Where Has This Team Been?
Break out the champagne, the Miami Dolphins have won a football game. But they didn’t just win A football game, and they didn’t just eek out a victory either. The Dolphins traveled up to Foxboro, Massachussetts and dominated the New England Patriots 38-13 in a game that was never really close.
The Dolphins came out firing from the coin toss and took it to the Patriots from all angles and stopped the 21 game (regular season) winning streak of the Patriots. It is hard to single out one part of the team that did its job well, so I’ll just quickly break down all facets of the Dolphins’ game.
The offense looked like no Miami offense has in recent memory. Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams had all the room in the world to run and took advantage. Williams ran 16 times for 98yds, but it was Ronnie Brown who had a breakout day. Brown ran the ball 17 times for 113yds and 4TDs! He didn’t stop their though, tossing a 19yd TD pass in the 2nd half.
Chad Pennington was not spectacular, but certainly effective. Pennington was 17/20 for 226yds with 0TDs and 0INTs. Anthony Fasano continued to be his favorite target catching 3 passes for 66yds. Greg Camarillo had 4 for 60yds and Ted Ginn Jr had 5 for 49yds.
And then there is the defense and Joey “Big Mouth” Porter. Despite rediculously stupid comments late this week, Porter and the Dolphins managed to back them up absolutely stuffing the New England offense all day. Porter finished with 5 tackles, 1 assist, 3 sacks, and a forced fumble.
Today’s dominance over the Patriots leads one to ask, where has this team been all season? This Patriots team was able to beat a New York Jets team we could not. The Dolphins were absolutely embarassed by the Arizona Cardinals last week. Now they come out and overpower the Patriots on their home field, what is going on? One can only hope that the team has started to figure out what it can and cannot accomplish in a game. Sparano is likely also figuring out what plays his offense is capable of running. Whatever it was, the Dolphins need to very carefully watch tape of todays game all week, make notes, and continue for the rest of the season what they did today.
The Dolphins proved today that they can play well this season, I remain confident that 8-8 is not outside their capabilities. They could have beaten the Jets week 1, and nobody is perfect as the Arizona game proved. If the Dolphins can build on what they accomplished today, then a better record is possible this year.