What the hey? A 3 game winning streak and one game over .500. Who da thunk it, eh?  And what is with all this playoff talk in year 1 of a rebuilding program after a 1-15 season? All we can say is that it is Parcells magic. If I may be bold, I think he is a bit surprised himself. The Dolphins have been riding 5 wins in their last 7 games and that speaks of a 5-2 record in that span. Truely amazing and I am going to savor every minute of it, because the wheels could fall off at any moment as this is a young team that Coach Sparano has been cracking the whip at.

I will remember Jimmy Johnson for many things. One is his ability to draft good defensive players. Another one is his inability to deal with players larger than himself ... and that would be Dan the Man. A final thing is that his teams were not built for playoff success. The wheels fell off the 2nd half of the season when teams were making that playoff push. Chances are we will see the same thing this year from our Dolphins, but then again this may not happen.

Parcells has put together a LARGE team and he was very fortunate to have QB Chad Pennington come available. Also, with each game our offensive line develops a chemistry that is needed for success. So, we should see this offensive line start to take shape. Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams are still fresh and physically fit. They have plenty of gas left in the tank for 2008. I honestly believe that the Dolphins will start to migrate from the passing attack that we have seen the first half of the season to a power running game which Sparano desires. This team does not give up but plays hard for 60 minutes. They also do not make many mental errors and are very efficient. Add to that that we have key players playing for contracts for '09 and you have a hungry team. I can get excited about that.

Ty Law Spurns The Fins Again

CB Ty Law saw that his chances of latching on to a team like the Cowboys was not going to happen, so, he started to look at 2nd tier teams. He even threw a bone at the Dolphins saying that he would be interested in playing for us. When you are 5-2 in your last 7 games things start to look better. Not only that but he knows our defense as it is similar to the one he played in at New England.

It would make perfect sense to Law for him to spurn the Fins and sign with the Jets ... which he did. And he did not do such a bad job this Thursday night  even though he did give up potential game winning touchdown on a perfect pass from Cassell to Moss in the end zone. The Jets ended up winning the game in overtime. (Mental note: fix the fist hole in the living room wall.)

I will be honest about Law. He would have been good to have, but let's also keep in mind that CB Andre Goodman is starting to look like the player he was in 2006 before his injury. He's making great plays. Will Allen is playing at a pro bowl level, and Jason Allen is improving each game. To top all of that off, was there really any interest from the Dolphins? The only thing we heard was that Law was interested in playing for the Dolphins. He may have done this to generate more interest in himself. 

The only thing I can say it that the best way to stick it to Ty Law is for us to go out in the last game of the season and put a whipping on those Jets. Who is with me on that?

Where Will Yeremiah Bell Be In '09?

He becomes an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season and his agent is Drew Rosenhaus, so, I am not sure if we will get a contract put together for him before he hits free agency. He a very talented safety and is a hard hitter, but for some reason he does not put himself into position to intercept balls. He is in excellent position to break up passes and that is a big part of the job, but he also has been very injury prone. After a year in the system it would be a real shame to lose him, but I am also thinking that maybe we should take our chances in the draft or free agency and not overpay for someone who may end up on IR next year. With Rosenhaus saying this week that negotiations aren't even close with Bell, this is something to think about and consider.

Web Weekend Award

I'd like to thank the other Dolphins webmasters and the Miami Dolphins for the Best Homepage Design Award. Brad and Anthony worked very hard to put together a very nice look here, and I appreciate it. When Anthony had a rough draft of the city of Miami at night I really liked it and we went in that direction. We like a new look here every year and using Joomla has been a nice change for us. Below is a picture at halftime when the Miami Dolphins organization honored our late Tom "T-Rock" Eddie. I still find it hard to believe that he is no longer with us.

We Love Ricky Williams

Yep, you heard me say it. After getting his first 100 yard game in many moons, Ricky said that he would rather win. He said that 100 yard games he can achieve, but he has not seen many wins over his career. I really believe he means it, too. Why did he get more carries last week? It is because the three amigos, Sparnao-Parcells-Ireland, all noticed a swagger and "pep in his step" that they hadn't seen all season and they decided to take advantage of it. With each win we will see a happier Ricky Williams. I would like to credit our offensive line, because I saw holes that were fitting of a back of Ricky talent to run through last week. I have been saying all season that Ricky is a between the tackles kind of a runner and those backs needs a crack of daylight. Both he and Ronnie never go down with the first hit. 

My Thoughts On Ricky and Ronnie

I would like to see more passes to these two backs. They have very good hands and are hard to bring down. Now, I am not saying that we should overdo it here, but giving them a few opportunities each game could break open games for us. Also, use the first quarter to see who is more effective. Ronnie needs a little more time to scope out a hole, but Ricky runs where the hole is supposed to be. If the blocking is ineffective then we may want to go more with Ricky in the running game. And let's use the Wild Cat more in the second half of games. It seems that we are open to using it in the first half of games but we go totally away from it in the second half of games. Even if it is not working we should use it a few times in the 2nd half to keep defenses guessing.

Pennington For President

How important is Chad Pennington to this team? The Dolphins rank 7th in the NFL in passing offense. 'Nuff said!

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