The Miami Dolphins are playing the Dallas Cowboys in their 4th and final pre-season game. Tomorrow morning their HC is going to have to answer a lot of questions and go under the fan microscope more than he already has.

Choosing to play his starting offensive players into the 2nd quarter may have proven a huge mistake when LT Jake Long went down with what appears to be a knee injury.

Long walked off the field on his own but was seen sporting an ice bag on the bench. It’s likely the team will take an X-ray at halftime.

Most teams do not play their starters more than 1 series in the 4th game, Dallas didn’t play any of their starters. The result? Aside from Jake’s injury, the Dolphins offense looked just as anemic as they did last week and their defense has only looked somewhat better.

All in all, the Dolphins have a ton of work to do in the next week and half before they travel up north to start the season in Buffalo.

Vanilla or not, the Dolphins have some serious things they need to work on. For now though, the chief concern is on Jake Long’s knee.

The title of this article will surely spur at least a little debate, if not a lot.  Not because I’m going to spend the next few minutes of your life explaining why the first game of the season could be a must win game for the Miami Dolphins, but because a good portion of you will take to calling me an idiot or worse, for even suggesting that the first game of a new season could be that important.  O.k. go for it.  My skin is thick enough.

Is the Buffalo Bills game a must win game for the Miami Dolphins?

While I doubt many of you will open your minds to the prospect of any game in the first half of the season being that important, I can’t help but amuse myself by asking that question.

In some ways, yes.  Yes it is.

The Miami Dolphins thought they found an identity two years ago when they ran the Wild Cat to perfection as the manhandled their way into the playoffs.  Last year, the WC lost much of it’s surprise and the Phins fell short of their playoff goal.  Now, year 3 of the Bill Parcells, Jeff Ireland, and Tony Sparano is up on us and the team no longer has an identity.  In fact, it has possibly more questions surrounding it.

Consider year one for a quick second.  No one was safe, roster turnover was huge and no one was surprised.  It was a must.  Last year’s off-season brought much of the same.  This year, not so much.  At least not outside of Karlos Dansby and Brandon Marshall.  But neither player brings an identity that reshapes the team on either side of the ball.  The power running game is in flux with the depth issues on the Oline and the defense is a youth movement.  So there are a lot of questions on both sides.

In both seasons past, the Dolphins lost their opening 3 games.  Rebounded in year one to win the division.  That was behind the surprise success of the WC.  Last year they rebounded a tad too late and faltered in the end and missed the dance.  Can “THIS” team afford that same opening issues?  I don’t think so.

The Phins open on the road at Buffalo and a loss would hardly put their season in doubt, however, they travel from Buffalo to Minnesota for week 2 before coming home to face division rivals New York and New England.

In other words, the easiest game on the opening schedule is the Bills.  Following the first 4 games the Dolphins have their bye week.  When they return, they face Green Bay, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Cincy, and Tennessee.  One of the toughest opening schedules in the NFL.  Has these Miami Dolphins shown you enough to believe they are hands down the favorite to win all of those games?  Not even close.

That is the kind of schedule that can get your head coach fired mid-season.  Following that horrid test, they get a run against the Bears, Raiders, and Browns before getting a second helping of the Jets, Bills, and Patriots.  With the Lions between the last two division games.  In other words, no hiccups along the way.

Momentum is something that is preached at all levels of football.  Hell it’s preached at all levels of sports.  Opening the season with a win builds confidence and starts that all important momentum.  The Dolphins have not won in Buffalo in 5 seasons.  And to a degree, they almost must beat them to open the season.

It’s easy to be a homer and say that the Dolphins “can” beat this team and “can” beat that team but reality is a different world.  The Dolphins “CAN” beat anyone.  So can the Lions, Browns, and Raiders.  As they say, “Any given Sunday”.  But “any given Sunday” is used to describe teams that really shouldn’t be winning games.  No one says that when referring to the Colts, Patriots, or Saints.  Will they be saying it about the Dolphins?

The truth is that these Miami Dolphins can’t afford to lose the first game of the season.  It is that important.  Getting the season off to a good start, even if sloppy, puts the team on the right path.  It gives them confidence the following week to face Brett “I don’t have any receivers and I should have stayed retired” Favre.  It gives them confidence to come home and open their stadium for the 2010 season with their orange jerseys and knock of the Jets.  It gives them confidence to take on the Patriots at home.  In other words, a win at Buffalo could give the team what it needs to beat the Vikings.  A win against the Vikings and there is momentum to take the home stand.

A loss at Buffalo and they will start looking at last year and the year before.  A “here we go again” with 3 in a row to start the season.  But looking at this year first 8 games, I’m not so sure that an 0-3 start is going to be something this team can recover from.

And that is why I think, maybe, just maybe, the Buffalo game has a little more importance to the start of the season than just an opening day win.

NFL is a copy cat league.  If it worked once, why not try it again.

We saw this first hand in the Wanny Era;  Wanny was trying so hard to mimic the Ravens Super bowl run – have an amazing defence, and solid run game.  Pay no attention to anything else.  We weren’t the only team that tried to mimic this formula either, Carolina, Washington, Chicago are other teams that tried to copycat the success of the Ravens.

So what is the latest trend…switching to the 3-4 defence.

Let me preface this by saying as a person, I like John Beck.  Nice down to earth kid.  As an NFL QB?  Completely different story.  We all know the story, so there is no reason to rehash it here.  After Beck left the Phins he hooked back up with draft pal, Cam Cameron in Baltimore but after a one year stint, Beck got the old heave-ho and signed with the Washington Redskins.  O.k. a lot of players bounce around the league.  But today, John Beck has to be grinning from ear to ear after the Washington Redskins elected to sign the traveling QB to a 2 year extension through the 2010 season.

The contract?  An amazing 2.25 million dollars.  Yes, I said million.  An average of 1.15 a year or there abouts.

Sorry, but I don’t care if John Beck looked like the second coming this pre-season, the guy has shown nothing to warrant a multi-million dollar deal.  But hey, I like the kid and I don’t like Washington so who cares if Dan Snyder just wasted more dough.  I’m sure that he is more interested in the dough he wasted on Albert Haynesworth.

I was doing my “Director of NFL Sites” duties for the Fan Sided Network and was checking on all of our other NFL related sites when I came across this little gem from BloggingDirty and Troy Heinzman.

You will notice on the image below, that the Miami Dolphins are not in the screen shot.  Why?  Because they are dead last with 14.

The Miami Dolphins have realized they won’t get anything out of versatile offensive lineman Nate Garner so they put him on IR.  Ending his season before it could get started.

Garner re-aggravated a foot injury that he had during the off-season.  The stress fracture took him out of training camp and surgery to repair the fracture did not allow him to get back onto the practice field.  Suddenly one of the strongest units in the NFL is becoming a question mark.

The Dolphins find themselves suddenly lacking depth on the offensive line.  With Vernon Carey, John Jerry, Jake Grove or Joe Berger, Richie Incognito, and LT Jake Long making up the starting unit, what lies behind is nothing to jump up and down about.

Consider that the back-up guard on the left side is Donald Thomas who has not come close to the flash he showed two seasons ago before leaving the season for IR.  And he played on the right side then.  Lydon Murtha and Andrew Gardner are backing up Jake Grove and neither are solid up and down the line.  With Joe Berger and Jake Grove battling for the starting center spot, the man behind them, Andrew Hartline could be out of a job.  He hasn’t shown the versatility to play other line spots.

Moving to the right it only gets worse.  Vernon Carey has no back-up.  The official depth chart is just him all by his lonesome.  Backing up John Jerry are Corey Procter and  Rey Feinga.

Guess what folks?  That’s it.  Completely it.

The strongest unit the Phins had last year is bordering on mediocre if for no other reason than this unit does not have the depth to keep players fresh.

The Dolphins don’t have a ton of options here.  They either sign a free agent off the wire following the final cuts on Saturday…there will be more than a few, or they try and work a trade that will get them something better.  Either way, they have to do something and they can’t wait until the regular season rolls around.

Suddenly, the offense isn’t looking as mean as it did two months ago.

Join JL tonight at 8 PM Eastern on fins radio.

James will get you caught up on the latest Miami Dolphins news and look at the final game before the roster gets pared to 53.

Oh, I will not be on tonight as I finish my 3 drafts in 3 nights fantasy league drafts.

Joey Haynos was Injury Waived after suffering a foot injury Friday vs. the Falcons

Literally, I just finished writing an article on the Joey Haynos situation.  I even posted it.  Then, as I clicked to visit another web site, voila‘ Joey Haynos was released.

Haynos was a personal favorite of mine, even before a series of interviews we did with him last season on this site and before he guested on my “On The Fin Side” internet radio show.  Joey is a soft spoken guy who wants nothing more than to be successful and work as a team player.  Now, after suffering an undisclosed foot injury, the young TE is out of a roster spot after being injury waived today by the Phins.

His last few series as a Dolphins was captured on TV.  First, he gingerly limped back to the huddle and waived off a replacement at the end of the 3rd quarter.  Then, taking one step off the line of scrimmage a few plays later, he fell to the ground untouched and was carted off the field.

The loss of Haynos means the Dolphins will likely carry only two TE’s into the season with Anthony Fasano and David Martin as those two.  John Nalbone is still not expected to make the roster and Tony Sparano said today that losing Haynos gives him “roster flexibility” and then later stated that he has coached on teams with only two TE’s.  Obviously pointing to Nalbone’s future with the team.

Still, that doesn’t mean that the Phins will go into the season with only 2.  The Dolphins will keep an eye on roster cuts around the league and may find a surprise here and there.  Or they may find a practice squad player that can “eat up reps” as Sparano termed it.

For now, the Dolphins are down to 3 TE’s and it’s more than likely those 3 will be two by this time next week.

Good luck  Joey!

After breaking down the performance of the Miami Dolphins offense in their 3rd preseason game, it’s easy to see they are still working on things.  It’s almost as if they are using these preseason games as practice, and not really caring about the outcome of the game.  I’m sure they want to win, but I don’t think the coaches or players feel like it’s the end of the world if they don’t, and I hope most fans feel that way too.   Afterall, it’s only the preseason!

After scorching the Jacksonville Jaguars for 24 points in the first half of last weeks game, the first team offense managed just 6 points against the Atlanta Falcons.  Chad Henne led the team to 3 of those points, Chad Pennington led them to the other 3.  Yes, they looked bad at times, but I’m not worried about them, even with the regular season just 2 weeks away.

Who would have thought that going into the final two weekends of non-counting football, the Buffalo Bills would have already beaten us?  Who knew?  O.k. so the Bills themselves have not “beaten” us, but their fans are.  With a whopping 92 members (I think that is their entire fan base though) of the “Buffalo Bills Message Board” for the NFL Home Team Challenge. We have a 18.

Shameful.

You have less than two weeks to decide if you want to be a part of the Miami Dolphins Home Team Challenge and join our Phinphanatic.com league.  Membership is free, as is the game itself but you can win prizes.  Including a luxury suite for the Dolphins vs. Detroit Lions game in December.  (The Dolphins award it not me)

To be eligible to play, all you need to do is follow this link..RIGHT HERE…and then register with NFL.com through that link.  Once you have settled on a team, search for league Phinphanatic.com and compete against myself and other writers from this sites staff, as well as other Miami Dolphins fans, and the rest of the entire NFL.

The game play is SIMPLE:  Take 300 units, pick a QB, RB, WR, TE, K, and Defense each week.  Stay at or under that 300 and then sit back and watch your guys win, then trade them out next week for something better.

It’s that easy…and besides, are you not done listening to me hype any sort of fantasy football?  Of course you are, so just do it.

Tonight, our site will hold it’s first “Charity Fantaasy Football League” draft. We have raised $200.00 through the league and that money will be going to the Miami Dolphins Charity division, “Special Teams”.  I want to thank everyone who joined this league for their donations.  The winner of this league will receive $100.00 dollars.  Below are the names of the 11 people (myself not included) who joined in this and in turn, combined, raised this initial amount.

If you would like to join a fantasy football league, or create one for our charity, contact me at Phinphanatic23@yahoo.com.  You can also visit our “CharityContributors” page here.

• Ed O’Donnell
• Dan Ewen
• Steve Hoffart
• Ken Ebersole
• Adam Shaw
• Ben Shaw
• Bruce Lamb
• Stuart Pace
• Dan Green
• Michael Brothers
• Clint Miller

UPDATE:  Joey Haynos was injured in the 4th quarter and was on crutches and in a walking boot after the game.  He said his foot is not broken, but we will see.  If he misses any extended time the Dolphins could opt to keep only 2 TE’s or find one on the FA market.

16-6 doesn’t sound as bad as what the game last night actually looked like.  In fact, it should have been worse.  It felt much worse.  When the Miami Dolphins pulled starting QB Chad Henne in the 3rd quarter, I gasped at his 10/22 123 yard passing day along with his one endzone INT.  Horrible.  Yes, there were at least 3 drops but 10 of 22?  He missed Brandon Marshall so bad on two plays that you wondered if he was throwing to anyone at all.  Then, the Falcons pulled Matt Ryan and I saw that his day ended in a similar fashion.  13/26 103 1 TD and 1 INT.  So maybe I shouldn’t be so cheesed.  Not.

For whatever reason, Matt Ryan looked much better than his stats indicated.  Not great mind you, not even “good”.  Just better.  The feel of the game seemed to be one of the Falcons offense taking our defense to task.  Again, this is, was, perception.  But what wasn’t perception, was the Dolphins anemic and non-existent running game and offensive line.

Tonight the Dolphins will go head to head with the Atlanta Falcons and we will fire up the “LIVE” chat for the first time “officially” tonight.

Join me and other Phin Phanatics by clicking:

HERE AT ANY TIME

It’s GAME NIGHT

!Watch the game here online

Tonight the Miami fans will get their first glimpse of what this years team could look like…for better of for worse.  Traditionally, the 3rd pre-season game is the one that is game planned for.  It’s the one that the starters play around 70% of the game.  It’s also the game that some of the players sitting on the bubble of the final roster get a chance to prove their worth.  Tonights game will give them just that.

From special teams to offensive and defensive subs, players living on the edge will get action against opponents first and second teamers instead of the mop-up duties the mop up players they have been facing to date.  Despite the large contingent of starters on both sides, these bubble guys will get their chance.

Follow me to the next page as I highlight the Miami Dolphins current depth chart (The Phins have not officially updated it for tonights game) and take a look at who I think is already gone, soon to be gone, and those players that I think are on the bubble.  Should make for a good game tonight either way.