dirkey
Club Member
I do think you're putting way too much stock in one victory against the pats. How about the bigger beating they gave us in first game? What's more likely, in my mind, is that they came in complacent against what they rightfully viewed as a poor team. And we caught lightning in a bottle that night.We not have been a dynasty for a few decades, but we have started to be one under Adam Gase. Looking at the change in the Dolphins performance since Gase arrived, especially under last years combinations of problems is enlightening. Some of the teams ratings actually improved over 2015 under dire circumstances. That's tough to do, especially after a 10-6, 2015 season.
The Packers loss of their QB for most of last year yielded about the same results as our losing our QB and a key LB'er for the entire year, a drugged up coach that had to be replaced on the fly, a key free agent who ran away on the day of a game, a hurricane causing a schedule change resulting in the loss of a home field of a game on opening day and replacing it with a bye week on opening day, the limited availability of our veteran center to practice during the week and some back to back to back travel dates that occurred immediately after the hurricane that effected the teams families, and finally three key players who choose to go off script to enhance their stats rather than run the plays called for. All this and we were still in the running for a wild card position until the last few games. Your know of this.
Most people would say the Packers have been a dynasty. They are right to use the past tense.
Most people would say the Patriots are a dynasty. This year may show that their dynasty is coming to an end. The beginning of the end for the Patriots may have been last year when we blew them out of the water with a backup retired QB with some broken ribs and a depleted OL using a lot of 2nd teamers. Were the Patriots really bad or were we really good? I think a little of both. I can see us looking back a few years from now and concluding that the pivot point where the Patriots dynasty started to falter and the Dolphins dynasty started to show itself was that game.
Based on all of the above I am really looking forward to the 2018 Dolphins season. Will we see a set of serial catastrophes like last year and just eke out a middle of the road record or will we see about the same number and kinds of problems most other NFL teams run into and get into the play offs? In my mind there is no question that the absurd 2017 type of year will not re-occur. We are going to be in the playoffs and I look forward the watching the season as we get there.