Pennington goes down for the season. Chad Henne comes in and the team rallies around him. Ronnie Brown goes down for the season and Ricky comes in and runs like it's 2002. The WRs who have fallen under criticism for their horrible play step up and have a great game. The entire O-line is decimated with injuries and they are still able to bust Ricky free for the game sealing TD with 9 men in the box. And Jake Grove is running around on the sidelines like a mad man looking for his helmet so he can get back in the game. This all goes back to coaching. Remember how the team fell apart in 2007 when the injuries piled up? That's not going to happen to Tony Sparano's Dolphins. When somebody goes down, everyone else steps up. While the injuries continue to mount, it's a great time to be a Dolphins fan. We're in position to make a run at a playoff spot. It appears we have found our QB of the future. We have young playmakers developing on both sides of the ball. Sure there are holes. But even with these holes we continue to compete with any team in the league. This team is going places! Only time will tell whether it's this year or next. Or both.
Obviously the talent level has improved. But, I think a lot of this is due to the change in the culture that Sparano has talked about. Sparano has tried to create a winning culture and part of that is players stepping up when they need to and knowing that they can when called upon.
Cant say anything more about Sparano for what he has done to this teams mentality. This team used to be weak mentally and would have collapsed in these last 2 games losing them. When TB scored this team would have quit, when we didn't make 4th and 3 and they got a couple big plays this team would have gotten tight. Sparano has changed the whole mentality of this organization, We are getting better every year.
I was going to start a thread this morning, but this captures it pretty well. Tony Sparano HAS to be mentioned as one of the bright coaching figures in the NFL. You mentioned all the injuries, yet he has this team believing, continuing to fight and WINNING. What he's done is nothing short of spectacular IMO. He continues to stick up for his players, discipline, keep things in house, put players in position to succeed, and work with them. Players play and coaches coach, but Tony Sparano is just as big a reason why this team is where it is.
Completely forgot to mention how well our rookie corners have risen to the occasion after losing Will Allen for the season.
