What Sunday's game in San Diego means to the Dolphins

And i say bench wilson and put clemens in there, hes a better center fielder and can prob run with a east tight end like dallas clark

heck the team played well yesterday… Something i haven’t seen around here is anyone saying that P Manning is pretty freakin good and he makes some pretty nice plays..

but looking ahead. miami has a good history against the bolts… the bolts were beat up against Bmore last week (couple of starters went down) plus teams playing the week after playing bmore were something like 4-12 ATS and 6-10 straight up IIRC…

and that’s before we talk about SD still has Norv and seems to have some defensive issues of their own right now… and the fact that many of us considered it a trap game … coming off a MNF short week with a cross country trip and a couple of division games following…. well does anyone think they fins are going to be overconfident or looking past the bolts now…

I expect a big bounce back and might be willing to put matty’s house on the line if the number is right.

don’t see it matty… one thing the Cammueller season taught us all, is that you can’t convince a veteran team that a young QB gives them the best chance to make the playoffs even if the playoffs are DOA…

plus i don’t see the coaching staff, flipping the switch until they secure some wins this year to avoid the fluke rap that would be tagged on the team if they didn’t accomplish anything this year.

So would i like to see a change of Chads… well does anyone need to ask…. do i expect it… nope.
i do expect to see some chad in the 4ths of games if they are down more then 10 though.

that’s a hypothetical!

Not yet! Too soon for the knee jerk panic. Players sense that ’tude from the staff then the season (and players) tank.
As White has shown his arm tackle weakness, he needs to be supplanted with Henne that he can get more snaps.

If CP10 fails to hit some 30+ yard receptions.. hell 20+ yard hits and we lose this next weekend I say make the swap as well. I have always supported CP10 100% up untill these last few games.

Plays I remember

Ginn making an awesome catch the last week of last year against the Jets where he was double coverd and CP10 underthrew him by 5 yards. Could have ended up bad.. Ginn made the play

Same game CP10 threw a floater to Fasano and it was on the wrong side of Fasano and again our receiver made a hell of an adjustment and caught the ball. Good for Fasano.. bad for Penne.

I wont get into the 4 int on the playoff game

And Ive already seen 2 or 3 underthrows this season and not any real big plays from him. He has missed even seeing 3 or 4 20+ yard open receivers (by my count so far) this season and although I do not blame him at all for this loss (he played good for the most part) he still never looks like a QB who is ever going to turn us into an explosive passing team. Call me an ass for wanting that kind of team but I do want it. I want to see plays like Manning hit all night Monday night. Even if we only have one a game, I want to see them. And we will never see them with CP10 leading this team.

If we go 0-3 I say make the switch and give Henne playing time to get ready for a good run next season.

I still say that C. Pennington will get 6 more games. The whole organization has invested so much into the guy that to turn away after 3 or games games won’t happen. Personally, I would have loved to see Henne in there as the starter “Carson Palmer” style this season, but Sparano got behind him. And Pennington did ok last night, it was our defense that sucked, especially Gibril Wilson who could go away right now in my opinion.

I think we should focus more on the O/line and Ronnie and Ricky. That was truly beautiful football to watch. They litterally pounded the Colts’ D.

No coach would throw his veteran under the bus even if things looked like they weren’t going to the play offs. That is a move of desperation, like 1-4 or 1-5. When the play offs are a numerical improbability.

With the way the safeties are playing, the more we have the more comfortable we may feel.

Clemons is fast for a safety and can be a key special teams player.

if the dolphins cant pull out a win this sunday, maybe they decide to start the henne era, maybe they dont. but if they do, what kind of trade could they get for pennington? a 2nd round pick? maybe….san fran is looking for a qb. they run a west coast type of offense that would suit pennington. maybe pennington for crabtree? or maybe they could swap pennington and a 2nd rounder for boldin out in arizona. maybe it would be the cats meow but what about a trade to new england? pennington for wilfork? if they do plan to start Henne i think they need to resign ronnie brown now, before he gets a better offer this offseason. henne will not be able to carry the team at first, he will need a runningback to hand the ball to. just some thoughts……what do you think?

We aren’t a super bowl contender, and that being the most obvious fact, my hopes and expectations for this season aren’t the playoffs, but improvements over last season and improvements from game to game. We need to build up the young talent and keep moving forward, and so far after two games, we’ve done that. We improved tremendously from game one to game two.

This entire season is not about “winning” but becoming a more solid football team. That’s why Monday night was so important, and we passed a big test. We showed up and dominated, even though we lost. Hey, someone’s got to lose and the respect we earned is way more important than the W.

Monday Night legitimized the Dolphins, or at least helped. We need more performances like that. We need to keep playing hard, and start playing smarter. But we also NEED the adversity.

I fucking hate losing, but I’m not so stupid as to not see that there are lessons to be learned in these losses, and assuming Tony Sparano is here to stay for the next five or ten years, what he is learning now is vital to his success in future seasons. He didn’t start this job knowing everything, but he’s got to learn fast. Tony Sparano, more than the Tuna, more than JT/JP, more than any quarter back, reciever, or Ronnie Brown, is the force of this team. We’ll live and die by his leadership.

I’m gonna be incredibly upset and disheartened if we lose next Sunday, but I’m not going to jump off a cliff if we lose another game in which we played well and had a chance in the fourth quarter to win.

If we lose, I’ll be happy for one thing. It’ll be Chad Henne time. I believe 100% that Chad Henne time should be now. It’s clear that, though Pennington is a good quarterback and is not to blame for either loss, he’s not a guy who can win games, and if he’s there just to manage the game (and that seems likely as long as we have the RnR express) then let’s start Henne.

I am dying to know if Henne is the quarterback that can go out and make those game-winning plays. I know protecting the football is important and managing the game is a key to victory, but if that’s all Pennington is good for….well.

It is what it is.

I don’t usually agree with everything that you write, but this one echoes my thoughts exactly.

Also, when I watched a replay of Sparano’s Press Conference, I saw the same thing that you saw, a defeated man. And you cannot show that as a coach. I know these players are pros but every team that I have ever been around takes on the personality of their coach, feeds off the emotion of their coach. Sparano needs to be more steady and consistent. Right now he has too many ups and downs and I don’t think that benefits the team.

In a comment yesterday I posted that, IMO, this team is playing tight and I think they are getting that from the coaching staff. Players are thinking about not making mistakes, which leads to mistakes. They seem a step slow which means that they are not playing on instinct. They are just not as aggresive as they should be on both sides of the ball and I can’t figure out why. And that is usually a refection on the coaching staff.

Wow what fun reading! Everyone makes such interesting points.

Did anyone watch the ball bounce right off Ted Ginn’s hands not once but twice in the endzone? And did anyone else watch the ball bounce right off Anthony Fasano’s hands in the endzone. Did anyone watch as Carpenter missed a kick during the game that if he made would have tightened up the score so that a field goal would have won it in the last seconds instead of a hail mary??? Come on people. Our very impressive ball control and running game offense were nice, but if you drop touchdown pass after touchdown pass it does not matter who the safties can and can’t tackle!

Before running for the hills, just remember our team is very young…our coaches are still new….and our team shows it. We simply lack continuity. First game the D was decent but the O was flat. Second game the O was fantastic and the D was flat. We simply need to gel and become one fighting unit.

Micromanagement of who takles who or who covers who is totally a mute point. As far as the league goes, our safties are not too bad. They certainly should not bear the weight for losing the 2 opening games. We played the best tight end in history first and manning to clark second. This schedule would give any team in the league fits. There are 11 players out there who must play as one. From what I see we are getting there. Sure the pain of 2 opening losses paints a dark picture, but the bright points are many and boad very well for our future in this league.

Look for our team to leave it all out there this week. 0-3 is almost a season over before it starts for sure. San Diego has some significant injuries to starters that we should be able to exploit. Our young team has the skills to get it done. We just need to execute on both sides of the ball for 60 full mins and the wins will start piling up.

Man, I live in California and ALL of my family is chargers fans. I hope we win. Last year we did great and we had Antonio Gates on lock. I think if Bell mess’s up they should TRY moving Smith to his position and brining in Davis on the opposite.

Im excited because the last two games, the falcons tried to run with Turner and it didnt work, the colts couldnt get a good run because they had a good quarterback, now Chargers have LT and sproles and we have a good run defense that we can finally use and I know we can stop there offense as long as the DBS, Linebackers, safties do there JOB.

Merriman will get trucked by Ronnie Brown, Ricky Williams, Patrick Cobbs. I do hope they activate Patrick Turner he is a great first down/red zone threat, we need his size and hands, all the quarter back has to do is just lob the ball in the air for Turner.

just like the wildcat gave us a spark last year something has to happen on D for us to get some momentum going.

The offense and special teams seem to have gotten on the right track, but our D needs to play much better.

… and Sparano’s sad demeanor may not have been defeat as much as feeling sad about loosing the QB he thought was going to maintain winning games… facing the toughest decision of telling your starting QB to step aside for his pupil…

Derrick Brooks. Can he be switched to ilb and can he cover.

after we got torn up in the AZ game. The difference this year is that we are SUPPOSED to be able to win these, and last year no one expected much.

So if i had to guess, right about now Sparano feels the heat of not have a “grace period” like last year.

And BTW, i thought this was interesting… i think this is about as close to you will see Tony S come to throwing anyone under the bus, not quite, but it’s clear he is not taking all the blame for CP:

Talking about the 3rd and 6 play to set up for a FG at the end of the game, instead of going for the 1st down, the TD and the win:
Sparano said Tuesday that “contrary to popular belief,” the Dolphins did not call a run. Rather, they called an either-or play, allowing Chad Pennington to assess the Colts’ front and coverage before choosing whether to run or pass.

I can’t believe no one is saying much about the one guy that lost this game. Had Ted Gin Jr. cought the ball that was thrown to his hands in the enzone, we would be talking about a win, not a loss.

I have said it for 3 years now, Gin is a bust and we need to get someone who can run like Gin, but also catch the blasted ball. Yes, the defense gave up a lot of plays, but if you have an offense that can move the ball, you can win. If we want to WIN get rid of GIN.

win in SD.

Regardless of the QB debate, one thing that doesn’t require much analysis is that at 0-3 in the AFC – not to mention with a very hard schedule – you can kiss the playoffs goodbye. We don’t need to much debate or argue this point I think.

And that fellow dolphin fans, does make it a must win for us this sunday.

As for who starts at QB: Like W NY said above, I suspect the coaching staff doesn’t want to throw in the towel (or appear to do so anyway) after just three games if we go 0-3. So they might wait till the bye week or even more so, again, if things go bad for us.

The thing with the Chad switch is it is a card you can only play once. Henne goes in and he then has to stay in for better or worse. My gut feeling is the soonest the staff would contemplate that move would be post-bye week.

The defense must step-up. With the exception of our rookie corner (that all but shut Wayne down) we have a veteran defense and they have to respond.

Just before Ginn missed that 1st “would have been a TD” pass there was a PERFECTLY thrown pass to non other then BUTTERHANDS (frome week 1) Fasano and he missed it. The pass to Fasano was an EASY CATCH but where are all the people here blaming him for not winning the game?

Just saying…

I really and truly the believe the Dolphins are going to win the game. News flash: the Chargers defense is TERRIBLE – if the Dolphins run the ball half as well as they did on Monday Night, they’ll go up and down the field on this team. If JaMarcus Russell could hit an open WR, the Chargers would be 0-2 right now. The Phins are the better team, if they play their game and don’t turn it over, they should win this game.