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Gameplay excuses?

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MiamiDolfans

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Ok, I am just curious how you guys feel about this. But lately I have been reading about how last year we could have done better, but turnovers and dumb mistakes lost us the game. But isn't that what loses any game for anyone?

Can we really say ok we had 4 turnovers, and they had 1, that is why we lost. Isn't that the objective in the game, cause and reduce turnovers. I hardly consider that a good excuse, just another way of wording "The other team played better than we did". The same goes for sacks, limited yardage, etc.

"We would have one if we didn't throw 3 interceptions", or "We would have won if Minor ran for 120 yards". Doesn't make sense to me...

What do you think?
 
I really agree with you. It's just easier to use an interception as an "excuse" when you know it was a bad/stupid pass....but you're right, it's no different than letting up a long drive for a score in that the players on the other team played better than our players (as a unit). It's frustrating b/c many of those games last year you can actually pick out one or two plays that literally lost it for us...mostly, interceptions returned for 6. That's why we often say "we would've won if..... (insert quarterback name here) didnt suck a$$...".

Any way you look at it, the better team on that particular day will USUALLY win. We use excuses because we always want to think that our team is just as good as the other and one or two plays make the difference. In reality, in this NFL, one or two plays is the difference between a playoff team and a non-playoff team.
 
I think the fact that we threw 6 Int's for Touchdowns last year isn't really an excuse for why we lost. I think it points out who was responsible for our close losses. All I'm saying is, with a QB who didn't throw picks when the game was on the line, we would have won at least 3 of those six games.
 
taylorj99 said:
I think the fact that we threw 6 Int's for Touchdowns last year isn't really an excuse for why we lost. I think it points out who was responsible for our close losses. All I'm saying is, with a QB who didn't throw picks when the game was on the line, we would have won at least 3 of those six games.
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That is the thing though, your statement is conditional. If we had New England's o-line we would win a few more games also. Or what if we had Ray Lewis to fill in for Seau, etc. You see my point? I may have exaggerated it a little bit, but simply you can't say well if we had this, because we didn't have that. Therefore they were better, because they did have it.
 
I see your point, I just think it's a little narrow-viewed. Sometimes, the team who plays better doesn't always win. So, to say that "they played better than us is why we lost" doesn't always apply. But, for the most part, you are right.

I'm just tired of hearing excuses, year after year, game after game. Every year, besides the past two, every football analyst out there predicts the Dolphins to excel, and we have never lived up to the hype. Finally, we're in a position to outperform everyone's expectations.
 
taylorj99 said:
I see your point, I just think it's a little narrow-viewed. Sometimes, the team who plays better doesn't always win. So, to say that "they played better than us is why we lost" doesn't always apply. But, for the most part, you are right.

I'm just tired of hearing excuses, year after year, game after game. Every year, besides the past two, every football analyst out there predicts the Dolphins to excel, and we have never lived up to the hype. Finally, we're in a position to outperform everyone's expectations.
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I agree 110% with that my friend.
 
MiamiDolfans said:
Ok, I am just curious how you guys feel about this. But lately I have been reading about how last year we could have done better, but turnovers and dumb mistakes lost us the game. But isn't that what loses any game for anyone?

Can we really say ok we had 4 turnovers, and they had 1, that is why we lost. Isn't that the objective in the game, cause and reduce turnovers. I hardly consider that a good excuse, just another way of wording "The other team played better than we did". The same goes for sacks, limited yardage, etc.

"We would have one if we didn't throw 3 interceptions", or "We would have won if Minor ran for 120 yards". Doesn't make sense to me...

What do you think?
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I agree, we lost because we didn't do what we needed to do to win on the field. Whether it's not converting a 3rd down, throwing a pick six, or getting a stupid penalty, we earned our 4-12 record. However, I can say that at least I believe our talent level is better than 4-12 which we should see this year.

Just like Saban talks about wanting a team of overachievers, I think last years' team ended up underachieving due to lack of confidence in the game plan, coaching and maybe even each other.

That could turn around quickly. The Dolphins and Patriots both played close games in most every game they played; the Patriots just found a way to win while we found a way to lose, as if we expected and accepted it.
 
Call it whatever you want buddy. Call em excuses, call em losing. One fact still remains: ALL OF THOSE GAMES WERE CLOSE UNTIL THE LAST SECOND WHEN WE EITHER THROW AN INTERCEPTION, OR FUMBLE. PERIOD!
 
Did we get beat? YES. Did the other team do what they had to do to win? YES. Did we fail to do what we gotta do? YES. But it still doesn't change the FACT (not the EXCUSE)that we were in a position to win most of those games until the final moments.
 
BringBackShula said:
Did we get beat? YES. Did the other team do what they had to do to win? YES. Did we fail to do what we gotta do? YES. But it still doesn't change the FACT (not the EXCUSE)that we were in a position to win most of those games until the final moments.
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Fact is we didn't win. You can go on all day about what-ifs. What if Feeley threw 52 touchdowns, for 6700 yards, and a 131.7 QB rating...

But it didn't happen. It may, but it didn't. Well what if he didn't throw that pick, well he did. It is all excuses...
 
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