After Further Review Of Miami's Last Playoff Win.. | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

After Further Review Of Miami's Last Playoff Win..

RUDEbyallMEANS

RUDEbyallMEANS

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Fiedler sucked back then and still does. Amazing how long it took this FO to figure it out. He's a solid backup, nothing more.

O.J McDuffie was the man. That guy made nice catches all throughout the game was easily Fiedlers favorite target as the game went on and that should be nothing new since Marino loved McDuffie.

It's amazing how much more talent this current Miami team has than the 2000 Miami team. It's mind boggling that Miami has not made the playoffs the last 2 years.

Hopefully Feeley could be better in the decision making department and the accuracy department than Fiedler. That in itself would be a valuable upgrade. Whether it was worth a 2nd rounder is debatable.
 
I'm not quite sure we are better on talent NOW then we were back then. The play of our defense has steadily been going backwards for the last several years. YES, we have added key veterans (Seau, Knight) ... but we have also begun to see a dropoff in play from some of our biggest keys on defense (Madison, Marion, Bowens, Thomas.)

Go watch a few games from our 1999 season. THOSE were games our defense TRULY won for us. There was no such thing as a late-game letdown. There were even a few SHUTOUTS. (Even when our offense would do NOTHING... keeping them on the field... they would MAKE THE PLAY to get off.)

Our offense has been slowly adding some playmakers, but we have seen a similar downturn in the performance of our D.
 
yep, his throwing and llamar's running at the end of that game had nothing to do with pulling off the win in the closing minute of the game....in OT none the less (if i'm not mistaken this was against the colts....)
 
Our defense was nothing short of excellent in 2003. The season was a while ago so it's pretty easy to forget and revert to statistics to remember, but those stats are very, very flawed.

This Miami run defense in 2003 was the best I've ever seen since watching Miami play (which started in 1995). They allowed less than 3.3 yards per carry. That is amazing.

The scoring defense was #1 after the first 11 games or so.

Let me remind you that the offense did nothing against the Ravens and at New England. The defense was dominant in both matchups allowing Jamal to run for 70 some yards while he ran other teams over rushing for over 2000 yards.

The defense is not a problem but it does need some depth at DT and MLB or LB in general.

I'm more than confident going into 2004 with this defense after their performance in 2003. Get Ricky to run for over 4.0 yards a carry and then we can see what type of defense this team has with wins.
 
The biggest difference.......the OL was far better in 2000.

Webb | Dixon | Ruddy | Donnalley | Wade

Webb was still a solid LT. Dixon was at the top of his game and among the best guards in the league. Ruddy was three years younger. Donnalley was just plain solid. And Wade had arguably his best season. Remember how easily we picked up 3rd and shorts?? Remember the push we got up front?? Remember when we lined up on those short yardage situations.....how it was almost a given that we'd convert??

Paul Boudreau was the OL coach. And Chan Gailey played to Fiedler's strengths.

Amazing how much difference an OL makes. Makes you wonder just how many yards Ricky could have added to that 1,853 tally if the OL could have blocked like the one in 2000 did.

And don't even get us started on "what if he had a passing game too".
 
the 2000 miami dolphins had a good O line. Dixon, donnaley, ruddy, webb, wade. That show proved that Fiedler has always sucked, and most of us have known that. But did you guys notice Lamar Smith and how slow he looked compared to Ricky? it was like he was in slow motion.
 
:rolleyes: :shakeno: :boring: :blah:





PS: I do agree about missing McDuffie though... hopefully Boston will be all that he's cracked up to be this year. Tht should ease the sting a bit.
 
Originally posted by Muck
The biggest difference.......the OL was far better in 2000.

Webb | Dixon | Ruddy | Donnalley | Wade

Webb was still a solid LT. Dixon was at the top of his game and among the best guards in the league. Ruddy was three years younger. Donnalley was just plain solid. And Wade had arguably his best season. Remember how easily we picked up 3rd and shorts?? Remember the push we got up front?? Remember when we lined up on those short yardage situations.....how it was almost a given that we'd convert??

Paul Boudreau was the OL coach. And Chan Gailey played to Fiedler's strengths.

Amazing how much difference an OL makes. Makes you wonder just how many yards Ricky could have added to that 1,853 tally if the OL could have blocked like the one in 2000 did.

And don't even get us started on "what if he had a passing game too".
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ding-ding!! we have a winner! that OL was solid (hell, lamar smith had 1000 yards), and gailey was a sharp OC. couple that with a younger defense, and while they might not have been as strong in certain areas, the fins had a better TEAM back then
 
Not that I'm a big fan of Jay but isn't this the same season that he got knocked out in the Tampa game and they taped him up and sent him back out there and right after the season had surgery on one his shoulders?

I just remember being annoyed at Dave back then for not sticking with the backup.
 
There was beautiful pass protection in that game and Fiedler still made stupid throws which showed by his 3 INT's and 2 other passes that were thrown right at a Colts defender.

There was another pass where he had all day to throw and threw the pass to McDuffie while he was covered by not 1, not 2, but 3 defenders. It was pathetic.

Fiedlers decision making is the worst part of his game. Yes, even worse than his accuracy and arm.

I completely forgot how tough Lamar Smith ran the football his first year with Miami. That guy was trucking people left and right. I do remember that he laid down alot easier his second year though. Probably got tired of the pounding or something.

McDuffie was SOOOO reliable. That is what this WR core is missing right now. McDuffie was the man.
 
Originally posted by RUDEbyallMEANS
Fiedler sucked back then and still does. Amazing how long it took this FO to figure it out. He's a solid backup, nothing more.
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I take issue with this. Fiedler is not the starting QB I would want for the Dolphins, but I think he would be a starter if the talent in the league were distributed ideally. That makes him a marginal starter in the real world IMHO. I do agree that he would make a solid backup.

It's amazing how much more talent this current Miami team has than the 2000 Miami team. It's mind boggling that Miami has not made the playoffs the last 2 years.
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I agree with the others that it's all about the OLine. We're a cautionary tale in this regard. Even an upgrade at many skill positions and nice additions to the defense cannot overcome the sort of atrophy on the OLine that we have experienced. Even still, I also have to question the wisdom of the change from Chan's offense to Norv's. Why bring in that system when Jay is all you have at QB?
 
Man that game against the Colts just about killed me, because I was playing on the varsity basketball team back then and we had Saturday practice... I was listening to it on the radio during water breaks... ha!!!
 
Originally posted by RUDEbyallMEANS
There was beautiful pass protection in that game and Fiedler still made stupid throws which showed by his 3 INT's and 2 other passes that were thrown right at a Colts defender.
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Yep, he had a bad first half, of course it was also his first playoff start, but everybody else does soooo much better in their first NFL playoff start...

Oh, and the part you filed to mention was that those 3 picks were all in the first half, and that in the second half he actually played VERY well once he got his nerves under control at halftime.
 
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