72TributeBike
☠️ Banned ☠️
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- Dec 21, 2008
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The Miami Dolphins are just two years removed from a 1-15 season. It was our "Season of Misery," where even the game we won against Baltimore we should have lost. The reverberations of that win would have been the same had we lost...the Dolphins got to pick first in the 2008 draft. We picked up Jake Long and the Fins O-line immediately improved with his signature on the contract.
The Miami Dolphins are just one year removed from one of the most amazing turn-arounds in NFL history by winning 11 games, the most crucial being the Week 17 contest against the hated New York Jets. Miami crushed the Jets in that game. A telling play of Miami's dominance in that contest was Merling's interception return for a TD against the hapless Brett Farve. The reverberations of that win were more satisfying than a top draft pick. Miami won its division by winning that game and at the same time, effectively blocked New England from participating in the playoffs. A natural two-fer that felt as sweet as brandy and as comforting as enjoying that brandy in front of a warm, winter fire.
2008 was the year of the "gimmick" play for Miami. A single-wing formation from early football that the Dolphins made a committment to in order to break out of an 0-2 start. Fifteen games later, "the Wildcat formation" had left in its wake shredded defenses league-wide...but in the playoff's...a Rex Ryan designed defense shut down Miami's single wing and the Dolphins were blown out in round one.
Many Dolphin fans knew that coming into 2009, Miami would still have to keep its committment to running the Wildcat because it was an offense that could support and be supported by Chad Pennington. The single wing allowed Pennington to be used less in a game, and when he was in as QB, made it easier for him to manage the game from his position. No one was suprised when the Wildcat was engaged. In Miami's first three games of 2009, only the first one with the Colts was hotly contested by the Fins, a contest that set one of those obscure records that Miami has a penchant for picking up. The Colt offense was held to only 14:53 of playing time in that game (a league record,) yet that was more than enough for Peyton Manning and his cadre of receivers to carve, torch, and carve again a weak Dolphin defense. Miami lost that game and lost the next two to boot, going 0-3.
The fans screamed out in the horror of it all. Doom sayers took glee in proclaiming "I told you so."
One hope remained. If the Fins could somehow find victory in their upcoming division games against the Bills and Jets, the season may yet be salvaged.
The Bills couldn't handle Miami and they easily won. Yet at 1-3, there were still the Jets looming large as the next game on the slate.
As usual, the media predicted that Miami could never win this game. Rex Ryan was coming to town and he was bringing with him a defensive package drawn line for line from his former Raven experience, which included the playoff victory against the Fins in last years playoffs.
Who could have predicted that Miami would not only win this game, but in doing so humiliate a head coach and his vaulted defensive team. Miami's victory left many people stunned out of their shoes, even the fan-base of the team was shocked. Of course, the warm afterglow that flowed over the Miami fans for having destroyed the Jets (their most hated foe) quickly replaced all the anxiety and angst felt as the game moved from lead change to lead change in the 4th quarter.
The reverberations of this win? Of course, the history of this season is still young and has yet to be written, but there are the possibilities. And some of those possibilities are palpably sweet to the Dolphins and their fans.
POSSIBLE REVERBERATIONS
1) The Jets melt-down and become easy pickings. Lines of heart-broken Jets fans waiting to jump from area bridges become national headlines. Rex Ryan explodes...no not emotionally...he just explodes because he's so freakin' fat.
2) The Dolphins begin to move like a jaugernaut through its inter-league and division rivals. The committment to the Wildcat and expanding the packages available within the formation grip the entire league and the reporting media by the throat and chokes them. Required surgery discovers it's a Phish-bone.
Of course, most reverberations from this Miami victory are yet to be learned. Yet there is one reverberation that cannot be denied.
Miami has beaten the hated Jets. And if nothing else comes from this, one of the most entertaining seasons in Dolphins history, then the team and its fan-base will always have that.
The Miami Dolphins are just one year removed from one of the most amazing turn-arounds in NFL history by winning 11 games, the most crucial being the Week 17 contest against the hated New York Jets. Miami crushed the Jets in that game. A telling play of Miami's dominance in that contest was Merling's interception return for a TD against the hapless Brett Farve. The reverberations of that win were more satisfying than a top draft pick. Miami won its division by winning that game and at the same time, effectively blocked New England from participating in the playoffs. A natural two-fer that felt as sweet as brandy and as comforting as enjoying that brandy in front of a warm, winter fire.
2008 was the year of the "gimmick" play for Miami. A single-wing formation from early football that the Dolphins made a committment to in order to break out of an 0-2 start. Fifteen games later, "the Wildcat formation" had left in its wake shredded defenses league-wide...but in the playoff's...a Rex Ryan designed defense shut down Miami's single wing and the Dolphins were blown out in round one.
Many Dolphin fans knew that coming into 2009, Miami would still have to keep its committment to running the Wildcat because it was an offense that could support and be supported by Chad Pennington. The single wing allowed Pennington to be used less in a game, and when he was in as QB, made it easier for him to manage the game from his position. No one was suprised when the Wildcat was engaged. In Miami's first three games of 2009, only the first one with the Colts was hotly contested by the Fins, a contest that set one of those obscure records that Miami has a penchant for picking up. The Colt offense was held to only 14:53 of playing time in that game (a league record,) yet that was more than enough for Peyton Manning and his cadre of receivers to carve, torch, and carve again a weak Dolphin defense. Miami lost that game and lost the next two to boot, going 0-3.
The fans screamed out in the horror of it all. Doom sayers took glee in proclaiming "I told you so."
One hope remained. If the Fins could somehow find victory in their upcoming division games against the Bills and Jets, the season may yet be salvaged.
The Bills couldn't handle Miami and they easily won. Yet at 1-3, there were still the Jets looming large as the next game on the slate.
As usual, the media predicted that Miami could never win this game. Rex Ryan was coming to town and he was bringing with him a defensive package drawn line for line from his former Raven experience, which included the playoff victory against the Fins in last years playoffs.
Who could have predicted that Miami would not only win this game, but in doing so humiliate a head coach and his vaulted defensive team. Miami's victory left many people stunned out of their shoes, even the fan-base of the team was shocked. Of course, the warm afterglow that flowed over the Miami fans for having destroyed the Jets (their most hated foe) quickly replaced all the anxiety and angst felt as the game moved from lead change to lead change in the 4th quarter.
The reverberations of this win? Of course, the history of this season is still young and has yet to be written, but there are the possibilities. And some of those possibilities are palpably sweet to the Dolphins and their fans.
POSSIBLE REVERBERATIONS
1) The Jets melt-down and become easy pickings. Lines of heart-broken Jets fans waiting to jump from area bridges become national headlines. Rex Ryan explodes...no not emotionally...he just explodes because he's so freakin' fat.
2) The Dolphins begin to move like a jaugernaut through its inter-league and division rivals. The committment to the Wildcat and expanding the packages available within the formation grip the entire league and the reporting media by the throat and chokes them. Required surgery discovers it's a Phish-bone.
Of course, most reverberations from this Miami victory are yet to be learned. Yet there is one reverberation that cannot be denied.
Miami has beaten the hated Jets. And if nothing else comes from this, one of the most entertaining seasons in Dolphins history, then the team and its fan-base will always have that.