Dolphins’ inability to win is proving to be surreal

By Hugo Guzman  |   Monday, October 23, 2006  |  Comments( 21 )

Miami Dolphins
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We've all heard the famous sports phrase, "refuse to lose." Unfortunately, the Miami Dolphins have found all sorts of inventive ways to turn that ideal on its head.

Nick Saban's squad has repeatedly found imaginative ways to squander leads and sabotage comeback bids. And because of this inability to hold leads or pull out close contests, Miami finds itself the unwilling owner of the league's highest loss total, a fact that is all the more disheartening when you consider that all six of the Dolphins' defeats have been fairly close.

Consider this: the Dolphins have yet to lose a game by more than 10 points. In addition, they have been within a score of tying the game or taking the lead well into the fourth quarter in five of those six losses. This seemingly points to the idea that Miami is not lacking in talent, but is instead a squad that is incapable of making the kind of game-clinching plays that are necessary to win football games.

And that's what makes watching the Dolphins so surreal. For starters, here's a team that was anointed a Super Bowl contender in August, and is now legitimately in the running for the No. 1 pick in the 2007 NFL Draft. In addition, each loss seems to come in excruciatingly heartbreaking fashion.

Miami is not routinely getting blown out by three or four scores, like some of the other cellar-dwelling teams do from time to time. Instead, the 'Fins are painstakingly finding new ways to make key execution errors at the most inopportune times. Sunday's loss to the Green Bay Packers seemed to hammer this point home over and over again.

This week's new wrinkle came early in the fourth quarter, when a defensive lapse allowed Ahman Green to squirt through Miami's otherwise respectable run defense and finish off a 70-yard touchdown run that put the Packers up by 11 points. The coaching staff will likely dissect that play to make sure that such a gross defensive miscue does not happen again, but the bottom line is that this typically sound aspect of the defense failed to hold up its end of the bargain for 60 minutes.

But the run defense wasn't alone.

Tight end Randy McMichael led a group of receivers that, for the second week in a row, failed to catch the football with any kind of consistency. And the defensive secondary followed suit, also dropping very catchable balls or failing to break up passes at critical junctures. I could go on and on, because the list of specific deficiencies is long and complicated, but the conclusion that should be drawn is quite simple:

Somehow, someway, head coach Nick Saban finds himself at the helm of "that" football team. You know, the one other teams look to as a likely notch in the win column. And that's a position that fans, media, players and the current coaching staff simply isn't used to and simply did not foresee.

Notes:

- Two Dolphin rookies made their first significant contributions against Green Bay; both had up and down performances. WR Derek Hagan had a few key drops, but also found paydirt for the first time in his young career. S Jason Allen was unable to prevent a 34-yard hookup between Brett Favre and Donald Driver in the third quarter, but he also made a few nice stops and flashed a bit of the athleticism, ballhawking tendency and hitting prowess that is expected of the first-round selection.

Questions, comments, or you just want to vent about the plight of your Miami Dolphins? Hugo Guzman can be contacted at hguzman@realfootball365.com
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About Hugo Guzman

Trying to bring an objective approach to NFL analysis.
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