There was a play in the Pro Bowl where Alex Smith hit Jarvis Landry on a long bomb.   Wasn’t the play of the game, and it wasn’t overly dramatic in the annals of NFL history.   But yet it showed me something. Landry lined up outside, and when the ball was snapped, he sprinted straight ahead.  He blew past his defender and caught the ball for a gain of 50 yards.  he did not run five yardds across the middle.   He did not stay in place and wait for a screen pass.  He ran the most simple route in the NFL. In the past two years,Read More →

It looks like Matt Patricia will become Detroit’s head coach next year.  So even though he will finally be out of the AFC East, we still have to face him. Lucky for us, we get to play the strong NFC North next season.  Which means tough games in Green Bay and Minneapolis, and home games with Detroit and Chicago.  We have a chance against Chicago, but that’s about it. More good news:  We also have to face Jon Gruden.  It just keeps getting better and better for the Dolphins, doesn’t it?   Every team goes out and makes themselves stronger by acquiring championship coaches, while theRead More →

Another day, another team who helps the Patriots. Doug Marrone is the latest dolt of a coach to think that 14 whole points was good enough.  He thought 14 points was high enough, so it was safe to play prevent defense and three-and-out offense.  He thought the refs would call at least one, just one, penalty on New England’s offense or defense.  He thought wrong. I’m embarrassed that I praised Marrone’s intelligence yesterday.  Embarrassed that this guy was coached by Don Shula and then went out and made sooooo many mistakes. Remember right before halftime?   The Jags had an opportunity to run the clock downRead More →

Once again, the entire world outside of Boston will be rooting against the Patriots.  Does Jacksonville have what it takes?  I think not.  However, what the players lack in skill set, their coaching makes up for with grit and smarts and experience.  Former Dolphin Doug Marrone leads the Jaguars, and I guarantee you that he’s smart enough to study how easily the Dolphins beat New England last month, rather than studying what Pittsburgh and Tennessee, among others, did wrong.  You beat a bully by punching them in the face, not by trying to be cute. In the NFC, it’s a battle of a couple ofRead More →

For many years, the Dolphins secondary was the weak link on the team.  But they started to reverse that once they finally listened to me and got rid of Jamar Taylor.   Since then, we’ve seen a few rookies and second-year men show some promise.  We’ve seen Bobby McCain slowly but surely win me over. We’ve seen a project like Tony Lippett turn into a success.   We’ve seen a trade for Byron Maxwell work out (although the Dolphins eventually gave up on him while receiving nothing in return). The bottom line:  our secondary is now the strongest group on the defense. I believe the DB coachRead More →

Now that the Panthers scapegoated Mike Shula because Cam Newton wasn’t smart enough to get rid of the ball, Shula is now available.  (with their season on the line and only 20 yards away from a win, Newton threw a bad incompletion, then threw an intentional grounding, then underthrew a receiver, and finally took a sack.  on 4th down, with the season on the line, he took a sack instead of at least TRYING to heave it downfield). I, for one, think it would be wise to bring Shula in.  He has the experience and the pedigree, and I think it would be an incredibleRead More →

The pundits will incorrectly call it a defensive battle, but we all know it was a team with No Offense vs. a team with Zero Offense.  You get the idea, and the score reflects it. If you missed it, here was the final score: Number of Bills-Jags Combined Points: 13 Number of times the announcers mentioned LeSean McCoy’s sore ankle: 17. The ankle talk won 17-13. The ankle-talk over-under was 15, so I hope you guys bet on the over. The Dolphins are probably worse than either of those teams, but not by much.  At least we have some playmakers. They don’t show up mostRead More →

The Dolphins have a new offensive coordinator, and once again, it’s a pal of Coach Adam Gase. Some guy named Dowell Loggains, who most recently led the mighty Chicago Bears offense to a last-place finish, was given the Dolphins job today.  The good news is that the offensive coordinator in Miami is just a figurehead.   The bad news is that the offensive coordinator in Miami is just a figurehead.  Meaning, Adam Gase will continue to call the passes.  I mean call the plays. Much like Gase gave charity jobs to his chums Julius Thomas and Jay Cutler, along with Matt Burke and Vance Joseph, he continuedRead More →

There’s already been a lot of speculation and “inside information” (which is really just a reporter making a guess while pretending to have a friend on the inside) about which players the Dolphins will keep and who will walk, etc. And before we start, just remember what I always point out: Nobody is ever cut because of salary reasons. They are let go because, in someone’s eyes, they aren’t good anymore. If you are a zillion dollars OVER the cap, there are still creative ways to afford new free agents, and this happens all the time. So when the team says “It was a businessRead More →

On the heels of the Dolphins losing their last 3 games in a row in ugly fashion in a failed season, Stephen Ross came out with a vote of confidence for the architects of that failure, Adam Gase and Mike Tannenbaum. Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not adamantly opposed to letting them keep their jobs.  I’m not overly upset that they are staying.  What I AM upset about, however, is Ross’s stubborn vote of confidence.  I don’t mind that Ross keeps them, but he SHOULD say, “I’m going to take a few weeks and think long and hard about this.  I do not accept failure, and IRead More →