The Dolphin season cme to a close on Saturday with an embarasing 27-0 loss at Oaklnad. You couldn't read a newspaper or a website without them mentioning Miami's record in the last two divisional round games. The combined score was 100-10, well, now it's 137-10 and if Miami will make
it to the second round next season 137-10 are numbers I can assure you will be on every news site. The Dolphins once again showed us the importance of a week off, a bye and a home playoff game. Of the 8 games thus far, 7 were won by the home team. The only road team to win, the Baltimore Ravens are a team on a roll that won against a familiar division
opponet that didn't play a real game in over a month (The Titans finished the year with the Bengals, Browns and Cowboys). A win by the dolphins and Miami would have hosted the AFC champioship game...
The dolphins failed in every aspect of the game. THey couldn't tackle. Tyrone Wheatley broke tackles freely by star players like Zach and the DL. He reminded me of Terrell Davis' 199 yard performance of 98 and Fred Taylor's performance last year.
The offnese was even worse with Fielder throwing his now-usuall-routine 3 INTs.
QB - Fiedler like the last games of the regular season was awful. I reaaly don't see him getting much better. Fiedler completed under 50% of his throws. He threw 3 INTs with poor decidions. The first one very early in the game was returned 90 yards for the TD that really broke Miami. It wasn't even close Fiedler threw it right to the defender. Wannstedt said after the game that Fiedler is "our starter for now" but didn't rule out an upgrade at the QB position if the opportunity presented itself although it's unlikely. F
RB - RB Lamar Smith ran for 4 yards on 8 carries after running for 209 on 40 carries. He didn't run very well and didn't break tackles like he knows to. But his blocking was non exsistent. He always seemed to be met before the line. Lamer fumbled once in Miami territory which lead to a Raider TD that closed it for Oakland. The Dolphins were so far behind that Miami didn't run very much at the end. F
WR - They are the weakest link in this offense. Shepherd returned but didn't do anything, OJ, Gadsden and Martin won't be lingering on this game either. F
OL - Lamar had nowhere to go. absolutly nowhere. F
DL - No presssure on Gannon and he kept running for first downs. They didn't stay in their rushing lanes and couldn't stop the run. Wheatley kept getting 4-5 yards on every play leaving Oakland with 3rd and short which they usually converted. F
LB - Poor tackling, all of them. Zach missed simple tackels and so did Rogers and Jones. F
Secondary - The least worst of the team. Gannon didn't do much but a lot should be tributed to the lack of run defense and Oakland's will to run out the clock. D
Special teams - A big punt return by Ogden, but also kickoff returns that didn't even reach the 20...D-
Coaching - When you collapse like that in the 2nd round after you have already collapsed in the same round 2 straight years, What grade could be more accurate. F
