The Object Of My Objection

This time last week the Miami Dolphinsfaithful were all hyped up as though they were on a euphoric drug. Surely one that had lingering effects from last season. After one game, there are those who see potential problems and to others, it’s nothing more than a simple loss. As Patrik would say, the sky isn’t falling. No, it’s not falling. It’s just not a sun-shiny day. It’s overcast, it’s cloudy, with a chance of rain. You know, typical Miami weather.

The subject of much debate as of late was the poor showing, to be nice, of the Miami Dolphins offense last weekend. Local media guys are saying that it’s nothing to get worked up about. That it’s not time to throw anyone under a bus and start screaming for heads or changes. They would be correct.

Still, there are flaws in the Miami offense and to me, I look at the man who was hired to fix what has been wrong in Miami for over a decade. Bill Parcells.  Yes, I know it’s been one season following a horrid 1-15 season and years of the worst draft picks.  But this offense is a huge question mark and that is the object of my objections.

The Dolphins are very vanilla. Let’s face it, there is no rocket science in checking off to a dump route or a RB out of the back-field. The Oline is not being asked to do anything more than pass block and open up holes. The Phins tend to run more between the guard/tackle gap then they do on the outside where a pulling guard is needed. There is not a lot of motion from side to side and they lineup in a basic two split wide one slot formation or a two TE set. Vanilla.

The Miami Dolphins last Sunday couldn’t run the vanilla offense. The question is why? Do they spend too much time playing around with the “Wild Cat” or “Wild Pat” offense? Do they spend too much time trying to figure out how to incorporate trick plays? Tony Sparano seems to be a good coach and I think he will be here for a very very long time. But Bill Parcells and Jeff Ireland need to decide which direction this team is going because frankly I haven’t got a clue.

Parcells loves bruising running games that set up a passing game and we don’t have that in Miami. Is it because we have Ronnie Brown who is more a finesse runner and Ricky Williams who is more burst and speed? We have the QB that Parcells likes but we don’t have the rest of the pieces.

If we look at what the Dolphins did offensively in the draft this year, there seems to be more questions than answers. Patrick Turner is nowhere to be seen. Brian Hartline looks like a more physical Greg Camarillo, and Pat White is a QB who was picked for what exactly?

I suppose for many fans, myself included, last weeks game was not a matter of simply failing to produce but more a question of what this offense is to become. If anything at all. It’s not a downfield team. It’s not a hard nose rushing team. So that leaves what? A team that can’t score at will and can’t physically take control over the clock. This is not a team that will score twice and sit on a lead without serious help from the defense.

Last weeks game was one game and to be honest, it means little at this point in terms of the full seasons success. That was proven last season. Still, for me anyways, it’s a question that is still unanswered. What is this offense exactly? Maybe more importantly, what’s it supposed to be?  I have no clue and what scares me the most, is I wonder if they do.

That’s the object of my criticism.