The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

Watching the sports news, you wouldn't know that we were in the hunt.

Granted, our wins haven't been all that impressive, but we're right there.  But all these shows want to talk about are the Colts and Pats.

It's fine with me.  It's better for people to not know about you, I guess.

  At one point and time I would've been bothered by the lack of press and praise, but now I kind of enjoy seeing the Dolphins as an underdog.  ESPN, FOXSports, and all of those other entities will only focus on the sexy teams with sexy names.  That's what get ratings for them, and more power to them.  If the team can keep winning under the radar, that's fine with me. 

They have my respect.

It's a little early for that isn't it?  Yeah we're 6-4 and we're improved and that's good for us as a team and all but we haven't won anything yet.  The team we're playing has. 

You don't get respect.  You earn it when you win some titles.

Hard to get respect when you lose to the Texans every time you play them.  It all starts with winning the ones you should.  It's awesome that we're in the hunt but in 25+ years of Fins football, I've seen this scenario before.  Media people are generally shitty anyway which explains why Kornheiser is on MNF.  They talk about the elite and stir up shit about the rest. 

You also earn it when you beat tough teams.

The Dolphins have lost to the Jets, the Ravens, and the Pats - all 3 tough teams this year. They also got trounced by Arizona who is leading their crappy division in week 2. 4 of 5 losses to potential playoff teams, 5 of 6 wins against total jobber teams, and some of those wins they squeaked by.

Wins:

San Diego (horrible)
Seattle (horrible)
Oakland (horrible)
Denver (mediocre)
Buffalo (mediocre)
New England (playoff contending)

Losses:

New England (playoff contending)
Arizona (division winner)
NY Jets (division leader)
Baltimore (playoff contending)
Houston (horrible)

...and in their wins, only New England and Denver were solid wins. They kept Buffalo hanging around for far too long, and Oakland, Seattle, and San Diego all had chances to win very late in the game, which all came down to the wire.

...in their losses, New England, Arizona, and Baltimore were solid defeats. The Jets and Houston came down to last-second plays.

This is why the Dolphins get no respect - they barely win against crap teams and lose to the good teams by nearly 2 TDs or more. If the Dolphins want respect, they need to start defeating bad teams definitively and hang in there until the end (and beat) good teams.

We're a mediocre team and we actually play fairly consistently. Arizona was a lot better than people thought when we got our asses handed to us and the Patriots were in a transition with Cassel and caught off-guard by the Wild Cat.

The only game that really sticks out is the one against Houston. Otherwise we've performed as one would expect, given how good the teams are this year.

Well put. 

Then why aren't they getting any respect?
You gotta beat tough teams in tough games. Carolina is now getting LOADS of respect (people are already crowning them NFC Champs after last night's performance). They got that because they whooped the crap out of Tampa Bay at home. The dolphins eeked out a victory against the Raiders and Seahawks at home, and got whooped by New England and Baltimore at home.

Beat tough teams = Get respect.
Barely eek out victories against the bottom of the NFL = No respect.

Even if the Dolphins win the division and make it, they will host either Indianapolis or Baltimore.

They're not a good team?

Seriously, I've seen nothing to convince me that the Phins are anything but an average team this year. Maybe slightly above average, but certainly nothing special. The Wild Cat was sweet  because it was different and gave us a chance to get the ball into the hands of our playmakers. It's also given opponents a lot to study before playing us, leaving less time for other things.

Don't get me wrong "slightly above average" is GREAT. Much better than I thought we'd be this year.

I agree that the Phins aren't a very good team.

However, neither are these other teams.  The media can't get enough Jets or Pats, but they're playing mediocre ball, too, with the same record.

It's not that I think we deserve a bunch of respect.  ...but we deserve as much as these other jobber teams.

And they're playing against much tougher teams than the Dolphins are. 

They're playing more or less the same crap teams we are, save for a few games.  The Seahawks and Niners aren't exactly world beaters.

BULLSHIT

The Jets and the Pats have exactly 2 opponents who are different than those the Dolphins have - unless you count the Dolphins among those "tougher teams".

One of those 2 tougher teams for the Patriots was the Steelers. The Patriots got blown out.

There is a difference between respect and disrespect which seems to be your specialty.  We kicked the shit out of the Pats at New England but there is no mention of that in your post.  The Dolphins are an average team that is winning the close games this year.  We don't get respect because we haven't earned it (made the playoffs) and the specter of a 1-15 season still looms.  Unless you're a top-tier team, that's usually the way it is. 

The Giants are a top-tier team that got ass pounded by the Browns in Cleveland and had to take the Bengals to overtime in New Jersey.  Many times making the playoffs is simply winning the close games (Cinci) and avoiding colossal fuckups (Cleveland).         

We haven't earned any respect yet. Lets not kid ourselves. We have the simplest schedule in the leauge. We have made great strides but still have a looooong way to go..........