A closer look at 2005-2006

[Pochleo]

I'll start by saying a win is a win in the NFL, no matter how you get it and against who you get it against. That being said, I'm not so sure the 2005 finish with 6 straight wins should have given us the warm and fuzzies. After taking a beating from the Cleveland Browns to the tune of 22-0, thus puting the Dolphins at a record of 3-7, victories against Oakland, Buffalo, San Diego, Jets, Tennessee, and the Patriots 3rd string team ( Pats had nothing to play for), gave the city and it's fans a reason for hope and optimism - not so fast. By removing that string of meaningless victories against some extrememly marginal teams, the Dolphins under Saban are 4-12. Saban's record as King Dolphin of the sea stands at an unimpressive 10-12. Is he above reproach? - I say no way. I have not seen ANYTHING from this Dolphin team that makes me say " you know what, we're not winning but I can see this team is up and coming and better days are ahead." I see an old defense that will need to be infused with youth very soon, a horrible secondary, ravaged with injuries, in which a 1st round pick cannot even find his way to the field. A patchwork offensive line, a strong, dependable running back that has shown me nothing to indicate he is a franchise RB. Slow, prodding receivers that cannot get behind any defense, even some of the worst in the league. I'll close by saying I would not mind taking a couple seasons on the chin in order to see glory days ahead, however, I'm not so sure we're heading in the right direction. No scratch that, I don't see a direction and that's the problem.

 

[DolphinzD]

I'll start by saying a win is a win in the NFL, no matter how you get it and against who you get it against. That being said, I'm not so sure the 2005 finish with 6 straight wins should have given us the warm and fuzzies. After taking a beating from the Cleveland Browns to the tune of 22-0, thus puting the Dolphins at a record of 3-7, victories against Oakland, Buffalo, San Diego, Jets, Tennessee, and the Patriots 3rd string team ( Pats had nothing to play for), gave the city and it's fans a reason for hope and optimism - not so fast. By removing that string of meaningless victories against some extrememly marginal teams, the Dolphins under Saban are 4-12. Saban's record as King Dolphin of the sea stands at an unimpressive 10-12. Is he above reproach? - I say no way. I have not seen ANYTHING from this Dolphin team that makes me say " you know what, we're not winning but I can see this team is up and coming and better days are ahead." I see an old defense that will need to be infused with youth very soon, a horrible secondary, ravaged with injuries, in which a 1st round pick cannot even find his way to the field. A patchwork offensive line, a strong, dependable running back that has shown me nothing to indicate he is a franchise RB. Slow, prodding receivers that cannot get behind any defense, even some of the worst in the league. I'll close by saying I would not mind taking a couple seasons on the chin in order to see glory days ahead, however, I'm not so sure we're heading in the right direction. No scratch that, I don't see a direction and that's the problem.

I am with you on not being sure of the direction this team is headed. However, you can't just take away victories from a coach/team because you say they are meaningless. Sure, the Dolphins had virtually no shot to make the play-offs last year when they were 3-7, but they weren't officially eliminated until the next-to-last week of the season.

 

[DolfanISS]

I don't even care about the winning streak all that much. The best part to me is the Dolphins played consistently solid football for 6 straight weeks. Win or lose I'd have still been happy. If we were playing like that team now and were 1-5 that would be OK. the bottom line is we are not. Also, Miami did beat Carolina and Denver last year as well. Refresh my memory, what was the last 2 games Carolina and Denver played in, I seem to forget??? The Chargers also mopped the floor with the rest of our AFC East opponents and we went into Ssan Diego and beat them in a game where really the score was a lot closer than the game was. Yeah we beat some cupcake teams, but we also beat some good teams last year. That is a big difference from not being able to beat anyone this year.

 

[C-HUCKS]

I almost wish we would have finshed 4-12 then maybe we would have Matt Lienart or another top tier rookie, Someone to build the franshise around. Since we are virtually eliminated from the playoffs I really don't mind if we win another game this year. Time to build for the future.

 

[jlfin]

I almost wish we would have finshed 4-12 then maybe we would have Matt Lienart or another top tier rookie, Someone to build the franshise around. Since we are virtually eliminated from the playoffs I really don't mind if we win another game this year. Time to build for the future.

Agreed. The one yr we get the second pick it just happens to be one of the weakest drafts in recent memory (at least at the top of the draft).
Alex Smith will be decent, but not great IMO and Ronnie Brown will be a good solid back for many yrs (but not great).
Watching Leinart the other night made me a bit resentful. We spend so much time talking about a QB needing time to "gel" with his team and here you have a rookie who missed most of TC coming in and in one half against one of the best defenses in the NFL throw 2 TD passes and has a high completion percentage.
I was wrong about Leinart he's going to be pretty good. He makes quick decisions and is very accurate (the anathema of DC).

 

[westernnyphinfa]

Amen,

I think i've posted this same thing several times, that winning streak was a curse not a blessing, it meant nothing.

Almost all our secondary from last year is gone.
2 new Qb's
2 new offensive lineman.

2 new coordinators (offensive & Defensive).

Not to mention the fact that as a team its obvious that the new staff is desperately trying hard to move away from the Wanny style of football, you know 30 carries a game, and have a more balanced attack if not a more passing attack.

What concerns me about that streak is we went away from our passing style offense late in the year to a more run first mentality, Ricky went off and for what? he's gone, we can't trade him (as it would appear he was being audtioned last year for a trade).

All that being said, I am still 100% behind this new staff. I like you just think we could've gone through this last year instead of this year.

 

[FinFaninMS]

No doubt the people who think the win streak last year was a bad thing are right. It cost us any shot at a great draft pick. Had we finished with five wins or less we could have picked up a marquee player. As it was, we ended up with a DB that can't even break the starting lineup on a club with a weak secondary (of course, this could also be just a bad pick and better players were available).

Last year people were arguing that we needed to win as many games as we could; the theory being that the "winning momentum" would carry over into this season. Well, that theory turned out to be as valid as the flat-earth theory.

What's worse is that there are still people this year that want to see us end up at 8-8 or 9-7, missing the playoffs once again, and playing ourselves out of contention for a top draft pick. Even if said people learned nothing from the Marino years-- when Marino's play would keep us at 8-8, regardless of the fact that the team lacked talent and needed high draft picks-- how about learning from last year? We finished 9-7, got a mediocre draft pick, and now we're worse off. The Jets, on the other hand, had a horrible season, picked in the top 3, acquired great players in the draft, and now they've passed us.

Granted, that Dolphins' luck held true to form in 2005 when we did have a top draft pick and the talent that year just wasn't up to snuff.

 

[aesop]

This pass defense really isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be.

The offense is inept. We do have a bunch of youth to build around on defense.

 

[PhinsRock]

While I enjoyed that 6 game win streak, I was also thinking if we don't make the playoffs (which we didn't), we'd have been better off with a higher draft pick.

Oh well, we're sure to get a high draft pick THIS year!

 

[DolfanISS]

I see a reoccuring theme in this post and that is the fact that all the 6 game win streak did was prevent the Dolphins from getting a higher draft pick. Before I slam the way of thinking I just want to say I see the point and all in all it does make sense. With that being said, I still hate it. No coach or team in their right minds would ever play for a draft pick. Not to mention no draft pick is a sure bet. Sometimes I feel like fans think draft picks are automatically impact players. That is not even close to being true. I'd personally be embarrased to root for a team that was playing for a higher draft picks and would hope all of the vets requested a trade if any team did.

 

[Pochleo]

I don't think anyone is suggesting the Dolphins should have been playing for drafts picks and tanked the games last year, however, it still sucks that they won the games.Winning football games in a season in which you don't make the playoffs, does nothing but hurt the franchise - unfortunately.

 

[FinFaninMS]

Winning football games in a season in which you don't make the playoffs, does nothing but hurt the franchise - unfortunately.

So true.

The history of the Dolphins from 1986-2006 proves that well. Only two losing seasons (not counting this one), but plenty of mediocre 8-8, 9-7 ones = no high draft picks.