Like many of you, I'm still fired up!  And it's not that the Dolphins have won back-to-back games for the first time since November of '06.  It's who they beat.  Can anyone tell me the last time a team defeated the previous season's conference championship teams in back-to-back games?  It might have never even been done before; I honestly don't know.  But this Miami Dolphins team did it.  They did it despite all the doubt that people still had about the Fins as they come off of a 25-point victory over the Patriots in New England.  People wanted to say that the Dolphins needed a "gimmick" play to pull off that win.

Now we can all just sit back and enjoy the praise that will be showered on the Dolphins over the next few days.  Damn it feels good!

Let's get to the headlines from Sunday's 17-10 victory over the Chargers:

THE 'WILDCAT' RETURNS
Two week after running this "gimmick" formation 6 times against the Patriots for 119 yards, the Dolphins broke out the 'Wildcat' 10 more times.  Sure, they only gained 48 yards - 4.8 yards per play.  But they did prove that it isn't a gimmick.  The Chargers definitely prepared for it - and it showed.  But 5 out of 10 times, the play resulted in a 4+ yard gain.  And one of the times that it went for 0 yards, it was because Ricky Williams was looking to throw the ball but didn't have the time needed.

One thing that gets overlooked in this formation - mainly because our super-stud RB is taking the snap out of a shotgun formation - is that the offensive line is unbalanced to the right.  Therefore, even if the opposing defense knows that the play is coming and has prepared for it, solid execution of the play will still result in positive yards.  If the offensive line handles each of their assignments, then whoever the ball carrier is should be able to at least get to the second level of the defense - as Ronnie Brown did multiple times.

There's just one more interesting thing to note about this formation to close out the 'Wildcat' talk for this post.  On Football Night in America, Peter King said that he spoke to Tony Sparano sometime after today's win and that Sparano said there's still more that can be done out of this formation.  So no, it's no "gimmick."  But if opposing teams want to think it is, then that's fine with me.

THE RUNNING GAME ON A ROLL
What a terrific performance by this offensive line today.

Sure, you probably thought I'd start this section of the post talking about the beast - Ronnie Brown.  But the guys up front have to be given their credit.  It's amazing when you think about it.  When our backs are getting hit behind the line, we all scream about how poor our offensive line is playing.  But when they are opening up running lanes for Ronnie & Ricky, we don't give those guys up front the credit they deserve.

Well they deserve a boatload of credit for their performance yesterday.  The front 5 simply dominated, at times, the 13th ranked run defense heading into this game.  Jake Long continues to improve week in and week out.  Is it any coincidence that on Miami's final, game-sealing drive, the offense gave the ball to Ronnie on two 3rd-and-2 situations and ran behind Long to pick up critical 1st downs?  Probably not.

Samson Satele also really impressed me.  He's continuing to prove that he can handle big nose tackles on a consistent basis.  And Ike Ndukwe, who we all thought would be benched in favor of Evan Mathis, is showing us that he is capable of being this team's starting right guard.

And now to our absolute beast: Ronnie Brown.  Are there any more doubters out there?  Or is his 4.9 ypc season average finally silencing the critics?

Seriously, what can I say about Ronnie?  He's everything you'd want out of a running back.  He continues to show great vision and terrific patience.  I simply love his fire and intensity.  He absolutely leveled Antonio Cromartie on that one run.  And how about that wide grin on his face at the line of scrimmage BEFORE he took the snap and scored his touchdown?  His confidence and swagger amazes me sometimes - considering he's coming back from a torn ACL.  But you sure couldn't tell from his play these past 2 weeks.

Oh, and to those critics who are out there (there's probably still some), please don't come here and tell me that it's the "gimmick" formation that's the cause of Ronnie's outburst.  Brown took 19 conventional hand-offs and tallied 93 yards yesterday - a 4.9 ypc average.  Enough said.

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