Was our schedule really as tough as you think it was? | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Was our schedule really as tough as you think it was?

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WVDolphan

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Think about it. Sure we played 5 games vs. division winners. (Indy, NO, SD, and NEx2) We went 1-4 in such games. 3 of which were home games.

Aside from that, the reality is we played 11 thats ELEVEN games vs. mediocre or bad football teams. You want to say the Jets were better than mediocre.....I dont. We all know the only reason they got to 9 wins was because the last two games were vs. teams playing like it was a preseason game. Even if you want to say they couldve beat Cincy, thats still 8-8. Thats mediocre. And hell, we swept them. So you know were just as good if not better. The Jets are a mediocre team. Their QB stunk this year. Granted he is a rookie, he still was terrible. Thats why they arent very good yet.

So in these 11 games vs. mediocre or bad teams (Jetsx2, Billsx2, Carolina, Tampa, Atlanta, Houston, Tennessee, Jacksonville, Pittsburgh----none of these teams registered 10 wins or more and the only one that made the playoffs, the Jets, have been established as mediocre at best) we went 6-5. Thats SIX AND ****ING FIVE!!!!!!!!

6-5 vs. mediocre and bad teams IS NOT GOOD!!!

Really the schedule was no tougher than most teams play. Our numbers get padded because we played A LOT of mediocre teams and really only 3 games vs. horrible teams (Buffalox2 and Tampa, which btw, we were 2-1 in those games).

Most teams get their schedule numbers shrunk down by playing a few more horrible teams than we got. When you think about it, having played only 5 games vs. good teams is not that tough. Most teams do that.

Having played so many mediocre teams as compared to having a few more games vs. bad teams is the difference in the SOS numbers.

Reality is if youre a good team, you beat the mediocre teams anyway. So having played a few more of those instead of a couple more bad teams wouldnt make a difference.

This tells me we simply werent a good team this season.

Hell if you look at last year, we played the same number of top teams. (Arizona, SD, Baltimore, and NEx2) Guess what.....we went 2-3 in those games.

The difference is last year we went 9-2....thats NINE AND TWO vs. the mediocre and bad teams. Granted we got to play a few more bad teams last season than this year. The reality is that team was good enough to beat the mediocre and bad teams.

But, we beat plenty of mediocre teams along the way. Our record vs. mediocre teams was above .500 and we beat every bad team. This year our record vs. the mediocre teams was .500(4-4) and we lost a game to a bad team(Buffalo).

So when you think about it, our schedule really wasnt so much tougher than most other teams. The only difference is instead of playing say 6 bad teams and 5 mediocre teams, we played 3 games vs. bad teams and 8 vs. mediocre teams. And if youre a good team, youre going to win the large majority of such games. We just werent any good.
 
We had no business losing the last 3 games whatsoever. Not sure what happened here but heads need to roll.
 
I have said it a MILLION times. Records don't mean **** in the NFL. The NFL is all about momentum and teams believing in themselves. The "problem" this year is our 0-3 start. Then we got a bit of a roll and found ourselves facing teams that were getting hot at the right time towards the stretch. There are NO cakewalk games in the NFL.

Add to that the fact that we really are missing players in key positions on both offense and defense and what you see is what you get.

One thing I WILL say that I liked down the stretch was how the team showed resiliency in games where we should have gotten a beat down. We always seemed to get back into the game. You cannot coach that. Once we get a few more key players on the team and IF we can get some guys to step up and take charge, we hopefully can turn the page that we have been stuck on for YEARS.
 
According to FO's advanced statistics -see separate post- we had the 3rd toughest schedule, as calculated after week 17.
 
where's th'fish said:
According to FO's advanced statistics -see separate post- we had the 3rd toughest schedule, as calculated after week 17.
Click to expand...


Again, "tough" is nebulous concept. Define tough? Usually that just means records. Anyone watching the NFL long enough knows that it is imperative for a team to get hot down the stretch as opposed to being undefeated or whatever. Most teams that have insane winning records during the season, get bumped in the playoffs. Momentum and players coming together at the end of the year is what you want.

The only way I would use the "tough" concept is in the maturation process of Henne and other rookies. They saw this year, arguably the best the nfl had to offer for their respective positions. This is even more true for Henne.
 
every team plays "bad" teams... and your saying every team but about 10 are mediocre or bad but thats the majority of the league and the same type of schedule everyone plays...

but by win loss record ours was still one of the toughest in the league, and the winning % of teams we beat was like the 2nd highest in the league behind only Tampa because they decided to beat NO and the Packers for 2 of their 3 wins
 
Of course, we are an average team. Have you been paying attention? We were a 1-15 team. Bill, Jeff, and Tony have done a good job upgrading the talent on the roster. We all knew we had talent issues going into this season. Chad Pennington is the reason we beat those mediocre team's last year. He instilled confidence. He has always had a knack for getting the most out of fourth quarter possessions. Chad Henne has more talent, but he is not as good of a leader. He needs more experience. This should be obvious.

We got a lot of lucky bounces last year. We were plus 17 in turnovers because of Pennington and lady luck. That was a big reason why we won those games. Henne, Bess, Ricky, Fasano, and others generated a lot of turnovers. We had many more injuries this year than last year. This does not make it acceptable that we went 7-9, but it was reasonable to expect this result with the injuries and tunrovers. The front office and Sparano will make changes, and I expect we will be a better team next year. I am sure some players will be released for better talent. I expect changes in the coaching staff. I have faith!
 
only 10 teams in the league won 10 or more games, so yes the majority of EVERY teams schedule is going to consist of those other 22 teams
 
Miami had THE TOUGHEST SCHEDULE IN THE ENTIRE LEAGUE. Their SOS was .559 and was the highest SOS in the entire league Post Week 17.

The Saints had the easiest schedule with a SOS at .426.

Don't tell me the schedule wasn't tough, because at the end of the day, Miami did in fact have the toughest schedule, the stats don't lie.
 
the problem is our schedule had very few cake games... Baltimore got to play
Detroit, KC, Clev x2 (beginning of the season Clev yuck), Oakland, Chicago

those are all teams with losing records, for us we played Tampa, Jax and the Bills x2 as the only teams with losing records

So games against teams that finished with losing records
dolphins - 4
Bal - 6
Indy - 6
Dal - 6
Cin - 6
SD - 7
Jets - 7
NO - 7

etc etc, that makes a big difference
 
The toughness of the schedule is but one factor that can make a team look better or worse than it actually is. Injury is another one.

Last year both of those went our way. This year both of those went against us. That's the difference between 11-5 and 7-9 for what is largely the same team, maybe slightly better or slightly worse.

End of story. Stop trying to find little nuances to crucify Sparano with. We get it - you don't like him, don't approve of the FO, yadda yadda. WE KNOW.
 
I am wondering if the loss of Cobbs, Brown, Ferguson and Will Allen had anything to do with the outcome of this season. While I wasn't a HUGE fan of the 'cat, it helped to further Henne's progression this season and really put him in the hotseat when Brown went down.

Remember that most teams IMO would have folded when their starting qb goes down if they don't have a capable backup. We had what essentially was a field rookie out there that did more than I would have ever thought was capable especially with no TE and wideout issues as well as Grove and Smiley going down this season.
 
Was in tough if you compare it to playing the NFC pro bowl team 16 times? Nope. Was it tough compared to what the rest of the league had to go through? Well, it was the toughest... Its all relative.
 
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