I don't get it....

I noticed that *MIAMI* Heat supa-star D Wade was at the
Jacsonville-Pittsburgh game, rather than the MIAMI - Buffalo game.

What's up with that?

Way Cool

This weekend, we had the pleasure of being joined at our tailgate by former Bills Tight End Butch Rolle. A few years ago, he became friends with one of our "regulars" and this was the second time he's come out for a Bills game.

I gotta say: he's a heck of a nice guy, and it was fun to talk with him about this and that.

Our funny moment came after the game. Paul congraulated him on the Bills winning and he said "thanks, but I bet on the Phins to win."


Butch's stats from profootballreference.com

The blocked punt

The punt block was the first for Miami since 2004. And this one came about - at least in part - because Derrick Pope got injured a few plays before and was missing on the end of the line. The guy who blocked the punt blew past Justin Peele who was the sub.

The ruling on the field

Interestingly, JP Losman was sacked at one point, and appeared to fumble. The ball bounced around, and no one picked it up. The whistle blew, and the play "ended" with the ball still laying there. A Miami player casually picked it up and handed it to the ref.

Saban pulled out the red flag and threw it. The official came over, and advised Saban that the play was not reviewable, and then made an announcement to the crowd: the play was not reviewable because a defender had already stopped Losman, and he was ruled down, before the second defender came in and hit him to dislodge the ball.

And under that premise, the play would have still been reviewable under the new rules. The mitigating factor was that the ball remained on the ground untouched when the play was finally blown dead. Had Miami actually picked up the ball, the play would have been reviewable. But, the ref forgot to mention that.

Jason Allen

I watched him and he was only on kick coverage teams this week. He had no tackles and his uniform looked pretty clean.

Nice work for several million bucks.

Right Guard

This position needs one of those "now serving" machines associated with it. We started with Seth McKinney out there. He was placed in injured reserve with a neck injury. Joe Toledo got his shot, but wound up on IR with a knee injury. Joe Berger got a turn, but has a foot injury that still hasn't healed. Bennie Anderson started both of the first two games, but he tore his bicep and will be out for an indefinite period of time. Currently Kendall Jacox is playing the position.

We're 2 weeks into the season, and are on player #5 in that spot.

I heard my grandmother on the phone with the team yesterday, so it could be that they're going to ask her to make yet another comeback.

Coaching decision

This week, I give Nick some credit for making a good call. Specifically, I'm talking about the decision to have Mare try a 55 yard field goal. Miami was at the Bills 37, on the not-baseball end of the field. There wasn't much wind. A punt here would have been, well, stupid. And there were 13 yards to go for the first down.

A field goal attempt was the right call. In spite of the way people were complaining about it in the bathroom a few minutes later.

Quote of the week

"We'd like to think we're better than this. But we're not."
--Zach Thomas

Plays of the game

There are often one or two plays in a game that define the outcome of the game. In this game, there were two:

(1) Late in the second quarter, Miami was putting together a nice drive. Daunte drove them all the way down to the 14 with just over a minute left, and Buffalo leading 3-0. Its second down and 10, and Culpepper starts in the pocket, and rolls right. He sees McMichael in the endzone, and attempts a pass for him. The problem is that there were 3 defenders around McMichael, and at least 2 more nearby. He floats a pass in, and apparently never sees the db who picks it off at the 7 and ends the drive.

(2) Early in the 3rd quarter, Buffalo faced a 3rd and 12 from their own 46. Losman throws a deep pass toward Lee Evans. Will Allen has the coverage, but is clearly behind Evans. He's trying to catch up at full speed. The ball is overthrown, and it appeared to the Phin Ranter and I that Evans purposefully slowed down in order to cause a collision with Allen. And it happened: Allen never turned around, but upon seeing Evans slow down, put his hands up and hit Evans with his hands and tripped him. The flag flew and pass interference was called on Allen.

Buffalo had a 1st and goal at the 4, and scored on the next play.

Was the call right or wrong? It was probably wrong, because (a) the ball was overthrown and (b) the receiver appeared to draw the penalty. But, Allen still should have been smarter than that. He was outfoxed by Evans.

Golfing with fins fans

I got an email from a fellow fins fan this weekend. He's looking to golf and watch the fins. Please contact him at miamidolphinsgolfer@yahoo.com if you're interested!


hey my name is jack and just movd to so fla, life long dolfan, and trying to put together a group to golf and watch games afterward,

saw your cool site and thought u might be able to put word out

would be very appreciative

thanks

and go fins

Bills 16, the Dolphins...forgot to show up

Miami came in to this game with every possible advantage: it was the home
opener, it was expected to be exceptionally hot and the Bills would be
wearing their blue unis, Nick Saban against Dick Jauron, Mike Mularkey knows
his old team, 10 days to prepare, three rookie starters on the Bills
defense, JP Losman at QB for the Bills...

And yet none of it mattered. The phins came in totally "flat" and looked
inept, inapt, and everything in between. They showed me nothing on offense.
On defense, they played well enough to maybe have enabled a win, but it
wasn't a fabulous performance. Special teams were adequate, the main issue
being a blocked punt (which hasn't happened to the Phins since - geez, I
don't even remember!)

...as for the offense, Nate Clements shut down Chris Chambers. Randy
McMichael was a non-factor for reasons I can't begin to explain. Marty
Booker, was he even playing? Wes Welker caught 5 passes. Ronnie Brown was
his own on-eman hilight show being both the leading rusher and the leading
receiver. But, that may simply mean that there were so many breakdowns that
Brown was the only option.

And of course, Daunte Culpepper was the main source of the problem: he was
hurried often, had trouble reading coverages, had trouble getting the ball
in to receivers, and was sacked early and often.

I was underwhelmed by the performance, and I totally understand why fans
were booing. It was pathetic.

0-2 and last in the AFC East is bad, but deserved from what I've seen.

QBs on air

The official Dolphins station tried to get Daunte Culpepper to do a weekly
radio show. He declined, saying he wanted to devote his attention to
actually playing QB. The station then signed Dan Marino to do a show.

My question is - what is Daunte doing with his time? I have trouble
believing he's spending any extra time working on his QB skills.

Dan Wilkinson

Wilkinson was inactive this week. The reason? He missed almost the entire week of practice. Why? He was in court in Maryland defending his name. Seems there was a lawsuit against him because he had agreed to promote something, and it fell through. I don't know the details, but he lost, and has to pay $500k or so so.

But, heck, its better than the $30 million or so he was being sued for.

Wes Welker

A woman called Nick Saban's radio show and asked Nick is Wes Welker was single. She was persisent, but Nick said he didn't know.

Welker was asked if he heard the comment and said "No. I don't listen to coach Saban's radio show. I hear enough from him during the week."

And added "No, I'm definitely not available."

Say What?

I saw a sign for Rex Hadnot's charity - Hadnot's Head Knockers. Gotta love the name. And the fact that he's helping out former strippers like that.

Wanny update

Alas, Michigan State overpowered Pitt this weekend and won 38-23.

Said Dave "We didn't make any plays...We just didn't make a tackle. We just missed so many tackles I couldn't believe it. I know we can tackle better than that. Tackling in my mind is a sense of urgency. They have good players, but we made mistakes. We were not sharp today mentally as well as physically."

That leaves the team at 2-1. Which, of course, is better than the Dolphins record.