It always takes a couple days to get a little perspective. However, here's what I saw:  The Dolphins fell behind 21-0 in the first 30 seconds of the game due to a couple of rookie blunders.  The rest of the game?  17-17 on the road in the snow against a division rival in December.  

I railed at the TV when Cam pulled Beck and inserted Lemon.  I saw conspiracies dancing in my head when it seemed that the line blocked harder and the backs ran faster and the coaches became more creative with Cleo back in there.  But then I saw John Beck standing on the sideline and realized that, for the long-term at least, this is where I would rather see him in his first year.  What's the point of getting your brains beaten out when nothing's working and nobody's blocking?  Fine, put Cleo back out there and let him run around and heave the ball to receivers on both teams.  That's not the future of this team and Cam knows it.  Sound fundamentals and playing his system are the future and that wasn't happening on Sunday.  In fact, I'll state that pulling Beck and changing the game plan to suit Cleo's "talents" were the best adjustment I've seen Cam make all year.  We played the Bills even from that point on, and it was due to the Head Coach's ability to adjust to the situation.  Chew on that.

Here are some of the arguments I hear against Cam:  This isn't an expansion team.  He's lost the locker room.  He's inflexible.  He's a loser and overmatched/overwhelmed by the job of HC.

1. "This isn't an expansion team."  I beg to differ.  We've got aging vets past their prime, second-tier talent forced into starting positions, and multiple rookies learning on the go.  That sounds like an expansion team to me.  Once again, I believe that you can not underestimate the damage that the Wanny/Spielman era did to this franchise.  Five years (!) of wasted draft picks, either spent on horrible players or dealt away in lopsided deals, have decimated the talent core of this team.  Five years!  You are talking about 10-20 players that would be in their prime now.  That's huge.  Saban's drafts were better and Cam/Randy's draft shows the most promise yet.  There was a lot of early criticism about Lorenzo Booker earlier in the year, but I sit up straight when I see him catching the ball out of the backfield and making the first two guys miss.  I'm sold on Ginn, Mauia, and Satele.  I still see the promise in Beck and there's no way I'm altering my views based on the past few games.  That would be short-sighted and foolish.
2. "He's lost the locker room."  Okay, he has, but look who's doing all the talking.  Aging defensive veterans who can see the writing on the wall.  If Wayne sticks with Cam (and he should) then this rehabilitation/overhaul is going to take years and the guys who are most vocal are not likely to be around to see it.  I don't blame them because the early projections were that this team was going to be competitive, and it hasn't.  We stink.  The offense is young and stupid, but they will get better.  The defense, however, is bad and old.  They've played four good games all year, and three of those were on muddy, rain-soaked fields that hindered the opposing offense's ability to execute.  

Jason Taylor, I love you, and at this point in your career you can say whatever you want, but if you're not part of the long-term solution then you are part of the short-term problem.  And if that's the case, I hope you do get traded to a contender and that you can hoist a Lombardi trophy over your head before it's time to hang 'em up.  But guess what?  Right now, you're just the best player on a horrible team, and you're past your prime.  Openly criticizing your first-year HC and waxing sentimental about your days with JJ, Wanny, and Saban?  It's hard, but those guys left nothing but a trail of losses and/or poor planning for the future.  If you side with those guys, then that will be your legacy, too.  You (and Zach) deserve better than that.  Speaking of Zach, you'll note that he hasn't had much to say, except that he wants to retire as a Dolphin and still be here when the ship gets righted.  You might want to ask him about that.

3) "He's inflexible"  Good!  I want a HC with a vision for the future, wants to bring in his type of guys, and refuses to give in to public pressure/ownership pressure/so-called veteran leadership pressure.  See Bill Walsh, Jimmy Johnson (the Cowboy years), Chuck Noll, Tom Landry, Don Shula, Bill Belichick, Bill Parcells.  Cam failed this part of the test when he brought in Beck against his better judgement because of outside influence, but he made the right decision on Sunday in Buffalo.  Whether he plays Beck or Lemon at this point is up to him as long as he continues to work toward the eventual goal of a fundamentally sound footabll team.  If the match-up favors Beck and gives him a chance to master the basics and learn the system, then put him in.  If he's just going to get his face pushed through the back of his head, then play Cleo.  After his adjustments in Buffalo, Cam has earned my trust again and I'll stop clamoring for Beck (I was guilty of this as well and wanted him to start against Buffalo at home earlier in the season).

This also calls to mind the Ricky situation and Cam's flip-flopping on his earlier statements about not bringing him back on the team if he were to be reinstated.  If you ask me, Cam played that beautifully by using Ricky to draw attention away from Beck right before his first start of the season.  I thought it was a savvy move for a rookie HC.

4) "He's a loser and overmatched/overwhelmed by the job of HC"  Well, duh.  It's a hard freaking job.  Cranky veterans, injuries, rookies, impatient fans and owners, the press -- and losing.  Again, see the early careers of Walsh, Noll, Landry, Parcells, JJ, Belichik.  They had horrible early seasons.  I lived in the Bay Area when the 49ers were 2-14 or 3-13 or whatever it was and Walsh was flip-flopping Steve DeBerg and Joe Montana on successive series.  Nobody was calling him a genius then.  In fact, he looked just like an overmatched/overwhelmed first-time HC who was probably better suited to remain an offensive coordinator for life.  Sound familiar?  I now live in Missouri, and after Dick Vermeil's first two seasons with the Rams (crappy and crappier) everyone wanted the little old man with the leaky eyes to "burn out" again and hobble back to retirement.  JJ was lambasted and ridiculed his first year in Dallas (1-15) after Landry was gently shoved aside.  What about Belichik in Cleveland, drafting "Touchdown" Tommy Vardell and cutting Bernie Kosar?  Even the best of the best failed miserably in the beginning.

0-16?  Who gives a crap?  You want to be placated by a few cheap meaningless wins, fine.  Not me.  I want to see a team that starts doing all the little things right and builds on that.  I want to see fewer penalties, fewer turnovers, better basic execution, speed, and youth.  And that takes time.  I don't expect to win any games this year and I also expect the first half of next year to be difficult to watch.  But then, I truly believe that dividends will start to pay off and this team will look strong again.

Let me ask you all this:  Since 1972-1974, what has 17-0 done for us?  It's a sweet memory, for sure, and I feel lucky to have been in the stands for some of those games.  Still, all it has left us with is unrealistic expectations and bitterness over another team's potential success.  Frankly, I'm sick of it.  Let the Pats go undefeated and then spend the next next 35 years living off of the memory while we start to build a foundation for years of success

We haven't had a balanced team since 1974.  Oh sure, the 1984 Killer B's were statistically great, but the 49ers exposed them badly and our defense wasn't truly prominent again until the early '90's, and that didn't last long (Miami Pound Machine anyone?)  But Cam and Randy have a chance now to build on both sides of the ball, which is something that Shula (in the end), JJ, Wanny, and Saban never did.  The offense is just starting and the defense will be next -- out with the old and cranky, in with the young, fast, and mean.

Now, let me ask you this:  What can 0-16 do for us?  A lot.  Let's say we'd gotten a few bounces our way and escaped with a few wins this year.  Suddenly, we think we're better than we are, we're more inclined to hold onto questionable talent, and we no longer hold the number one overall draft pick.  My friends, we should all be Adrian Peterson and Darren McFadden fans right now, because the better those guys look, the more other teams are going to want that first overall pick.  That pick, and the potential trade value it possesses, could be the key to rebuilding this team in a hurry.

I will continue to preach patience.  Let Cam learn from his mistakes.  Give him and Randy the time to build the team their way with the players of their choosing before rushing to judgement.  

Fire away and, as always...,

Go Dolphins.