Expectation

A little over a year ago, the Miami Dolphins took the field after the worst season in franchise history. They had a new regime in the front office and a large group of new faces wearing jerseys.  They began their season with the hated New York Jets. It turned out to be a close game that was won by the jets on fluke plays. A marked improvement from the year before and a reason for a slight bit of hope for the future.

The next week would not be so uplifting.  A 31-10 thumping by the eventual NFC champion Arizona Cardinals. It was a bad loss that felt a lot like a recap of the previous season. In the end it was chalked up to being the same ol’ Dolphins and growing pains of a re-building franchise.

In week 3 of the season, a funny thing happened. The Dolphins won, and they won big. A destruction of AFC east rival New England to the tune of 38 to 13. Instantly there was not only a renewed sense of hope for the future, but new idea of winning now. The term “re-building” was thrown out the window and the “Why not us” mentality was born.  

The dolphins would go on to win 10 more games that season and win the division. The offseason began with another solid draft and strong free agent signings by the front office, suring up the secondary and strengthening the offensive line. All was right with the world, but the Dolphins also added one thing to there team that they did not have at the beginning of last year…expectations.

So far in 2009 the dolphins are once again 0-2. The first loss, to the other comeback team from last year, the Atlanta Falcons was filled with bad offensive line work and a secondary that was vulnibril to tight ends. A disappointing loss. At 0-1 the rumblings already began. The second game of the season against the Colts saw the Dolphins rush for over 200 yards and completely dominate the clock with 45 minutes of position only to be beaten by a Peyton Manning come from behind touchdown drive.  A close 27-23 loss.

If the Colts game would have happened that way this same time last year the reaction would be totally different right now. After all, the Dolphins not only went out there and competed, but at times dominated one of the elite teams in the National Football League. They stepped out on to the field with a game plan, and exsucuted that game plan, but just did not have enough fire power at the end to seal the deal. But its not last year, and the Dolphins are the defending AFC East champions, and Fans now have expectations. The fans who just one month ago were praising the regime are now cursing offseason such as Gibril Wilson and Resigning players for large sums. When truth be told the regime biggest mistake was last year’s success.

On a personal note I saw something in last night game thread that really did bother me. During the last two minutes of the game while the dolphins were trying to go down the field there were a number of “fans” posting 0-2 before the game was over. To me that is unacceptable.  I pride myself on being one of the people who went to and suffered through every home game at Dolphin stadium in 2007. I never gave up on my dolphins in any game until the last snap. If you that kind of fan go to Foxboro where your kind is welcomed.