WOW!!!
NO New England, NO Dallas, NO San Diego, NO Minnesota, NO Pittsburgh...but there is one NO left...New Orleans is still there...and they are in a prime positions to win this Sunday's game versus the Colts.
This will not be a cake though, the Saints will be facing yet again another hall of fame quarterback. I cannot think of a postseason where I team has had to potentially beat 3-1st-Ballot-Hall of Fame Quarterbacks. Kurt Warner is the only questionable quarterback and the question is more "when" than "if". But that is a discussion for another time. Between Warner, Brett Farve, and Peyton Manning it is hard to get a better trio of quarterbacks and resumes in the business of quarterbacking. Relatively speaking the first two were easy compared to Manning. Farve and Warner are [...]
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January 21, 2010 by
Paul Preibisius |
49ers,
atlanta,
Bears,
Broncos,
carolina,
chicago,
Denver,
Dolphins,
falcons,
Football,
Giants,
houston,
Jacksonville,
Jaguars,
Miami,
New York,
NFL,
Panthers,
pittsburgh,
Playoffs,
san francisco,
Steelers,
tennessee,
Texans,
Titans
With several teams falling just short of the playoffs this year, it begs the question, what of these teams can find a way to secure the two or three extra wins necessary to take themselves into the playoffs. This mid-range covers all 7-9 and 8-8 teams, as well as the 9-7’s that fell short of a wildcard berth.
Chicago Bears
The Bear narrowly avoided entrance to the first list by way of back to back wins to close out the year. A preseason darling for a deep postseason run, Chicago lands itself as one of the biggest disappointments of the year.
Why They Can: Defensive emotional leader Brian Urlacher was gone for the year. With him back the team will have more fire and swagger. Jay Cutler may be turnover prone, but he can air the [...]
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Once again, Miami controlled the line of scrimmage- gaining 149 yards at 4.8 a carry, and limited San Diego to 69 yards on 2.5 a carry- and it meant absolutely nothing. People will try to pin this loss on the loss of Chad Pennington, but that had virtually nothing to do with it as we were on the same path regardless of who was the QB- Henne's pick 6 just made the difference that much worse. Some might also point to our defense giving up a few long completions, but we held them to only 1 TD and a handful of field goals, for a measly 16 offensive points scored for the Chargers. Simply put, Miami has no play makers on offense.
Miami played better on defense. They stopped the run, generally had good pass coverage (Rivers only completed 54.5% of his passes), tackled when they gave up [...]
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After a gut punch of a loss to the Colts on Monday night at home, now the Phins get fly across the country and play the Chargers in San Diego coming off of a short week. At 0-2 so far things look grim, but we are 7-0 all time against the Chargers- including a win at home last year- so it CAN be done. Here is what I think we need to do.
Can somebody PLEASE tackle?!: I usually don't like to put basic, obvious things in my analysis- you know, "these guys need to tackle to win. In other news they need to score points, and also stop the other team from scoring points." Of course you need to tackle to win, but it would seem that some members of our defense forgot that last week, with every single Colts player who scored a touchdown was touched by at least one [...]
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Before we get into Monday nights game, I' like to say sorry I didn't have any updates after the Atlanta game. I was simply too disgusted with the sloppiness I saw on the field. The reason for the loss was fairly simple: we gave away too many opportunities. Whether it was whiffing on blocks, poor tackling, missed assignments, or turning the ball over, it looked like the Dolphins didn't want to win this game. We actually outgained the Falcons 4.6 yards per play vs. 4.3 yards per play- the difference being that Atlanta ran 65 plays to the Dolphins 56- mainly due to two untimely fumbles, and and interception that killed promising drives and lead to Atlanta points. A stout run defense that held the Falcons to 2.5 YPC kept us in the game, but our young secondary gave up too many plays [...]
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Has there ever been a coach more angry at an undefeated team than Tony Sparano? He had not one, but two "f-bomb" laden sessions during the rain delay and half time of last Thursday's "win" against Tampa Bay- and they were well deserved. Simply put- even though they won the game, the Dolphins played some of their worst football since getting thrashed in Arizona last year. Now it is of course only the preseason; the win didn't count, and neither did any of the mistakes- HOWEVER, the third preseason game is usually the "dress rehearsal" for the regular season, with the starters playing even into the second half- and the Dolphins were none to impressive in their win. Let's do a quick rundown of the good and bad.
Since there is so little to go over here, let's go over the [...]
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Seems like the Chiefs were reading my mind when I made comments on needing upgrades on the Offensive Line, particularly with their Center and Right Tackle.
Today, the Chiefs have traded an undisclosed 2010 pick (which is likely to be a 5th or 6th rounder) to the Miami Dolphins for two offensive linemen. In the move, the Chiefs acquired both Andy Alleman and Ike Ndukwe.
As mentioned in another blog of mine, I mentioned that recently signed free agent Mike Goff was nothing more than a short-term answer, and with this trade, his presence with the team may even be shorter. RG Ike Ndukwe is entering his 5th season in the NFL(who surprisingly entered the NFL as an undrafted player), and strangely enough, his 5th team as well. Last year as a full time starter for the Dolphins, Ndukwe [...]
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Well, it looks like another weird story has come about during this otherwise unusually dull and sleepy off season. It was reported recently that Dolphins 1st round pick Vontae Davis was arrested on June 9th in his college town of Champaign, Illinois (for vehicular noise?). I know what you are thinking- "how is that weird?! I knew that guy was trouble, and he couldn't even make it through the off season!" Well, as Lee Corso would say, not so fast my friend. While Vontae was seen as a bit of a primmadonna, he was never in any trouble off the field- and it doesn't look like he was this time either. You see, there is one slight problem with this story. The time of the alleged incident was about 6:45 p.m. Per the Miami Dolphins, Vonatae was at a rookie orientation until 3:30 [...]
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A few years ago I wrote in one of my NFL Touchdown preview books that the NFL should move the Pro Bowl from the week after the Super Bowl to the week before, in order to make the event part of the Super Bowl hype. I was proud of myself at the time for constructing what I thought was a shrewd idea.
However, I had a conversation with my close friend, Jeff Coruccini, owner of the website FantasyFootballStarters.com. Jeff told me my idea was, basically, terrible. He said the point of the Pro Bowl is not to draw fans and big [...]
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