This team doesn't have the FEEL of a collossal failure... | Page 3 | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

This team doesn't have the FEEL of a collossal failure...

The game against New England will be very telling as to how our season is going to go. The way I see it, the coaching staff has had all offseason to prepare for New England.
 
Well the Dolphins haven't been an epic disaster since 2007. 7-9 isn't great, but not a disaster. They won the division in 2008, been in the playoff chase until week 17 in 2009 (though week 16 loss was pretty much it) and 2010 until those bad losses to the Lions and Bills. So I don't see why the Dolphins would win at least 6 games, wouldn't be surprised with anything from 7 to 10 wins. More than 10 would be a nice surprise. Less than 8 would be a huge disappointment though. Now, to me anything less than 9 would be. With that Steelers game they should've been 8-8.

9-7 would be nice, 10-6 would be absolutely great. I'd pretty much completely sour on Henne and the regime with 8-8 or lower.
 
Every year -- anyone can win the Super Bowl. There are FAR too many variables.

We have a HUGE thing to hang our hat on... If there is anything to argue about on this site, nobody can deny that we are going to have a top 5 defense. Trent Dilfer won a SB on Baltimore's defense (I know it's cliche), and Mark Sanchez has made it to back-to-back AFC Championship games.

Anything can happen, and I agree that it doesn't feel like an epic failure. CK, I know that we may have said the SOS in 2007... But this team really doesn't have that feel. The only HUGE ? we have is at QB. I think we'll get it going again on the ground, we have a great OL, and added a stud at center.
 
I guess I don't understand how you can be a "colossal" failure before you even play one regular season game.
 
Ole bottom-of-the-barrel Carolina Kool-Aide was mighty tasty!!

Mmmmm-doggies!!! Can't even remember what happened the weeks before!!
 
SkapePhin said:
I can only speak for myself, but personally I never had much confidence in 2007. I thought Cam Cameron was a poor choice and I didn't like the Trent Green signing. I did actually like the Beck pick, and thought we had a decent drafted other than Ginn pick, but obviously that didn't hold up.

I will admit I have always had confidence in this group. I like Sparano's leadership. I think he has many positive attributes of other successful head coaches. But again, I don't see anything in Sparano right now that is similar to the frantic behavior displayed by Wanny and even Saban before their failed seasons.

I could be completely off base with this, but I dont remember any of those teams having the confidence (and young talent) that is on this current team.
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I felt the same way in 2007. My typical response to anyone asking me about the Dolphins that offseason was, "I have no idea what to expect". First time I really felt like that. I think the wheels really came off though. The team that Cameron put on the field week 1 vs Washington was not a one win team they were more likely a 5 or 6 win team. I remember our defense being gassed in the 4th quarter/OT of that game and our D-LINE depth being crap (lazy Solai for traylor, Chase Page C'mon, Steve Fifita, Roddy Wright) and as the season went on some of these guys were starting do to injuryl. By week 8 or so, when injuries took their toll, it was pretty much the worst team I'd ever seen. The Browns, Raiders, Bills and Jets (all games we thought we could win) were all horendous showings. We were lucky to win one, had Billick gone on 4th and goal instead of playing for OT I bet we go 0-16.
 
I expect the Dolphins to compete with the Jets for 2nd in the division. It seems as though the Jets are weaker on both OL and DL. Tomlinson is a year older and they lost Smith and Cotchery and swapped Burress for Edwards. As for the Dolphins, the removal of Henning, Parcells and Pennington will allow Sparano and Henne to coach/play with more aggressiveness and leadership without having to look over their shoulders. That's got to be good for a couple of wins. The health and stability of the OL will ultimately determine the overall success of the season.
 
ckparrothead said:
I don't know that it ever does feel like that.

Even in 2007, there was a lot of optimism. The idea was pretty simple. The Dolphins had a great defense built by Nick Saban that would continue to be coached by Dom Capers, in fact they added to that defense by signing Joey Porter, and the only big problem was the offense where you had "guru" Cam Cameron to revamp everything. To this day that all still SEEMS like a sound idea. But the wheels fell off all that rather quickly, and I think in hindsight is when people look back and say oh well we kind of knew that was coming.

Let's say the Dolphins ARE an abject failure this year. One year from now, are you going to look back on it and say, "Boy, I didn't see that one coming at all"?

I think we both know that's not true.

It's hard to predict awesomely bad, just as it's hard to predict awesomely good (in most cases). So there's no way you can go into this season thinking this team is going 1-15 or even 3-13.

But at the same time...there are lot of predictions within the 'normal' ranges of 6-10 to 10-6...and I think more of them steer toward 6-10 than 10-6. Could be that everyone is just being fooled and the Dolphins really will turn it around. Don't know if I'm betting on that, though.
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This doesn't seem definite. Am I picking up a hint of optimism here?
 
ckparrothead said:
I think Chad Henne could have like an 85 QB Rating and this team still go 6-10. The ground game does not look healthy to me, and I'm a little worried about a defensive back slide to be honest.
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Never mind.
 
ckparrothead said:
I don't know that it ever does feel like that.

Even in 2007, there was a lot of optimism. The idea was pretty simple. The Dolphins had a great defense built by Nick Saban that would continue to be coached by Dom Capers, in fact they added to that defense by signing Joey Porter, and the only big problem was the offense where you had "guru" Cam Cameron to revamp everything. To this day that all still SEEMS like a sound idea. But the wheels fell off all that rather quickly, and I think in hindsight is when people look back and say oh well we kind of knew that was coming.

Let's say the Dolphins ARE an abject failure this year. One year from now, are you going to look back on it and say, "Boy, I didn't see that one coming at all"?

I think we both know that's not true.

It's hard to predict awesomely bad, just as it's hard to predict awesomely good (in most cases). So there's no way you can go into this season thinking this team is going 1-15 or even 3-13.

But at the same time...there are lot of predictions within the 'normal' ranges of 6-10 to 10-6...and I think more of them steer toward 6-10 than 10-6. Could be that everyone is just being fooled and the Dolphins really will turn it around. Don't know if I'm betting on that, though.
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That's exactly it. There were plenty of reasons for optimism in '07. Stability on D with the addition of a bright offensive mind and a vet QB. No one called the 1-15. That season wasn't a wreck heading in, it was just an example of how quickly the wheels can fall off. Especially, with the potential of a leadership void and a lack of depth when injuries hit. Which are problems we're facing this year too.
 
DolfanISS said:
I felt the same way in 2007. My typical response to anyone asking me about the Dolphins that offseason was, "I have no idea what to expect". First time I really felt like that. I think the wheels really came off though. The team that Cameron put on the field week 1 vs Washington was not a one win team they were more likely a 5 or 6 win team. I remember our defense being gassed in the 4th quarter/OT of that game and our D-LINE depth being crap (lazy Solai for traylor, Chase Page C'mon, Steve Fifita, Roddy Wright) and as the season went on some of these guys were starting do to injuryl. By week 8 or so, when injuries took their toll, it was pretty much the worst team I'd ever seen. The Browns, Raiders, Bills and Jets (all games we thought we could win) were all horendous showings. We were lucky to win one, had Billick gone on 4th and goal instead of playing for OT I bet we go 0-16.
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The worst part about 2007 was that is our last memory of watching Zach Thomas play for the Dolphins, he deserved so much better than that.
I thought that 2007 was lost the day that Cam Cameron had Daunte Culpepper escorted out of the building by security. That isn't something that a head coach should ever do for a player that was willing to play for him. He just didn't want Daunte to be the starting QB and never gave him a shot. I think the team never respected him from that day on, and when Zach Thomas went down they gave up.
 
I agree, IMO this is the best team we have had in 10yrs....no matter what happens to this FO after the season I will always thank them for not kiling our cap by signing desperation picks to save their jobs....what they did was retool with a good plan and the next regime can build on.....hopefully we will contend for a division and they will be able to build onto what they started.
 
In 2006 as soon as Saban signed Culpepper instead of Brees I knew our season was over. Just like Culpepper's career was.

In 2007 I had no optimism for Cam Cameron. He was in way over his head from the beginning and I was royally pissed when we hired him.

This year I feel about as optimistic as last year which I thought we would finish anywhere between 9-7 and 11-5. I believe our defense again has gotten better and am expecting Henne to make the leap under Daboll many of us expected last year. I believe this entire season rests on Henne's shoulders. If Henne can take the next step and show some consistency we will definitely be in the playoff hunt. If not we will have a new head coach and possibly a new GM next year.
 
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