It's clear that most Dolphin fans would tell you that this team didn't play well on Friday night against the Falcons. If you watched any of the game, you'd know that the starters on both sides of the ball did not look "regular season ready" at all.
Needless to say, Tony Sparano would agree.
But if you are one of those that need to hear those words right from Tony's mouth, then I guess you got just what you were looking for on Tuesday afternoon. Sparano was asked by the media how much work the starters would get on Thursday night against Dallas in the preseason finale. Tony responded:
"I have no idea how much the starters will play. That’s not up to me – that’s up to them. We’re going to go out there and play until either I’m satisfied with what I’ve seen, or I feel like we’ve gotten the amount of work that I have scheduled for them right now in my head."
When pressed about this topic further, Sparano did not sugarcoat his feelings:
"I’ve already told you this – we didn’t play well. We stunk the other night. Can I be any clearer with that? We were not good the other night against Atlanta. I didn’t like any of it.
"I know what my football team needs to be ready to play. When I feel like we've gotten there, whether it's good, bad, ugly, whatever the case is in this situation - and I certainly hope it's going to be good - in my head I have a number of plays these guys still need to play...In my head there's some people I have a specific play count for, a specific number of series for, and for others I really have none. I want to see them play until I'm satisfied with how they play, one way or the other."
And if you ask Sparano about this one more time, he's going to get up and smack you right upside your head. Or, at least, that's the feeling I got when hearing Tony's tone when answering these questions.
I'll admit that I'm one of the man who agree with Sparano's thought process here. The starters didn't really do anything against Atlanta to make me feel comfortable heading into the regular season. So I'm all for the starters having to go out there against Dallas and play more than the typical series or two starters usually play in the preseason finale.
Of course, that begs one question: do the benefits of getting in this additional work in the preseason outweigh the risks of possible injuries to key members of this football team? That's what I'm curious to read all of your thoughts on.