Originally posted by MDFINFAN
Only one place and that's when we were down inside our own 20..the passes were thown, that wasn't conservative, that was offensive...but I thought we should have been running Ricky then..We should have been more conservative, but I quess the coaches felt they could burst one and get a first and hold onto the ball, it didn't work..But our 3rd string D, should have rose to the occassion and held the Pats, just like the Bucks, or the 2000 Ravens D..rememer the Titian game..at the 1 yard line, Balt D. held..the pats went 60 yards on our D..that's players, not coaching. The players got tight and choked.
If it's the players, then it's still Wannstedt's job to replace those that need replacing, and he hasn't done that. 21 of 22 starters returning, the only one not returning had nothing whatsoever to do with the loss to the Patriots. Neither did the reserve LBs.
Wannstedt said he was going to get a quality LT and upgrade the receivers. I'm still waiting on the quality LT and I'm not sure if D. Thompson is an upgrade over Gadsden. And McDrops is still a Dolphin.
Wannstedt said that next season the Dolphin passing game would rank second to none. Without a true LT, and without receivers you can count on to get open, catch, and hold onto the ball, how is that going to happen?
Maybe there wasn't a LT or a WR available in the 2nd that could come in and start, but then again, maybe there was. I think most people would be happy with the draft if they had went that direction with the 1st pick, instead of getting a little known LB for the bench and special teams.
I'm just tired of these same stop-gap measures used by the team every year for the OL and WR positions, not only by Wannstedt, but Johnson and Shula before him. We haven't had a pair of WRs that would truly scare an opposing D since the Marks Bros., and the OL hasn't been seriously looked at in the offseason since Webb and Simms were drafted in '90.
The lack of importance given to those areas affected Marino's game in his latter years, and it affects Fiedler's game today. In that same NE game, the Pats got good pressure on Fiedler rushing only 3, and Chambers and McDrops were unable to get open when they needed to.
Take a look at Gannon. He's good because he has HOF receivers to throw to, and Pro Bowl OL blocking for him. Give Fiedler a good LT and a playmaking WR to compliment Chambers, he'll be just as good. Returning the same players year after year will just get us the same results, wondering what happened in December.