Oswlek

I didn't see a thread on this, but I though that some of you might be interested. Scouts, Inc. took anther step in their ongoing quest to make Miami out to be "the team to beat" in the AFC East by placing Belichick and Saban in a tie atop their AFC East coaches ranking. I wouild be happy to provide a link, but since it is a pay article it won't do much good. I would also be happy quote the section of the article discussing BB and Saban, but I am hesitant for copyright reasons.

Their rationale consisted of two premises:

* Belichick needs to prove that it wasn't really Romeo, Charlie and Mangini pulling the strings.

* Saban has a "bunch of [college] wins" and guided an undermanned Miami team to within one game of the AFC East division title. He gives Saban credit for winning in NE and ends with this line: "Barring injuries, the Dolphins, lead by Saban, could be the team to beat in the East. "

Now, I vehemently disagree with those that believe Miami is going to challenge NE this year. They were really a 6-10 team last year that fluked their way to a better record, and will be lucky to match the 9-7 record from last year. Oddly enough, the whole "team X wins 3-4 games more than they should have due to unusual circumstances and causes analysts to crow about how they are coming on only to be surprisingly poor the following year" thing happens every year! Yet people still fall into the trap.

That said, it is still plausible that Miami be decent this year. It is not, however, plausible to suggest that Saban is on the same level as BB. I'm not even sure why you would even try.

PatsDeb

I really can't wait to see Miami this year. I am so convinced that Daunte Culpepper is going to be a subtraction rather than an addition. It makes you wish (based on how the season ended anyway) that BB had played the starters in the last game so that we would have won, finished 11-5 and Miami would have been at 9-7. Then we would not have had to hear all this crapola about how Miami finished so strong last year, they are now the team to beat, blah, blah blah.

EDIT - Sorry I should have said Miami would be at 8-8, which is what they really are.

Kdo5

WOW. Everybody said Pats will suck without Crennal and Weis. Well BB goes on for the finest Coaching job he did last year in his life with all the problems and setbacks. Now its MANGINI who was the key not Belichick. Give me a break.

Oswlek

I have posted this on several other boards out there, but here is my take on Miami:

Miami is the quintassential example of a team that had a few breaks to give it a better record than you would expect, and then people using that improper baseline for the following year’s projections.

Previous examples of this include 04 Bills, 04 Falcons, 03 Dallas and 01 Pats (please don't shoot me for this, but they are)

That was a 6-10 team last year that caught a few lucky breaks. Just a cursary glance at their “remarkable” run to end the season shows the following:

* Against SD, even though they had the advantage of knowing every line call (SD’s coaches decided not to change them for this game even though Miami had the ex-OL coach) they barely pulled it out.

* Buffalo blew a 23-3 3rd quarter lead because they started coasting too early.

* Brooks Bollinger had this line at Miami!

C/ATT YDS TD INT
28/42 327 2 0

The Jets had a 1st and 5 on the 14 with just over a minute to go in a game decided by 4 points. Another skate against a bad team.

* And the Pats nearly won playing scond and third stringers for 3 quarters. This included a QB that hadn’t played 3 full quarters since high school, a practice squad WR playing CB, etc.

I see Miami being an improved team, but taking a step backwards recordwise. I will be shocked if they win more than 8 games.

Brady-To-Branch

Saban is overrated and his "win now" approach to personnel will kill his team.

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primetime

Belichick has a bunch of [Super Bowl] wins and guided an undermanned New England team to the AFC East divisional title and a huge win in the wild card round. He gives credit for Belichick winning in Miami and ends with this line, "I must be drunk to write this crap."

scout

I would say that shouldn't Parcells prove that it wasn't BB who was behind all those Giant championships? What has Saban proven in the Pros which rates him a tie to BB, who has won 3 superbowls. How did Romeo do last year in Cleveland. Not to diss him, but it wasn't like everyone was amazed at the "turnaround" he has done there. Seems like everyone is giving the benefit of the doupt to Saban and Miami, afterall, they are so, so, sexy.

Pat_Nasty

My favorite part was when Ken Moll, the author of the list, says BB loses points with him because unlike BB, "Most head coaches have had to deal with the dilemma of an injured star quarterback at least sometime during an NFL season."

I think that happened in 2001, and I think BB handled it brilliantly.

Oswlek

He also had to deal with it last year, although nobody talks about it because NE players and coaches don't talk about it.

patsacolachick

I saw this posted on a Jets website & I was amazed at how vehemently the Jets fans were dissing this article-even fans that feel BB stabbed them in the back so long ago can't stomach seeing Saban listed next to BB. What a joke that writer is.