Is it the team that made numerous mistakes and commited several penalties and let an opportunity get away from them against the Jets, the same team that showed up the next week against the Arizona Cardinals and got dismantled.  Or is it the team that showed up last week against New England, controlling the ball on both sides of the line of scrimage and looked crisp, sharp and played under control with a minimum of penalties.

Our Dolphins are probably somewhere in the middle, young and with enough talent to give teams a battle everytime they step on the field, but not quite enough pieces to get into the playoffs this year.  A team that will play hard and now with a convincing win under there belts against the New England Patriots, are starting to believe in Coach Tony Sparano and the coaching staff and what they are trying to instill in this team.  A team that appears at this moment to have a very bright future.

We will learn a lot about this team next weekend when the San Diego Chargers come into town for a key game for the Phins and Chargers as well.  Considered to be perhaps the most talented team in the NFL, the Chargers will present a HUGE challange to this football team next weekend, and I am very much looking forward to seeing how Miami steps up to the challange.

What team will show up?  The team that let a game get away against the Jets and was beaten badly by Arizona.  Or will it be the team that destroyed the New England Patriots last Sunday 38-13.  If it's the later, then Miami has an excellent chance of winning the football game.

Next Sunday can't get here quick enough.

How complete was Miami's win last Sunday vs the Patriots on their opponent's home turf? Amazingly, many accolades followed the win. On the offensive side of the ball, RB Ronnie Brown was voted the NFL's Offensive Player of the week for his 5 touchdown performance. Not only that but he rushed for 113 yards and executed the "Wild Cat" scheme to perfection. The last time a Dolphin was named offensive player of the week was back in December of 2002 when Ricky got it for a 216 yard, 2 td performance against the cursed Bills ... in a loss. To fully understand what Ronnie did on Sunday you would have to go all the way back to 1923 to find someone who matched what he did.

Defensively, OLB Joey Porter won Defensive Player of the Week honors for a 3 sack, 6 tackle, and 1 forced fumble performance. Porter now has 4 sacks for the year and is tied for second behind Atlanta's John Abraham. Why the resurgence when everyone kept saying that Porter was on the way out? He points to the fact that he has coaches that know how to use his talents. Last year Dom Capers moved him from his traditional weak side linebacker spot to strong side linebacker. His performance sank and it was not due to a lack of effort. This year the Dolphins moved him back to the weak side and he's caught fire.With Matt Roth making a smooth transition to outside linebacker in Miami's 3-4 defense, give a lot of credit to the recently hospitalized outside linebacker coach Jim Reid. Does anyone not doubt that this team was mismanaged last year?

On the coaching side, Coach Sparano was voted Coach of the Week for orchestrating the 38-13 pummelling the Dolphins gave the Patsies. I guess ole Belichick did not have a video clip of our new offense, eh? The Patriots were so inept that they only gained 216 total net offensive yards in the game. Of course, you wouldn't see that with Brady in the game, but let's not forget that the Dolphins have been a thorn in the Patriots side no matter what our record seems to be.

Well, it's not totally a complete domination as New England's special teams outplayed Miami's, but that was something that Sparano addressed this week at practice. The Dolphins responded so well that Sparano gave them a 3 day weekend with their families to chill out. 

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