For the first time this season, I can finally say, “It’s a beautiful day!”
Not just because the Dolphins had their first win of the season, but because they did so in incredible fashion against one of the teams I’ve despised for their un-sportsmen like conduct dating back to 1982. Ironically, the massive beatdown of these Nasty Patriots also included breaking their regular-season win streak previously held by the Dolphins (though only the Dolphins went undefeated AND won the Super Bowl).
Prior to Tom Brady’s season-ending knee injury, the chances of the Dolphins winning this game were about as good as, I don’t know, me ever willingly accompanying my wife to see this movie (she saw it with her girlfriends). But honestly, even with Brady on the sidelines, my hopes weren’t real high—especially after the heart-breaking Jets loss and the Pats two first wins. I’ll start believing now. (Side note: Regarding Brady, I don’t believe in karma, and while it’s tempting to entertain thoughts of AFC East rivals’ star players going on the disable list every time they play the ‘Phins I certainly don’t wish a career-threatening injury on anyone, but you just knew all that cheating on New England’s part was come going to come back to haunt them in a devastating fashion at some point.)
Not just because the Dolphins had their first win of the season, but because they did so in incredible fashion against one of the teams I’ve despised for their un-sportsmen like conduct dating back to 1982. Ironically, the massive beatdown of these Nasty Patriots also included breaking their regular-season win streak previously held by the Dolphins (though only the Dolphins went undefeated AND won the Super Bowl).
Prior to Tom Brady’s season-ending knee injury, the chances of the Dolphins winning this game were about as good as, I don’t know, me ever willingly accompanying my wife to see this movie (she saw it with her girlfriends). But honestly, even with Brady on the sidelines, my hopes weren’t real high—especially after the heart-breaking Jets loss and the Pats two first wins. I’ll start believing now. (Side note: Regarding Brady, I don’t believe in karma, and while it’s tempting to entertain thoughts of AFC East rivals’ star players going on the disable list every time they play the ‘Phins I certainly don’t wish a career-threatening injury on anyone, but you just knew all that cheating on New England’s part was come going to come back to haunt them in a devastating fashion at some point.)
But back to Ronnie Brown… Mr. Ronnie-War-Eagle-Who-Was-About-To-Live-Up-To-That-Top 3-Draft-Pick-Status-Until-Those-Nasty-Dirty-Playing-Patriots-Destroyed-His-Knee-For-The-Season-In-Last-Year’s-Game-Brown had the game of his life: 100+ yards with four touchdown runs (pretty much all on the same play each time) and a nice rollout pass to Anthony Fasano for another score. It was so nice to see the Run-Ronnie-Run-Ricky-Run show finally take off, with Ricky having a worthy game of his own after all we’ve experienced with him the last four years. But it was Ronnie who put on the finest performance any Dolphin back has had in recent memory. It brought back shades of Ricky’s back-to-back 200+ games in 2002, Lamar Smith’s 220 yards against the Colts in the 2000 playoffs (has it really been that long since they’ve been there?), and the nice productive showings from Bobby Humphrey, Mark Higgs, Cecil Collins, Troy Stradford, Sammie Smith, Bernie Parmalee, Irving Spikes, Terry Kirby, Karim Abdul Jabar, Lawrence Philips, John Avery, J.J. Johnson… Nope, that’s about it.
And to think that the secondary and offensive line showed up as well. Heck, even Tedd Ginn Jr. (I think I’ll stop referring to him with the junior because there’s little doubt it’s his dad out there playing) had a little flair with 50 yards worth of catches. Who would’ve imagined?
Like I said, it was a beautiful day. Questions as the bye week approaches:
1) Are there any more questions about whether there are enough snaps for Ronnie and Ricky to share?
2) Are Phillip Merling and Kendall Langford going to make us soon forget the pain of Jason Taylor leaving with their outstanding play these first three games?
3) Will Chad Pennington continue his consistent play? (It sure is nice to have that at QB—haven’t seen it with the past 10 play-callers, not since Jay Fiedler succeeded Dan Marino... yeah, a very long time… sad…)
4) Why didn’t we see Chad Henne get any action? (Not that I’m complaining about keeping the other Chad in to run up the score on Belichick).
5) What’s the most awkward pairing of Dolphin legends on recent TV commercials? Danny-Boy’s “I lost 22 pounds” Nutrisystem spot with Larry the Cable Guy? Or Don Shula’s bizarre, futuristic virtual football challenge with Jay-Z in a Budweiser ad? (Honestly, is there any plausibility to Shu losing to the man with the hard-knock life in that one? I mean, come on—if Beyonce’s beau cashed in all his bling to buy all the football strategy know-how he possibly could, Shula’s protruding chin alone could out-coach him… Though Jay-Z might not have drafted Eric Kumerow in the first round…
Let’s hope this is the beginning of the redemption tour of the only undefeated and almost-completely-defeated team in NFL history. It’s nice to feel good as a ‘Phin-philiac again.
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