The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

The choking Saints.

I was hanging out with a new person today and we were watching the game.  After the int, she left.  I told her the game was not over.  "It is for me," she replied.

I heard the comeback on the way home

No shame in that.  Now the Chiefs and Broncos are the only unbeaten teams left.  They face each other twice so one of them will have a blemish on their record. 

Yes there is a shame in that because it hurts the Dolphins hopes to make the playoffs

That might be the SECOND most amazing comeback for Boston sports that happened tonight. 

Chiefs are frauds and there's no way they would beat DEN twice (much less make it to the Super Bowl), so I'm not at all worried about them.
NE's loss to CIN means that unless CIN goes undefeated the rest of the way, if DEN gets to 14-0, they necessarily would have clinched homefield.  John Fox is not remotely stout enough to play his starters in two games that have no meaning for DEN; he will succumb to the same media pressure that made Jim Caldwell shut it down when the Colts were 14-0 and clinched homefield.  So they will also get beaten.

I've said this before: 2007 was a unique combination of a team that already had multiple rings and a coach that didn't give a crap what the media said.  If they couldn't do it, it can't be done.

^^^ It must be comforting to have such an infallible grasp of what the future holds. Were your psychic gifts passed down from your parents, or the result of a freak radioactive accident?

Whether the Chiefs are "frauds" or not, they're two games up on Miami in the wild card hunt. That should be the biggest concern about them. I would say Chiefs' fans have it easier knowing Miami plays NE twice and they already have a two game lead on the Phins. -EK

^^^^^^^ You do realize, that there are two wild card spots, right? There's 11 games left in the Dolphin's season. Plenty of time.

You're both talking as if the Dolphins are out of the divisional title race.  One game out with 11 games to go. Anything can happen at this point

^^^^

With the luck the Patriots keep getting, that's not happening.

After explaining in detail what I thought would happen if Denver was 14-0, did you really think that my post was referring to Miami's Wild Card prospects?

Give little EK a break, every post he puts up has to bash the Dolphins. Otherwise he has no point in being on this website.

Problem with this theory.... Denver's last two teams suck really bad.  John Fox could bench Peyton for the last two games and still win with this backup.   

@HOU and @OAK are the last two games (vs. SD is the one before that).

Given that Manning's 14-0 Colts lost to both the Jets and Bills in the same situation, I don't think DEN would win both of those games.  Competition in the NFL is hard enough when you are actually trying.

Let me give an honorable mention to the officiating in the Patriots Saints game.

It's hard to get too worked up about NE winning this week when their loss last week was an incredibly lucky fluke of an instant typhoon.

The Jets then won two playoff games, so they didn't suck. 

Also there is little reason to think Fox would take the Cadwell approach over the Belichick approach.  A large motivation for Cadwell not doing what BB did, was the Pats lost the SB.  Cadwell's approach was just as disastrous. 

Plus BB's approach is much more popular with the players.  Tom Brady wanted to play to win at the end of the season.  Peyton made comments that he was unhappy with sitting on the bench late in the season and wanted to play.   

@HOU and @OAK are much more legitimate threats than vs. NYJ and @BUF were.  OAK is a division rival and HOU is a good team suffering historically bad QB play right now.

John Fox is not Belichick and absolutely will not say "I don't care what the media thinks, I'll do what I think is best."  He is your cookie-cutter hyperconservative coach that will make the safe play.

There are very, very few coaches in the league that would make the 4th down call against the Colts that Belichick made in 2009.  That is my measuring stick of how intimidated by the media you are: will you make a decision that you know to be correct, even if it will get you crucified in the media if it doesn't work out?

Sean Payton is one of those coaches.
Rex Ryan used to be one of those coaches (not sure anymore).
Belichick practically re-invented it for the modern era.
Fox is far, far from it.  He is spineless like all the rest of them (and yes, this does include Philbin).

Caldwell's approach was the approach that most any coach without untouchable backing from ownership will take: I will make the decision that will earn me the least criticism if we fail.  And what story is told of 2009?  No, it's not the story about the coach that took his foot off the gas, nor is it the story of the coach that had a starter get injured in a meaningless game.  No, the story of 2009 is "Choker Peyton chokes again."

And if Fox takes his foot off the gas and DEN loses in the playoffs, that will be the story of 2013, as well.

Or for that matter the 4th down call he made yesterday.  But BB didn't get crucified in the media for playing his starters week 17.  He would have if Brady had gotten injured, but there wasn't universal opinion that it was the wrong call.  Dungy and a few others held that view, but not the majority.  And it would be hard to crucify him for it while at the same time complementing Cauglin for playing his starters in the same meaningless game (Giants had the 5 seed either way)

Plus even if Fox wants to rest Peyton, Peyton doesn't want to rest and I bet Elway will side with Peyton and let him play if they have a chance at 19-0.

However, all of this will be moot when Denver gets its first loss on 11/24.   

BB didn't get crucified because he was wearing three Super Bowl rings and could flatly say, "We don't want to just win the title; we've done that plenty of times.  We want to be the best team of all time."

Fox is wearing zero rings and any attempt by him to imply that just winning a title isn't enough would result in a public flaying.

BB never said that (at least in no interview I ever heard) what I did hear him say, was that he felt that you can't turn on and off a winning spirit.  And that the idea of resting/protecting some starters and not resting other starters goes against his concept of it being a TEAM sport. 

And while he does have an image of being arrogant because of his demeanor.  I have very rarely heard him say anything that is arrogant. Listen to the pregame presser before the 14-0 NEP took on the 1-13 Dolphins. 

Brady once said that he wanted to not only win games but beat win by such a large margins that future teams would be intimidated.  But not BB. 

BB didn't actually say that himself; as I recall, it was one of the players.  My point was that he could have said it without any concern for what the media might say.

Fox's job is potentially on the line in this year's playoffs.  If they have another one-and-done, he could be calling Marty Schottenheimer for advice.