Is change always good? Of course not. Last year Cameron was trying to turn the Dolphins into a smaller yet faster team. Randy Mueller helped him to get those players. After 4 games we were 0-4 and the laughing stock of the NFL. Every team looked forward to playing us. Change was not good. In fact change has not been good since The Don retired --- until now.
This year Bill Parcells was brought in to change the team into his image. His formula speaks for itself as he has won with the NY Giants, the New England Patriots, the NY Jets, and the Dallas Cowboys. The Dolphins find themselves at 2-2 going into face the Houston Texans ... a team which we have failed to beat in 3 tries. The Dolphins will not be taking them lightly. Change has been good.
Danny Kannell reported yesterday on the NFL Network that the Dolphins are very upbeat in the locker room and it's because of the recent winning. The team is excited about their next opponent and are practicing with enthusiasm. That is a far cry from what was going on last year at this time.
What is a team built in Parcells' image? The first thing you can say that it is a big team. After gutting half of the roster the Dolphins find themselves as the 3rd biggest team in the NFL. Now, that is an astounding change. Being big is required as Parcells likes the 3-4 defense. That requires large and fast linebacker and even larger defensive linemen. The Dolphins have put the sack back into the pass rush. Big and fast is also the requirement of a Parcells tight end and Anthony Fasasno has put the excitement back into the tight end position. Most importantly, a big offensive line make the offense work.Do you think Romo would be as successful as he is without that huge offensive line that Parcells implemented?
Another quality of a Bill Parcells team is efficiency. The Dolphins are not killing drives with careless penalties which has been the character of every Dolphins team that we've seen since Dave Wannstedt started as head coach. Miami has had inefficient quarterback play since Dan the Man retired, but with Pennington as our starting quarterback we do not give the ball to the opposing team. Parcells teams have efficient receivers. Miami does not have a receiver that can create much separation, but they do have receivers that can catch the ball in a crowd. In fact, when Anthony Fasano dropped a pass last week it was the first official dropped pass of the season for the Dolphins. These Dolphins do not beat themselves.
A Parcells team has full participation in the locker room and on the practice field. Because of their conditioning program, the Dolphins are the only team to not have a player listed on their injury report this year. Maybe it is conditioning ... maybe it is outright fear of getting let go;)
A Parcells team has good special teams. Well, we have not seen that yet even after Parcells pursued good special teams players. Give this area more time. I do not think anyone would have expected the Dolphins to be 2-2 at this point of development, or for Ronnie Brown to be fully healthy.
So, with the world spinning out of control in a financial crisis, let's give our Dolphins a big thumb's up as they've put the smile back on our faces. There is hope this Sunday and that Wildcat offense is pretty exciting to watch.
Distribution Map
I had to shrink the map down to get it to fit here in the blog, so, my apologies on how blurry it looks. Still, you can see that the Fins/Texans game will only be nationally televised in the yellow area of the map.
Warren Sapp?
I like Warren Sapp. He runs his mouth and most of the time you are laughing with him. Right now I am pretty much laughing at him.
Warren Sapp:
"This is disrespectful to all defenses. It's disrespectful. You're taking the best player in the game, the quarterback, and you're putting him out wide, outside the numbers, and you put the running back in the back.How the hell you going to throw the ball? I'm not even thinking about throw right now. I'm going to get everybody in the gap. It's just power 'O.' You have the running back with the ball already in his hand."
I find the offense disrespectful only if defenses cannot figure it out. Are they not smart enough to stop this wildcat offense? The Dolphins will use this as part of their offense until it no longer works. The reason it works so well is because Ronnie Brown is running it with the brain of a quarterback. He knows when to change it up during a play and he is a very elusive power back. Not only that but he has the ability to throw the ball down the field 30 yards as he did to Fasano against the Patriots. Last week we almost saw Ricky heave the ball downfield only to find noone open. Give the Dolphins a lot of credit as it's provided a big spark in this offense.
Change is Good ... Finally!
