feelthepain said:
The Fins are having issues right now, I can't explain it, we'll see where things stand at the end.
The thing you have to do is stop looking at every aspect of the team with the rosiest glasses you can find. That is just not realistic and can only lead to puzzlement and disappointment.
You have to look at each element of the team in terms of possible plusses and minuses - strengths and weaknesses. I am certainly not very familiar with the Dophins, but maybe here are a couple of those things:
How can you look at Culpepper as this certain super QB ? Yes he has had some great stretches. But he has also had some very very poor stretches. Why would you just think that the great Culpepper is the only one you will get ? Not very realistic. Not only that, but almost everyone has questions about just how much the unique capability of Randy Moss contributed to the great stretches. You folks don't have a Randy Moss. One example came on the interception that Culpepper threw. And there are examples of the same thing in his last games with Minnesota. With Moss he could throw jump balls and Moss would come down with them more often than not. When Moss left, those same jump balls turned into interceptions - sound familiar at this point ?
Ronnie Brown has looked better than I had expected. That is really a plus for you folks. But you have to, at the same time, consider that teams will now have more film on Brown as the main RB and may begin to find keys on how he runs that will let defenses cut down his yard per carry average - or they may not, but you can't just assume the best. Also, he now has to carry essentially the whole main RB effort. It's still unknown how he will hold up in a full season of that. Not only that, but if Saban has to use the running game more if Culpepper is problematic, that increases the load on Brown.
I guess it's a fact that your secondary is getting older. So you can't just assume that it won't have an effect this year - especially later on.
Like it or not, Saban is just a second year NFL head coach. You can't assume that, even if he will be a super-coach, that he will win a lot of games in his second year. What other NFL first time head coach was able to do that in his second year ? I don't know the answer to that one way or another, but my guess is you might not find even one.
Injuries are a fact of life in the NFL to everyone's dismay. So how deep are various positions in terms of back-ups? Here's hoping that you and all other teams don't have to get into that situation.
You can continue the exercise. It's not as much fun to be realistic - in fact it's nerve racking. If in doubt about that, this board should give you plentiful clues. But if you want to be prepared for what may come of the season, it's a lot better to depend on realism than the media pundits who are looking for a new darling - they are rarely correct which should by itself give you pause for thought.
cheers
