Losing Hardly A Team Effort In Miami

It's time to challenge whoever it was that coined the old sports adage "you win as a team and you lose as a team."

Case study: the 2009 Miami Dolphins.

Very few of the franchise's losses in my lifetime (1985-present) have been a team effort. In the Dan Marino era it was always the fault of the defense. In the A.D. (After Dan) years, the offense has struggled to score 17 points per game, negating one of the NFL's best defenses.

But this is not going to be a lesson in team history because I don't need to look any further than the first two weeks of this season to make my point.

Last night the Dolphins hosted a Monday Night Football game for the first time since 2004, losing 27-23 to the Indianapolis Colts after choking away a late lead.

This one was on the defense. After putting up a stinker against Atlanta in Week 1, which I'll get into more later, the Dolphins offense was perfect against the Colts.

Yes, perfect.

Peyton Manning is one of the greatest quarterbacks of all-time and if you can find a way to stop him, you will beat the Colts 100 percent of the time. It's not easy, but the best way to go about it would be to run the ball effectively and control time of possession, keeping Manning off the field.

How did Miami do in those categories Monday night? They rushed for 239 yards on 49 carries, with Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams combining for 205 of them, an average of 4.9 yards per carry. 

And get this: the Dolphins held the ball for 45 minutes and 7 seconds to Indianapolis' 14 minutes and 53 seconds. That isn't a typo. The Colts played offense for less than a quarter and were still able to score 27 points and win the game.

That's without the help of a short field or a cheap touchdown by the defense or special teams. Miami didn't turn the ball over until Chad Pennington was intercepted on the last pass of the game when the clock stood at zero. 

Indianapolis scored the first points 12 seconds into the game on an 80-yard pass and the winning points were scored 32 seconds after Dolphins kicker Dan Carpenter hit a 45-yard field goal to put Miami ahead 23-20 with 3:50 remaining. 

The worst part is there are no excuses for this once-proud defense to fall back on. They weren't playing on tired legs in the fourth quarter, which can happen in the sweltering heat of South Florida. They were only on the field for 35 plays for cryin' out loud! That is less than a half's worth of snaps in an average NFL game!

It wasn't the refs fault since Miami was whistled for just 20 yards worth of penalties, and I know the Colts have Manning, but this is not 2006.

Reggie Wayne is great and Dallas Clark is a nice player, but they have no running game and it wasn't Marvin Harrison who took a receiver screen 48 yards to score the winning touchdown, it was Pierre Garcon. Who? 

When asked how a team could possibly lose a game after dominating the ball the way the Dolphins did, Pennington said he was "at a loss for words." That's exactly what he should have said because it's Jason Taylor and Joey Porter, the captains of the defense, who have the explaining to do. 

So Week 2 was on Taylor, Porter and Co, but boy was Week 1 a different story.

In the 19-7 loss to the Falcons the Dolphins offense was, to put it kindly, pitiful. After committing a historically efficient 13 turnovers during the entire 2008 season, the offense gave it away four times against Atlanta, and those mishaps turned into nine points.

Pennington's crew only mustered 259 yards of total offense and didn't score a point until the 3:22 mark of the fourth quarter. The crazy thing is Atlanta didn't put the game away until Jason Elam hit a 50-yard field goal with 7:35 left to make it 19-0. 

Why is that so crazy you ask? Because thanks to turnovers by the offense and poor special teams coverage, the Falcons were able to start six possessions on Miami's side of the field. An offense averages about 12 possessions per game, so if half of them are starting on your side of the 50 yards line, you're in trouble.

But the Dolphins defense allowed just one score in Atlanta's four trips to the red zone, held Michael Turner to 65 yards on 22 carries and gave up 281 yards of total offense, only 22 more than the pathetic Miami offense had that afternoon. 

Now I know Matt Ryan isn't anywhere close to being at the same level as Manning, but there is no question that the Falcons have more weapons and a more balanced offense then the one Indianapolis fielded last night, so where was the unit that showed up in Atlanta?

And why couldn't the offense control the ball the way it did versus the Colts against an equally suspect Falcons defense?

Last year's transformation from a 1-15 bunch of losers to an 11-5 division champion was even more amazing because Miami rose to that level after starting the season 0-2.

That group didn't come together until Week 3, in a now legendary (thanks to the unveiling of the Wildcat) 38-13 beating of the New England Patriots in Foxboro.

One year later the scene is set almost the same. The Dolphins are 0-2 and must beat a Super Bowl contender, the San Diego Chargers, on the road in order to keep their team bus from veering into the No Playoffs Zone, which is the road you're stuck on at 0-3.

Tony Sparano can use the New England game as motivation and proof that it can be done. Regardless of what tactic he chooses, he better find a way to get the whole to play at a high level, rather than just some of its parts.