they had something there, and they actually did, the execution of the play was just poor. Stand by your decision, you can regret the outcome but stand by the decision.
I guess I see what you mean, but this one just really bothers me. I mean, Ricky even said himself earlier this year he doesn't like to pass and would rather Ronnie did it out of the WC. He obviously wasn't comfortable doing it. Therefore, it was just a rotten call all the way around. I get that they thought they saw something, and that the execution as bad. But - yeah - expecting Ricky to execute like a seasoned QB was just a really bad call. And I'd like to see some acknowledgement of that, that's all. Hopefully, they are at least doing that privately. To me, that's obvious, but running Ricky on first and second down (if necessary) in that series was obvious to me so who knows. Sure, if Ricky had put the ball up on an arch for an easy TD, we probably would be saying, "Hey, that was pretty cool." But, deep down, we also might be asking why risk it when you just know Ricky would have put it in w/in two downs using his God-given talented legs. I don't know, Tony just seems a little "eh, whatever" on this call and to me, it was a game-changer. I remember thinking it at the time - instead of what would have been a shove-it-down-your-throat 7-0 lead on the road (and trust me, that place was quiet until the interception), you give the Bills artificial momentum. To me, it's more than "eh, whatever." Again, I like our coach, I really do. But this just bothered me, that's all.
It's not like went for on 4th and 2, giving Manning the ball back on a very short field. Sparano > Belichoke.
I really don't trust the coaching staff at this point. Maybe now they'll stop trying to be fancy and try to prove to the NFL that the wildcat is the greatest thing ever. And stop trying to prove Pat White was worth a 2nd round pick. Because now they look stupid and we're not tied for the wild card like we should be.
Did Sparno say in his post game press conference that he should be held accountable? Don't know what else you want
I don't understand where people get this notion that a call that did not success was inherently a bad call. I don't understand in the slightest bit why any of these plays are baffling or insane. Sometimes you run plays with a lesser inherent chance of success in order to trick teams. That's basic football from like 1950 on. The Ricky Williams pass was insane because it didn't work, pure and simple. No one would have said a damn thing if it had worked, or if Ricky Williams had either thrown the ball away or ran with it. The problem was with his decision, not with the play call. The Ted Ginn reverse was crazy? Really? That's something that have been fairly successful with. Once again, the Screen Pass to Polite was not a bad call. It was a bad decision by Henne. He didn't have to throw the pass to Polite, there are other options Not to mention they repeated the same play again later in the game, and Polite got 10 yards on it. You uh, do know they ran the ball 37 times in that game, right? Maybe you should write him a sincere letter?
Not sure if henning understands that ronnie made the formation, and not the other way around... The play should'nt of been in his mental roladex let alone the gameplan...thats disturbing to me.
I'm not sure why you think this is true. Ricky Williams hasn't by any means done bad running the Wildcat. Your only grounds for complaint is him throwing the ball, and you've really got no evidence that Ricky Williams is inferior to Ronnie Brown in that regard.
Its a very high risk play, considering you have a player that has never run it, a player that does'nt like to run it, and the player that use to run it very well, is no longer the player running it.... From where the thoght process started, in actually analyzing it from the perspective that he literally had to make a conscious decision to implement the play, knowing very well, what your missing in ronnie brown, to what the new player you have executing and his weaknesses are, the call was bad to its core.. On top of that, your not watching the growth of your football team and what gets them off...our team had a brief moment of what a championship team is supposed to look like, when Jake and Donald pulled on that one play, it was a thing of beauty seeing those two giants comin around the edge with a full head of staem...You feed that ego, and you PUNCH that mother grabber in.
Both of the calls you are hyping about were horrible calls that had no chance of working. Sparano knows it he just doesn't want to throw Henning under the bus. The Ricky pass was the most useless attempt at cuteness I have ever seen and I hope I don't see it again. Ever. I knew immediately when the ball was picked off it would bite us later. It did.
No, Ricky Williams has run the pass play out of the Wildcat several times, he's just pulled it down and ran with it. Furthermore, they've spent quite a bit of time working on runningback throwing drills in camp.
We've run both of those plays multiple times successfully. And the fact of the matter is, Tony Sparano had the option to change the calls. He's got his headset on and he's communicating with Dan Henning the entire time. You didn't like the call. You couching that in assumptions and strong language that you aren't even close to being in a position to make doesn't give strength to your argument.
Run the ball up the gut and score. Why be cute. You punched them in the mouth all the way down the field. I find it hard to believe that anyone can even fathom defending that play. You would be hard pressed to find a Dolphin fan anywhere that would agree with your logic.
The assumption that the Dolphins would have scored had they simply ran the ball X number of times is false. Running the ball in a base formation is NOT running the ball against a goal line formation. A run is less risky, but it's not even remotely close to black and white.
your not sure, brother, ive been preachin the same thing for 2 years... the formation brings out unique qualities in ronnie browns repatoire...It does not in ricky, i've studied ronnie brown when he takes the snap more then i care to admit, and ive done the same with rick...theres no comparison, i'll spare detailed analysis for fear of being redundant....Now can ricky be sucessful, and use his power to run up the gut on a well blocked wildcat play, yes, or use his speed when the play has nothing, to get to the outside, yes.....but it ends there Dpate.... The ability to process information, and make a split second decision, while handling the ball at the same time, takes a special skillset, rick does'nt have that skillset imo.
At the goal line or not that Buffalo defense was on their heels and getting their butts handed to them at that point. There is not a single doubt in my mind that if we go up the middle three straight times in that situation we get in the end zone at least once. More than likely on first down. I like our chances of doing that a whole lot better than a hafl back pass. We could argue this all night and I won't change my stance. Henning or whoever if Sparano could have changed it, blew the call.
I consider you a coach on this board, and have a lot of respect for your analysis, would you of made that call?, considering how your team had that kind of opening drive, with that kind of physicality on display up until that point.. Keep in my mind, i understand the importance of non rhythmic patterns in play calling... If you can honestly tell me after looking at it from a whole that it was normal call, considering Down and distance, risk factor, small hands, 1st time ever, important road game, your best formation player out for the year, the consequences if you fail, the momentum swing, the interpretation of the message, the fact that hes not comfortable executing a pass, then i will listen intently.
I think the coaching staff and FO should be looking at themselves first before they start trying to 'fix" or improve anything.....IMO they let us down this year in FA, the draft and on at least half the game days and I don't even want to hear anymore of Sparano's BS excuses. Time for Parcells to assess our situation again and make some moves if he has to
lol..sometimes when i read your statements, and i see your initials at the end, i imagine that your saying your opinion that stamping it with your approval, lol. Sparano is doing the same thing he would do for a player, he will keep it in house. I think he needs a meeting with the don, thats a shake up for me.
lol I think he needs more than a meeting, he needs to improve as a coach or we're going no where.... I tell u something I'm curious about, who is mostly responsible for wasting our #2 and #3 picks last draft on White and Turner? They should be looking for a job.... Their insistence on making Pat White an NFL QB and running those useless spread formation plays is making them look stupid. There's plenty of blame to go around.......the staff should make sure to take a healthy portion of it.
I'll second that. Especially with so many other needs. You've gotta nail your early round picks, and I think it can be said those two were misses.
When the entire stadium around me was pretty much wondering why the heck he would do it, I'm guessing it was a bad idea. Yes, you run plays to throw off the defense, but if you are running it down their throats, it's also basic football - since well before 1950 - that you do it until they stop you. They hadn't stopped Ricky on the ground, so why stop. You certainly don't ask a guy like him to throw a pass. The liklihood of success was low! It was a stupid play to even think of, and I'd just like the coach to acknowledge it. Maybe I'm asking for too much. I probably am. I'll settle for him handling it behind closed doors then I guess.
I think I would have hated that call even if it had worked. 'Course, it's easy to say that now. I didn't mind the called screen to Polite -- I did mind Henne throwing the ball with a DL standing two feet away from Polite, drooling. The reverse I have mixed feelings about. It's been hit for a big loss at least once already this year that I can remember. But you do have to do stuff like that occasionally, I think.
Turner may yet pan out...also, I think even smart FOs whiff on a WR from time to time. At least he wasn't the 9th pick in the draft... But I don't understand how anyone thought the White pick ever could have worked. You can't have a 180-pounder taking Ronnie Brown's job in the Wildcat or running the option in the NFL, and it's hard to see how a guy White's size could play regular QB either. There is still the idea of making him a WR, but that doesn't seem to be in the Phins' plans. So, even without the benefit of hindsight, it seems like a useless pick.
