I don't think there's much to add that you all didn't see on your own TVs.  The Dolphins looked flat today, with a few exceptions.  They seemed a bit disorganized as well, with some of the subs looking a bit confused and out of position at times on defense.  I'm always happy to win, especially on the road, but there were some disturbing things about the game.

First off:  The defense.  The success today wasn't so much about making plays as it was about taking advantage of the Rams' mistakes.  The interceptions by Bulger were amazingly awful.  I kept looking at the sidelines through my binoculars to see if that was really Cleo Lemon in the Rams' number 10 jersey.  It wasn't.  If he hadn't made those horrendous throws (I'm talking about the first two INTs, not the last one, which was pretty bad, too), we were in serious danger of losing this game.  Along with the INTs, he also seemed to miss a lot of open guys downfield.  We really didn't do much on defense to stop the Rams.  They sort of just stopped themselves.  The cornerback ,Thompson (#41 in your programs, #1 in your hearts), only seemed to get better as the game went on -- but it's hard not to when you start with two PI calls in the first series.  In his defense, if he hadn't committed the second PI, then the receiver walks in for the score, because Thompson was beat on the inside route and there wasn't help in sight.

Run defense wasn't so great.  Jackson's layoff seemed to leave him winded in the second half, so that helped.  However, we made Antonio Pittman look like Larry Csonka on a couple of his carries, and that's just not right.  I think we're getting to that part of the season where the first and second year guys (who are used to 10 game seasons, then big layoffs before bowl games) are starting to tucker out.

The offense: Man, you haven't seen slow until you see Chad throw the ball in person.  The ball would leave his hand, and then I had time to go to the bathroom, order some lunch, and floss my teeth, before it gets to the receiver.  The good news is that it usually does get to the receiver.  This was Bess and Ginn's game, as most of his throws went their ways.  Ted, Jr, is so, well...."squinchy" is the best way I can put it.  Whether it's after a catch or during a kick return, he just "squinches" up when the defender gets near.  He's so tiny compared to the rest of the players that I completely understand.  It just doesn't seem that football-y to me.  Bess had a nice game, but it looked like he should have caught that endzone pass in the 3rd quarter.  From our seats, it looked like he short-armed it.  If he laid out, I think he's got it.

Oh, and I think we've figured out how to make Wilford useful.  He seems quite adept at clearing out zones so that Davone Bess can get open.  He also picked up one of the ref's hand-towels and gave it back to him.  That was nice ("Here you go, ref.  Hey coach!  Did you see that? Three million dollars please!").

The good news:  Ricky, Ronnie, Cobbs, and Polite.  These guys don't look tired at all. In fact, Ricky and Cobbs look quicker than ever.  The guys in the backfield are the pride of the team, and I wished we used them even more than we did.  Not many throws to the RBs today either, which I thought was odd.  Also, Jake Long looked great today.  In spite of the bad ankle, I only saw him get really beat one time, by Chris Long, on a rush around end where C. Long got to Chad as he was letting go of the ball.  That was it. Considering C. Long's relentless motor and generally good health, that's a pretty nice day for Jake, especially after losing Smiley so early in the game.  Also, Chad is one tough dude.  He took a lot of hits today, but he just keeps popping up and dusting himself off.  It's pretty inspiring to see.  He never hangs his head or starts yelling at anybody.  He's very calm and poised, and he has complete control of the huddle.  Very cool.

The great news:  Dolphin fans everywhere.  I know the Rams are at a low point right now.   Still, that stadium had tons of Dolphin fans.  This is my third Rams/Fins game in St. Louis, and this was by far the biggest turnout of Phin Fans.  It was great to see.  Lots of strangers high-fiving and waving to each other.  Also, given the season the Rams are having, their fans were very pleasant and respectful.  Even though their lousy team gave us a run for our money, there was no noticeable gloating or harassing.  I was very proud to be both a Dolphin fan and a St. Louisan.  My wife and kids had a great time, too. 

Finally, Pats, Bills, and Jets all lose today.  What a turnaround from a week ago.  All of a sudden, we may control our own fate again.  That news may re-light the fire under this team that it so badly needs right now...because they sure didn't have it today.  It sucks (really, really sucks) about Smiley, but the good teams fight through things like this. 

Go Dolphins.

 

I'm up too late watching ESPN and the talking heads just announced a JT press conference set for 11:30 a.m. eastern time tomorrow (June 1st) morning.  The source they cited is the Miami Herald.  Apparently (according to the two guys who do the late SportsCenter on the weekends) JT is going to request to be traded.

In other breaking news, ice cream is delicious and smoking is bad for you. 

Go Dolphins.

...or me.  In fact, he doesn't know any of us and he doesn't owe any of us a damn thing.  He loves his wife and his kids.  He loves his brother-in-law and probably some of his teammates, past and present.  And that's it.  He's just a guy with a job and a family, and he's trying to figure out what the best thing is for him to do at this point in his life.  The company he has worked for his entire professional life has switched bosses for the fourth time.  They are hiring younger guys to do his job and cutting loose the guys he has been working with since he graduated college.  He only has so many productive years left and the number one goal he had set has become all but unattainable.  He received an exciting new opportunity that showed him that a new life and career might be available, one that could last longer and continue to keep him living the life to which he and his family have grown accustomed.

I have always been very appreciative and respectful of Matty I, but I think the recent comparison of Jason Taylor to Nick Saban is ridiculous.  Nick Saban was the coach, GM, and newly-appointed dictator-for-life of this franchise 3 1/2 years ago.  He lost interest in the team and his responsibilities within 18 months of signing his contract.  He alienated and ignored players and front-office personnel alike in a very short period of time.  He lied methodically beginning halfway through his second season with the team and jumped ship at the first opportunity he was offered.  As the literal figurehead of the entire franchise, his departure left everything in a shambles.  It was also a very consistent move for this snake-oil salesman of a coach.  Just ask all the nice people who cheer for Michigan State and LSU (and Alabama....soon... just you wait, you'll see).

Jason Taylor, meanwhile, has been a good soldier and loyal employee for the most poorly-run snake-bitten franchise since his entry into the league 11 years ago.  He has secured his place as one of the five greatest Dolphins of all time.  He has been a model citizen on and off the field.  This year, for the first time ever, he has taken a non-football road during the off-season and drawn a little attention to himself in a positive way.  Millions of people were discovering him for the first time ever and becoming fans.  Meanwhile, the NFL and the Dolphins (save for some very small-print back-page coverage) virtually ignored his efforts.  Back home, the writing was on the wall that this team was getting younger and his friends were finding work elsewhere.  Rumors were flying that he was on the trading block.  The new VP wouldn't address the issue.  The new GM wouldn't talk to him.  And this is the guy that was the model for a giant robot in London during the NFL's first foray into Great Britain just eight months ago.

This isn't comparing apples to oranges.  This is comparing apples to steaming hot piles of dog crap.

If Jason Taylor does move on, either through retirement or trade, it does not take down the entire franchise the way losing a head coach/general manager does.  It sucks to lose him, but Jason Taylor wasn't our ticket to the Super Bowl this year or the next (and probably not the next one after that, either...sorry).  He is simply a great player on the downside of a great career who probably has enough in the tank to make a difference for a contender over the next 2 to 3 years.  He has been handsomely compensated, for sure, and he is still under contract, but losing him does not break this franchise the way Saban's shenanigans did 1 1/2 years ago.

Personally, if he isn't traded, I think he shows up in the Fall and eases back into the game and everyone will hug each other and smile and act like nothing happened.  And that's great by me.  Really.  As long as this team is on the right track (finally), that's all that matters.  With or without Jason Taylor, this team is moving in the right direction for the first time since............1993?

One side note (and if you've read this far, kudos to you my good fellow), since he came into the league 11 years ago, Jason Taylor has shown a lot of enthusiasm for some bad coaches.  He loved JJ, of course, who drafted him and then burned out and took a giant mustachioed dump on the team.  He loved Wanny...ugh.  He was all fired up about Saban...bleh.  He even sang the praises for Cam in the early going.  Not to disrespect the guy, but it does make one wonder if Jason Taylor has spent so much time in this fetid environment that he couldn't smell a winner if it farted in this face.  Maybe his rejection of the Trifecta is a sign that we are on the winning path after all?  Who knows?

Jason Taylor, if this is the end of your time in the Aqua and Orange, then good luck to you and thanks for the memories.  You don't owe any of us a damn thing.  You played like a champion from day one until the end, and you never offered excuses or threw any of the pieces of crap you were forced to play with (and for) under the bus.  I hope you come back, but if you don't, then no hard feelings and I hope you shake your head and laugh while you're watching the Dolphins win the Super Bowl in 2010, 2011, 2013, and 2014.  As long as you don't retire as a Jet, Pat, or Bill, then you have secured your spot in the ring of honor and (I believe) the Hall of Fame.

Now let's read some more stuff about Philip Merling and Kendall Langford.  And Jake Long.  And Lex Hilliard and Jalen Parmele.  I want to read about football...

Go Dolphins.

There seems to be a lot of anxiety about the lack of secondary help during this year's draft.  I completely agree that it is our greatest area of concern at this time.  However, after all of our free agent signings, the trade with Dallas on Friday, and the draft, I feel that it is now our only area of concern.  By saying that, I mean that it is the only area that has yet to be addressed aggressively.  Whereas three months ago, the entire team (save for the running backs) needed a complete overhaul, it now appears that only the secondary still has holes to fill.

We now have a healthy, young QB competition; tons of depth along the offensive and defensive lines; a young TE with upside; speed and depth at LB; a young WR corps with speed (Ginn), size (Wilford), and intrigue (Bess and Foster, the UDFAs); the usual suspects at RB with some new big bruisers thrown in; and possibly the deepest, fastest, meanest special teams unit in the league.  Obviously it's going to be a while until we truly know what we have here, but the turnover has been great and a lot of dead wood has been cast adrift.   And we managed to keep JT!

Although I hope I'm wrong, odds are pretty good we'll be drafting early in the rounds  next year as well.  Cornerback and safety are two of the positions where a young, talented player can step in right out of college and make an immediate impact in their rookie year (see Patrick Surtain, Sam Madison, Troy Vincent, Don McNeal, Ed Reed, Ronnie Lott, et al.).  Quarterbacks, offensive linemen, defensive linemen, and linebackers usually take more time to develop, so I think this year's approach has been great.  It's exciting to finally see the entire team's needs addressed all at once.  The future is ours.

Please don't make any comments that disagree with me as my feelings are hurt rather easily.  Thanks, and...

Go Dolphins.

I've been thinking about this since the first Dolphins/Pats game.  Looking back on the two deep balls that Moss caught for TD's, it seemed that our d-backs were actually in pretty good position.  It's just that Moss is so damn strong and talented that he simply outleaps, outmuscles, and outcatches everyone around him.  The other Pats WRs are relatively human, so it is Moss that always draws the double-team, and yet he still catches the ball.  He even caught one TD against us with his friggin' elbow.

He's probably going to catch it anyway, so why not modify the philosophy when defending Moss?  When you have a truly special player out there, you have to develop a truly special plan.

(Dramatic Pause - music swells to a crescendo)

Here's mine:

Moss is going to draw the double-team anyway, so you divide the assignments into a "ball guy" and a "body guy".  The "ball guy" plays traditional coverage and tries to defend the pass.  The "body guy" basically tries to time out his hit and smack Moss when the ball arrives.  Call it the "Hack-a-Randy" or something like that.  He's going to get his catches no matter what so you might as well make him pay for it.  He's a strong guy and a freakishly-talented athlete, but maybe you wear him down a bit, or get him angry, or at least put the thought in his head that maybe the game just isn't that fun anymore.

I remember in the Pats first SB victory against the Rams that this is what they did against Marshall Faulk.  Crennel figured that he was their most special and talented player (and rightly so).  Well, anytime he made a move across the line of scrimmage, with or without the ball, someone was there to hit him in the mouth...usually Willie McGinest.  Faulk got his yards, but he was so beat up that he couldn't be the usual difference-maker that the Rams relied upon so heavily.  We all know how that game turned out.

Just thinkin'.

Go Dolphins.

P.S. Anybody know where I can find a Greg Camarillo gamer?

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.