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Painting the season
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It has to happen sometime. Fans of the Miami Dolphins will have to face the reality that this season is still a far cry from where both the fans and the coaches want it to be. The definition of success is a broad stroke that is opinionated on the holder of the brush.
Where one fan may say simply showing progress is a successful season compared to last year, another may say that it is not enough to simply improve, but finishing the season above .500 is. There lies the pallet.
Years ago, the Miami Dolphins finished the season 10-6. Dave Wannstedt, the head coach at the time made the comment that the team had a successful season. The Dolphins failed in their attempts to make the playoffs that season as tie breakers with other 10-6 teams left the Phins outside looking in. So his measure of a successful season is apparently different than say, mine.
This is not a team that is expected to be 10-6 or even at .500 when the final second ticks off the clock in week 17. A more likely outcome would be around the 6-10 mark. A successful season for a team that has new coaches, new management, and over 23 new faces lining up on Sunday's compared to last years unit. That is of course the brush that I hold.
The New England Patriots game showcased a new offensive style, you can read a detailed breakdown of that formation here. The win was great win for a team spent more than three quarters of the entire 2007 season wondering if they would win a game at all. The game defined the attitude of this team. Hard work, hard coaching, no BS. The players responded well after facing a complete meltdown at the hands of the Arizona Cardinals only a week before, as if any Phins fan needed reminding.
While the Dolphins and their fans will take that swell of emotion with them for the two weeks the team is on a bye, the reality will begin to creep in on Monday when the team begins focusing on another power house, the San Diego Chargers. The question will be revisited on a weekly basis. Is the team getting better or worse? A loss to SD will send many fans back into the panic mode should the fins lose ugly again.
This will be the canvas for the long season ahead. While we enter only week 4, the season is 1/4 of the way complete at the conclusion of Monday nights game. So while fans debate whether or not the Miami Dolphins are that good or whether the New England Patriots are that bad, one thing is for certain...the conversations around the water-cooler are a lot more colorful. Of course, that could be because the brushes being held in their hands are all painting a different picture of the same subject, and there is nothing wrong with that at all.
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