Miami Dolphins Thread of Despair

How bad is Miami? They lose by their biggest point differential of the year to a woeful team that, aside from playing the Dolphins, is 1 -- 9. They made an inexperienced, backup quarterback look like a star. They couldn't amass 50 yards rushing against perhaps the worst run defense in the league. They left their own rookie quarterback -- who looked terrible -- to be savaged by a poor defensive line, via a pourous pass protection. They haven't scored an offensive touchdown in 11 quarters. Their totally biased hometown announcer said "When Miami has the ball, it looks confused and powerless." Their coach again mismanaged the clock.

Okay, that's enough. Yes, it's time to call a priest. It's sad. Miami is a proud franchise. What's worse, we're going to go 0 -- 16 the same year another team (and a former rival, when we were competitive) is about to go 16 -- 0 to best Miami's 1972 accomplishment.

I was at this game on Sunday.

I want my money back.

Seriously though, Cam is still mismanaging this team.

Beck playing the way he did, hell, what do you expect from a rookie in his third start? He unraveled after he made a bad read on the first pick.

But would CAm just take the training wheels off? Seriously, you're winless. What do you care if he throws a pick once in a while?

Beck also needs a TE to throw to. Martin sucks, Peele is sometimes alright.

Why the hell did we start a running back who could barely move when every paper seemed to predict he wouldn't play?

Ok. I am going to the local bar AGAIN to watch them. At this stage the charade is feeling tired but I'm still wearing my jersey out in public.

This morning I feel so bad about the season I'm watching old game footage just to remember what winning feels like!

Ha! Beck gets yanked and, in just two snaps, Cleo Lemon looks like a pro bowler.

, Cleo Lemon looks like a pro bowler.

Uh, no.

Well yeah, the next drive sort of returned the universe to normal.

@!%*@#

The Miami Dolphins confirmed they are the worst team in football this season -- and maybe ever -- by making Buffalo's popgun offense and banged-up defense look spectacular in dropping their 13th straight game.

(emphasis mine).

what if it's true?

this incarnation might be. if green and ronnie weren't hurt i think they'd probably have at least 1 win.

J0rdan, this can't be the first time the idea has crossed your mind.

We very well may be the worst team ever, maybe even including expansion teams. We are very, very -- very -- bad.

i honestly never considered that we might be the worst team ever. if and when we end up going 0-16 i guess it'll probably inarguable.

sucks that that loss to houston was on the longest field goal by any kicker this year.

dudes i really hope your team doesn't go winless. that would be horrible. not that one win years are much better but you at least get that one point of pride.

A win sounds nearly impossible to me at this point. Our final three: Ravens, Patriots, Bengals. Not great, but not my dream schedule for an 0 -- 13 team.

There ain't no way we are the worst team ever. Shit, the 1991 Colts averaged less than 10 points per game (about 8.8 if I'm not mistaken).

and the expansion Tampa Bay Bucs? I heard a story that they hired a defensive player off the street who had no time to learn the defense so they told him at gametime "rush the quarterback every play".

Yes...yes...expansion teams should have that leeway, so we are pathetic, and it does sadden me, but worst of all time? No way.

who knows, maybe we beat the Ravens?

I'm just...I dunno, today's loss didn't even make me mad. I'm numb, as a local radio broadcaster said.

i'd pin my hopes to the cincy team celebrating the end of the season a little early and maybe half the team dressed in bengals unis and the other half in prison greys.

yea seriously. I'll be at that game, too. ugh.

i have not an iota of fucken sympathy for u whimpering fagbabies (no offense bo u seem kewl) and the miami dolphins. the winningest franchise in nfl history, the franchise that can claim the greatest team (72 fins) and greatest QB (marino~~~~) of all time, the franchise whose losing seasons can be counted on ONE HAND? FUK U. FUK U FUK U FUK U FUK U FUK U FUK U FUK U FUK U FUK U FUK U FUK U FUK U FUK U FUK U FUK U FUK U FUK U FUK U, U DESERVE EVERY OUNCE OF MISERY AFFORDED 2 U

silver lining to bjo: going to these games makes the winning seem sweeter anyway. i remember paying money to see the tommy hodson and hugh millen and marc fucking wilson-led pats. and i didn't even get to sit in the sun of south florida, i froze my balls off on those goddamn aluminum bleachers of sullivan stadium on the west side so i was in the shadows after 12 pm.

you're only a decade or so away from prosperity again.

omg ilu ade

haha well I've always kept things in perspective and made sure to point out that we aren't a 'long-suffering' franchise as some of our whiner fans have always seemed to think we are...the way some Dolphin fans talked about the team back before 2004 you'd have thought we went 2-14 frequently rather than going from 1989-2003 with at least an 8-8 record every year

still though. Miami doesn't 'deserve' this--their success was well earned over several years. I wouldn't wish the misery of this Fins season on any football fan!

still though. Miami doesn't 'deserve' this--their success was well earned over several years.

uhm, yeah they do. look at their picks, their coaching choices.... they're getting what they deserve.

oh yea no doubt I love going to the games, I usually go once or twice a year (would buy season tix if I lived anywhere near Miami).

So far I've gone to 10 games in my lifetime and they've gone 5-5 in those.

that isn't what I mean. the poster above implied that Miami deserved their plight because they had years of unbridled success...not sure if they thought this was a way of evening things out, but I disagree with that completely.

i'm not saying that they deserve it bcz of past success (they deserve it bcz FUK U~) just that i am delighted in the extreme by their current predicament~

fwiw they're not as bad an actual football team as the niners are, this year. if the pats go undefeated it will be something a bit fluky and lucky (ie. they were outplayed by baltimore but got the W anyway; the 85 bears weren't so lucky when they were outplayed by the fins), and by the same token if the fins go winless it won't necessarily be because they're the worst team ever.

oh, well i think i disagree with you. i kind of agree that "deserve" isn't the right word but i'm too fucked up to argue semantics at this point. just like the celtics were kings of the court for nearly 30 years the past decade and a half really humbled some "fans". makes me appreciate the new big three though.

er, xpostage.

the lemon + chatman + hagan version of the fins might be one of the worst teams ever. certainly not the green + brown + chambers version.

Cankles: I'm not crying about Miami's situation. It is what it is. With good management, we'll be back in a few seasons. My frustration is based on my feeling that we don't have "good management" now, and wanting competent, sly leadership steering the franchise.

On a related subject, there's this. It sounds like a "tip of the iceberg" look at the problem.

On the other hand, I thought the problem with Cam/Cam was that he was too weak a leader. The article implies that he's unpopular with Dolphins players because he's too unwilling to defer to the wishes and suggestions of certain team leaders, which makes him sound tough, maybe kind of. Either way, get us Coach Parcells, pronto.

i forgot where i read this, but it was written that a lot of the players are down on the team and cameron in general because he keeps preaching to them about how to be a "winning team" but his record as a head coach (between college and nfl) is 18-49 i think.

i think he has next year to win 5+ games or he's gone, unless they can wrangle in cowher or holmgren after this season.

there's seems to be a pretty troubling air of disbelief and skepticism.

He looks lost. He makes bizzare play calls at one crucial point in every game. His units have gotten progressively worse through the year (although, admittedly, the team has had a terrible rash of injuries). His choice of John Beck isn't looking too inspired to me now.

Absent a miracle turnaround in the last three games, I think it's time for Miami to cut and run (especially if a great alternative is available).

King and Costas tonight were talking about how Heizinger has never fired one of his coaches. They just resign. Would he fire Cam at the end of an 0-16 season? I certainly would, but I don't run the Dolphins.

im still a pretty big believer in beck. i hasten to support his firing, but idk i can't really imagine "He was once the coach of an 0-16 team, but now Cam Cameron has the Dolphins poised for the playoffs after a grueling 20-17 victory over the New England Patriots put the Dolphins one-game up in the AFC East" being the lede to a story 2 or 3 years down the road.

but then i look at someone like romeo crennel. so who knows.

It's hard to decide who is the most awful: the GM, the coach, or the players.

It's really hard to judge Beck. For one, he has a depleted WR unit to throw to, terrible protection from the oline, no quality tight ends, and....wait for it....he's a GODDAMN ROOKIE!

Dan Fouts was terrible for about 5 seasons before he took off. Elway struggled a bit his first few seasons. Steve young was awful on a bad Bucaneers team.

There is still plenty you CAN evaluate, but giving up on him would be silly. I thought he made some solid throws in the Pittsburgh game but had no kicking or running game to help him out. He did play badly against the Jets but no worse than a typical rookie does in those type of situations.

I think j0rdan put it best. the Green/Brown version of the team was loads better than this one. Had neither or just one of the two players sustained an injury, I think we may have started to make some progress and won a few games.

But I have to wonder what's going on. They didn't look mentally prepared today at all. Sloppy play, mental idiocy and stupid penalties...

also I don't think a team's fanbase needs to be saddled with a near winless season to gain some perspective on things. I think the 4-12 debacle of 2004 and the 6-10 mediocrity of last year has done that.

Besides, a large portion of the Dolphins fanbase are fairweather anyway so it won't matter, they won't learn anything.

yeah no one should feel bad for miami's general fanbase, tbh.

I'm losing faith in Beck. Yes, he's a rookie and yes, he's surrounded by very subpar talent. But Buffalo has, according to the AP Wire story after the game, a "popgun offense," which is also being run by a rookie quarterback. And Buffalo's rookie QB looked a lot better than ours.

It's too early to make a full judgment. But the reason fans demanded Beck at midseason is to see how he would perform in the NFL; to see if we had the answer at quarterback. Fans and the team should, therefore, be judging Beck's performance, even if he's given leeway.

Trent Edwards had thrown one touchdown to five interceptions coming into the Miami game.

Miami made Kellen Clemens look good. Most of Trent Edwards big plays came when he had all day to throw, too. I mean, he isn't really THAT impressive. Anybody looks impressive against our defense.

But I saw him in that Cowboys game and he is not going to be their answer.

With Beck, I think it's hard because it's difficult to tell what are his actual failings and what might be the failings of the team that are impacting his play.

For one, he does tend to rifle the ball too hard at short distance, but when he's patient, he actually throws nice passes.

Yesterday, other than the Keystone Kops move he did that led to a touchdown, he wasn't given much of a chance. Granted there were some blitzes he may have been able to beat if he was quicker, but there was one sack where he was literally touched by defenders less than a second after the ball was snapped. What in the world could he have done then?

I mean, I just think back to Alex Smith's first season and how horrible he was. I knew he wasn't THAT bad a quarterback, and sure enough he improved leaps and bounds his second season--granted he's still not 'there' yet but in the NFL, it used to be that you gave your quarterback 3-4 years to develop. Not anymore. Because of free agency QBs aren't given the time needed to develop.

I have to wonder if QBs like Terry Bradshaw, Dan Fouts, and other late bloomers would have ever made it big in the current version of the NFL.

(Note I'm not saying Beck IS our answer, but I don't know that we have enough game evidence to suggest otherwise yet.)

it used to be that you gave your quarterback 3-4 years to develop

Beck isn't a very "young" rookie. If he takes 3 -- 4 years to develop, he'll be near 30, which is the age Tom Brady is at now. Maybe age and the need for developmental time should have factored into Cameron's draft decision as to which quarterback to select.

it used to be that you gave your quarterback 3-4 years to develop

i think teams still will if the qb shows them something. look at tim couch, they gave him ample time because he showed just enough to make them believe there was something there. on the other hand there's ryan leaf who could not make a correct decision even if he only had one option.

I'm just here to confirm that Buffalo has a popgun offense and that I seriously could not believe Edwards threw 4 TDs. I think he had only thrown 1 all season. sorry guys.

Buffalo always punches above their weight when they wear the throwbacks, but two hundred-yard rushers and 1 passing TD per 40 passing yards... yikes.

Buffalo always punches above their weight when they wear the throwbacks

I KNOW WHY DON'T THEY DO THIS EVERY WEEK!!!

(lol i make the dolphins thread about the bills)

those buffalo throwbacks are THE BEST! why don't they always wear them...sweet unis

lol and i luv u for it horses

Beck isn't a very "young" rookie. If he takes 3 -- 4 years to develop, he'll be near 30, which is the age Tom Brady is at now. Maybe age and the need for developmental time should have factored into Cameron's draft decision as to which quarterback to select.

yea but quarterbacks can play into their late 30s, look at Favre, Marino, Elway, Green, Testaverde....they don't have the same longevity issues other positions have (ie, running back)