Don't look now, but the Miami Dolphins are a pretty good football team. Definitely not as good as the Titans and Redskins, but certainly off to a more shocking start.
Behind an error-free Chad Pennington (!) and a rejuvenated Ronnie Brown, the Dolphins beat the Chargers for the seventh straight time. Pennington was 22 of 29 for 228 yards and a touchdown, his best performance of the season. Brown rushed for 125 yards and scored the other Fins TD.
The most surprising development of the Dolphins is not Pennington's success, but Brown's success in the Wildcat package. They ran out of the direct-snap to Brown offense 11 times Sunday. While the Chargers weren't fooled by the package, they didn't exactly stop it. Brown scored his touchdown off a nifty run from the five-yard line. On several key moments throughout the second half, Brown powered his way to short yardage first downs and kept the clock moving.
Miami had a time of possession advantage of 36 minutes to 23. Not always the most indicative stat of success, but whenever you give LaDainian Tomlinson less chances to get hot, you're going to win. Tomlinson had just 35 yards on 12 carries.
Bill Parcells, the Godfather, knows what he's doing down in Miami and I wouldn't be too quick to write them off for the postseason, seeing as how we all did before this season even began.
The goal line stand was great for the Dolphins yesterday. I said 8-8 or 9-7 for this team. The last two games have been so much fun to watch after a year I wanted to move just so I could get other local games instead of them.
You can see it in their attitudes on the field that they are starting to believe in the ways of the Godfather.
The defense flew to the ball. Porter is playing like the player they expected last year and Roth is becoming something special at the LB position. Special teams is still a bit of a mess but will get worked out(special teams will cost them at least 2 games this year). The offense mainly the O-line looks solid. They are enjoying this new challenge of the wildcat formation. Chad is showing why he was signed for accurate reliable throws. When he has a running game and doesn't need to throw, throw and throw again he is as solid as any team could hope for out of a their starting QB.
I still think that this is a Bill Parcels run team. With Tony as the puppet(mainly because he doesn't have the experience behind him as a head coach). Meaning Tony calls the shots and does everything a coach does but behind the scenes gets coached about coaching from Bill. But as long as this project runs smoothly I see Bill leaving in the next 2 years and leaving behind a well rebuilt franchise.