Week 1 2004

[gish]

In week 1 of 2004, I went to my first dolphin game in Miami, I had been to see them in Detroit, Indy twice, and at the hall of fame game in 2002; but I hadn't seen them in the land of the phin. I couldn't wait to see them play, I bought 6 tickets to the game. Three of us couldn't go because of the hurricane. But I went anyway, drove 4 hours. I was on crutches at the time and our seats were the last row up at the top of the stadium. I had to sit on the steps and lift myself up the steps one at a time till I got to the top (I had a broken leg).

Well, anyway, I wasn't going to let anything stop me from seeing my phins. Lucky me, Jay Fiedler plays like he has money on the Titans and is booed to the bench by the 3rd quarter. He is replaced by A.J. (I cant tie my shoes) Feeley, and he plays slighty better with the exception of an INT for a TD that put the nail in our coffin.

Point being, I am looking forward to the game that starts in roughly one hour. Many things have changed since that day. Nearly 2 seasons have passed since then. We have a new head coach. He have a new QB. He have Ricky back. And we have an offensive coordinator that doesn't get his gameplan from 1-800-OBVIOUS. We actually have some diversity in our play calling. No more, 1st and 10 run, 2nd and 9 incomplete pass, 3rd and 9 draw play, punt. Now its exciting to watch the phins on offense. The last few years have imbedded the thought that 3rd down is an impossible feat to overcome. Now I feel like a born again Christian everytime they complete a pass on 3rd down.

We don't have to be afraid of being confident anymore. We have been let down many times in the past. And it has hurt very badly. But I think our days of letdowns are over. This is the starting of a new era in Miami Dolphins football. Where you can wear your Dolphin pride on your sleve without feeling like your only going to get laughed at after they throw 5 picks for TDs and lose by 900 points to the Lions. NO MORE! OUr days of humility (though be them short) are over.

I preach a song of freedom and pride. A song that is heard from every NFL stadium. Let every team cringe when they see the Miami Dolphins on their schedule, for they will know that this is not a team to be messed with.

So show your pride this week and every week to come. The Miami Dolphins are coming to a town near you, and when they leave, they will be a bigger and stronger team.

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[TKAllDay]

great post have fun

 

[steveincolorado]

I was on crutches once and it sucked!! I had a bad ankle (soccer), my car was a stick, it happened to be winter and we had just gotten snowed on, I had to walk a block to college, and to top it off, one of my classes was on the third floor, and the elavator was out of order. Other than that, it wasn't too bad. Oh, BTW, after I got healthy, I got my revenge on the guy that put me in the cast. He thanked god for shinguards.

 

[Metal Panda]

You're right, we have nothing to be ashamed of.

I knew that on opening day...I was going to the dolphins game with my best friend and his girl friend and I got a speeding ticket on teh way (reduced to a seat belt violation cuz the cop was nice...I had my seatbelt on but he did it to reduce fine/no points)...

then when I was almost there, I got rear ended and got involved in a 5 vehicle accident. we were all ok, but I missed the first 6 minutes of the game.

The rest was all worth it however. 34-10!

 

[Awsi Dooger]

I attended that Titans opener last year. I focused on our new additions and a few things stood out immediately:

* Samari Rolle was basically bored all day and laughing while covering Marty Booker. Booker didn't even pretend to knock down a pass in the end zone smack in front of me and allowed it to be intercepted. Spielman had just insisted Booker was the equivalent of a 1st round pick and I was literally looking for Spielman in the luxury boxes to flip him off or worse.

* Feeley came into the game in the 2nd half and defaulted to short passes, mostly mindless line drives into coverage. His arm looked good on the rare occasions his velocity and arch matched the requirements of the situation. On the INT return, Lamar Gordon didn't appear to run the route properly or look back in time.

* The line of Tennessee -3 and a total of 37 projected us to 17 points, losing 20-17. Based on watching the preseason I didn't see how we were 50/50 to score 17 points so I took Tennessee and under and won both of them, fairly easy. From a football standpoint Saban is obviously superior but I found the Wanny era much more predictable from a betting perspective.

The line has basically stayed the same for today's game, BTW. Mostly 5.5s but a few places down to 5. The total looks high to me at 44. Two teams and neither with winning records this late in the year normally struggle to put up that many points.