QB A very bad game for Fiedler. He was only 11 of 25, he was very lucky he didn't have any INTs and take away his (very nice) 32 yard TD and he didn't even get to 100 yards on the day. How worse can you play ? D
RB Ricky Williams reminded me of Marino in his prime. You can not play any better than he did this week and they still lost. He ran 31 times for 185 yards (3rd best this season and 4th best in Dolphins history...). He scored 2 TDs and had a 30 yard run. Perfect game. How the Dolphins lost with his performance is beyond me. A+
WR What WRs. Chambers didn't catch a pass, neither did Carter. McKnight's TD was the only play made by the WRs all day. D-
OL They played OK. Fielder usually had enough time to throw. As for Ricky - it's settled - the RB makes the line, not the other way around. B
LB Despite starting 16 games each of them this season OLB Morlon Greenwood and Derrick Rogers could make for a good answer for a question like "Who's names were never called for a big play during the entire season ?" D
DL They just couldn't get to Brady in the second half, and Brady has no Marino/Manning-type quick release. And the big run that set up the winning FG was just awful. As for the collapse in the last 5 minutes, there is enough blame to go round, no need to fight over it. D-
Secondary What can you say, There was no penalty on Fletcher. There is a better chance of the Dolphins openning the 2003 season with a road game on the moon and Elvis being alive. If not for that god awful call on Fletcher the Dolphins would have won the game. No doubt about it. They made an OK job. As for the last 5 minutes, see the DL.C
Special teams Sure, there were a lot of reasons for the Dolphins' loss, but let me make it as simple as possible. The special teams lost the game/ended the season for Miami. It's one thing to have a 23 yard punt (no misprint here t-w-e-n-t-y t-h-r-e-e, one of those rare occasions in sports you can honestly say "I could have done it better" with a capital I) but it's a total different thing kicking the opening kickoff in overtime (!) out of bounds (not to mention missing a FG in this kind of game). And I'll explain.
The Dolphins signed P Mark Royals thinking he was very cheap and didn't cost them much against the cap, thinking they rather spend the money on different positions. That's fair (although it eventually didn't work). BUT, the Dolphins pay K Oindo Mare 2 million (t-w-o- m-i-l-l-i-o-n d-o-l-l-a-r-s) per year (he signed a 6 year 12M dollar deal). He is the highest paid kicker in league history. He gets more than most of the Dolphin non-pro-bowl players (and more than 2 time pro bowl S Brock Marion), Some QBs in the league don't get that much. His only assignment in OT, kick the ball deep, get a touchback. He did it a million times all year, and he kicked it out of bounds giving the Pats the ball on their own 40 (about 20 yards out of Vinatieri's range...).
Really, a Kicker's job is not that big of a deal, he only plays about a minute a game (125 thousand dollars a minute). At least other teams had kickers that manage to keep the ball in the field of play and get 1.6 million back in order to spend on real players. F!!!
Coaching Awful. This team is a huge underachiever. Talent wise this is a pretty good team. This 9-7 team is much better than last year's 11-5 team. They have half (!) their defense in the pro bowl, the NFL's leading rusher and pass rusher. A great secondary headed by Surtain, Marion and Madison and they collapsed. The play calling was awful. This is no 9-7 team and they are certainly better than the Patriots. They finished the season 2-6 on the road and 7-1 at home. Their road wins against winning teams like Denver and Indy, while losing to Buffalo and Minnesota. This was not a good coaching job and like I said before there is enough blame to go around, there is no need to fight over blame and they get their respectful share of the blame. F!
