Relief In Kansas City

BY SCOTT MORGANROTH

The Miami Dolphins will not join Lions in The 0-16 Club, but they have another thing in common with the players from Detroit.

On September 18, 2011, Detroit hammered the Kansas City Chiefs 48-3 at Ford Field.

To earn their first victory of the season, Miami limited Kansas City to a field goal and pounded the Chiefs 31-3 at Arrowhead Stadium.

But despite my criticism of the Dolphins yesterday, by no means am I ready to jump on their bandwagon. The organization is still a mess. The team is 1-7!

However, on Sunday, certain players lived up to their potential. Reggie Bush rushed for 92 yards and a touchdown. He added 50-yards in receiving. Brandon Marshall caught eight passes for 106 yards and a touchdown.

Quarterback Matt Moore threw for 244 yards and three touchdowns. Two of those touchdowns went to tight end Anthony Fasano. Moore had a QB rating of 147.5 and zero interceptions.

Since the start of the 2010 season, the Dolphins have made a turnover in every game. Today's win over Kansas City produced zero turnovers.

Former Redskins Head Coach Jim Zorn, who watched the Lions long losing streak end, is an assistant coach for the Chiefs. He's been through this drill.

But in the end, what did we learn about Miami's win?

First, founding owner Joe Robbie won't turn over in his grave because there won't be an Imperfect Season in his stadium.

Second, the Dolphins can focus their quarterback search in the 2012 NFL Draft to Landry Jones of the Oklahoma Sooners instead of Stanford's Andrew Luck, who could be headed to the Indianapolis Colts.

Third, the team is playing hard under embattled Head Coach Tony Sparano and the three hour flight to South Florida had to be much more satisfying.

Now the question remains, can the Dolphins go 2-0 against NFL teams that have Indian Nicknames?

The Dolphins face the Washington Redskins on Sunday November 13, 2011 at Joe Robbie Stadium. Miami's next goal is to avoid being the eighth team in NFL History to lose 15 games if they fail to win a contest the rest of the season.

But although I saw the Dolphins losing Sunday against Kansas City, I know that the whole football world is shocked as to what happened in Western Missouri.

However, on Saturday, the Northwestern Wildcats (4-5) upset the No. 10 Nebraska Cornhuskers (7-2) in Lincoln, 28-25.

So you can rest assure that this part of the Midwest was quite shocked as to what happened the entire weekend on the gridiron.

The visitors put the Stop Sign on some major losing and certainly validated the fact that games are won on the field and not on paper.

Scott Morganroth can be reached at scottsports33@aol.com and his blog can be seen at www.scottsports33.com.

Dolphins A Complete Mess!

BY SCOTT MORGANROTH

Please tell me that I'm not suffering from Alzheimer's Disease.

Is the NFL Draft in April or November?

As dumb as this seems, why are we talking about Stanford Cardinal QB Andrew Luck being the No. 1 pick in the 2012 NFL Draft?

We're only halfway through the 2011 season and the majority of the discussion should be focused on the playoff chase and surprise teams.

The feel good stories include the Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions.

But that's today's media.

Luck is indeed the hot topic. His destinations appear to be either the Indianapolis Colts or the Miami Dolphins. Both are winless but for entirely different reasons.

The Colts can't win without future Hall of Fame first year lock Peyton Manning. If Manning is able to return this season with his competitive nature, Indianapolis will not join The 0-16 Club, in which the Lions are the only members. I could see a victory or two for the Colts.

Besides, Colts Owner Jim Irsay will never let the Peyton Manning era end on a bad note. Look for a statue in front of the Colts Stadium when his career is over.

But I do believe the Lions will have company in The 0-16 Club.

The Dolphins are a bad football team!

They tried to lure former Stanford Coach Jim Harbaugh during the off-season while their current head coach Tony Sparano was under contract. That failed and Sparano was given a contract extension.

They allowed Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams to leave through free agency and traded for Reggie Bush.  The former Saint and USC Trojan, has 75 carries for 335 yards with zero touchdowns. He has 21 receptions for 114 yards and one touchdown. He's only returned five punts for 44 yards.

Rookie Daniel Thomas hasn't scored a touchdown and like Bush, has 75 carries but for 302 yards.

I've always viewed Bush as a finesse back, who has versatility to catch the ball out of the backfield. He's not a four-down power runner and he's a solid special teams player.

The Dolphins haven't been satisfied with the performance of former Michigan Wolverines QB Chad Henne, but didn't pull the trigger when they had the chance to trade for Denver Broncos signal caller Kyle Orton during the off-season. Miami blew an opportunity to land former Jacksonville Jaguars QB David Garrard.

Now the Dolphins QB's are former Carolina Panther Matt Moore, Sage Rosenfels and former UFL journeyman J.P. Losman, a former Buffalo Bill.

Losman led the Las Vegas Locomotives to the inaugural UFL Championship on November 27, 2009. Losman signed with Miami on Oct 25, 2011, while Rosenfels was placed on the reserve/non-football list.

It wouldn't matter which signal caller was under center because there is no talent around them.

The Dolphins are A Complete Mess!

Miami ended the 2010 season with a three game losing streak to finish 7-9. The Dolphins had the worst home record in the league with a 1-7 mark.

At  0-7 going into their road game against the Kansas City Chiefs at noisy Arrowhead Stadium, the losing streak has hit 10 and counting.

The Chiefs are 4-3 and are in a three-way tie for the AFC West lead.

Do you see 0-8 and an 11-game losing streak? I do.

The Dolphins have flirted with 0-16.

On December 16, 2007, Miami was one touchdown pass from joining the 2008 Lions.

Cleo Lemon threw a 64-yard touchdown pass to Greg Camarillo as the Dolphins defeated the Baltimore Ravens 22-16 in overtime at Joe Robbie Stadium and ended a 16-game losing streak.

They finished the year 1-15 and seven teams in NFL history have lost 15-games in a season.

After this disaster, the Dolphins turned to Bill Parcells and the first year, the drafting of Henne and his Wolverines offensive lineman Jake Long, to go along with former Jets signal caller Chad Pennington, enabled Miami to land in the 2008 playoffs. Using a gimmick offense "The Wildcat" and maximizing the skills of Brown and Williams, the Dolphins finished 11-5.

The Ravens would get their revenge a year later with a 27-9 win and the Dolphins haven't returned to the playoffs since 2008.

Two 7-9 seasons and a pair of third place finishes in the AFC East have seen the Dolphins fall hard again. Parcells retired midway through the 2010 season.

He has returned to ESPN either to become a full-time Sunday analyst or size up his next challenge. Evidently, he had no desire to work with current Dolphins Owner, Stephen M Ross, A Michigan Wolverine Alumnus, after Wayne Huizenga sold the team.

Now the team is being run by CEO Mike Dee, General Manager Jeff Ireland (hired by Parcells) and Sparano, a former Parcells assistant coach.

Don Shula is the Vice Chairman, though I'd wonder if he has much input into the daily operation.

Yet this franchise which has 22 Playoff Appearances, 13 Division Championships, five Conference Championships, a pair of Super Bowl Titles including the 1972 Perfect Season (17-0), has a chance make history by joining the Lions for all of the wrong reasons.

When the Lions had their 0-16 record in 2008, the year before, they were 7-9.  The Dolphins find themselves in the exact same situation and lost to the Lions 34-27 at home last December.

Another Dolphins/Lions irony is Detroit had another former Wolverines offensive lineman, as Jeff Backus suffered through that imperfect season. The Dolphins have Long.

As I look at the Dolphins schedule, there best chance for a win was on October 25. Former Florida Gator QB Tim Tebow rallied the Denver Broncos from a 15-0 deficit to an 18-15 overtime win. A week later, Tebow faced the Lions and was sacked seven times as Detroit (6-2) crushed Denver 45-10 in Colorado.

Beginning with Sundays road game against Kansas City, the Dolphins road schedule includes the Dallas Cowboys, and in mid-December face the Buffalo Bills and New England Patriots in potentially winter and blizzard conditions.

The remaining home games are against the Washington Redskins, Bills and in early December the Oakland Raiders travel to the east coast while the Philadelphia Eagles come to town.

The Bills are improved and recently gave their quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick a new contract. Coach Chan Gailey has done an outstanding job in Western New York.

Each of these teams are competing for playoff spots.

But the Redskins are experiencing quarterback problems with former Gator Rex Grossman and former Dolphin John Beck trying to get a grasp on the starters role.

The Redskins game is still Miami's best chance at a win. The Lions ended their long losing streak at Ford Field in 2009 against Washington and across the Beltway, the Ravens spared the Dolphins history.

There is no way that Rex Ryan will allow his New York Jets to be Miami's first victim on January 1st.

CBS has the honors of showcasing a potential winless Dolphins team on Thanksgiving, as Hall of Fame Quarterback Dan Marino has to talk about his former team on the pre-game show against the Cowboys.

Marino played his entire career with Miami from 1983-1999, had 61,361 yards and 420 touchdowns, playing for Coach Shula, who let him do whatever he wanted to do.

This is the same Marino that in 2004, who was named Senior Vice President of Football Operations, but resigned three weeks later. He wasn't going to get paid millions of dollars as he did when he led the team to one Super Bowl, a 38-16 loss to the San Francisco 49'ers on Jan 20, 1985.

While it is hard to believe that a team can go an entire season without a win, this situation is quite possible. We've seen it twice with the Lions and the expansion Tampa Bay Bucs finished 0-14 in 1976 as they played in the AFC West.

But if this happens, former Dolphins Owner Joe Robbie will turn over in his grave knowing this infamous perfect season happened in his stadium.

For the time being, I have a feeling there will be less traffic jams at Joe Robbie Stadium.

Whoever the Dolphins take in the NFL Draft in April 2012, better learn the Bible from cover to cover. He's going to need to say a few prayers as to how this team will ever get back to respectability.

The only two real perks the Dolphins next Football Man will have is he won't pay any State Income Tax on his paycheck and the nice weather.

Scott Morganroth can be reached at scottsports33@aol.com and his blog can be seen at www.scottsports33.com.