***OFFICIAL*** Miami Dolphins 2010-11 Thread (1 Viewer)

[Trey]

This defense is playing absolutely out of its mind right now.The offensive play calling is atrocious. It's just far too conservative. 2 wins in spite of the offense.But 2-0 is 2-0 is 2-0.. I'll take it however I can.

When Ronnie busted the 50 yarder from the 1 yd line, they should have gone uptop to Marshall immediately. Minnesota was confused and didn't know what was going on, instead they run right into the belly of the line...wth???

Yeah, they are an incredibly frustrating team to watch. I've seen each of the first 2 games in their entirety and it just seems like the offense has no rhythm or killer instinct. Ronnie busts a huge run to get to midfield and they are punting 3 plays later? Perhaps it's a function of playing from ahead for the entire season so far, but the leads haven't been large enough to warrant this sort of offense. It almost seems like Henning (OC) is content to burn a couple minutes by grabbing a first down or 2, then pin the other team deep. When you get up 13-3 against the Bills or 7-0, 14-0 against the Vikings, the foot needs to be on the throat. Look to Marshall, look to Fasano down the seam, or heaven forbid we bring Bess in for a 3 WR set when it's not 3 and long.Also, I'm over the wildcat. Let the offense find its identity with Henne under center. Don't bring him out for 2-3 plays at a time then throw him back in there.Mike Nolan, however, is doing an outstanding job at DC. He's getting the absolute most out of Vontae, Allen, & Wake most notably. And I never thought I'd say that about Allen.

 

[Ministry of Pain]

Point taken about the circus the owner is creating. I'm unfamiliar with some of the stadium issues you're talking about, but as for giving up homefield advantage, we still play the Jets in September and Patriots in early Oct at home. We should still benefit from the Miami heat during those two games.As for the defense, I understand your concerns. Some notes however:a) Odrick and Misi were the 1st and 2nd round picks. They will start if ready, and obviously based on their draft position they were selected to just that. These aren't 6th rounders just being thrown in there because there's no one else to play. If they start, it will be because they're the most talented guys out there. That means Odrick would have beaten out solid vets like Marques Douglas and Charles Grant, and Misi would have beat out...well, you're right, it's just scrubs behind Misi.b) As you probably know, the Dolphins are going to play more of a hybrid defense defense this year. Apparently Mike Nolan and Sparano are working in some interesting packages, including some 2-4-5 stuff and some 4-3 packages in there. You can argue that their personnel is perhaps more suited for the 4-3 than the 3-4, and I think Nolan and Sparano will find ways of putting their best guys in there doing what they can do best. if that means playing more 4-3 packages, then so be it. Not sure about you, but I have faith in Mike Nolan and his schemes.c) Their offense is much improved simply by bringing "The Beast" in, and (hopefully) with one more year of seasoning by Henne. This means that even if the defense stays the same, they should still be better than last year, which to me means at least a 9-7 record, including a 4-2 record against the AFC East.EDIT to add: btw, word from camp is that Starks is playing "very good" at NT. One of the beat writers tweeted that yesterday.

Jets and Pats are both night games. They don't play a 1:00 home game till late October. Find me 9 wins on that schedule...4-2 in the AFC East?@Buf-This will not be easy@MN-LossNYJ-30% chance they can win this, Jets are out for blood after being swept last yearNE-LossLucky if they can go 2-2 in the 1st 4, but 1-3 or 0-4 is not a stretch. @GB-LossPITT-Loss@Cin-Loss@Balt-LossI told you the schedule is brutalTEN-50/50CHI-Win@Oak-Win maybeCLE-Win@NYJ-LossBUFF-WinDET-Win@NE-LossI can't scrape 8 wins together for them and see a division record of perhaps 1-5 to maybe 3-3 if they can get lucky. I'm not a good fan, too pessimistic I guess and if they can't go to the playoffs they might as well lose a lot of games and get better for 2011. They are a good 2-3 years from competing and going far in the playoffs. Parcells still has a lot of work to do and I don't think he will stay more than a year or two more. He never does.

I still see them dropping the next 4 games unless they can get lucky @GB or @Cinci in one fo those...2-6 or 3-5. What we thought was an easy schedule the 2nd half of the year has suddenly started to look tougher. TN, CHI, @Oak, CLE...again a 2-2 split in there might be lucky. We are talking 5-7, 4-8 going into the last month. Looks like mayb 6-10 this year. Do we fire Sporano if that happens? This team looks lost right now and Chad Henne is not the long term solution. Lot of good prospects at QB in the draft next year, Miami needs to think about positioning themselves to get one of them.

 

[Desert_Power]

Point taken about the circus the owner is creating. I'm unfamiliar with some of the stadium issues you're talking about, but as for giving up homefield advantage, we still play the Jets in September and Patriots in early Oct at home. We should still benefit from the Miami heat during those two games.As for the defense, I understand your concerns. Some notes however:a) Odrick and Misi were the 1st and 2nd round picks. They will start if ready, and obviously based on their draft position they were selected to just that. These aren't 6th rounders just being thrown in there because there's no one else to play. If they start, it will be because they're the most talented guys out there. That means Odrick would have beaten out solid vets like Marques Douglas and Charles Grant, and Misi would have beat out...well, you're right, it's just scrubs behind Misi.b) As you probably know, the Dolphins are going to play more of a hybrid defense defense this year. Apparently Mike Nolan and Sparano are working in some interesting packages, including some 2-4-5 stuff and some 4-3 packages in there. You can argue that their personnel is perhaps more suited for the 4-3 than the 3-4, and I think Nolan and Sparano will find ways of putting their best guys in there doing what they can do best. if that means playing more 4-3 packages, then so be it. Not sure about you, but I have faith in Mike Nolan and his schemes.c) Their offense is much improved simply by bringing "The Beast" in, and (hopefully) with one more year of seasoning by Henne. This means that even if the defense stays the same, they should still be better than last year, which to me means at least a 9-7 record, including a 4-2 record against the AFC East.EDIT to add: btw, word from camp is that Starks is playing "very good" at NT. One of the beat writers tweeted that yesterday.

Jets and Pats are both night games. They don't play a 1:00 home game till late October. Find me 9 wins on that schedule...4-2 in the AFC East?@Buf-This will not be easy@MN-LossNYJ-30% chance they can win this, Jets are out for blood after being swept last yearNE-LossLucky if they can go 2-2 in the 1st 4, but 1-3 or 0-4 is not a stretch. @GB-LossPITT-Loss@Cin-Loss@Balt-LossI told you the schedule is brutalTEN-50/50CHI-Win@Oak-Win maybeCLE-Win@NYJ-LossBUFF-WinDET-Win@NE-LossI can't scrape 8 wins together for them and see a division record of perhaps 1-5 to maybe 3-3 if they can get lucky. I'm not a good fan, too pessimistic I guess and if they can't go to the playoffs they might as well lose a lot of games and get better for 2011. They are a good 2-3 years from competing and going far in the playoffs. Parcells still has a lot of work to do and I don't think he will stay more than a year or two more. He never does.

I still see them dropping the next 4 games unless they can get lucky @GB or @Cinci in one fo those...2-6 or 3-5. What we thought was an easy schedule the 2nd half of the year has suddenly started to look tougher. TN, CHI, @Oak, CLE...again a 2-2 split in there might be lucky. We are talking 5-7, 4-8 going into the last month. Looks like mayb 6-10 this year. Do we fire Sporano if that happens? This team looks lost right now and Chad Henne is not the long term solution. Lot of good prospects at QB in the draft next year, Miami needs to think about positioning themselves to get one of them.

I don't see any reason to give up on Henne yet, particularly not to blow a top pick on a QB. If we end up with a good pick we have lots of areas to look at first. Even at 6-10, I'm not that upset. A tough schedule, but if Davis doesn't slip on the Braylon catch I think we win last week and if we could play sepcial teams I think we could have won this week. Our offense and defense both seemed stronger than New England's until we were playing from behind. This team looks close to me, too close to switch out our offensive leader. I'm not panicing.