My attitude right now is pure disgust and I would really like nothing more than to recap the Colts vs. Dolphins Monday Night game as simply “Whatever”. End of article. What more do you want me to say? The Dolphins executed their game plan to near perfection yet were embarrassed by the poor man’s Dan Marino, an unfair way I like to refer to Peyton Manning. Bottom line: The Dolphins did NOT make plays and they had numerous opportunities to do so and the Colts did with minimal opportunities hence the 27-23 loss.
In a record setting twelve seconds into their home opener on Monday Night Football the Miami Dolphins made not one but two critical errors and found themselves down to Peyton Manning the Indianapolis Colts 7-0. Kanye West doesn’t stun and silence crowds that fast. On the play, LB Akin Ayodele committed a cardinal sin against Manning and bit on a play action pass freeing up TE Dallas Clark up the seam where S Gibril Wilson contributed with the unforgiveable missed tackle at the Dolphins 40 that resulted in the 80-yard touchdown. Dolphins fans would have been better off flipping the channel to “Project Runway” at that point to avoid the most sickening loss Dolphin fans have had to endure since, ironically a Monday Night Football game back in 2000 versus the Jets. I know! I hate to bring it up but it’s the same exact disgusting feeling! Against the Jets, Miami blew a 30-7 4th quarter lead by allowing them to score 30 points in the final 13:07 to ultimately lose 40-37. Last night hurt. It is a very demoralizing loss for a team heading into a west coast trip, on a short week against a certain playoff team in the San Diego Chargers. Miami will have to go 10-4 the rest of the way just to be in the Wild Card hunt against the toughest schedule in the NFL. Another season that may be 7 days from being lost.
Lets just hope the men inside the locker room don’t share my “end of the world” overreaction and deem the season as pointless as a Courtney Love public service announcement. Thank god they won’t, they better not. After the smoke clears and the film sessions take place there are many positives to take away from this game. After all, it’s only one loss despite the fact that losing in this fashion is so demoralizing that it would be easier to go in the tank and essentially quit than it would to get back up, dust yourself off and stick it to each and every opponent for the remainder of the season. Luckily, Bill Parcells and Tony Sparano won’t tolerate anything less than 100% effort and let’s not lose sight of the fact that Miami absolutely dominated the Colts, which has to stand for something even in defeat.
Listen to these gaudy numbers Miami has to recognize as the recipe for success even though in this rare instance it wasn’t. Miami was 15-21 on 3rd down conversions, which is spectacular. Miami dominated Time of Possession 45:07 to 13:53, a record since they kept records on such things beginning in 1977. The Dolphins gashed the Colts defense by running the ball 61 times for 239 yards including numerous successful run out of the Wildcat formation. All many positives that mean something and if they get these numbers then 10-4 the rest of the way isn’t only possible but very likely, of course, getting those numbers again is the challenge.
The bad news is the Colts had scoring drives that lasted a whopping 12, 32 and 43 seconds. Manning had 13 completions for 303 yards while connecting on plays of 80, 48, 39, 24 and 20 yards while Miami’s biggest play was a 21 yarder to Ted Ginn. The Dolphins 2 minute drill was about as hard to watch as a Cher concert. So horribly frightening that you just couldn’t turn away. On the flip side of the ball there has to be some serious concerns about the Fins pass defense and it cannot be blamed on the rookies as Sean Smith played very well even though he had safety help to protect him. And yet the most disturbing thing that can be taken away from the game is despite Ted Ginn seemingly having one of his best days as a pro all I can take from it is he is not nor will ever be more than a marginal wide receiver and he made this evident, if I’m being kind, on three plays in particular. The play near the end of the first half where he short armed Chad Pennington strike in the back of the end zone like if he touched it he would be electrocuted, the 3rd down pass that he went down to his knees for that went right through his arms and of course the play at the end of the game that he flat out dropped. He’s just not special and I just can’t justify defending him any longer. I’m sorry, I’ve held out for as long as possible on passing judgment on his game but after failing when we needed him most there’s nothing more I can say on his behalf. Although his Head Coach feels differently than I do according to this puff of smoke he blew up Ginn’s but via coach speak, “That was a hard catch,” coach Sparano said. “I think Teddy … made the best effort he could with that football.” Either that puff was an exhale from a Bob Marley blunt or he was just flat out being blunt and quite literally saying that that really was the best effort Ginn is capable of. You can hardly blame Ginn for losing the game but unfortunately we can’t say he won the game either.
There’s always next week.
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