1. Dolphins take extra time to work on Pop Warner fundamentals.
The Dolphins practiced 15 times this summer in offseason workouts, spent five weeks in training camp and have practiced for five weeks in the regular season, but apparently that’s not enough time to hone the various fundamentals.
With the Dolphins having their bye last week, and also coming off an embarrassing 41-14 home loss to the Patriots in which all three phases of the team suffered breakdowns, Tony Sparano made sure his team worked on the basics in practice last week.
“Getting back to some things that you don’t have time to address in a normal work week,” Sparano said Monday. “I think sometimes that helps and maybe the teams that are that close can with two or three practices maybe get themselves over the hump a little bit that way I think. I felt like our couple days of practice was very productive. We got a lot of things addressed — a lot of areas of concern, areas that needed improvement. And again, I mean I thought they were two tremendous practices last week.”
The Dolphins, 11-8 historically after a bye and 1-1 under Sparano, really went back to basics on special teams, with new coach Darren Rizzi. Here are some of the skills worked on by the special teamers last week, according to Patrick Cobbs:
“Footwork … having the right hand here … having the right mindset to get the the right depth … coming back at a straight angle … making sure you let everything unfold in front of you … blocking the right person … Just small things that get overlooked, but show up on Sunday.”
You would think that professional athletes who have been playing this game for 10-20 years would already possess these skills, but apparently it’s never too late for a refresher course.
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