FOF2K7: My quest to make the Miami Dolphins champions again!! - Page 2

DolphinFan1 · 01-18-2007, 12:20 AM

Sunny and 64 degrees and calm.

Cincinnati is favored by 4. They are rated #2 in power rankings and we are rated #12.

Injuries are the same with Pirrup out and the same inactives as they are playing well.

Up next: Gameday week four

DolphinFan1 · 01-18-2007, 12:22 AM

GAMEDAY:

Week four: Miami at Cincinnati:

1st QUARTER:

We stop them after an intial 1st down when Tigchelaar defends a pass.

On our 3rd play, Crichlow runs for 3 yards and fumbles and Cincinnati recovers at our 32. Not a good start.

Four plays later they make us pay with a TD pass and lead 7-0. (Just a note, former Dolphins receiver Lincoln High is playing for Cincinnati and he caught a 19 yard pass on the drive.)

We drive to the 9 yard line but stall and settle for the 26 yard FG to cut the lead to 7-3. Sanders converted 2 third downs to Swift early in the drive.

We stop them on 3 plays thanks to an unsportsmanlike penalty on them. We have the ball at our 34.

We end the 1st quarter with 2 consecutive false start penalties and start the 2nd with a 3rd and 15 at our 29.

2nd QUARTER:

We can't convert and have to punt. The penalties hurt.

They drive right down the field and have a 3rd and 16 at our 27 after a big sack. The 3rd down pass is dropped and we escape a bad defensive drive with only a FG allowed. We trail 10-3.

We only get one first down on our next drive and punt again.

After one 1st down we hold them to a punt. High dropped a pass on 2nd down. Nice to see all our former players are not superstars after I let them go.

A penalty on the return gives us the ball at our 9 yard line with 4 minutes to go in the half and down by 7.

Stupid, stupid! Sanders throws a bad pass which is intercepted at our 32 and returned to our 25. Not a good play when we just needed to run a little to get out of our own end.

They make us pay 5 plays later to take a 17-3 lead.

We make an attempt to get into FG range before the half but stall at their 47 and go into the locker room down 17-3.

In other games in our division: The Jets are winning by 7 at halftime, N.E. is trailing by 14 early in the 3rd and Buffalo is down by 13 in the 3rd.

3rd QUARTER:

We start the 2nd half with the ball trailing by 14. Sanders hits Cole for 13 to start the drive. Then he hits Antonides for 23 and he had 11 YAC. We have the ball at their 42. Another 23 yard pass to Antonides gives us a 1st down at the 19 yard line. Then a pass to Dunkelberger for 12 and we have a 1st and goal at the 7. A one yard loss by Newton followed by a 3 yard catch by Cole gives us a 3rd and goal at the 5. Sanders drops back and throws to Craig who catches it and gets to the endzone. We cut the lead to 17-10. Sanders was 6/6 for 79 yards and a TD pass. Impressive drive coming out of the locker room. Now let's see some defense.

The 1st play is a sack by Petkovich. 2nd play is an 8 yard catch by High which sets up a 3rd and 7 at their 25. Our defense steps up when Tigchelaar intercepts a pass at their 43 and returns it to the 17. We have our chance to tie the score.

Another stupid play by Sanders when on the 2nd play he is intercepted in the endzone. We are not even trying to run the ball.

They start to drive but we hold them but we have it at our 7 after the punt.

We go 3 and out and they have great field position at their 44.

We hold them after a 1st down but CB- Barkley goes down with an injury and doesn't return. We are already thin at CB with Pirrup out. That will hurt.

We have a 3rd and 1 at our 29 and Crichlow gets stopped for no gain. We need to convert those.

The end of the 3rd has us trailing 17-10 and they have a 2nd and 6 at their 43.

4th QUARTER:

They get to our 26 and we hold them to a FG try. We need to block this to keep it a one score game. They hit the 43 yard FG to extend the lead to 20-10. The Jets are still leading now by 14. N.E. and Buffalo are still trailing by double digits.

On a key third down and 8, Sanders is pressured and throws it deep to Swift. He makes the catch 25 yards and we have a 1st and 10 at the Cincinnati 43. On the following play, Sanders is sacked and loses the ball. Springer keeps us alive by recovering it at the 50. We can't recover from the sack and have to punt. The punt pins them at the 6. Maybe our defense can force a turnover deep in their territory.

They are eating up clock on this drive as we had a chance to stop them early on a 3rd and 10 from their 22 and they get 10 yards for the 1st. We finally force a punt at our 47 but their is only 3 minutes to go in the game and we trail by 10.

We can't get a 1st after 4 plays and lose it on downs.

We hold but they get a FG and lead 23-10 with 1:30 to play.

Just to make it interesting, Sanders completes a couple of long passes and then hits Swift for a 10 yard TD strike to cut the lead to 23-17 with 30 seconds to play. Now we just need to recover the onside kick and hit another bomb to win.

We can't recover the kick and the game is over. We lose 23-17. The Jets won. N.E. and Buffalo lost.

Notes, injuries and stats:

Barkley has a severe wrist sprain and is out for about 3 weeks. He was already starting in place of Pirrup who is out for 4 more weeks. So we have only 3 healthy CB.

OLB- Jerry Litingo, who we cut after preseason, was signed by the Jets.

Crichlow and Newton were an anemic 42 yards on 19 carries.
Sanders was 26/44 for 308 yards with 2 TD and 2 INT.
Our receivers played well:
Swift led the team with 7 catches for 95 yards and a TD.
Antonides had 5 catches for 83 yards.
Cole had 6 catches for 67 yards.
Alarcon had 10 tackles and 2 assists. (He's been a good pickup in place of Cochrane. Nice to see one of my trades is paying off.)
Petkovich had our only 2 sacks.

Buffalo comes to town next week with an 0-4 record. N.E. heads to Baltimore. The Jets go to Cincinnati. Now, Cincinnati is 4-0 and we just lost to them. So, you just know the Jets will win and Buffalo will play above their 0-4 record against us. We need to decide what to do about our CB situation. We won't have Pirrup and Barkley back until our bye week in 4 weeks.

We have moved up in the power rankings to #6 with 69.

Up next: 1st quarter of the season standings and team summary

DolphinFan1 · 01-18-2007, 12:30 AM

Standings after 4 weeks:

Code:


Front Office Football 2007
1977 Regular Season Standings
   
  AC North              W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
Cincinnati              4   0   0   1.000 81    50    3-0     1-0       
Baltimore               2   2   0   .500  61    69    2-1     1-0       
Pittsburgh              2   2   0   .500  57    48    2-1     0-1       
Cleveland               2   2   0   .500  66    74    2-1     0-1       
   
  AC South              W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
Jacksonville            3   1   0   .750  84    61    3-0     1-0       
Indianapolis            1   3   0   .250  111   114   1-2     1-0       
Tennessee               0   3   0   .000  44    68    0-2     0-1       
Houston                 0   4   0   .000  30    93    0-3     0-1       
   
  AC East               W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
Miami                   2   2   0   .500  106   114   2-1     1-0       
New York J              2   2   0   .500  73    91    2-1     1-0       
New England             1   3   0   .250  70    74    0-3     0-1       
Buffalo                 0   4   0   .000  47    88    0-3     0-1       
   
  AC West               W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
Oakland                 3   1   0   .750  71    54    2-1     1-0       
Denver                  2   2   0   .500  90    98    2-1     1-0       
San Diego               2   2   0   .500  79    92    2-1     0-1       
Kansas City             1   2   0   .333  57    55    0-2     0-1       
   
  NC North              W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
Chicago                 2   1   0   .667  67    37    1-1     1-0       
Detroit                 2   2   0   .500  50    61    1-2     1-0       
Green Bay               1   3   0   .250  75    82    1-2     0-1       
Minnesota               1   3   0   .250  62    82    0-3     0-1       
   
  NC South              W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
Tampa Bay               4   0   0   1.000 126   30    3-0     1-0       
New Orleans             3   1   0   .750  73    58    3-0     1-0       
Atlanta                 3   1   0   .750  92    72    2-1     0-1       
Carolina                3   1   0   .750  80    60    2-1     0-1       
   
  NC East               W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
Philadelphia            4   0   0   1.000 118   56    3-0     1-0       
Washington              2   2   0   .500  85    74    2-1     1-0       
Dallas                  2   2   0   .500  88    81    1-2     0-1       
New York G              0   3   0   .000  37    66    0-2     0-1       
   
  NC West               W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
San Francisco           3   1   0   .750  65    70    2-1     1-0       
St. Louis               2   2   0   .500  74    82    1-2     1-0       
Arizona                 2   2   0   .500  60    80    1-2     0-1       
Seattle                 1   3   0   .250  53    98    0-3     0-1

Team summary after 4 weeks:

Code:


Front Office Football 2007
1977 Summary for Miami Dolphins
   
Year                1977                                      
Record              2-2                                       
Winning Pct.        .500                                      
All-Time            43-73                                     
Winning Pct.        .370                                      
Playoffs            1-1                                       
Playoff Visits      1                                         
Bowl Wins           0                                         
Head Coach          Ellis Fairfield                           
Record              36-80                                     
Winning Pct.        .310                                      
Off. Coord.         C. Blake                                  
Def. Coord.         R. Reid                                   
   
Miami Dolphins          Team      Rank  
Rushes per Game         24.8      21          
Rushing Yards           103.0     21          
Yards Per Carry         4.16      11          
Pass Attempts           31.8      20          
Completions             19.5      16 (T)      
Completion Pct.         61.4      11          
Passing Yards           234.5     6           
Yards Per Attempt       7.39      4           
Yards Per Catch         12.03     7           
Total Yardage Gained    327.3     11          
3rd Down Conversions    38.0      7           
Points Per Game         26.5      4           
Pass Rush Pct.          9.6       5           
Pass Defense Pct.       62.8      28          
Turnovers               8         23 (T)      
Turnover Margin         -2        23 (T)      
   
Opponents               Team      Rank  
Rushes per Game         26.5      15          
Rushing Yards           99.8      10          
Yards Per Carry         3.76      11          
Pass Attempts           39.8      30          
Completions             24.0      30          
Completion Pct.         60.4      20          
Passing Yards           243.3     27          
Yards Per Attempt       6.12      17          
Yards Per Catch         10.14     14          
Total Yardage Gained    334.5     26          
3rd Down Conversions    39.7      27          
Points Per Game         28.5      31 (T)      
Pass Rush Pct.          4.9       3           
Pass Defense Pct.       68.3      14          
Turnovers               6         11 (T)      
   
Week  Team  Versus        Oppnt  
1     31    at NED        23      
2     10    at TBY        37      
3     48    IND           31      
4     17    at CIN        23      
5           BUF                   
6           at CLE                
7           PIT                   
9           NED                   
10          BAL                   
11          at NYJ                
12          CAR                   
13          at KCY                
14          ATL                   
15          NYJ                   
16          at NOS                
17          at BUF                
   
Passing                 Pos   Att   Comp  Yards Y/Att TD    Int   Rate  
7 D. Sanders            QB    127   78    938   7.39  9     4     94.5    
**Team                  ---   127   78    938   7.39  9     4     94.5    
$$Opp                   ---   159   96    973   6.12  10    5     85.7    
   
Rushing                 Pos   Att   Yards Y/Att TD    Fum  
32 N. Newton            RB    75    332   4.43  3     1       
46 K. Crichlow          RB    20    74    3.70  0     1       
**Team                  ---   99    412   4.16  3     6       
$$Opp                   ---   106   399   3.76  2     4       
   
Receiving               Pos   Targ  Catch Yards Y/Ctc Y/Tar Drop  TD  
87 C. Swift             WR    26    17    281   16.53 10.81 1     4       
85 P. Antonides         WR    26    16    230   14.38 8.85  2     0       
88 F. Cole              WR    24    15    196   13.07 8.17  1     3       
32 N. Newton            RB    23    14    68    4.86  2.96  1     1       
86 O. Dunkelberger      TE    14    9     99    11.00 7.07  2     0       
   
Defense                 Pos   Tack  Asst  Sack  Hurr  Ints  Defn  PDPct  
95 L. Alarcon           ILB   31    7     0.0   0     0     2     73.6    
37 C. Pearson           S     18    2     0.0   0     1     3     73.7    
99 R. Petkovich         DT    16    3     2.0   2     0     0     79.8    
44 R. Tigchelaar        S     15    4     0.0   0     1     2     87.2    
56 T. Dellinger         OLB   14    6     0.0   0     0     1     73.4    
57 M. Kimbrell          OLB   13    8     1.0   1     0     0     71.1    
25 A. Barton            CB    10    4     0.0   0     1     0     82.4    
75 N. Dobbins           DT    10    2     1.0   1     0     1     82.4    
33 R. Barkley           CB    10    0     0.0   0     1     0     79.0    
93 E. McWilliams        DE    8     2     0.5   8     0     0     79.7    
77 H. Hughes            DE    7     4     1.5   6     0     0     81.7    
43 A. Terry             CB    7     2     0.0   0     1     1     82.1    
55 L. Franz             OLB   6     2     0.0   0     0     0     62.3    
41 B. Pirrup            CB    5     2     0.0   0     0     3     81.1    
42 P. Lane              S     5     4     0.0   0     0     0     78.2    
72 D. Ward              DE    4     0     0.0   1     0     0     82.5    
92 S. Goodwin           DT    4     1     0.0   2     0     0     82.5    
28 A. Harrison          S     4     1     0.0   0     0     0     59.0

All things considered we are not in too bad of shape. Tied for the division lead and winning our 1st division game in week one. We just need to keep it together.

Up Next: Buffalo

SFL Cat · 01-18-2007, 09:32 PM

If you really want to get the Fins over the hump, hire Nick Saban!!!

DolphinFan1 · 01-21-2007, 10:33 PM

Sunny, 69 degrees and calm.

We are favored by 12. We are #6 in power rankings and Buffalo is #31.

I decide there is no one on the FA wire who is better than our current CB. Unless someone else goes down we will go with what we have. The rookie Terry will start at LCB opposite Barton in place of the injured Pirrup and Barkley. The other inactives are Chavarria, Hancock, Chandiramani, Ramirez and Gilmore.

Up next: Gameday, Buffalo at Miami

DolphinFan1 · 01-21-2007, 10:34 PM

GAMEDAY:

1977 WEEK FIVE: BUFFALO AT MIAMI:

1ST QUARTER:

One note as we start the game. Tudrick is starting for them once again. He did fairly well against us last year. Let's change that.

Our defense holds them to a 3 and out when Pearson defends a pass on 3rd down.

But once again we fumble the punt return (Tigchelaar) and they recover at our 39. A few plays later they turn it into a TD. You see why I was worried about an 0-4 team. We just can't fumble the ball.

Sanders puts together a nice drive mixing the run and pass and we have a 3rd and goal at the 3 yard line. He then throws a screen pass to Craig which goes nowhere and actually lost a yard. We have to settle for the short FG. We trail 7-3. We need to punch those in.

The quarter ends with our defense going to sleep and they are at our 21 with a 1st down.

2nd QUARTER:

We are making a former Dolphin (Tudrick) look like a HOFer again. He completes three 3rd and longs for 1st downs on this drive. The last for a 17 yard TD. We trail 14-3.

On a big 3rd and 7 at our 24, with the risk of giving the ball right back, Sanders hits Cole on a 16 yard pass and a 1st down. Another key 3rd down converted as Sanders hit Crichlow for 4 yards on a 3rd and 2. We have a 1st down at their 48. Once again a 3rd and 2 at the 40 and Sanders comes through with a 19 yard completion to Antonides. Newton gets us to the one yard line and Sanders hits Blanda on the one yard TD pass and we cut the lead to 14-10. Great drive by Sanders.

On the 1st play we get a TFL and force a fumble but they recover it. That would have been a great opportunity late in the half. A dropped pass and a short completion and we force a punt. The punt is short and we have great field position at our 44 with a chance to take the lead with 3:30 to play in the half.

The 1st play is a 23 yard pass to Antonides. Five more yards to Dunkelberger and we have a 2nd and 5 at the Buffalo 28. The next play Sander throws a long pass to Swift. He catches the 28 yard TD pass and we take the lead 17-14 with 2 minutes to play in the half.

We force a punt after 3 plays and have the ball at our 28 with just over 1 minute to play in the half.

Looks like we are content to go into the locker room with the lead with a running play and a short screen pass. However, on the short screen pass to Blanda, he breaks a tackle and gets 25 yards. We have a 1st and 10 at the Buffalo 44 with 44 seconds to play. But on the next play, Sanders throws an interception at the 38 and they have it at their 45.

They try to get into FG range but run out of time. We go into the locker room leading 17-14. We lost a great opportunity there.

In other games, Cincinnati is leading the Jets 10-0 and Baltimore is leading N.E. 10-6.

3rd QUARTER:

We get the ball to start the 2nd half and our receivers pick up where they left off. Sanders hits Antonides on a 32 yard pass which 17 was after the catch and a broken tackle. That puts Antonides over 100 yards receiving on the day on 5 catches. Two more nice passes to Swift gives us a 1st and goal at the 10. The next play is a pitch to Newton which Mohr creates a hole and he gets the 10 yard TD run and a 24-14 lead. Great way to start the 2nd half.

A big sack by Petkovich and Hughes on 3rd down forces a punt and we get the ball right back.

We try to run it twice and only gain 2 yards and fail to complete the pass on 3rd down and they have the ball at their 14 after the punt.

They are ripping off yardage and have a 3rd and 7 at our 38 when we force an incompletion on a QB pressure. However we are offsides and they have another chance. They try to run and we hold. Incredible, we stopped a 3rd and short. But they go for it on a 4th and 1 at our 32 and get the 1st down. But wait...an offensive holding call brings it back! Finally a call goes our way. They punt.

Baltimore extends their lead on N.E. to 17-6 and Cincinnati has a 16-0 lead on the Jets. N.E. is in the 4th and the Jets are late in the 3rd.

We are getting nothing on the ground and a false start gives us a 2nd and 17 at our 13. But Sanders hits Antonides again, this time for 22 yards. Another 17 to Antonides and we have a 1st and 10 at their 48. Again a loss of yards on the 1st down run and then another false start. We have another 2nd and long. Antonides catches another pass for 13 yards which gives us a 3rd and 5 at the Buffalo 43. Sanders is over 300 yards and Antonides is over 150 yards. On the 3rd down play Sanders looks for who else but Antonides. He finds him for a short gain but he is open and gets 37 yards after the catch and the 43 yard TD. That drive was all Sanders and Antonides. We lead 31-14 to end the 3rd.

4th QUARTER:

They drive to our 37 but we hold.

Our 1st play is a pass to Newton for 26 yards. We have a 3rd and 19 and Sanders finds Antonides again but only for 11 yards and we have to punt.

N.E. has cut the lead to 17-12 at Baltimore late in the 4th. Cincinnati still leads by 16 against the Jets.

We stop them on three plays and Barton gets a 7 yard sack on 3rd down. They go for it on 4th and long at their 18 and we hold them. We have it at their 29 with 8 minutes to play in the game leading 31-14.

We run the ball on every play and get one 1st down but have to settle for a long FG try. But we took a lot of time off the clock. Hammond misses the 38 yard try. We still lead 31-14 with 3:16 to play.

Incidently this game, most of the passes into double coverage are not completed. Strange.

We stop them on a 4th down and have the ball with 2 minutes to play.

Kolodziejski gets some work in the game now. He's just in their to hand off and we get a 1st down and Buffalo uses their timeouts and we take some knees to end it. We win 31-14.

I switch to the other games in the division. Just as I switch to the N.E. game they complete a last second drive to win the game 18-17. The Jets lost so we still have a 1 game lead in the division.

This was a great game by the team after the early fumble and we let them take a 14-3 lead. Sanders and Antonides had great games. Newton couldn't get anything on the ground. The OL didn't allow a sack and DL put pressure on Tudrick all day even with only 2 sacks.

Other notes, injuries and stats:

Sanders was the player of the game: 24/28 for 384 yards with 3 TDs and 1 int.
Antonides had 10 catches for 213 yards and 1 TD with 78 YAC.
Swift added 63 yards and a TD.
Newton had an anemic 2.05 ypc.
Crichlow had 8 rushes for 43 yards.

On the injury front, Barkley is 2 weeks away. Pirrup is ahead of schedule as he is also about 2 weeks away. He is probable this week but I don't want to risk it. Terry played decent in his place.
No new injuries.

UP next: We try to keep it going as we head to Cleveland

DolphinFan1 · 01-22-2007, 12:18 PM

Sunny and 60 degrees with a 1 MPH wind.

We are favored by 6.

We have moved up to 73 and #5 in the power rankings. Cleveland is 44 and #21.

We will use the same lineup as last week as I don't want to risk Pirrup.

We are facing the #1 pick in this year's draft: NT- Ricky Droughns.

The Jets travel to play N.E. this week so we need to win to hold our 1 game lead. They are both 2-3. Buffalo plays Pittsburgh.

Up next: Gameday Week 6

DolphinFan1 · 01-22-2007, 02:06 PM

GAMEDAY:

1977 WEEK 6: MIAMI AT CLEVELAND:

1st QUARTER:

Cleveland starts with the ball and takes it to us and finishes with a 29 yard TD run and the early 7-0 lead.

Sanders hits Cole on a 3rd down play to keep the drive alive. Then on a 3rd and long from the Cleveland 32, Sanders hits Swift on a 32 yard TD pass to tie the score.

Our defense holds them to 3 plays this time but the punt pins us at our 3 yard line.

Newton gets us out of trouble with a 15 yard run. He broke 2 tackles. It's about time as he hasn't done anything for 2 games. Another 3rd down play and Sanders hits Antonides for just enough yardage for the 1st down. The passing game is starting to open up some running lanes as Newton and Crichlow run for 10 and 15 yards respectively on successive plays to give us a 1st and 10 at the Cleveland 28. Another 6 yard run and that ends the 1st quarter with the score 7-7 but we are at the 22.

2nd QUARTER:

Newton continues with a 13 yard run to give us a 1st and goal at the 9. A sack pushes us back to the 15, but it doesn't matter as on the next play Sanders hits Blanda on a 15 yard TD pass for the 14-7 lead. Two great drives to start the game for our offense.

Our defense isn't too sharp today as they move down the field until McWilliams pressures the QB on a 3rd down at our 33 and we hold. They punt instead of trying the 50 yard FG and we have it at our 20.

An offensive holding call stalls our drive and we punt it right back. A big return gives them the ball at our 45.

We can't stop them and they tie the score at 14.

We go 3 and out and have to give it right back to them at the 2 minute warning. A good punt pins them at their 9.

The clock runs out and we go into the locker room tied at 14.

Our offense went to sleep after the 1st two drives. We get the ball to start the 2nd half. We need a statement drive.

At halftime, N.E. leads the Jets by 4 and surprisingly, Buffalo leads Pittsburgh by 3.

3rd QUARTER:

A short KO gives us the ball at our 42 to start. Let's make it work. A short run and then a 29 yard pass to Antonides, with 13 coming after the catch, gives us the ball at their 26. A key 3rd and 11 and Sanders hits Swift on a 22 yard pass. We have a 1st and goal at the 5 yard line. Two plays later Sanders finds Swift again on a 3 yard TD pass and we have a 21-14 lead. Swift has 5 catches for 83 yards and 2 TD.

Our offense woke up to start the 2nd half but our defense is still asleep as they start with a 47 yard pass. Our defense is anemic as they take it right down the field for the tieing score. I need to rethink our CB situation next week. I may need to play Pirrup at less than 100%.

It just gets worse as Sanders throws an interception at our 37 on a 3rd down play and our defense, (if you want to call it that), is right back on the field. Our defense stops them on 3rd down but not before they get enough yardage to hit the 46 yard FG and the 24-21 lead.

Another short KO gives us the ball at our 44 to start. Newton rips one for 15 yards and we are in Cleveland territory. A nine yard pass and another 10 on the ground from Newton gives us a 1st down at the Cleveland 22. Two more runs give us a 1st and 10 at the 12 to end the 3rd.

4th QUARTER:

Two plays and we have a 3rd and 1 at the 3. The give is to Crichlow and he can't get the yard. We settle for the short FG and the tie at 24.

Our defense had an easy time as Cleveland committed 4 false starts on the drive and we force a quick punt.

We start at our 44 with 11 to play in the game and tied at 24. 3rd and 5 at our 49 and Sanders comes through again to Swift for 6 yards and the 1st down. The next play is a screen pass that goes nowhere and Newton fumbles the ball. Dunkelberger is alert however and we keep the ball. A 3rd and 1 at the 36 and Blanda catches one for 4 yards and a 1st down. A few plays later we have a 3rd and 2 at the 4. Sanders hits Crichlow on a pass but for only 1 yard and we have a 4th and 1 at the 3. Hammond hits the short FG and we take the lead 27-24 with 5 minutes to play.

The 2nd play they hit a 31 yard pass and they have a 1st down at our 44. McWilliams steps up and sacks the QB on successive plays to set up a 3rd and 20 at their own 46. They only get one yard on the short pass and our defense holds.

After the punt we have the ball at our 23 with 2:53 to play and a 3 point lead. We just need to run out the clock. The first play is a run for one yard. On 2nd and 9, Newton breaks one for 28 yards and we have a 1st down at the Cleveland 48. A false start pushes us back but Newton rips another long gain this time for 22 and Cleveland spends their last timeout. Another 1st down running the ball and we run out the clock. WE WIN 27-24!!!

Big win for this team.

I switch games to catch the Jets finish off the Patriots. Pittsburgh just scored to take the lead against Buffalo. They hold on to win.

Stats, notes and injuries:

QB- Glen Perry was signed by Jacksonville.

Notes, stats and injuries:

McWilliams DPOW with 4 tackles, 1 assist, 2 knockdowns, 1 hurry and 3 sacks. He was the reason we won the game at the end when he sacked the QB twice on Cleveland's last drive at our 44.
Sanders was 27/33 for 261 yards with 3 TD and 1 Int. and player of game. Strange as McWilliams was player of week.
Newton had 153 yards on 22 carries after a very slow start.
Antonides had 97 yards on 7 catches and Swift added 92 yards on 7 catches but 2 TD.
Hammond hit both FG and the game winner late. Great pressure kick.
Our OL only allowed one sack.
Lee was 4/6 on KRB with 1 pancake block.
Springer was 3/6 on KRB with 1 pancake block.
Green was 3/5 on KRB.

This was a team win as the offense kept us in the game until the defense woke up and then the defense held on for the win.
Another key was we held the #1 pick Droughns to only 3 tackles. That's it.

We are 4-2 and are in 1st place by one game. We play a 3-3 Pittsburgh team at home this week before our bye week. It would be nice to be 5-2 at our break and leading the division.
No new injuries and Pirrup and Barkley are probable and about 1 week away from full strength. Our coaching staff think there is a low chance of reinjury. I will risk it as we need the win before our bye week.

Other notes through 6 games:

Sanders has his career best in completion pct. so far. Also 15 TD is a career high as is his QB rating at 107. Let's hope he keeps it up.
Swift has been the scoring machine with 7 TD through 6 games.
FA pickup Cole only has 18 catches for 236 yards, but 9 catches on 3rd down and 7 converted for 1st downs. That's been key for us to have a key 3rd down target.
Hammond is 8/10 on FG with his only misses are one for 38 and 1 over 50. I can live with that. Better than last year's kicker.

Up next: We face Pittsburgh before our bye week.

DolphinFan1 · 01-24-2007, 09:03 AM

Sunny, 90 degrees and a 9 MPH wind. Hopefully the heat will wear them down.

Power rankings we are a 71 and moved up to #4. Pittsburgh is #22.

We are favored by 8.

Injuries: Pirrup and Barkley are probable and both are active this week with Pirrup starting.
Inactives: Chavarria, Hancock, Chandiramani, Ramirez, Gilmore, Fredrickson and Harrison.

The Jets play Cleveland at home, both are 3-3. N.E. (2-4) play a 5-0 Cincinnati team at home. Buffalo (0-6) travels to Baltimore (2-4).

Up next: Week 7 Gameday

DolphinFan1 · 01-24-2007, 09:05 AM

GAMEDAY:

1977 WEEK 7: PITTSBURGH AT MIAMI:

1st QUARTER:

Pittsburgh gets the ball to start and a penalty starts them at their 14. Two quick first downs before we stop them on a 3rd and 6. The punt pins us at our 8.

Newton starts us off with a 14 yard run with a key block by Mohr. Another 8 yards on a block by Burford. A third straight run for 2 yards and the 1st down. Springer with the block. The next play is an 11 yard completion to Cole when Pittsburgh plays the run. Another 8 yard pass to Newton this time and we have a 2nd and 2 at the Pittsburgh 49. No gain on the next run. A bad pass on 3rd down and we stall. But a nice drive to get us out of bad field position. A chance to pin them deep, but the punt goes into the endzone.

Our defense holds them to 3 plays when Kimbrell hurries the QB.

A great return by Tigchelaar to the Pittsburgh 21 is nullified on a holding on the return. We start at our 39. Newton continues where he left off the 1st drive with 2 runs of 9 and 12 yards. But then Sanders throws an interception at the Pittsburgh 22. That's two good chances lost.

A 4 yard run then a sack by Dobbins and Dellinger sets up a 3rd and 11 at the Pittsburgh 21. Hughes tips the 3rd down pass away and we hold them to another 3 and out.

We start at our 39 again. A 1st down run goes nowhere. Then Sanders hits Swift for 30 yards. Our OL is blocking well as Newton rips another 7 yards. Mohr creates an opening and Newton has another 6 yards. He finally is stopped for a 1 yard loss and a dropped pass to Swift sets up a 3rd and 11 at the Pittsburgh 21. Sanders runs for it and only gets 4 yards. We will settle for the 34 yard FG try. Hammond hits the FG for the 3-0 lead at the end of the 1st quarter.

In other games, Baltimore is leading Buffalo 14-7, Cincinnati leads N.E. 7-0, and the Jets are leading Cleveland 3-0.

2nd QUARTER:

Pittsburgh starts the 2nd a big run, but it is called back on a penalty. A 2nd and long pass into double coverage is incomplete and they have a 3rd and 17 at their 15. We have a chance to put their defense right back out their on this hot day. They can't complete the pass and we force a 3 and out again.

A short punt and good return by Tigchelaar gives us the ball at the Pittsburgh 30. They are expecting the pass, but we keep it on the ground. Mohr creates a huge hole for Newton who gets 16 more to give us a 1st and 10 at the 14. Two more yards gives us a 2nd and 8 at the 12. Our OL finally caves a little and gives up a 7 yard sack. We have a 3rd and 15 at the 19. A short pass to Antonides only gives us 6 yards. We will settle for the 30 yard FG try. Hammond hits it and we lead 6-0. I hope these chances don't come back to bite us.

On the positive side, Newton is a monster today. He has 73 yards on 12 carries through 1 1/2 quarters.

Baltimore is all over Buffalo 28-7. N.E. has tied Cincinnati at 7 and the Jets and Cleveland are tied at 3.

A big KO is a touchback and they start at their 20. Our defense is playing well again but they get the 3rd down conversion for just enough yards. Another 3rd down, Ward sacks the QB and we hold. The punt gives us the ball at our 38.

I like our coach's offensive playcalling in this one. They are playing the run, and rightfully so. But our coach calls a pass and Sanders hits Swift to 17 yards. Back to the ground for 4 and then another pass to Swift for 20 more. We have a 1st and 10 at the 21. Two short runs sets up 3rd and 6 at the 17. Sanders hits Burford for only 3 and we have to settle for another FG. Hammond hits the 31 yard FG and we lead 9-0. We are moving the ball well but keep stalling. The way this is going, Hammond is going to be our MVP of this game even with Newton's great runs.

Two nice stops on runs gives them a 3rd and 9. Then McWilliams pressures the QB and they have to punt and we get the ball right back with 2:51 to play in the half and we get the ball to start the 2nd half.

On a 3rd and 7, Mohr creates a hole and Newton rips another 18 yards. Two short passes gives us a 3rd and 6 at the Pittsburgh 44 with 20 seconds to play in the half. A 3rd down pass to Swift is dropped and we lose a great opportunity. The 1st half ends with us leading 9-0. We really dominated the game so far but failed to punch it in.

In the other division games:

Baltimore 35, Buffalo 10 late in the 2nd quarter.
New Engand 14, Cincinnati 7 late in the 2nd quarter.
Cleveland 10, N.Y. Jets 10 middle of the 2nd quarter.

3rd QUARTER:

We start the 2nd half with the ball at our 28. A 6 yard pass to Antonides and then 8 yards on the ground by Newton. Newton is over 100 yards already. Crichlow gets 5 yards but coughs it up and Pittsburgh recovers it at our 32. Costly turnover when we are really dominating the game. Let's see if our defense can hold them.

Our defense holds them to dump off passes and we hold. But they hit the 43 yard FG to cut our lead to 9-3. But it could have been worse. Our pass defense is much better today as their QB is only 6/13 for 27 yards. But that could be a combination of a bad QB or receivers.

Our offense goes 3 and out and we have to punt the ball right back to them.

A good punt gives them the ball at their 23. Just as I praise our pass defense, they proceed to move down the field and with the help of an unnecessary roughness penalty gives them a 1st and 10 at our 19. They finish the drive with a TD and what was once a 9-0 halftime lead is a 10-9 deficit. I said we needed TD not FG earlier.

Back to the ground for 8 yards and then a pass to Antonides for 18 and we have a 1st down at our 48. Crichlow makes up for his earlier blunder and rips one for 16 yards with a key block from Springer. We lose 3 yards and then 2 incomplete passes and we stall at the Pittsburgh 39. A promising drive ends in a punt. But a nice punt by Singleton pins them at their 5. Let's see if our defense can make something happen.

We stop them on the first two plays and they have a 3rd and 6 at their 9. Time for our defense to play like they did in the 1st half. That's how the 3rd quarter ends.

Baltimore is still killing Buffalo. N.E. and Cincinnati are tied at 14. Cleveland leads the Jets by 7.

4th QUARTER:

The 3rd down pass is stopped short by a yard by Alarcon but we get called for defensive holding and they get the automatic 1st down. That's a killer penalty. That penalty seems to have deflated our defense as they move it at will to our 31 with a 1st down. Another 1st down at our 20. Finally a play as Franz sacks the QB for 8 yards. But we still need to hold. We hold them on 3rd down and they will settle for the 34 yard FG try. They hit it to extend the lead to 13-9 with 9 minutes to play in the game. If we had just converted one of those FG into a TD we would be tied right now. But no use crying over spilt milk. Our defense has played surprisingly well and kept us in the game. Time for the offense to put a TD drive together to win this game.

Crichlow returns it to our 38 and fumbles the ball....NO! But he recovers his own fumble. His job is on the line. I will not accept these fumbles. The 1st play is a screen pass to Newton for 8 yards. A 3 yard run by Newton and we have a 1st down. Money man Antonides catches one for 17 and we have a 1st and 10 at the Pittsburgh 34. A short pass for 2 and then an incomplete pass sets up a 3rd and 8 at the 32. This is a key 3rd down here with 6 minutes to play. An incredible play as Sanders hits Newton for the 8 yard completion and just enough for the 1st down. But we lost center Mohr on the play. That could hurt us. We have a 1st and 10 at 24. 1st down is an incomplete pass to Cole. Someone needs to step up for a TD. We have settled for FG all day and that won't cut it being down by 4. A 2nd down pass to Antonides is knocked down which sets up another big 3rd down at the 24. Sanders hits Swift, but for only 4 yards and we stall again. We have a 4th and 6 at the 20, down by 4 with 5 to play. What will our coach do? He decides on the FG to cut the lead to one and then hoping to get the ball back and a FG to win it. Hammond lines up for the 37 yarder....and he misses is to the right. UGH! His 2nd miss from under 40, but at a really bad time. We still trail by 4.

A couple of big plays eats up yardage and clock but we hold.

But we are in a hole. We have it at our 7 yard line with 2 minutes to play and one timeout. Well, time for these high priced offensive guys to make it happen. First down pass to Swift is dropped. He picked a bad time to have butterfingers. He's been money all season. Then Dunkelberger drops a pass. What is going on? The 3rd down pass to Swift is intercepted and that will end our chance to win this one. We lose 13-9.

I switch to the other games in our division. Buffalo is still losing big. N.E. is trailing by 3 but Cincinnati has the ball late. The Jets trail Cleveland by 14. We lost a great opportunity to open up a lead in our division if these scores hold up.

The scores do hold up, everyone in our division lost. So this loss hurt. Especially when we only managed 3 FG when we moved the ball easily in the 1st half. The turning point was the opening drive of the 2nd when Crichlow fumbled deep in our own end. Our defense held them to a FG but the momentum shifted to Pittsburgh and we never recovered.

Other notes, stats and injuries:

I am happy with the defense and how they played limiting Pittsburgh to only 13 points. If you give up only 13 you will win most games. And our OL was blocking excellent for Newton. We just need to finish the drives.

On the injury front. Pirrup and Barkley are now 100% and risking playing them didn't hurt us. They beefed up our defense even if we lost.
We lost center Mohr for 4 weeks with a strained foot ligament. So the rookie Hickman will start in his place. He is a step down from Mohr, but not terrible.

Sanders finished the day 18/30 for 162 yards and 2 int. Definitely not as well as he's played so far.
Newton had 121 yards on 22 carries and he added 4 catches for 24 yards.
Swift added 71 yards and Antonides had 47 yards. But Swift had 3 dropped passes.
Alarcon had 9 tackles and 3 assists.
Our OL was a force today. 12/23 with only 1 SA. Better than 50% blocking. If we do that every week we will win most games.

This lose hurt but we head into our bye week with a one game lead in the division. Something we haven't been able to do in previous years. After the bye week, N.E. comes to town and we have a chance to sweep them.

Since our bye week is only one week away from the midpoint of the season, it's a good time to evaluate where we are, where we need to be, standings and stuff.

UP next: Standing, team summary and roster report

DolphinFan1 · 01-24-2007, 11:36 AM

Code:


Front Office Football 2007
1977 Regular Season Standings
   
  AC North              W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
Cincinnati              6   0   0   1.000 121   78    5-0     1-0       
Cleveland               4   3   0   .571  153   118   4-2     1-1       
Pittsburgh              4   3   0   .571  91    100   4-2     0-2       
Baltimore               3   3   0   .500  120   104   3-2     1-0       
   
  AC South              W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
Jacksonville            4   2   0   .667  125   112   4-1     2-1       
Indianapolis            4   3   0   .571  196   182   4-2     2-0       
Tennessee               2   4   0   .333  123   118   2-3     0-2       
Houston                 0   7   0   .000  64    162   0-6     0-1       
   
  AC East               W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
Miami                   4   3   0   .571  173   165   4-2     2-0       
New York J              3   4   0   .429  114   154   3-3     2-0       
New England             2   5   0   .286  126   139   1-5     0-2       
Buffalo                 0   7   0   .000  88    175   0-6     0-2       
   
  AC West               W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
Oakland                 4   2   0   .667  115   90    3-2     1-1       
Denver                  3   3   0   .500  131   139   3-2     1-0       
San Diego               3   3   0   .500  126   125   3-2     1-1       
Kansas City             2   4   0   .333  100   121   1-4     0-1       
   
  NC North              W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
Chicago                 4   2   0   .667  107   88    3-2     2-0       
Detroit                 3   4   0   .429  93    126   2-4     1-1       
Green Bay               2   5   0   .286  125   142   2-4     1-1       
Minnesota               1   5   0   .167  85    140   0-5     0-2       
   
  NC South              W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
Tampa Bay               6   0   0   1.000 179   56    5-0     1-0       
Carolina                5   2   0   .714  131   110   4-2     1-1       
New Orleans             4   2   0   .667  129   114   4-1     1-0       
Atlanta                 3   3   0   .500  119   123   2-3     0-2       
   
  NC East               W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
Philadelphia            7   0   0   1.000 192   93    6-0     2-0       
Washington              3   3   0   .500  119   88    3-2     1-1       
Dallas                  3   4   0   .429  136   137   2-4     0-2       
New York G              2   4   0   .333  95    95    2-3     1-1       
   
  NC West               W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
San Francisco           5   2   0   .714  130   141   4-2     2-0       
Arizona                 3   3   0   .500  77    117   2-3     0-2       
St. Louis               3   4   0   .429  144   142   2-4     1-1       
Seattle                 2   5   0   .286  107   140   1-5     1-1

Team Roster and notes:

Code:


Front Office Football 2007
Miami Dolphins Roster, Scout Overview
   
  Player                #   Pos   Start Exp  Current Future  Cntrct 
Sanders, Darrell        7   QB    QB    11   36       36     3 yrs
Kolodziejski, Benjamin  18  QB          2    26       55     2 yrs
Winters, Monty          13  QB          1    14       40     4 yrs

Sanders has played well above his rating of 36. He has a career
high for TD through 7 games. Kolodziejski has been the backup
and Winters the 3rd QB. Neither has thrown a pass. Kolodziejski
has improved 3 in current and Winters 2 in current. Sanders 
will continue to start as he is playing well enough to take 
us to the playoffs. 

Newton, Neal            32  RB    RB    2    77       77     4 yrs
Crichlow, Kurt          46  RB          7    43       43     1 yr.
Craig, Edwin            31  RB          2    25       25     2 yrs

Newton has dropped 3 in future but is fully developed. Craig 
has dropped 8 to 25. Newton has 651 yards and 4 TD with a 
4.62 YPC so far. Definitely our #1 weapon. Crichlow has been
a solid 3rd down back and relief for Newton, but he needs to 
hang on to the ball. Craig looks to be a career bench player.
He was a decent 3rd down option last year, but Crichlow has
filled that role. 

Blanda, Darryl          29  FB    FB    7    43       43     2 yrs
Needham, Marcus         39  FB          1    24       47     1 yr.

Blanda has started all 7 games and done a good job blocking. 
Needham has improved 1 in current and could be a starter for
us later. 

Dunkelberger, Oliver    86  TE    TE    7    50       50     2 yrs
Burford, Kenneth        84  TE          5    49       49     2 yrs
##Chavarria, Patrick    82  TE          6    30       33     1 yr.

Dunkelberger and Burford have done a good job so far. Chavarria
has been deactive all season. I don't think he will be with
the team next year. 

Antonides, Phillip      85  FL    FL    4    56       56     5 yrs
Cole, Freddie           88  FL          6    42       42     1 yr.
Nishioka, Dana          3   FL          1    26       45     1 yr.
Swift, C.J.             87  SE    SE    3    41       41     4 yrs
##Hancock, Glen         5   SE          1    21       45     1 yr.

Here is where our playmakers are besides Newton. Antonides has
fully developed. He has been our go to guy for YAC and Swift
has been the TD machine. Cole has been our 3rd down guy. All
three of these players will continue to play extensively for
the rest of the year. Nishioka has been the 4th receiver but
only has two catches for 37 yards with 9 targets. Hancock 
has been deactive all season, but I will give him a chance
with Nishioka being a non factor. If Cole keeps on his pace, 
I will have to offer him a contract next year. 

**Mohr, Derrick         59  C     C     12   76       76     2 yrs
Hickman, Everett        52  C           1    35       60     3 yrs

Mohr has been the starter all year, but with his injury for 
4 weeks, Hickman will play. Hickman has improved 3 in current.
He should turn out to be a decent center. 

Springer, Mitch         74  LG    LG    6    69       69     3 yrs
##Chandiramani, Craig   78  LG          1    19       35     1 yr.
Lee, J.B.               68  RG    RG    7    57       57     4 yrs
Snyder, Shannon         79  RG          2    22       44     2 yrs

Our starting G are playing solid. Snyder has played limited 
duty in a backup role. Chandiramani has been deactive all
year. If our starters stay healthy we will be ok here.

Green, Curtis           61  LT    LT    12   56       56     1 yr.
Levine, Kendall         65  LT          1    45       59     4 yrs
Bush, Travis            71  RT    RT    3    50       50     1 yr.
Irwin, Kelvin           73  RT          1    21       44     3 yrs
##Ramirez, Doug         60  RT          2    17       40     2 yrs

Green has played great in possibly his final year. Levine 
started the year in place of the injured Bush, but has
been a backup since. But he should be just fine taking 
over for Green should he retire next year. Bush has been
a non factor as most of our runs have been to the left 
side as that is our strong side. Irwin and Ramirez have
played little but are decent backups if they develop.

Singleton, Bruce        12  P           7    52       52     1 yr.
Hammond, Juan           4   K           1    61       69     1 yr.

Singleton has continued to punt decent getting us out of
trouble. He's not great and I may look for an upgrade here
next year. Hammond has been a big improvement over last
year's kicker. He has missed 3 FG, but has hit most of 
his pressure kicks. He has improved 6 in current. If he
stays here, he will be our kicker for years. 

Hughes, Harvey          77  LDE   LDE   5    80       80     1 yr.
Burkhart, Curtis        90  LDE         1    25       47     3 yrs
McWilliams, Everett     93  RDE   RDE   4    73       73     4 yrs
Ward, Daniel            72  RDE         9    40       40     2 yrs

Hughes and McWilliams have been decent but not as much of 
a force as last year. They have only 6 sacks and 18 
hurries between them. But They still have great ratings 
and should start for us for a few years. Ward has been
a decent FA pickup and good relief for our starters. 
Burkhart hasn't played much to show me anything yet.
Hughes is an UFA after this year and I may try to sign 
him before the season is over.

Dobbins, Nathan         75  LDT   LDT   2    53       61     3 yrs
Goodwin, Samson         92  LDT         10   35       35     1 yr.
##Gilmore, Bruce        97  LDT         1    20       47     1 yr.
Petkovich, Riddick      99  RDT   RDT   3    54       54     1 yr.

Our starters, Dobbins and Petkovich have more tackles than 
our DE and have played well. Goodwin has played good in 
a backup role. Gilmore has been deactive all year. With
Petkovich a RFA after this year, I will have to spend 
some money here. 

Alarcon, Lincoln        95  MLB   MLB   5    56       56     2 yrs
%%Cochrane, Christian   91  MLB         4    54       54     3 yrs
Eastridge, Luke         54  MLB         1    23       40     3 yrs
Dellinger, Travis       56  SLB   SLB   1    32       58     3 yrs
Franz, Larry            55  SLB         2    19       45     1 yr.
Kimbrell, Martin        57  WLB   WLB   2    27       47     2 yrs
##Fredrickson, Randall  50  WLB         3    23       39     1 yr.

With the trade for Alarcon, this has definitely improved
our LB corps. He leads the team in tackles and assists.
Dellinger and Kimbrell are also 2nd and 4th on the team
in tackles. Kimbrell isn't developing as fast as I hoped
when I decided to send him to summer camp. With only 
Franz and Fredrickson FA after this year, we should
be ok for a couple years. If Cockrane comes back from
injury 100%, we are in really good shape.

Pirrup, Bert            41  LCB   LCB   6    54       54     2 yrs
Barton, Al              25  RCB   RCB   3    49       49     2 yrs
Barkley, Raymond        33  RCB         2    28       47     2 yrs
Terry, Artie            43  RCB         1    27       37     3 yrs
Alston, Bo              27  RCB         1    21       45     1 yr.

With only 3 interceptions so far, this group is playing
very weak. We lost Pirrup and Barkley for a few weeks
and Terry and Alston played ok in their place. But we
definitely need upgrades here next season. 

Tigchelaar, Ryan        44  SS          9    41       41     1 yr.
Mihna, Don              34  SS    SS    12   41       41     1 yr.
##Harrison, Alonzo      28  SS          1    19       48     1 yr.
Pearson, Chester        37  FS    FS    4    42       42     1 yr.
Lane, Patrick           42  FS          1    24       39     1 yr.

Pearson has dropped 3 in future but is fully developed.
He has played well, as has Tigchelaar who has an 
outstanding 87.3 PDPct. With all my S FA after this 
year, I have some decisions to make. Mihna is in 
his 12th year and has been a minor factor. I will 
probably not resign him. Pearson and Tigchelaar 
will be offer contracts. As long as Tigchelaar can
hold onto the ball on returns he will be ok. 
Harrison and Lane need time to develop, but will 
probably never be more than role players.

   
$$ - player is suspended, ## - player is inactive,  
** = player is injured, %% - player is on IR.  
   
Players Under Contract: 54
Inactive: 7
On Active Roster: 46
   
Salary Cap: $67,200,000
Cap Room: $17,280,000
Maximum for New Player: $17,470,000
Cap Room Lost (to old contracts): $580,000
   
Cap Room Lost Next Year (to old contracts): $130,000
Cap Room Required Next Year: $46,890,000

Team Summary

Code:


Front Office Football 2007
1977 Summary for Miami Dolphins
   
Year                1977                                      
Record              4-3                                       
Winning Pct.        .571                                      
All-Time            45-74                                     
Winning Pct.        .378                                      
Playoffs            1-1                                       
Playoff Visits      1                                         
Bowl Wins           0                                         
Head Coach          Ellis Fairfield                           
Record              38-81                                     
Winning Pct.        .319                                      
Off. Coord.         C. Blake                                  
Def. Coord.         R. Reid                                   
   
Miami Dolphins          Team      Rank  
Rushes per Game         27.0      18          
Rushing Yards           120.1     11          
Yards Per Carry         4.45      8           
Pass Attempts           31.1      22          
Completions             21.0      11 (T)      
Completion Pct.         67.4      2           
Passing Yards           249.3     6           
Yards Per Attempt       8.00      2           
Yards Per Catch         11.87     8           
Total Yardage Gained    361.7     4           
3rd Down Conversions    41.7      4           
Points Per Game         24.7      4           
Pass Rush Pct.          9.1       5           
Pass Defense Pct.       61.4      29          
Turnovers               14        26 (T)      
Turnover Margin         -8        29 (T)      
   
Opponents               Team      Rank  
Rushes per Game         24.6      7           
Rushing Yards           103.9     11          
Yards Per Carry         4.23      20          
Pass Attempts           35.4      25          
Completions             21.9      26          
Completion Pct.         61.7      20          
Passing Yards           217.6     19          
Yards Per Attempt       6.14      13          
Yards Per Catch         9.95      11          
Total Yardage Gained    309.4     15          
3rd Down Conversions    36.6      22          
Points Per Game         23.6      30          
Pass Rush Pct.          4.3       1           
Pass Defense Pct.       62.4      5           
Turnovers               6         28 (T)      
   
Week  Team  Versus        Oppnt  
1     31    at NED        23      
2     10    at TBY        37      
3     48    IND           31      
4     17    at CIN        23      
5     31    BUF           14      
6     27    at CLE        24      
7     9     PIT           13      
9           NED                   
10          BAL                   
11          at NYJ                
12          CAR                   
13          at KCY                
14          ATL                   
15          NYJ                   
16          at NOS                
17          at BUF                
   
Passing                 Pos   Att   Comp  Yards Y/Att TD    Int   Rate  
7 D. Sanders            QB    218   147   1745  8.00  15    8     99.3    
**Team                  ---   218   147   1745  8.00  15    8     99.3    
$$Opp                   ---   248   153   1523  6.14  12    5     86.8    
   
Rushing                 Pos   Att   Yards Y/Att TD    Fum  
32 N. Newton            RB    141   651   4.62  4     2       
46 K. Crichlow          RB    38    174   4.58  0     3      
**Team                  ---   189   841   4.45  4     11      
$$Opp                   ---   172   727   4.23  6     5       
   
Receiving               Pos   Targ  Catch Yards Y/Ctc Y/Tar Drop  TD  
85 P. Antonides         WR    53    37    587   15.86 11.08 2     1       
87 C. Swift             WR    48    32    507   15.84 10.56 6     7       
32 N. Newton            RB    37    27    154   5.70  4.16  1     1       
88 F. Cole              WR    33    21    252   12.00 7.64  1     3       
86 O. Dunkelberger      TE    20    13    121   9.31  6.05  3     0       
29 D. Blanda            FB    7     7     58    8.29  8.29  0     2       
   
Defense                 Pos   Tack  Asst  Sack  Hurr  Ints  Defn  PDPct  
95 L. Alarcon           ILB   49    13    0.0   0     0     2     72.5    
56 T. Dellinger         OLB   25    9     0.5   1     0     3     74.2    
37 C. Pearson           S     24    3     0.0   0     1     5     75.9    
57 M. Kimbrell          OLB   23    10    1.0   2     0     2     71.0    
44 R. Tigchelaar        S     22    7     0.0   0     1     4     87.3    
99 R. Petkovich         DT    22    5     2.5   2     0     0     80.9    
25 A. Barton            CB    22    5     1.0   0     1     1     78.3    
93 E. McWilliams        DE    19    5     3.5   11    0     0     80.8    
75 N. Dobbins           DT    16    5     2.0   5     0     1     81.2    
77 H. Hughes            DE    14    7     2.5   7     0     0     81.4    
33 R. Barkley           CB    11    0     0.0   0     1     0     77.8    
42 P. Lane              S     11    6     0.0   0     0     0     74.6    
55 L. Franz             OLB   9     4     1.0   0     0     1     72.7    
43 A. Terry             CB    9     6     0.0   0     1     1     82.3    
41 B. Pirrup            CB    8     2     0.0   0     0     3     78.0

The biggest thing that stands out is our -8 turnover margin. That has to change.

Our ypc is 8th in the league at 4.45. That is good.
Most of our offensive catergories are in or near the top 10.
Our defense is where we are weak. I think we need to get more pressure on the QB and force some turnovers to help the offense.

Sanders is on his way to a career best season.
Newton is well on his way to a 1000 yard season.
Antonides should get a 1000 yards receiving as should Swift. Swift should also get double digits in TD.

Alarcon is showing me I made a good trade as he leads the team in tackles.
McWilliams and Hughes sacks are down this year. But they have 18 hurries between them. Where it's hurt us is in the secondary.

Hopefully we can put some wins together to win the division.

Up next: We open after our bye week with a key division game vs. N.E.

DolphinFan1 · 01-25-2007, 10:06 AM

1977 WEEK 8: Bye

The Jets beat Buffalo to keep them winless and move to withing 1/2 game of us for the division lead.
N.E. beat Cleveland to climb within 1 1/2 games of us.

Cincinnati finally lost so the only undefeated team left is Philadelphia at 7-0.

1977 WEEK 9: NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS (3-5) AT MIAMI DOLPHINS (4-3) PREVIEW:

Sunny, 92 degrees and calm.

We won the 1st meeting in the 1st game of the season 31-23.

Power rankings: Miami #7 with a 57, N.E. #9 with a 56.

We are favored by 2.

Injuries and inactives: C- Mohr is still out for about 4 weeks. Other inactives, Chavarria, Nishioka, Chandiramani, Gilmore, Fredrickson and Harrison.

Key matchup: Miami rookie center- Hickman vs. N.E. 11 year veteran NT- Matthew Noonan rated 57/57. N.E. 2nd all time sacks, blocked passes and hurries. Can the rookie hold him off?

Up next: Gameday

DolphinFan1 · 01-25-2007, 10:18 AM

GAMEDAY:

1977 WEEK 9: NEW ENGLAND AT MIAMI:

1ST QUARTER:

Other division games: Cincinnati travels to Buffalo and the Jets go to Pittsburgh.

We start with the ball at our 20. Sanders starts us off with a 14 yard pass to Swift. Lead by a nice block by Springer, Newton rips one for 9 yards. An offensive holding call followed by a loss of one yard, sets us up with a 3rd and 12 at our 32. Sanders can't complete the 3rd down pass and we have to punt. A promising start is ended with a holding call.

A booming punt by Singleton for 65 yards pins them at their 3 yard line. Maybe he's trying to keep his job as he is a FA after this year.

They get a 16 yard pass play on 2nd down to get out of the shadow of their own goal. We are stopping the run, but they are passing on our defense at will and have a 1st down at our 41. They are using only short passes but are completing them for 1st downs and they are at our 18. They complete the 17 yard drive from their 3 yard line for a TD. Our defense was nonexistent.

We can't get a 1st down as another offensive holding call gives us a 3rd and long and the pass to Antonides is short of the 1st down. New England gets the ball right back.

Another booming punt by Singleton and a holding call pins them at their 8. Let's see if we can stop them this time.

The 1st quarter ends with N.E. leading 7-0 and they have a 3rd and 8 at their 31.

Cincinnati leads Buffalo 14-0 after 1 and the Jets and Pittsburgh are tied at 7.

2nd QUARTER:

Another 3rd down completion and they are moving it again. On the next play, Kimbrell intercepts a pass at our 42. Our defense finally makes a play.

We are pathetic today as after a false start we get 0 yards and punt.

This is awful as they again complete passes at will. We finally hold them to a FG as their 3rd down pass is short. But our pass defense needs help. Our run defense is only allowing 3.4 ypc. But we trail 10-0.

We go 3 and out again. There are going to be some jobs on the line if they don't start producing on offense or defense soon.

A good return on the punt gives them the ball at our 45. Now we can't stop them on the ground as they are running on us. They get down to our 1 yard line and we actually stop them for no gain on a 3rd and goal. They hit the FG for the 13-0 lead, but it could have been worse.

The 1st half ends with us running out of time on a drive. We go into the locker room trailing 13-0 but the score doesn't tell the story. Total yards: N.E. 232, Miami 67. 1st downs: N.E. 16, Miami 3. N.E. 9/11 on 3rd downs, We were 0/4. N.E. 45 plays to our 17. That was a pathetic 1st half of football by our team. It's amazing we are only down by 2 scores.

Cincinnati leads 28-0 over Buffalo, Pittsburgh leads the Jets 13-7.

3rd QUARTER:

On the 1st play of the 2nd half, we knock out their QB. Their backup QB proceeds to complete a pass for 17 yards! Then he proceeds to scramble for 10 yards! We finally defend a pass on 3rd down and force a punt. Kimbrell defended the pass. So he has an interception and a pass defended. Is he the only one on defense who showed up today?

We start at our 20 and Newton gets a 10 yard run. We then proceed to get -1 yards on 3 plays and have to punt. We just didn't show up today.

Another 60+ yard punt pins them at their 8. Singleton has 5 punts with a net average of 50 and 3 inside the 20. So besides Kimbrell, our punter came to play today.

We finally force a 3 and out and should get good field position.

We have it at our 45. We need a score here. We only gain 5 yards and have to punt again. Is this the same team that was 4-2 a couple of weeks ago?

Another punt inside the 10. We stop them on 3 plays again.

We have the ball at our 47. So we are getting good field position we need to do something. We start with a sack and a fumble, thankfully Springer recovered the ball. We go 3 and out again. I don't think it's all because Mohr is out. Our OL isn't all that bad without him in the lineup. I think the bye week hurt us.

Another booming punt pins them at their 5. On the 2nd down play we lose Pearson to a serious hamstring injury. That's not good. We hold them to another 3 and out and they punt. But we are running out of chances trailing by 13 late in the 3rd.

We have it at our 43. We lose 3 yards on the run. Then Antonides breaks one for 18 with 12 coming after the catch. It's about time. We then go 3 and out after that. This is pathetic.

A good punt pins them at their 8. That's 6 inside the 20. They get 12 yards on a run and that ends the 3rd quarter with the score still 13-0.

Cincinnati leads Buffalo 31-0 late in the 3rd. Pittsburgh leads the Jets 16-7 after 3. We had a chance the last few weeks to take control of the division. But we are playing like a team that just doesn't want it.

4th QUARTER:

They proceed to basically put this one away with a long TD drive and lead 20-0. This is with their backup QB. We have some serious issues on this team.

Another 3 and out and I can't watch anymore of this. No wait! We go for it from our 20 on a 4th and 10 and guess what....we don't gain a yard. Turnover on downs.

They add a FG and then Kolodziejski comes in and throws a pick for a TD.

We go on to lose 30-0 in the worst game I have ever seen. I switch to the Jets game as the Bills are getting blown out.

The Jets get a late TD but lose to Pittsburgh 19-14. So we still lead the division by a 1/2 game but we don't deserve it.

Notes, stats and injuries:

Here are the ugly stats on the game:

Rushing yards: N.E. 146 to 19.
Total yards: N.E. 377 to 122.
Total plays: N.E. 78 to 49.
1st downs: N.E. 24 to 7.
TOP: N.E. 40 to 20
Our longest drives were 6 plays and 26 yards.

I won't even go on.

Forget individial stats save one: Singleton, 9 punts, 45.9 net average with 7 inside the 20.

We would have lost to a college team with this performance.

On the injury front, Mohr is still 3 weeks away from returning. Pearson is out for the season with a hamstring pull. I put him on IR. Looking at the FA wire, I don't see any safeties better than what we have. So my options are limited. I decide to see who I have on my team who could make the switch to FS. My scout tells me that rookie 4th round pick, CB- Terry could make the switch and maybe improve his ratings with a small experience hit. I decide to make the switch as he won't get much playing time at CB with Barton, Pirrup and Barkley ahead of him on the depth chart. GREAT! He was rated 27/37 before the move. He is now 27/49. If he fully develops he could be a good safety for us. That should fill the hole left by Pearson. Now I need to fill the roster spot at CB. I find a 9 year veteran, RCB- Adrian Douglas who has a career 80.3 PDpct. He is only rated 31/31 but good in run defense, BNR, Play diagnosis, interceptions, and can also play some special teams and kick returns. He will be a dime back for us. After signing him he goes to 34/34.

Well, that takes care of our roster. Now time to prepare for next week's game.

UP next: We try to rebound against Baltimore

DolphinFan1 · 01-26-2007, 11:40 AM

Sunny, 75 degrees and a 10 MPH wind.

We are favored by 4.

We have dropped to 14 in the power rankings and Baltimore is 23.

Buffalo travels to N.E. and the Jets have their bye week. Let's hope Buffalo can get their 1st win. The Jets come to town after their bye week. So the next two weeks could make or break our season.

Up next: Gameday

DolphinFan1 · 01-26-2007, 11:48 AM

GAMEDAY:

1977 WEEK 10: BALTIMORE AT MIAMI:

1ST QUARTER:

Newly acquired Douglas starts us off with a good kick return to our 40. Newton then goes through a huge hole created by Green and gets 30 yards. Where was that last game when we needed a spark? Sanders and Cole connect on a 3rd and 9 for 21 yards to give us a 1st and goal. Cole gained 9 yards after the catch. A run and a short pass gives us a 3rd and goal at the 5. Let's punch this in the endzone. Sanders drops back to pass, he tosses a pass to Cole who catches it and gets into the endzone for the TD. We take the early 7-0 lead. That's our 1st TD in 3 games.

Our defense holds them to a 3 and out. One note I forgot to mention. Rookie Terry is making his 1st start at FS. I know it was risky but it was the best option.

The short punt gives us the ball at our 40 again. On a 3rd and 8, Sanders hit Swift for 18 yards and a 1st down. (New England just scored a TD against Buffalo.) Another pass to Swift for 22 yards gives us a 1st and 10 at the Baltimore 18. A short run and pass and we have a 3rd and 3 at the Baltimore 11. On the play, Lee creates a hole and Newton squirts through for 4 yards and the 1st down. The next play is a 7 yard TD pass to Cole and we lead 14-0. Cole looks to be the man today.

After a defensive penalty gives them a 1st down, we stop them when Burkhart sacks the QB on 3rd down. He strips the ball loose, but Baltimore recovers at their 31. But we force a punt.

Another short punt gives us good field position again, this time at our 47. On the 1st down play, rookie center Hickman creates a hole for Newton who gets 9 yards. Nice to see the rookie make a block. Two plays later, Sanders throws an interception at the Baltimore 32. We could have really opened up the lead there. Tough break.

After one 1st down, we get a couple of QB pressures and force a punt.

This time we start at our 22. We end the 1st quarter with a 14-0 lead and the ball at our 39 with a 2nd and 5.

New England leads Buffalo 7-0 after one quarter.

2nd QUARTER:

A 3rd and short converted to Swift and we keep the drive alive. A long pass to Antonides and Dunkelberger gives us a 1st and 10 at the 13. On a 3rd and 5 from the 8, Sanders hits 2nd TE Burford on an 8 yard TD pass and we extend the lead to 21-0!

They get a couple of 1st downs and then our DL forces 3 QB hurries and they have to punt. Where was this pressure the last 2 games?

We start at our 26. (Buffalo just got a FG, but they still trail N.E. 7-3.) We have to punt this time after a 3 and out when the 3rd down pass to Swift is short of the 1st down. (N.E. just got a quick TD to extend the lead to 14-3 on Buffalo.)

On a 3rd and 2, Dobbins sacks the QB. But we commit an unnecessary roughness penalty to give them a 1st down. On the next play, Dellinger intercepts a long bomb at our 8 yard line.

We can't get a 1st down and have to punt.

They have it at their 45. Dellinger isn't playing like a rookie today as he sacks the QB on the 1st play for a loss of 15 yards!!! A false start gives them a 2nd and 30 at their 25. Another false start pushes them back to their 20. A nine yard pass gives them a 3rd and 26, Dellinger made the tackle again. On the 3rd down play, newly acquired Douglas makes an interception at their 41. Nice to see the new guy make a play.

New England adds a safety and lead 16-3. Looks like Buffalo is heading for an 0-10 record.

We get 11 yards on a pass to Swift and then 8 more on a pass to Newton. A penalty gives us a 1st and 10 at the 12 with just over 2 minutes to play in the half. Crichlow gets 9 yards to set up a 2nd and 1 at the 3. Bush gets knocked down and Newton is tackled for a 3 yard loss to give us a 3rd and 4 at the 6. A pass to Burford, but he is stopped just short of the 1st down marker. We hit the 20 yard FG and take the 24-0 lead. But OG Lee went down with an injury on the play and will not return.

They just run the ball to end the half. We go into the locker room with a 24-0 lead. I have to say this is a big difference than last week. The only negative is losing Lee.

At the half N.E. leads Buffalo by 16. They just added a FG.

3rd QUARTER:

Our defense comes out and continues there smothering play and force a 3 and out. This was important as we needed to keep the momentum in our favor. Baltimore is 0/8 on 3rd downs.

Our coach calls 3 running plays and Baltimore was ready for them and we only gain 5 yards. Looks like our coach is trying to use clock but I think it's a little early for that.

A big punt gives them the ball at their 23. A sack by McWilliams gives them a 3rd and long and we stop them again.

We have it at our 39. A short pass opens up some running lanes for Newton as he rips off 10 and 13 yards and we have a 1st and 10 at the Baltimore 35. Hickman makes another block and Newton gets 12 more. Hickman once again and Newton gets 16 more to give us a 1st and goal at the 7. The next play, Green creates the hole and Newton gets the 7 yard TD run for a 31-0 lead.

New England is running away from Buffalo in their game 26-3.

A QB hurry by McWilliams on 3rd down forces a long FG try. They miss it and we still lead 31-0 with 2 minutes to play in the 3rd quarter.

After a 14 yard pass to Antonides, Sanders gets the rest of the day off. Kolodziejski comes in for some work. We can't get another 1st down and punt.

Our defense is caught sleeping after a 6 yard loss on an run. We then allow a short pass to a WR and he breaks it for 86 yards and the TD. The 3rd quarter ends with us leading 31-7.

4th QUARTER:

INCREDIBLE! On the kickoff, Alston returns it 98 yards for the TD! We lead 38-7! I would have taken just one of these TD against Pittsburgh 2 weeks ago.

Here is the crazy game again. They complete a 2 yard pass, and Terry makes the tackle and forces a fumble. They recover it and return it 78 yards and a TD. They go for 2 and fail. We lead 38-13.

A pass and a long run by Newton gives us the ball at the 10 of Baltimore. But we only get to the 2 yard line. Hammond adds the FG and we lead 41-13.

We trade punts. Then on Baltimore's next drive we lose Tigchelaar to an injury and he doesn't return.

We win 41-13!!!!

New England beats Buffalo so we lead our division by 1/2 over N.E. and 1 game over the Jets who we face next week.

NOTES, STATS AND INJURIES:

Buffalo is the only winless team at 0-10. Philadelphia finally lost, so no one is undefeated anymore.

The word on Tigchelaar is he is out for about 6 weeks with Torn calf muscle. That will hurt our special teams as he was a good punt returner. But Alston and Douglas showed they can return punts and kicks.
The other injury is to Lee. He is questionable for 4 weeks with a sprained knee. That hurts as we are weak a OG. But I will move backup rookie tackle, Levine to guard until Lee returns. He is a better option than our backup guards. Also, Mohr isn't healing very fast as he is still out for about 3 weeks. I wonder if age has an effect on healing in this game. Seems to be.

I have to say that Hickman played well in his 2nd start in place of Mohr. Also that Terry make a nice transition to FS and played a solid game. So did Douglas in his 1st game with the team. They are all going to have to play like that to win this division.

Newton had 161 yards on 30 carries with 1 TD.
Sanders was 23/27 for 208 yards with 3 TD and 1 int.
Swift had 6 catches for 70 yards.
Cole only had 3 catches for 33 yards, but 2 TD.
Singleton is still making a case to be our punter next year as he had a 45.2 net.
Dellinger led the team with 6 tackles and 3 assists and also added a sack. He also had an interception.
Our defense had 6 sacks.
McWilliams and Hughes had 7 hurries and 4 knockdowns.
Our OL didn't allow a sack.
Green was 4/10 with one pancake block.
Springer was 4/7 with one pancake block.
Hickman was 3/7.

This was a big win for this team as bad as we played last week vs. N.E. We need another big win against the Jets next week to hold onto the division lead. We will have to do it with some key injuries.

Up next: A big division game against the Jets.

DolphinFan1 · 01-28-2007, 07:49 PM

Sunny, 61 degrees and 9 MPH wind.

We are favored by 4.

We are #13 in the power rankings while the Jets are 30. I guess no one is impressed with their 4-5 record. Our opponents have a .536 winning pct. The Jets opponents have a .429 winning pct.

Key matchup: The Jets OL vs. the Miami pass rush. Can we get pressure on their average QB? They have a very good OL. Hughes and McWilliams will have to play like they did last year.

Injuries and inactives:

Tigchelaar, Lee and Mohr are all injured and inactive. The other 4 inactives are: Chavarria, Nishioka, Gilmore and Fredrickson.

Up next: GAMEDAY

DolphinFan1 · 01-28-2007, 08:02 PM

GAMEDAY:

1977 WEEK 11: MIAMI AT NEW YORK:

1ST QUARTER:

New England and Buffalo have bye weeks this week so it's just the Jets and us playing this week in our division.

The Jets start with the ball at their 21. Our DL is up to the task on the 1st three plays as Dobbins knocks down a pass on 1st down. Then they get pressure on the QB on 2nd down and force and incomplete pass. Then on 3rd down, LB- Dellinger and DE- Hughes combine for a sack and we force a 3 and out. So the early key matchup is Miami DL 1, Jets OL 0. Great defensive start.

They get a booming punt and it pushes us back to our 19. A false start pushes us back 5 yards. Crichlow runs for 3 yards on 1st down. Then on 2nd down, Newton runs through a huge hole created by OT- Levine, starting at G in place of injured Lee. Newton ran for 46 yards on the play. We have a 1st down at the 37 of the Jets. A couple of short runs gives us a 3rd and 4 at the 31. Sanders throws a pass to Antonides who gets 13 yards and the 1st down. That's a big 3rd down conversion as we were just on the edge of K- Hammond's FG range. We have a 1st down at the N.Y. 18. Crichlow gets 8 yards on the 1st down play. Newton finally comes back in the game after his big run and gets the 1st down with a 6 yard run led by OT- Green. We have a 1st and goal at the 4. Another run for 2 yards and we have a 2nd and goal at the 2. Green makes another good block and Newton gets into the endzone for the score....no, we get called for offensive holding and the TD is taken off the board. I guess Green's block was too good. So we are at the 12. Newton gets 3 yards, so now we have a 3rd and goal at the 9. On the 3rd down play, Sanders is sacked for 8 yards. OT- Bush allowed the sack. So now we have to settle for the FG try. Hammond hits the 34 yard FG and we lead 3-0. But the penalty hurt. It cost us 4 points. But I'll take points on our 1st drive.

They get one 1st down and then our defense holds them.

Another good punt and we have it at our 19 again. We only gain 1 yard as Sanders was 0/2 passing on this drive and we punt.

The 1st quarter ends with them on a drive at our 28 and we lead 3-0.

2ND QUARTER:

What I feared is happening. They are winning the battle on the offensive line pushing us around and running all over us. To top it off, we lose CB- Barton to an injury on the drive. He doesn't return. We finally make a stop on a 3rd down with McWilliams making a big sack and forcing a 42 yard FG try. They hit the FG and tie the score at 3.

We go 3 and out again as we try to run 3 times.

We stop them on 3 plays as Hughes hurries the QB.

We try to pass on 1st and 2nd down and the passes are not completed, but N.Y. gets called for defensive pass interference and we have a gift 1st down at the Jets 43. Sanders is horrible today, 1/4 for 13 yards. Newton breaks another long gain for 23 this time and we have it at their 20. Besides the 2 long runs by Newton, our offense is nonexistent. As I say that, Crichlow comes in and rips one for 16 when OG- Springer opens a huge hole and we have another 1st and goal at the 4. Let's get the TD this time. Crichlow gets 3 yards and we have it at the 1. Backup T- Ramirez blocks for Newton who gets into the endzone...TD MIAMI. We lead 10-3. Nice blocking by the OL.

A penalty on the kickoff return pins them at their 7. On 2nd down, we allow a long pass for 46 yards. They get down to our 27 where we stop them just short of the 1st down. They hit the 44 yard FG and our lead is cut to 10-6.

We have the ball at our 17 at the 2 minute warning. Instead of running out the clock, our coach stupidly calls 3 passing plays which Sanders fails to complete on any of them. To top it off, he gets sacked on 3rd down to push us back and the Jets have time to get something going.

They get the ball at their 37 with 52 seconds to play in the half. A long run and another long pass and they have a 1st down at our 15 with 21 seconds to play. They get called for tripping on the next play to push them back to our 25. A 6 yard pass sets up a 3rd and long but only 3 seconds to play and they will try the 36 yard FG. No wait...they go for the long TD pass and Hughes pressures the QB and we hold them to end the half with the 10-6 lead.

We got a break at the end of the half. I am not happy with our offensive playcalling. Also, our offense is not a factor with the exception of a couple of long runs by Newton and Crichlow. Sanders is dreadful today. Our defense has been giving up some big gains, but held the Jets to 2 FG. The loss of CB- Barton seems to have hurt our pass defense.

3RD QUARTER:

We start the 2nd half with the ball at our 32. The 1st play is a dropped pass by the usually sure handed Antonides. But Crichlow bails us out with a 13 yard run and a 1st down. We have a 3rd and 6 and Sanders completes a screen pass to Newton who gets 8 yards after the catch and we keep the drive alive. Sanders then completes a 23 yard pass to Swift, but it's called back for offensive holding. UGH! On a 2nd and 18, Sanders hits Antonides for 21 yards with 11 coming after the catch. It just gets worse for our offense when on a 3rd and long in FG range, Sanders is intercepted at the 15 and they return it to the 24. I hope our coach is thinking of making a QB change here as Sanders clearly doesn't have it today.

They drive right down the field and our defense finally holds at our 25. They try the 42 yard FG and it's missed to the left. We still lead 10-6. Our defense is playing bend but don't break.

Newton gets 11 yards on the 1st play and we have a 1st down at our 43. We go backwards after that and Bush allows another sack and we punt. A booming punt by Singleton and they have it at their 20 after an 11 yard return.

We force a 3 and out when Dobbins gets a QB hurry. They get a good punt and we have it at our 24. LB- Franz was injured on the play, but he should return.

We complete a short pass on 1st down but get called again for offensive holding. These penalties are killing us. Sanders tries 3 more passes and he is pathetic and we have to punt. We had -14 yards on that drive. How are we still leading 10-6 in this one?

They return the punt to our 49 and there is a fumble, but recover. We needed to get that. That ends the 3rd quarter.

4TH QUARTER:

Dobbins gets a big sack for a 12 yard loss on 2nd down to set up a 3rd and 19 at their 42.

THEN, STUPID, STUPID, STUPID. I will be firing my head coach for his poor offensive and defensive playcalling in this one. Also some defensive backs job's are on the line. They throw a bomb and complete it for 44 yards on a 3rd and 19!!!! They finish the drive with a TD a few plays later and our tentative lead is gone. We now trail 13-10. We didn't deserve to lead in this one anyway.

We have 11 minutes for our offense to show up and try to score to win this one.

We get one first down and have a dropped pass on 3rd down, but an unnecessary roughness penalty on N.Y. keeps our drive alive. On a 2nd and 8, Sanders throws to little used SE- Hancock and he completes one for 16 yards and we have a 1st down at the N.Y. 34. Then he completes one to Dunkelberger for 13 more. Maybe Sanders is waking up. Green throws a huge block and Newton breaks one for 21 yards and the go ahead TD. Great run by Newton. We retake the lead 17-13.

They have the ball at their 26 with 6:55 to play. A lot of time in this one. We allow another long pass for 15 yards. We stop them on 1st and 2nd down and then on 3rd and 10 they complete one for 17 yards. But it's called back for illegal use of hands. We get a break. It's now 3rd and 20 at their 31. Let's stop them this time. They try to run and only gain 5 yards and we hold them thanks to a penalty.

We have the ball at our 25 with a 4 point lead and 5 to play. We try to run and use clock and can't get a 1st down. To top it off, Singleton picks a bad time to shank a punt and they get a big return to our 28. There is 2:41 to play. We stop them on 1st and 2nd down, but they complete a 17 yard pass on 3rd down. Another 10 yards and they have a 1st and goal at the 1. We need a turnover. They get the one yard TD pass and the 20-17 lead.

We have the ball at our 38 with 1:28 to play and 3 timeouts trailing by 3. 1st down: incomplete. 2nd down: A long pass to Cole is incomplete, but a 5 yard penalty gives us another chance. Sanders can't complete another pass and we go on to lose this one 20-17.

This was disappointing as we only needed to get the offense going to win this one. As bad as our pass defense was, we were in the game.

Notes, stats and injuries:

Well, we are now tied at the top of the division with the Jets and N.E. with 5-5 records. But we don't deserve to be there after starting 4-2 and going 1-3 in our last 4 games and our offense only showing up in one of those games. Our defense kept us in all the games except the N.E. game. But I still think our biggest need in the offseason will be a shut down corner. Then I may also rethink the QB situation.

The stats were not pretty with the exception of Newton who had 126 yards on 23 carries and 2 TD. But a bunch of those yards came on 2 very long runs.
Crichlow had 49 yards on 7 carries.
Sanders was a pathetic 8/24 for 71 yards and one interception.
Alarcon led the defense again with 9 tackles, 3 assists and 2 passes defended.
Our starting DL was ok with 11 tackles, 2 assists, 2.5 sacks, 2 blocks, 6 hurries and 6 knockdowns.
Our OL did ok with run blocking but allowed 3 sacks, two by Bush.
Our secondary was bad.

Now for the injuries:

CB- Barton is doubtful for about 4 weeks with a pulled groin. He will be deactive.
LB- Franz suffered minor concussion in the game and played. But he is probable for about one week. He will also be deactive as I don't want to risk it.
Barkley will start in place of Barton, and Fredrickson will take Franz's spot in the backup LB role.

As for the existing injuries:

C- Mohr is progressing well finally and is about 1 week away from full strength. There is a moderate risk of reinjury, so he will sit out one more week.
G- Lee is still questionable for about 3 more weeks. As it is a knee injury, no way I will risk it.
S- Tigchelaar is still out for about 5 more weeks.

The injuries aren't devestating and maybe someone will step up to keep his spot on the team for next year. Because the way it looks right now, I am ready to cut the whole secondary and my QB. They need to start playing to save this season.

As I will deactivate all the injured players, that means only 2 healthy inactives for next week's game vs. Carolina. Chavarria and Nishioka are the other 2 inactives.

Up next: Can we rebound to stay in the playoff hunt against a 7-3 Carolina team?

larrymcg421 · 01-28-2007, 11:18 PM

Ugh. I hate the Jets. I took care of them for you in my dynasty.

DolphinFan1 · 01-28-2007, 11:39 PM

Good because I can't seem to beat them. I've been reading your dynasty. As you can see, we win one and lose one.

DolphinFan1 · 01-29-2007, 11:00 AM

Sunny, 68 degrees and a 1 MPH wind.

Carolina is favored by 4. Their pass offense and pass defense is near the bottom of the league. Maybe our secondary will have a good game.

We are facing a guy I had on my draft board in the 1st round this year, OG Lenny Armstrong. He is only 9/41 on KRB with 2 sacks allowed. At 22% blocking, he is not a force yet. He is 66/78 so he is a stud.

Keys to the game:

Can our secondary stop a mediocre offense?
Their DL is comprised of all pro players except their RDE, can our OL hold them off to get our offense going?
Can Sanders rebound to have a good game and keep us in contention for a playoff spot?

Up next: gameday

DolphinFan1 · 01-29-2007, 11:12 AM

GAMEDAY:

1977 WEEK 12; CAROLINA AT MIAMI:

1ST QUARTER:

Well, we start out allowing a 20 yard pass play, so I guess we can't even stop a middle of the road QB. But our defense steps up after that forcing a punt. Alarcon had a defended pass on 2nd down.

The punt puts us at our 11. Newton breaks one for 19 yards on 2nd down. On a 3rd and 1, Crichlow breaks one for 13 and we have a 1st down at our 49. A 13 yard pass to Dunkelberger and then an 18 yard pass to Blanda gives us a 1st down at the Carolina 20. A holding call pushes us back, but on the next play we get a 1st down on an illegal contact penalty. We are at the 23. Two short plays sets up a 3rd and 3 at the 16. Sanders hits Cole, but he is stopped just short of the 1st down marker. He fumbles the ball. But he recovers his own fumble and gets 8 yards to the 6 and a 1st down. That could have been a disaster. Newton then rushes for 5 yards and we have a 2nd and goal at the 1 yard line. The next play, Newton punches it in and we take the lead 7-0. Great opening drive by the offense. 14 plays, 86 yards and a nice mix of run and pass.

I am so sick of giving up 3rd and longs for 1st downs. We stop them on 1st and 2nd downs with the help of some false start penalties. They have a 3rd and 21 at their 12. We get pressure on the QB and he throws it up and they make the catch for 22 yards and a 1st down. After we stop a run on 1st down another completion for 16 yards. This from a near bottom of the league passing offense. The 1st quarter ends with the score still 7-0 but they have a 3rd and 3 at our 38.

Other division games: Buffalo and N.O are scoreless, As are N.E. and Atlanta, Tampa Bay and the Jets are tied at 3.

2ND QUARTER:

What a play to start the 2nd quarter. Backup safety Harrison blitzes and he and McWilliams sack the QB. They force a fumble and DT Goodwin recovers it at our 44. We needed that.

We are moving the ball well again with Sanders completing short passes and then he hits Newton on a go route for 19 yards and we have a 1st down at the Carolina 15. The next play, Carolina overplays the pass and the handoff is to Newton. OT Green creates a hole and Newton gets the 15 yard TD run and we lead 14-0. All Right!!! Points off turnovers.

They take it right too us as we cannot stop the pass again. They finish the drive with a 7 yard TD run with Armstrong leading the way. I said he was a stud. Our lead is cut to 14-7.

A nice return on the kickoff by CB Douglas gives us the ball at our 44. After one first down we have a 3rd and 8 at the Carolina 43. Sanders hits Cole for 11 yards and the 1st down. Key 3rd down conversion. After a 3 yard run, Green again creates a hole and Newton breaks a pair of tackles and gets 27 yards and is stopped just short of the endzone. We have a 1st and goal at the 2 yard line. After Newton is stopped on 1st and 2nd down, Crichlow gets a chance. C- Hickman creates the hole and he gets into the endzone and we lead 21-7. Nice block by the rookie.

Carolina has the ball at their 15 with 2 minutes to go in the half. It would be nice to stop them before the half and we get the ball to start the 2nd half. They have a flurry of plays and get to our 40. But an intentional grounding call pushes them back. On 3rd and long, DT- Petkovich sacks the QB and forces a fumble. DE- Hughes recovers it at their 35 as time runs out. We go into the locker room leading 21-7.

Other division games: Buffalo had a short lead of 7-0, but N.O. scores twice very quick and leads 14-7. Atlanta leads N.E. 13-0. Tampa Bay leads the Jets 10-3. So we are getting help today. Hopefully we can make it work for us.

3RD QUARTER:

We start the 2nd half with one first down but stall at our 41 and have to punt.

A nice punt puts them at their 13. They move again at will and we finally make a play with our secondary. CB- Pirrup intercepts a pass at our 47. It's about time.

We go to work and Sanders hits Cole for 11 to start the drive. After a couple of short plays we have a 3rd and 6 at their 38. C- Hickman creates a hole for Newton who gets a huge run for 26 yards. A 4 yard run by Newton and then Sanders hits Newton for an 8 yard TD pass and we lead 28-7. Newton has 3 TD today, 1 receiving and 2 rushing, Crichlow has the other one.

We finally make a play on 3rd and long and defend a pass. But we get called for pass interference and give them a 1st down. Two plays later we make another play when LB- Dellinger intercepts a pass and returns it to 50. That's 4 turnovers forced today. It's about time. We were -8 for the year.

We move the ball again and on a pass to FL- Antonides, Sanders is injured on the play. But he stays in the game. Newton is ripping up huge yardage today as he gets another long run, this time for 19. OT- Levine created the hole. Newton has 145 yards rushing today. The next play, Sanders hits Antonides on a 6 yard TD pass and we are pulling away in this one as we lead 35-7. We needed this.

We stop them on 3 plays.

The 3rd quarter ends with a loss of 2 yards and we have a 3rd and 12 at our 8 yard line.

4TH QUARTER:

Kolodziejski comes into the game with us leading 35-7. He can't get the 1st down and we punt.

They get to our 32 and we hold them They try the 49 yard FG and miss it.

We go 3 and out but are content to run it on every down with a 28 point lead with 10 to play in the game.

We force a 3 and out.

We continue to trade punts until CB- Douglas makes an interception with 2 minutes to play. Our coach lets our 3rd string QB- Winters get some snaps in the game now. We get a 43 yard FG from Hammond and we win 38-7!!!

Other division games: Buffalo is heading for a winless season as they lose again. The Jets come on strong in the 2nd half to beat Tampa Bay. I switch to the N.E. game which is in the final minute. Atlanta leads 20-14 but N.E. has a 1st down at their 38. Atlanta holds on to win. So the Jets and us are tied atop the division at 6-5, but they beat us so they have the tiebreaker right now. We do have to play them again. N.E. falls a game back. This was a good rebound game for us. Now we need to string a couple in a row.

Notes, stats and injuries:

Three big team stats in this one: We had an all time low 4 penalties for 46 yards, We won the turnover battle 5-0 and and we were 5/5 on in the redzone with all TD.

Individual stats:

Newton had 154 yards on 31 carries with 2 rushing TD and one receiving TD and 6 runs of over 10 yards.
Sanders rebounded to have a good game protecting the ball, 15/20 for 128 yards with 2 TD. He didn't have to throw much with Newton and Crichlow carrying the load.
Singleton is still booming punts for net averages over 44 yards.
Our secondary had 4 passes defended and 2 intercepted.
We also had one pass defended by Alarcon and Dellinger intercepted one.
Our OL had 13 KRB with no sacks allowed.

Next week we head to Kansas City and face a 4-7 team who Philadelphia just beat 26-0. They have lost 3 of the last 4 games scoring only 15 points and allowing 84 points in the 3 losses. Hopefully we can continue to stay in the playoff hunt.

The Jets face a hot Houston Texan team who started the season 0-7 and have won 4 in a row. New England plays Tennessee who are also 4-7. Buffalo isn't worth mentioning at 0-11 and have all but sewn up the #1 pick in the draft.

Injuries:

The word on QB- Sanders is he has a sprained ankle and is probable for about 2 weeks. I will play him as we do need this game as it is another conference game. If he gets knocked out, hopefully Kolodziejski can carry the team.
CB- Barton is still questionably for about 3 more weeks with his pulled groin. He will still be deactive as I'd like to have him ready against the Jets in 3 weeks.
C- Mohr is still one week away and the coaching staff says there is a moderate risk of reinjury. He will sit out again. He is taking a long time to heal.
OG- Lee is also a couple weeks away and he is also a moderate risk. I need these guys healthy so I will go it with what we have.
S- Tigchelaar is still out for 4 more weeks.
OLB- Franz is fully recovered from his concussion.

Up next: We head to K.C. to try and keep our playoff hopes alive.

larrymcg421 · 01-29-2007, 02:23 PM

I foresee an 11-5 finish.

DolphinFan1 · 01-29-2007, 04:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

I foresee an 11-5 finish.

Ha, Ha, Ha! Don't I wish. With this pass defense I highly doubt it. We are in the show up every other week mode right now. Don't know how to break that.

DolphinFan1 · 01-29-2007, 10:48 PM

I had planned on playing a little tonight before bed, but I will try maybe tomorrow. I just got a phone call that a good friend at my church is in the hospital. He doesn't know who he is or anything. I don't have a lot of details. But I will be doing a lot of reading and praying. For those of you who are Christian, believe in God or pray, his name is Roger. Signing off for tonight. Thanks.

DolphinFan1 · 01-30-2007, 09:47 AM

Sunny, 50 degrees with a 3 MPH wind.

We are favored by 6.

We have moved back up to #4 in the Power Rankings. K.C. is #20.

Key matchup: The 11th pick in the draft, OLB- Todd Raymond is starting for them. He is a guy I passed on with the 9th pick and traded down because he was overrated. He is at 63/70 now and has 62 tackles and 19 assists. We need to keep him in check.

All of our injured are deactive and I let Franz sit on the bench one more week to see if Fredrickson can show me something in a backup role again. Our inactives are the same as last week.

Up next: GAMEDAY

DolphinFan1 · 01-30-2007, 10:03 AM

GAMEDAY:

1977 WEEK 13: MIAMI AT KANSAS CITY:

1ST QUARTER:

We start out with the ball and Sanders immediately makes me regret playing him as on the 1st play he throws an interception to their other OLB. I guess I was worried about the wrong guy. They have it at our 16. Not a good start.

Four plays later they get a 6 yard TD run and the 7-0 lead. So much for them only scoring 15 points is 3 of the last 4 games.

We start at our 20 and Newton runs three times for 21 yards on 3 nice blocks by our OL. We use the short passing game along with the running game and get to the 29 of K.C. and that's when Raymond defends a 3rd down pass and stops our drive. Looks like he's already hurting us. We try the 46 yard FG and Hammond's kick falls just short. So we still trail 7-0.

On the 2nd down play, LB- Fredrickson blitzes and sacks the QB. He forces a fumble which DE- McWilliams recovers at their 29. That's a great play by the defense to give our offense another chance. Now I'm glad I played Fredrickson in place of Franz.

On a 3rd and 2 from the 21, we get a 3 yard run from Crichlow to get the 1st down. But wait...it's called back for offensive holding. We now have a 3rd and 12 at the 31. Sanders throws a deep pass to Cole and it's not complete as he was pressured to let it go early. To top it off, we commit a false start on the 4th down play which was a long FG try anyway and now are at their 36. We punt. What was a promising drive following the turnover, results in nothing. We cannot allow a 4-7 team to dictate to us how the game will go. We need to take control.

Here we go again. A 3rd and long pass into double coverage is completed for the 1st down. Another 3rd and 10 where McWilliams is chasing the QB and he throws it up for the 11 yard completion for the 1st down. This is awful. No pressure this time and they get another long pass, this time for 27 yards and have a 1st and goal at our 6. On the last play of the 1st quarter, they get a 1 yard TD run and lead 14-0. We need to wake up and break this win one, lose one string we are forever on. And we need to defend some passes on 3rd down.

2ND QUARTER:

We start the 2nd quarter with a 9 yard pass to Newton and a 14 yard pass to Burford to give us a 1st down at the K.C. 47. We need a score here. We then proceed to go 3 and out. Another pathetic performance by our offense.

Thankfully, the Jets and N.E. are both trailing by 7 in their games. But there is a long way to go.

They drive to our 33 and have a 3rd and 23 after a couple of penalties. Let's see if we can stop them on 3rd down. The only reason we stopped them is they throw a screen pass for one yard. I don't know why they just don't throw deep on every ball. We can't stop it. Their QB is 8/9 for 105 yards. Of course they BOOM the kick throw the goalposts. A 49 yarder. We trail 17-0.

We get one 1st down, but then a penalty pushes us back and we can move it no more. We punt again.

Singleton again pins an opponent deep. It's downed at the 4. We need a turnover now.

Here we go. We play the run, they pass twice for 18 yards and are out of trouble. We suck!! Hey, we actually stop them on the next three plays and they punt.

We start at our 30 with 2:13 to play in the half trailing by 17. We need a score before halftime to have a shot in this one. After a one yard run and a defensive penalty, OT- Green opens up a huge hole. Newton breaks one for 57 yards and we are in business at the K.C. 7. A one yard run and a false start followed by a run for no gain gives us a 3rd and goal at the 11. Sanders drops back and throws to Cole and he's running for the endzone....but he is stopped at the 3 yard line by guess who....LB- Todd Raymond. Hammond hits the 20 yard FG and we get on the board before halftime. That should have been a TD with a 1st and goal from the 7. Penalties are killing us.

The 1st half ends with K.C. leading 17-3.

In other games: N.E. is trailing 21-7 and the Jets are trailing 17-14.

3RD QUARTER:

They start out the 3rd quarter with one 1st down and we hold.

But the punt pins us at our 6 yard line. Sanders starts us off with a short 3 yard pass to SE- Swift who fumbles the ball. But RB- Craig is there for us and returns it 11 yards to the 20. He may have just saved us any chance in this one with that recovery. We then have a 3rd and 4 and Sanders hit Dunkelberger for 19 yards and a 1st down. It's about time. The next play is a 30 yard pass to Swift and we have it at the K.C. 25. So much for that. An incomplete pass and then we allow 2 sacks to take us out of FG range.

The Jets have taken the lead 21-17 in their game. We need to rebound in this one.

Our defense is trying to keep us in this one with a 3 and out and they are playing very stout against the run. A long punt gives us the ball at our 25.

We go 3 and out and allow another sack on 3rd down and it doesn't look good in this one or our chances at the division with the Jets winning.

They drive down the field and we hold them to a 48 yard FG. Another long FG. Who is this guy? We now trail by 17 again, 20-3.

We end the 3rd after a long pass and a loss on the next play.

4TH QUARTER:

Kolodziejski is in the game. We have a 2nd 13 at the 46. He proceeds to throw 2 incompletes and we punt. Incidently, Raymond defended one of the passes again. Looks like he is showing me how he feels about being snubbed by us in the draft at the 9th pick.

Singleton pins them at their 4, but we are running out of time. We need a turnover here. We don't get the turnover, but we hold them one yard short of the 1st down.

CB- Douglas returns the punt to our 43. We need a TD now! Kolodziejski starts with a 19 yard pass to WR- Cole. Then he throws 3 passes and only completes one for 3 yards. And the coach punts from their 35 with 11 to play trailing by 17!! What!! We needed to go for it to have a chance.

Our defense holds to a 3 and out. But it probably won't matter now. Of course they boom a punt 62 yards. Funny how everyone plays better against us.

Kolodziejski tries to keep us alive with a quick drive and ends it with an 18 yard pass to Cole and we cut the lead to 20-10 with 8:15 to play.

A couple of false start penalties pushes them back and we force a punt after a 3 and out.

We start at our 27 trailing by 10 with 5 minutes to play. We turn it over on downs when Kolodziejski can't complete a pass.

We hold them to a long FG try and they miss it to give us one last hope.

Just over 2 to play and we need 2 scores. But Kolodziejski is intercepted by who else....LB Raymond to end any chance we have.

To rub it in, their kicker hits a 56 yard FG. We lose 23-10.

The Jets win to take a one game lead in the division. The Patriots lose. But we are in trouble at 6-6.

Buffalo had a chance to drive for the winning score down by only 3 with 2 minutes to play but fumbled the punt return and they are now 0-12

Raymond ate us up today.

Not that it helps us much as we already played them twice, but N.E. lost their 5 year (4 starting) QB to a degenerative hip condition for 101 weeks. His career may be cut short.

Notes, stats and injuries:

Let's start out by saying that LB- Raymond wasn't stopped as I said he needed to be. He had 7 tackles, 1 assist, 2 passes defended and one int.

On our side we had Newton rush for 107 yards on 18 carries.
Sanders was ineffective at 10/18 for 133 yards with 1 int.
Kolodziejski wan't any better at 5/17 for 95 yards with 1 TD and 2 int., but he came in when we were in a hole.
On the positive side, we only allowed 226 yards and gained 322. But we gave them the short field with the turnovers.
WRs Cole and Hancock lead the team with 45 and 50 yards receiving respectively with Cole getting a TD.
MLB- Alarcon led the team again with 9 tackles and 7 assists.
OLB- Dellinger had 6 tackles and 3 assists.
Our OL allowed 4 sacks which hurt any momentum we tried to get.

At 6-6 and trailing both the Jets in our division and the last wildcard by one full game, we need wins badly. We probably have to win out or at least 3 of 4 and definitely beat the Jets in 2 weeks.
The more the weeks go on, I now am convinced we need a stud cornerback no matter what the cost. Even when Barton comes back he hasn't been a game changer and we need that in our secondary.

Our next two games are at home against Atlanta (5-7) and the Jets. We need to win both as we then head to N.O who are (9-3) and finish at Buffalo. So we are in good shape schedule wise if we win our two home games as we should beat the Bills. But we need to get over this win one lose one mentality. Our guys need to understand we play every week, not every other week.

Injuries:

We get C- Mohr back this week.
Sanders is still not 100% but he will play again.
OG- Lee and CB- Barton are still about 2 weeks away from full strength.
S- Tigchelaar is 3 weeks away.

Up next: We face Atlanta in an almost must win situation

DolphinFan1 · 01-30-2007, 10:39 AM

Here is the 3 quarter report:

Code:

Front Office Football 2007
1977 Regular Season Standings
   
  AC North              W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
Cincinnati              9   3   0   .750  233   169   7-3     2-2       
Cleveland               7   5   0   .583  250   192   7-3     3-1       
Pittsburgh              7   5   0   .583  179   188   6-4     1-3       
Baltimore               6   6   0   .500  204   215   5-5     2-2       
   
  AC South              W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
Indianapolis            8   4   0   .667  327   257   7-3     3-1       
Jacksonville            7   5   0   .583  228   195   6-4     2-2       
Tennessee               5   7   0   .417  238   224   4-6     0-4       
Houston                 4   8   0   .333  172   254   3-7     3-1       
   
  AC East               W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
New York J              7   5   0   .583  234   237   6-4     4-0       
Miami                   6   6   0   .500  279   258   5-5     2-2       
New England             5   7   0   .417  230   211   4-6     2-2       
Buffalo                 0   12  0   .000  146   324   0-10    0-4       
   
  AC West               W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
Denver                  8   4   0   .667  302   229   7-3     3-1       
Oakland                 5   7   0   .417  182   218   4-6     2-2       
Kansas City             5   7   0   .417  190   231   4-6     1-3       
San Diego               5   7   0   .417  234   254   5-5     2-2       
   
  NC North              W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
Chicago                 10  2   0   .833  236   135   8-2     4-0       
Green Bay               4   8   0   .333  222   254   4-6     2-2       
Minnesota               4   8   0   .333  206   280   3-7     1-3       
Detroit                 4   8   0   .333  142   209   3-7     1-3       
   
  NC South              W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
Tampa Bay               9   3   0   .750  277   163   8-2     3-1       
New Orleans             9   3   0   .750  316   205   8-2     3-1       
Carolina                8   4   0   .667  202   222   7-3     2-2       
Atlanta                 5   7   0   .417  231   265   3-7     0-4       
   
  NC East               W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
Philadelphia            9   3   0   .750  275   164   7-3     3-1       
Washington              6   6   0   .500  208   179   5-5     3-1       
Dallas                  6   6   0   .500  232   208   4-6     1-3       
New York G              3   9   0   .250  160   233   3-7     1-3       
   
  NC West               W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
San Francisco           8   4   0   .667  261   271   7-3     3-1       
Arizona                 5   7   0   .417  198   269   4-6     2-2       
St. Louis               5   7   0   .417  216   236   4-6     2-2       
Seattle                 3   9   0   .250  176   237   2-8     1-3

We trail the Jets by one game also 3 other teams in the wildcard race with 7-5 records. We beat Cleveland, but lost to Pittsburgh and didn't play Jacksonville. So we have the tiebreaker with Cleveland but not against Pitts. Also, Balt. is 6-6 like us but we beat them. So it's a mess. Our best chance is to win out and hope for these teams to lose at least once.

Now for our team summary:

Code:

Front Office Football 2007
1977 Summary for Miami Dolphins
   
Year                1977                                      
Record              6-6                                       
Winning Pct.        .500                                      
All-Time            47-77                                     
Winning Pct.        .379                                      
Playoffs            1-1                                       
Playoff Visits      1                                         
Bowl Wins           0                                         
Head Coach          Ellis Fairfield                           
Record              40-84                                     
Winning Pct.        .322                                      
Off. Coord.         C. Blake                                  
Def. Coord.         R. Reid                                   
   
Miami Dolphins          Team      Rank  
Rushes per Game         27.6      16          
Rushing Yards           127.2     9           
Yards Per Carry         4.61      2           
Pass Attempts           30.3      25          
Completions             18.8      20          
Completion Pct.         61.8      4           
Passing Yards           208.6     15          
Yards Per Attempt       6.88      8 (T)       
Yards Per Catch         11.12     14          
Total Yardage Gained    326.3     9           
3rd Down Conversions    36.2      12          
Points Per Game         23.3      4           
Pass Rush Pct.          9.4       4           
Pass Defense Pct.       64.8      24 (T)      
Turnovers               20        16 (T)      
Turnover Margin         -5        23 (T)      
   
Opponents               Team      Rank  
Rushes per Game         27.3      15          
Rushing Yards           104.1     10          
Yards Per Carry         3.82      6           
Pass Attempts           33.0      18          
Completions             20.1      19 (T)      
Completion Pct.         60.9      21 (T)      
Passing Yards           212.8     23          
Yards Per Attempt       6.45      17          
Yards Per Catch         10.60     17          
Total Yardage Gained    300.9     16          
3rd Down Conversions    35.5      19          
Points Per Game         21.5      27          
Pass Rush Pct.          5.9       3           
Pass Defense Pct.       67.5      11          
Turnovers               15        26 (T)      
   
Week  Team  Versus        Oppnt  
1     31    at NED        23      
2     10    at TBY        37      
3     48    IND           31      
4     17    at CIN        23      
5     31    BUF           14      
6     27    at CLE        24      
7     9     PIT           13      
9     0     NED           30      
10    41    BAL           13      
11    17    at NYJ        20      
12    38    CAR           7       
13    10    at KCY        23      
14          ATL                   
15          NYJ                   
16          at NOS                
17          at BUF                
   
Passing                 Pos   Att   Comp  Yards Y/Att TD    Int   Rate  
7 D. Sanders            QB    336   217   2387  7.10  20    11    91.7    
18 B. Kolodziejski      QB    28    8     116   4.14  1     3     16.7    
**Team                  ---   364   225   2503  6.88  21    14    85.4    
$$Opp                   ---   396   241   2554  6.45  15    11    80.7    
   
Rushing                 Pos   Att   Yards Y/Att TD    Fum  
32 N. Newton            RB    251   1206  4.80  9     2       
46 K. Crichlow          RB    66    292   4.42  1     3       
**Team                  ---   331   1526  4.61  10    15      
$$Opp                   ---   327   1249  3.82  11    11      
   
Receiving               Pos   Targ  Catch Yards Y/Ctc Y/Tar Drop  TD  
85 P. Antonides         WR    85    50    761   15.22 8.95  5     2       
87 C. Swift             WR    77    46    667   14.50 8.66  7     7       
32 N. Newton            RB    52    38    229   6.03  4.40  1     2       
88 F. Cole              WR    55    31    357   11.52 6.49  3     6       
86 O. Dunkelberger      TE    34    19    201   10.58 5.91  3     0       
29 D. Blanda            FB    18    16    89    5.56  4.94  0     2       
   
Defense                 Pos   Tack  Asst  Sack  Hurr  Ints  Defn  PDPct  
95 L. Alarcon           ILB   84    33    0.0   0     0     5     74.7    
56 T. Dellinger         OLB   51    21    2.0   1     2     3     74.7    
99 R. Petkovich         DT    37    6     3.5   5     0     0     81.0    
57 M. Kimbrell          OLB   37    14    1.0   3     1     4     76.7    
93 E. McWilliams        DE    36    7     8.0   16    0     0     80.8    
44 R. Tigchelaar        S     30    11    1.0   0     1     4     85.3    
41 B. Pirrup            CB    27    4     0.0   0     1     5     77.2    
25 A. Barton            CB    27    6     1.0   0     1     2     78.5    
75 N. Dobbins           DT    27    9     4.5   10    0     1     81.7    
37 C. Pearson           S     26    5     0.0   0     1     5     76.5    
34 D. Mihna             S     21    10    0.0   1     0     1     74.0    
77 H. Hughes            DE    21    11    3.5   16    0     0     81.8    
42 P. Lane              S     21    12    0.0   0     0     2     78.3    
43 A. Terry             S     19    8     0.0   0     1     2     80.4    
33 R. Barkley           CB    18    0     0.0   0     1     1     78.2    
92 S. Goodwin           DT    15    4     0.0   3     0     0     80.0    
55 L. Franz             OLB   14    5     1.0   0     0     1     69.1

The 1st thing to note is the improvement from -8 to -5 in turnover margin. Of course that was helped from the +5 turnover game against Carolina a few weeks ago.

Our YPC are 2nd in the league which is a testament that Newton is a stud. At least I made a good draft pick there 2 years ago.

At QB: Sanders is having his career best in a lot of catergories. His 20 TD and 91.7 QB rating is his career high. His yards are still a little short of his career best. But he is playing a lot better than last year.

As for RB, What can I say about Newton? There is no Sophomore jinx here. He is the stud I thought he could be when I drafted him. His 1200 yards, 4.9 ypc and 9 TD put him in the top 3 in all catergories for RB.

Crichlow has been a big upgrade over Craig on 3rd downs and to give Newton a break. He also has broken his fumble issues earlier in the year.

At WR, Antonides, Swift and Cole have been as good as any team's top 3 WR in the league. Maybe not stats wise, but combined have been a threat with the running of Newton. The only concerns are the increase in drops by Swift. But him and Cole have been the go to guys for TD. Antonides still is getting large YAC which opens up our offense.

While our offense has played well most of the time, I can't say the same for our defense. Some games they don't show up.

But MLB- Alarcon has shown me that it was worth the draft picks I gave up in the trade. He leads the team in tackles and assists and tied for passes defended. He is close to the top in the league in tackles also.

Rookie OLB- Dellinger has come on strong in the last few weeks to move up to #2 on the team in tackles. So that has helped.

Our starting DL has 19.5 sacks which is a little less than I hoped, but we have 47 QB hurries, unfortunately our secondary hasn't stepped up to the plate when the QB is hurried allowing too many completions.

Only 6 interceptions with our DB and 23 passes defended don't really tell the story. That's why I like to watch every game and play slow. We really can't defend the pass on 3rd down. Most of those TO and defended passes were in situations which the game was out of hand or in bunches. We are not consistent. That will have to change the final 4 games of this year as people will be playing to keep their jobs.

Overall through 12 weeks, I am ok with a 6-6 record if I just look as record. As we had only 3 wins 2 years ago, and were 6-10 last year. So we should improve on that this year with 4 games to go. It would be nice to make the playoffs this year, but I think we are a player or two away from making a serious run at the Front Office Bowl.

Back to the games.

DolphinFan1 · 01-30-2007, 11:50 PM

Sunny, 60 degrees and a 6 MPH wind.

We are favored by 4.

Atlanta has a few key injuries. Their all-pro guard is out as is their very good safety. Their other guard and cornerback are less than 100%. So they are coming in wounded.

Key matchups:

They have a very good veteran QB who has started 8 games and has only thrown 3 int.
Their RB also has rushed for over 1100 yards and 4.24 ypc.
We need to stop these two.

Also they have two offensive tackles I had targeted in the draft. RT- Gary Hargrave is only rated 44/60 and was a 1(8) pick. Their 2nd round #7 pick, LT- Edwin Wilkins is rated 68/68 and has been a force for them. I missed him with my pick. He didn't workout and was overrated so I got scared away. So this will be the other key matchup.

On defense their best player is their OLB who is rated 60. So clearly the test for us this week will be stopping their offense as we should be able to move the ball on their defense.

Let's get it done.

Up next: GAMEDAY

DolphinFan1 · 01-31-2007, 12:01 AM

GAMEDAY:

1977 WEEK 14: ATLANTA AT MIAMI:

1ST QUARTER:

The Jets face a (9-3) New Orleans team this week, so maybe if we take care of business they will help us to set up a showdown vs. the Jets next week.

We start with the ball at our 20. On a 3rd and 1 we get a 5 yard run from Crichlow with a key block from Springer. Nice to not go 3 and out to start the game. On the next play, Springer creates another hole and Newton breaks a tackle and gets 28 yards. On a 3rd and 5 from the Atlanta 33, Springer gets his 3rd key run block on this drive and Newton gets 10 yards and the 1st down. We finally get stopped on 3rd down at the 19 and have to settle for the 36 yard FG try. Hammond hits the FG and we lead 3-0. Nice 10 play drive to start the game. I'll take the 3.

Bad news in N.Y. They just got a TD and take the early 7-0 lead against N.O.

They commit an offensive holding call on 2nd down and then Pirrup gets a defended pass to set up a 3rd and 15 at their own 22. They come out with a 5 WR set and Alarcon stops the pass and we hold someone to a punt on a 3rd and long. It's about time.

We start at our 37. Springer continues where he left off and creates another hole and Newton rips another 13 yards. He has 58 yards on 7 carries so far. An incomplete pass and a 6 yard scramble by Sanders sets up a 3rd and 4 at their 44. They play the pass and we give it to Crichlow and he gets 5 yards and the 1st down thanks to a key block by OT- Bush. The next play, Newton gets 16 more on a key block by OT- Levine in place of injured Lee. We get stopped again inside the 20, this time at the 18. We will try the FG again. Hammond hits the 35 yarder and we lead 6-0. I hope this isn't another one of those FG games where we get hurt for not punching it in later.

N.O. gets a FG and trails 7-3 against the Jets.
N.E. trails Carolina 14-7.

Our defense came to play today as we stop them again on 3 plays.

A big punt and a good return by CB- Douglas gives us the ball at the Atlanta 48. Newton rips two more good runs on a pair of blocks by C- Mohr. Nice to have him back. OT- Bush creates a hole now and Newton takes it to the Atlanta 13. A nine yard pass to Dunkelberger gives us a 2nd and 1 at the Atlanta 4. That's the end of the 1st quarter.

N.O. has just taken the 10-7 lead on the Jets.
Carolina still leads N.E. by 7.

2ND QUARTER:

After Newton gets dropped for a 1 yard loss, Sanders hits WR- Cole on a 5 yard TD pass and we lead 13-0. We needed the TD there. With Newton running all over them, we needed to make a statement. I said I wasn't worried about their defense except for their OLB, who incidently is making most of their tackles. But our OL is dominating their DL.

After a 2 yard run, Atlanta commits 2 false starts and then an incomplete pass to set up a 3rd and 18 from their 14. They come out in a 5 WR set and complete a pass, but for only 9 yards and we force another 3 and out. Nice to see we are not giving up the 3rd and longs this game.

We start at our 36. We have a 3rd and 6 and Sanders hits Newton on screen pass and Newton scampers for 7 yards and the 1st down. A couple more 1st downs and then OT- Bush opens another hole for Newton who gets 13 more and takes it to the Atlanta 20. Newton has 121 yards on 15 carries so far. The next play we get an illegal hands penalty to push us back to the 30 and a 1st and 20. But Sanders hits Antonides for 17 to give us a 2nd and short. The next play, Springer does it again and Newton gets through the hole and gets the 13 yard TD run. We lead 20-0.

They get good field position at their 40 after the kickoff. The 1st down pass is incomplete and then they get a 19 yard pass to our 41 for their first 1st down with 6:13 to play in the 1st half. Now they are moving as a couple plays later they get 18 more and are at our 18. We are back to our old ways as a 3rd and 10 is a 13 yard completion to our 5. Two runs and a loss of 2 yards sets up a 3rd and goal at our 7. Of course we can't stop the 3rd down pass for the TD. Our lead is cut to 20-7.

In danger of giving it right back with 2 minutes to play in the half, Sanders completes a 3rd and 7 to Antonides for 13 yards and the 1st down. Following the 2 minute warning, Sanders finds Antonides again for 24 yards and we have it at their 40. A 13 yard pass to TE- Burford and we have it at the 27. After a dropped pass, the next play Sanders is intercepted on a tipped pass. We lost a great opportunity there.

On the 1st play following the turnover, McWilliams is pressuring the QB and he throws it deep. It's into double coverage and CB- Douglas intercepts it at our 44. Nice to see our defense stop a pass thrown into double coverage.

A 10 yard pass to Dunkelberger and we have it at their 46 with 31 seconds to play in the half. Cole then catches one for 13 and we have it at the 33 with 19 seconds to play. A 3 yard run by Newton and we spend our last timeout and will try the 47 yard FG just before halftime. Hammond's kick falls just short and we go into the locker room leading only 20-7. The turnover hurt us.

At the half, The Jets and N.O. are tied at 10. Carolina leads N.E. 21-7. And Buffalo is on their way to 0-13 record as they trail 28-13.

3RD QUARTER:

On the opening kickoff of the 2nd half, Atlanta fumbles but they recover at their 34. All of a sudden on the last two drives we cannot stop the pass again and they drive right down the field. They finish with a 12 yard QB scramble and our lead is now cut to 20-14.

We start and run the ball and Newton is pounding it. Then Dunkelberger creates a huge hole and Newton breaks 2 tackles and gets a 57 yard TD run! We extend the lead back to 13 at 27-14. Nice drive to answer. Newton is over 200 yards.

The kickoff is a touchback. Our defense needs a stop to get their confidence back like the 1st quarter. The game is back to it's crazy things again. A long pass into double coverage is completed for 22 yards. I hate that this happens repeatedly. That opens up a hole for a 17 yard run and all of a sudden our defense can't stop them. They are at our 45. We finally get a sack and that sets up a 3rd and 19 at their 46. WOW! We get a defended pass on a 3rd and long when S- Terry steps up. Great.

We start at our 19 after the punt. Sanders throws a screen pass to TE- Dunkelberger and he gets 19 yards after the pass. We can't get another 1st down and have to punt. OT- Levine was injured but he stays in the game. The punt by Singleton is a good one and pins them at their 4.

Another 3rd down we can't stop gets them out of trouble. That ends the 3rd with Miami leading 27-14 and they have it at their 25 and a 1st down.

T.B. leads Buffalo 38-24, Carolina leads N.E. 28-10, and the Jets lead 17-10.

4TH QUARTER:

Just as we start the 4th, N.O. ties the score against the Jets.

They get to our 41 where we stop them short of a 1st down. The punt pins us at our 7.

We get a 2 yard pass and then Levine opens a hole for Newton. NEWTON BREAKS A PAIR OF TACKLES AND GOES 91 YARDS FOR THE TD! INCREDIBLE! HE HAS 295 YARDS ON 23 RUSHES AND 3 TDS! We lead 34-14. That was a big TD for us.

On the following drive, S- Mihna goes down with an injury and doesn't return. We don't need to lose anymore players with the showdown with the Jets next week. DE- Hughes makes a sack on 3rd down. They go for it on a 4th and 12 from our 40 and Hughes knocks the pass down and we get the ball. We lead by 20 with 8 minutes to play.

The Jets are back up by 7 against N.O. We are getting no help today.

Kolodziejski is in the game and they are heavily playing the run and Newton loses 3 yards on 1st down. It may be hard to get over 300 yards as everyone is in the box right now. We can't get a 1st down and punt.

Again on a 3rd and 20 we allow a 25 yard pass for a 1st down. But on the next play we actually stop them. MLB- Alarcon intercepts a pass.

We get a 4 yard TD run from Newton to give him 4 TD on the day and 297 yards. We win 41-14!!!

The Jets go on to beat N.O. 24-20 to still lead the division by one game. N.E. and Buffalo lost.

Notes, stats and injuries:

Well, we won 3 games 2 years ago. We won 6 last year. We have 7 wins with 3 games to go this year. So even with our pass defense problems, we have turned it around. We just need a little more to get us over the hump.

How Newton didn't get offensive player of the week is beyond me. They gave it to T.B. QB- Odom, 25/31 for 342 yards and 4 TD. Newton had 297 yards with 4 TD and a 9.9 ypc. He also broke the record for single game rushing for a player.

Looking at the standings and wildcard race. We trail the Jets. Also, Jacksonville, Cleveland and Pittsburgh all won so we trail all by 1 game still. So we got no help this week. Looks like we may need to win out to make the playoffs.

Stats: We outgained Atlanta 515 yards to 302, due in a large part to Newton's almost 300 yards rushing.
Another game with low penalties, 4 for 34 yards.
We scored on our 1st four possessions with 2 FG and 2 TD.
Newton had 30 rushes for 297 yards with a 9.9 YPC with 4 TD and 10 rushes over 10 yards.
Sanders had an efficient day as he was 21/27 for 185 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT.
Antonides led the team with 60 yards receiving.
CB- Douglas and MLB- Alarcon each had an interception.
Our secondary stepped up with 5 passes defended and one interception.
Our OL stepped up big for Newton and gave up no sacks. Springer lead the team with a 5/11 performance on KRB. Overall our starting OL was 16/31 with 3 pancake blocks. Better than 50% blocking.
Great win.

Now for the injuries:

The big new injury is to starting SS- Mihna. He has a pulled groin and is doubtful for about 4 weeks. He will miss the Jets game. With Tigchelaar still questionable and in better shape, he will try to give it a go against the Jets. If he can't go, the rookie Harrison will get his 1st start in a big game.

The other new injury is to OT- Levine who has been starting at G in place of Lee. He has a bruised ribcage and is probable. He will start against the Jets with Lee still probable with a sprained knee for about 1 more week. A ribcage is a lot less risky than a knee, so Lee will sit out again.

CB- Barton is still probable for one more week with his pulled groin. Our coaching staff think there is a moderate risk of reijury, but we need him. So I will risk it.

Up next: With the division on the line, The hated N.Y. Jets come to town

DolphinFan1 · 01-31-2007, 12:29 PM

Sunny, 71 degrees and calm.

We are favored by 4.

Keys to the game:

The #1 key is to win this game as we won our last one. We need to break this show up every other week. We also need to win a big division game late in the season.

How do we do that? Play solid pass defense like last week against Atlanta.

The other keys are to get pressure on the QB as they have a very good OL and our DL needs to penetrate.
Our OL needs another solid game so Newton can control the game. If we can keep the ball away from their offense, we can win the game.

Injuries to note: The Jets are without their top CB who is out with a broken arm.

Up next: GAMEDAY

DolphinFan1 · 01-31-2007, 12:41 PM

GAMEDAY:

1977 WEEK 15: NEW YORK AT MIAMI:

1ST QUARTER:

Baltimore plays at Pittsburgh, Cincinnati plays at Cleveland and Jacksonville plays at Houston in the other games of teams we are chasing in the wildcard race. But we need to take care of business 1st. Here we go.

We start with the ball at our 20. We get a couple of 1st downs on nice runs by Newton and Crichlow with nice blocks by our OL. But we stall when C- Mohr allows a sack and the lost yardage we can't recover from. We punt from our 48. Singleton punts a little too good as it goes into the endzone.

They start with a false start and then a 4 yard run. On 2nd and 11, McWilliams gets pressure on the QB. He throws into double coverage and it's not completed. McWilliams gets credit for forcing the incompletion. It's about time a pressure results in an incomplete pass. However, here is a 3rd and 11 coming up. They complete a pass for only 6 yards and we hold. There was also an offensive holding call on them so it wouldn't have mattered. We decline and force a 3 and out to start our defense. Great start and it's about time.

A good return by Tigchelaar is negated on a holding call. We start at our 24. On a 3rd and 9 in danger of punting it right back, Sanders hits SE- Swift on a 20 yard pass for the 1st down. After a holding call pushes us back, Sanders throws an ill advised pass and it is intercepted and returned to our 16. We can't afford to give up the ball.

Our defense holds them to a FG. They hit the 31 yard FG and they take the early 3-0 lead. Our defense stepped up after the turnover. Let's see it our offense can rebound.

We start at our 20 and our 3rd holding call of the day pushes us back. Not a good start by our OL. However, WR- Cole comes up with a big 16 yard reception to set up a 2nd and 4 and on the next play, Springer blocks for Newton who gets 5 yards and the 1st down. After another 1st down, Sanders throws a long pass into double coverage and I hold my breath. However, FL- Antonides catches the ball for 26 yards to give us a 1st down at the Jets 30. Two more runs and that ends the 1st quarter. We have a 3rd and 3 at the 23 of the Jets.

End of 1st quarter: Jets 3 Miami 0

Baltimore leads Pittsburgh 7-0, Cincinnati leads Cleveland 3-0 and Jacksonville and Houston are scoreless.

2ND QUARTER:

On the 3rd down play, New York expects a pass and instead Newton gets the ball. Springer blocks and Newton just gets the 3 yards for the 1st down. A one yard run by Crichlow and then a block by RT- Bush lets Crichlow break one for 14 yards and we have a 1st and goal at the 5. The next play Sanders drops back to pass and hits Antonides for the 5 yard TD pass and we lead 7-3!!!!

They get a good return on the kickoff and start at their 47. Not a good play by our coverage team. They get 9 yards on 1st and 2nd down to set up a 3rd and 1 at our 44. Can we stop them? DE- Burkhart and DE- McWilliams bust through the line and sack the QB for 7 yards and we stop the 3rd and short. All Right!!!!

However, the punt pins us at our 3 yard line. But a nice defensive stand. An offsides call gives us 5 yards. But we get flagged for a false start so we are pushed back to our 4. We get a 5 yard run by Newton, but give it right back on the next play with another false start. We need to stop the penalties. We already have 5 which is more than the whole game last week. Dunkelberger bails us out with an 11 yard reception and we are out of the shadow of our own goal. But guess what. On the next play we get called for illegal use of the hands so we have a 1st and 18 at our 8. We are killing ourselves. We go backwards and allow a sack on a 3rd and long and have to punt from our 2 yard line. That was one of the worst offensive series I have seen by this team. Singleton gets off a 47 yard punt (good considering the position he was in), and they return it to our 40.

The run 3 times and plow through our DL and have a 2nd and 4 at our 21. Then they get a 21 yard TD pass....but wait....it's called back for offensive holding. Let's see if we can stop them now. Ridiculous!!!! They throw a pass into double coverage and of course complete it for 14 yards and the 1st down. But they fumble the ball. And they recover it and go 17 yards on the fumble for the TD. That is stupid!!! Sometimes I hate this game. They retake the lead 10-7.

We start at our 33 with 5 minutes to play in the 1st half. We go 3 and out and have to punt it right back. Our OL is not blocking for our RB like last week.

A couple of long passes and they have it at our 26. Just like that. Again another play where McWilliams is chasing the QB and he throws it up and completes it. We can't stop them as they pound it and get an 8 yard TD run and take a 17-7 lead. Looks like we are back to the show up every other week mode again. I will accept any help or ideas anyone has on how to break this. This is stupid.

We try to get something going with about a minute to go before halftime. Sanders completes one for 18 and then throws two incomplete passes. But on 3rd and 10 from our 42, he hits Cole and he breaks a tackle to break free. He goes all the way, 58 yards for the TD!!! He got 37 YAC. We are back in the game just before halftime. We go into the locker room trailing 17-14.

Baltimore leads Pittsburgh 13-0, Cincinnati leads Cleveland 9-0 and Houston leads Jacksonville 17-7. So things right now are going are way if we can pull this one out.

3RD QUARTER:

We allow another good kick return and they start at their 39. We allow another 3rd down conversion and they are at the 50. The next play, DT- Goodwin stops the RB for no gain and knocks the ball loose. There is a scramble for the ball. DT- Petkovich recovers it for us at our 49!!! We created a turnover. Let's see if we can turn it into points.

Two runs get us a 1st down. Then two incompletes by Sanders. However, N.Y. gets called for defensive pass interference and we have a 1st down at the Jets 20. The next play is stopped for no gain, but N.Y. gets called for offsides. However, we lost TE- Dunkelberger on the play. He doesn't return. Two more runs for no gain set up a 3rd and 5 at the Jets 15. Sanders tries to hit Cole on the 3rd down play, but it is incomplete and we have to settle for the FG try to tie it. Hammond hits the 32 yarder and we tie the game at 17. At least we go points off the turnover.

Our special teams is killing us. A short kickoff and a 40 yard return gives them the ball at our 40. We stop them short on a 3rd and 6 and they have a 4th and 1 from our 31. What will they do? Of course they hit the 48 yarder to retake the lead 20-17.

CB- Douglas gets a decent return to give us the ball at our 31. On a 2nd and 9, Sanders throws into double coverage and Antonides catches the pass for 27 yards. But wait...we get called for offensive holding again and it's negated. Our special teams and penalties are killing us. We can't recover from the penalty and have to punt.

A nice punt but they get a another good return and start at their 35. We allow a 1st down and then a sack sets up a 3rd and 12 at their 43. Can we stop them on a key 3rd down to keep us in the game? They drop back to pass and throw it deep, DT- Goodwin pressures the QB and the pass is....NOT COMPLETED!!! Wow! We finally make a stop. Now our offense needs to score.

They boom a punt and we start at our 20 after the touchback. The 1st play, Sanders tries to hit Antonides and the pass is intercepted and returned 38 yards for the TD! We now trail by 10, 27-17. UGH! We are doing it again.

We go three and out on the next drive and are on our way to another disappointing division loss.

The 3rd quarter ends with us in a big hole, trailing 27-17.

4TH QUARTER:

They take it right down the field and we hold them to a FG and they lead 30-17 with 9:28 to play and our season slipping away.

We go 3 and out and SE- Swift drops a 3rd down pass which would have kept the drive alive. Singleton booms one 61 yards and they have it at their one yard line. Maybe our defense can force a turnover here.

They get 5 yards and we hold but we are running out of time. We squander good field position after a holding on the punt return penalty.

We start at our 33 with 6 minutes to play down by 13. Sanders only gets 1 completion for 2 yards on the 1st three plays. However, he hits, Swift on 4th and 8 for 9 yards to keep us alive. But the next 4 plays are incomplete and that will end any chance at a win or the division crown again this year.

We get the ball back after a blocked FG and have one last prayer with just over 2 minutes to play. Sanders takes us down the field with little time to cut the lead to 30-24 with 48 seconds to play. We will try the onside kick. We cannot recover it and we will go down in this one 30-24. Don't let this score fool you. We were never really in this one at about midway through the 3rd quarter.

The only good news is Baltimore beat Pittsburgh, and Houston beat Jacksonville. Cleveland won. But we are still barely alive in the wildcard race, but the Jets win the division leading by 2 with 2 to play. This loss drops us to 7-7 and again we win one lose one.

Notes, stats and injuries:

Newton only gained 69 yards on 23 carries in this one.
Sanders was 18/40 for 244 yards with 3 TD but 2 costly picks.
Cole had 4 catches for 97 yards and a TD.
Swift had 4 catches for 60 yards.
Antonides had 3 catches for 47 yards and a TD.
Alarcon led the way again with 12 tackles and 2 assists.
Our OL only allowed 2 sacks but was only 9/26 on KRB. Not bad, but not even close to last week.
Our WR dropped 5 passes today.
A telling stat was Sanders was only 3/10 on 3rd downs with 2 conversions.

The only new injury was to TE- Dunkelberger. He has a high ankle sprain and is out for about 4 weeks. So unless we get a miracle to make the playoffs, his season is done. Burford will start in his place and Chavarria will make his 1st appearance of the season in two TE sets.

OG- Lee and CB- Barton have fully recovered.
S- Tigchelaar came through the game without reinjuring himself. He is close to 100% and will play next week.
LT- Levine is almost 100% and he will play again, but he will return to his backup role to Green and Bush at T.
S- Mihna is still questionable for about 3 weeks with his pulled groin. He will sit out again.

So we need to beat a 10-4 New Orleans team on the road next week and then beat Buffalo the last week of the season and hope for some others to lose.

One more note as I close the book on this disappointing week. Buffalo lost and they are 0-14 and officially have the #1 pick in the draft. It will be interesting what they do, as they appear to have a lot of holes to fill so a trade down may happen. We'll see.

Up next: We try to rebound and keep our slim playoff hopes alive against a very good New Orleans team.

larrymcg421 · 01-31-2007, 11:37 PM

Ouch, a tough loss. That was an amazing performance by Newton the previous week.

What is the wildcard situation looking like?

DolphinFan1 · 01-31-2007, 11:46 PM

We are trailing by one game, but 4 teams are in it for one spot.

DolphinFan1 · 01-31-2007, 11:47 PM

As for Newton, he has turned out to be a great back in only his second year. I have to get him some help on the defense to win more games. I don't want to kill him running 30 times a game.

DolphinFan1 · 02-01-2007, 09:53 AM

Sunny, 68 degrees and calm.

N.O. is favored by one.

N.O. is # 2 in the league in PPG and we are #3.

Key matchups: We face OLB- Quentin Christopher who we targeted in the draft. He is only rated 54/69 but has 80 tackles and 16 assists. He also has 4 interceptions and one for a TD. So he is a playmaker we need to shut down.

Their offense is stacked with all pro players so that is going to be a challenge for our defense. The only plus is this is the week we usually show up to play. We lost last week. So we should win this week.

Their defense has some studs also. Besides Christopher, their MLB, RDE and RDT are very good. So we need to run to the other side and try to avoid these guys. Easier said than done.

Up next: GAMEDAY

DolphinFan1 · 02-01-2007, 10:02 AM

GAMEDAY:

1977 WEEK 16: MIAMI AT NEW ORLEANS:

1ST QUARTER:

We start out moving the ball well until a 3rd and 2 at the N.O. 39. Sanders tries to hit TE- Burford for a 1st down and their CB steps in front of Burford for the pick. I wonder if Dunkelberger would have made the play or at least broke it up.

On a 3rd and 7, they throw it deep and of course complete it for 26 yards. A few plays later, another long pass for 32 yards and they have a 1st and goal at the 2. Their 1st run of the day is a 2 yard TD run on the next play and we trail 7-0.

On the ensuing kickoff, CB- Douglas goes down with a ribcage injury. He stays in the game. We get one 1st down but 2 false starts push us back and we can't recover and have to punt.

They take it right down the field and get another TD. The TD pass was into double coverage (what else is new) for 35 yards with 19 coming after a broken tackle. We trail 14-0.

Mixing the run and pass well, Sanders engineers a nice 80 play drive which he finishes with an 11 yard TD pass to FL- Antonides. We cut the lead to 14-7. But to have a chance, our defense needs to stop their offense.

We kickoff and they start at their 13 which ends the 1st quarter.

2ND QUARTER:

Our defense steps us and stops them on 3 plays when DE- Hughes pressures the QB to throw before he was ready on 3rd down.

A short punt gives us the ball at our 47. On a 3rd and 9 from the 38 of N.O., Sanders throws a long pass to TE- Chavarria. He makes the catch for 27 yards to give us a 1st down at the 11. Big catch in his 1st game playing this year. I guess he's trying to make a case to stay on the team. Two plays later, N.O. plays the run and Sanders finds WR- Cole on an 8 yard strike for the tieing TD.

We give them good field position at their 44 after a short kickoff. They are taking it right down the field on our defense again. Then on the drive, S- Tigchelaar goes down with a serious leg injury. They get down to our 8 yard line on a 3rd and 4 and DT- Petkovich drives through the line and stops them for no gain to force the FG try. They hit the FG to retake the lead, 17-14.

A sack and a penalty kill our drive without a 1st down and we punt it right back to them.

A short punt and they have it at our 44 to start the drive. Our defense allows them to our 8 again but stop them and we force another FG to keep us in the game. They lead 20-14 just before halftime.

We only get one play off before halftime. So we go into the locker room trailing by 6 with our slim postseason hopes on the line.

In other games that matter for our wildcard hopes. Every game is close and we have a chance so far.

3RD QUARTER:

We start the 2nd half on a good note. N.O. commits a false start penalty and then LB- Dellinger sacks the QB so they have 2nd and 21 at their 27. Then LB- Alarcon and DT- Petkovich bust through the line for a 1 yard loss on a run. So we have a big 3rd and 22 to stop here. The pass is only for 13 yards so we stop them.....but wait we are called for defensive holding and an automatic 1st down. NO! We can't give this offense second chances. Our defense stops them amazingly on the next three plays when their 3rd down pass is stopped just short of the 1st down.

We get one 1st down and then another pass to Burford is intercepted. I gotta wonder if this is coincidence or I am onto something. Two passes to Burford have been intercepted.

They don't take long as 4 plays later they get the TD and a commanding 27-14 lead.

In danger of giving it right back, Sanders hits WR- Hancock on a 24 yard pass on a 3rd and long to keep us alive. Hancock is showing me he can make a play here and there since he took over as the 4th receiver over Nishioka. The next three plays are for over 10 yards each and we have a 1st and goal at the 8 yard line. The next play is an 8 yard TD pass to Cole but it's called back for offensive holding. Newton then busts through the line with a block by Springer and we have a 2nd and goal at the 7. The 2nd down pass to Hancock is blocked at the line to set up a key 3rd and goal with time winding down in the 3rd quarter and our season. Sanders can't complete the 3rd down pass to Antonides and we stall after a costly penalty. Hammond hits the short FG and we cut the lead to 10 at 27-17 but we needed 7 right there.

Another short kickoff and good return and they start at our 46. The last couple games our special teams coverage has been killing us. Our defense stops them at our 32 when DT- Goodwin blocks a pass on 3rd down. They hit the 49 yard FG to extend the lead back to 13 at 30-17. Does anyone miss FG against us?

We end the 3rd quarter with two ineffective runs.

4TH QUARTER:

We have a 3rd and 11 at our 35. We only get a 2 yard pass and have to punt and just about ends our chances.

They are not content to run and kill some clock. They continue to pass on our defense, but a key 3rd down sack by DE- McWilliams forces another FG, but they lead by 16, 33-17.

We start at our 9 after a penalty on the kickoff. We have 8 minutest to score 2 TDs and two conversions. We only manage two first downs and we have to punt and that will do it with under 6 to play.

We get one last chance when we stop them with just under 3 to play. But as Sanders takes us down the field inside the 40, he throws his 3rd interception of the day.

We use our timeouts to get it back and I don't know why we bother. Sanders wastes no time throwing his 4th pick of the day to end the game 33-17.

Notes, Stats and injuries:

Well, we broke the win one lose one curse, except it was a lose two that did it. Not what we wanted.

Somehow we are still alive for the last wildcard spot. But a lot of things have to happen and I am not sure what. But Jax. at 8-7 leads the way. Pittsburgh is also 8-7 so they have a chance with a win and a Jax. loss. Baltimore and us are 7-8 and somehow still alive for the wildcard. So we need to beat an 0-15 Buffalo team and hope for a lot of help. We lost to Pittsburgh and beat Baltimore in the regular season. We didn't play Jax. So it will come down to another tiebreaker. But you know the Bills are going to get their 1st win to spoil any slim chance we have. We can't make them go 0-16, can we? Let's try!!!!

New injuries: S- Tigchelaar reinjured his torn calf muscle and is out for 8 weeks.
S- Mihna is still questionable for 2 weeks with his pulled groin. But I will risk it and play him.

TE- Dunkelberger is still out for 4 more weeks.
CB- Douglas is probable with his bruised ribcage. He will play.

LT- Levine is 100%.

Stats on the game:

Newton only had 61 yards on 16 carries.
Sanders wasn't very good when we needed him. The stats are misleading. He was 22/38 for 255 yards with 2 TD and 4 int.
Antonides had 8 catches for 106 yards and 1 TD.
Alarcon was a monster as he had 15 tackles and 7 assists.
Our OL only allowed one sack but they only had 4 KRB.

We now go to play an 0-15 Buffalo team who we beat in week 5, 31-14.

Up next: Can we finish the year with a win to get to 8-8?

DolphinFan1 · 02-02-2007, 11:16 AM

Snow, 22 degrees and a 12 MPH wind. Great! Just what we need. Maybe our coach will pound Newton down their throats.

We are favored by 9.

I've never seen a preview on a team like this. Buffalo is 26th in one catergory, 27th in another, 29th in another and then 30-32nd in everything except rushing yards per carry (2nd) and rushing yards allowed per carry (1st). We are 1st in rushing yards per carry. So it will be their only strength against our big guy Newton.

We face our old nemisis: QB - Karl Tudrick. We stopped him the last time. Let's do it again.

Looking at the 4 teams involved in the final wildcard spot, we are 7-8 and so is Baltimore. Jax and Pitts. are 8-7. So it's clear they have to lose for us to get in if we win. And we beat Balt. so that may not matter but it won't hurt if they lose. So we will be rooting for all three to lose if we beat Buffalo and we should be in.

Up next: GAMEDAY

DolphinFan1 · 02-02-2007, 11:35 AM

GAMEDAY:

WEEK 17: MIAMI AT BUFFALO:

1ST QUARTER:

We start out with the ball and I am ready to fire my coach right now. With a blowing 12 MPH wind and snow, he comes out throwing on every play and only completes one pass for -2 yards. He should have pounded it with Newton. You'd think we were the 0-15 team.

Buffalo starts with the ball at their 25. On the 1st play, DT- Dobbins sacks Tudrick. Then on 2nd down they complete a 1 yard screen pass and they fumble the ball when S- Terry strips the ball. S- Mihna recovers for us at the Buffalo 20. All Right!! We made a play on defense.

We are killing ourselves with penalties again. Two penalties push us back to the 30 and we have a 2nd and 20. Another screen pass for 0 yards but we get called for offensive holding. So now it's 2nd and 30 at the 40. Sanders finally completes a pass for over 1 yard when he hits WR- Cole for 18 to give us a 3rd and 12 at the 22. Then he hits RB- Craig for 7 more to give us a better FG try....but wait....we get called for offensive holding again. Now we have a 3rd and 22 at the 32. Sanders hits FL- Antonides for 16 yards to give us the ball at the 16. But it's 4th down. We will try the 33 yard FG in the snow. Hammond hits the FG and we lead 3-0.But we had 4 offensive penalties on that drive alone.

Our defense stops them on 3 plays.

They are playing the run heavily and Newton gets stuffed for -7 yards on 2 carries. But Sanders hits Newton on pass on 3rd and long and Newton breaks free for a 27 yard gain and a 1st down. The next play is a 18 yard completion to Antonides and we have a 1st down at the Buffalo 33. A run for 3 yards and a pass for -1 gives us a 3rd and 8 at the 31.We only get 3 yards on a run and will try a long 45 yard FG in the snow. Hammond misses it so we still lead 3-0.

On a 2nd down play, they run for the 1st down and fumble the ball again. This time they recover it. The 1st quarter ends with Buffalo at our 37 with a 3rd and 6.

In the other 3 games with wildcard implications: Baltimore and Cincinnati are scoreless, Indy leads Jax. 14-7 and Cleveland leads Pitts. 3-0.

2ND QUARTER:

On the 3rd down play, McWilliams hurries the QB and the 3rd down pass is incomplete. They punt and it goes in the endzone.

We get one first down and then have a 3rd and 7 at our 34. Sanders drops back to pass and throws it deep to SE- Swift. He makes the catch for 19 yards and the 1st down. Another 16 yards to Swift and we are at the Buffalo 31. Swift has 3 catches for 46 yards on this drive. We then run the ball 3 times and get stopped on a 3rd and 2 at the 23 and we have to try another FG. Another miss from Hammond. Seems the weather is a big factor in today's game. Hammond has been almost automatic this year. We still lead just 3-0.

On the 1st play after the miss, we lose DE- Ward to an injury and he doesn't return. We hold them to just 3 plays and on 3rd down, DT- Dobbins sacks the QB again for a loss of 7 yards.

A short punt and we have the ball at our 41. We get one first down and then stall at the Buffalo 39 when OT- Bush allows a sack. The punt goes into the endzone and Buffalo will start at their 20.

They get one first down then a couple of penalties push them back and we hold them.

On a 2nd and 2 after a Buffalo penalty, Green creates a hole and Newton finally breaks one for 24 yards. He only had 4 yards on 8 carries before that run. We have a 1st down at our 47 with 2 minutes to play in the half. A 14 yard pass to Antonides on 2nd down gives us the ball at the Buffalo 39. On a 2nd and 8 we come out with a 5 WR set and Buffalo is looking for a run. HUH? No wonder they are 0-15. Sanders finds Hancock for 28 yards and we are at the 9. Crichlow runs for 6 yards and we have a 2nd and goal at the 3. The next play Crichlow punches it in from 3 yards out and we lead 10-0.Crichlow has more yards than Newton today. Figure that out. Great drive by the offense when we started at our 15 with just over 3 minutes to play in the half.

That's then end of the 1st half and we lead 10-0.

Very sloppy 1st half. We missed 2 FG, and both teams combined for 14 penalties for 115 yards.

Cincinnati leads Baltimore 10-0. That's good. Indy is all over Jax. 28-10. That's good. Cleveland leads Pitts. 10-9. That's good.

3RD QUARTER:

Buffalo comes out throwing to start the 2nd half and we are giving up the deep ball again. We can't stop this winless team and they take it right down the field and get a 9 yard TD run to cut our lead to 10-7.

In danger of going 3 and out, Sanders finds Cole for 11 yards and a 1st down. We do go 3 and out after that 1st down and Buffalo will get the ball back when LB- Howard stops Cole just short of the 1st down.

Maybe our defense had to warm up after sitting in the locker room at halftime because they stop Buffalo on 3 plays this time.

We start at our 32. We can do nothing on offense and then Sanders' 3rd down pass is intercepted and Buffalo has it at our 44.

A false start and then a sack by DE- McWilliams pushes them back to their 46 with a 2nd and 20. A 5 yard pass sets up a 3rd and 15 and we of course allow a 19 yard pass for the 1st down. They get to our 21 and we hold them. They hit the 38 yarder to tie the score at 10. What did I say last game? Everyone hits every FG against us. Even in the snow.

The 3rd quarter ends and we get a 1st down at our 36.

Cincinnati now leads Baltimore 24-0, Indy 41, Jax. 13. Cleveland leads Pitts. 16-9.

4TH QUARTER:

We continue to move the ball well until an offensive holding call negates a 1st down and we can't get another 1st down. We punt again.

Our defense comes up big with a 3 and out.

We get help from a Buffalo offsides call and still can't get a 1st down. We are letting an 0-15 team hang around.

Buffalo gets called for 2 false starts on sucessive plays which helps us hold them to a 3 and out. The two teams have combined for 23 penalties for 170 yards. Awful.

We have the ball at our 32 with 6:35 to play and the score tied 10-10. We need to score now!!! The 1st play Sanders throws deep to Cole who catches it for 37 yards. 1st down at the Buffalo 31. Buffalo plays the run on the next play and Sanders finds Swift for 14 and we are now at the 17. After a 1 yard loss, Newton gets a 14 yard run by a key block by Springer and we have a 1st and goal at the 4. Buffalo is offsides to give us 2 more yards. Two plays later, Springer opens another hole and Newton gets the 2 yards for the TD. We lead 17-10.

Buffalo commits a penalty on the return and start at their 7 with 3:38 to play. A false start and a short run creates a 2nd and long. They try to throw a long pass and get called for holding in the endzone and we get 2 points on the safety!!!! We lead 19-10.

We can't get a 1st down to kill the clock, so Buffalo will get it back.

We get called for pass interference and they are at our 13 with 1:46 to play. Incredible! They complete a pass for 12 yards and the receiver tries to extend the ball to the endzone and CB- Douglas knocks the ball loose. S- Mihna recovers for us at our 1 yard line.

We run out the clock and win 19-10 to keep Buffalo winless. It wasn't a pretty win but with the weather conditions, I'll take it.

Now to see if we made the playoffs.

Checking the scores, Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Jacksonvill lost, so let's see if that was what we needed to get in.

I check the standings and see we sneak into the playoffs with an 8-8 record. All Right!!!!

We are heading to cold Denver Colorado to face a 10-6 Bronco team.

Notes, stats and injuries:

This was a big win on the road in the cold. Even though Buffalo was winless, it is never easy against a division opponent.

I check out the tranaction wire and see, OG- Gomez (we released him at the start of the season) was picked up by New Orleans as one of their G is on IR.

Here are some stats on the game:

We outgained Buffalo 381 to 195.
We were both horrible on 3rd downs, Miami 3/13, Buffalo 2/10
Penalties: Miami 13/137 yards Buffalo 17/113. A total of 30 penalties and 250 yards. Awful. Maybe it was the weather, but it's still bad.
Newton rushed for 86 hard yards on 27 carries. And he had 1 TD and 3 runs over 10 yards.
Sanders was 20/27 for 269 yards with 1 int.
Our top 3 receivers did their job except get into the endzone. Antonides had 6 catches for 78 yards, Cole had 5 catches for 71 yards and Swift had 4 catches for 60 yards.
Alarcon led the defense again with 9 tackles, 3 assists and one pass defended.
Dobbins only had 2 tackles but he had two big sacks.
Our OL had a mixed day. They blocked well for Newton and Crichlow on some plays, then on others they either didn't block or got called for offensive holding.
Springer, Lee and Green combined to go 11/22 with no sacks allowed.
Bush gave up our only sack, but like I said there were numerous offensive penalties.

Now for the injuries:

DE- Ward went down early in the game and he has a pulled groin and is questionable for 1 week. Game time decision.
SS- Mihna played through his injured groin and he is close to 100% so he will play again.
CB- Douglas' ribcage is still less than 100% but he will play.
FB- Blanda has a sprained ankle and is probable for about 2 weeks. He will try to give it a go.

Checking out our playing time issues:

LB- Fredrickson has been disgruntled all year and he is unhappy now. He is only a backup and that's all he will be doing. He is a RFA after this year so it looks like he won't be a Dolphin next year.
QB- Kolodziejski is disgruntled. He feels he should be starting. Well, as bad as Sanders has played in some games, most of the issues were from the defense. Sanders has put up career bests in
yardage, completion pct. and TDs.
FS- Lane is disgruntled. Maybe he feels he should start. But he is a rookie and raw. Terry has made the transition from CB and played well. So deal with it.

UP next: Final regular season standings and team summary for regular season. Then we will head to DENVER for our wildcard game.

DolphinFan1 · 02-03-2007, 10:08 AM

Here is the final regular season standings and team summary:

Code:

Front Office Football 2007
1977 Regular Season Standings
   
  AC North              W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
Cincinnati              11  5   0   .688  313   228   8-4     3-3       
Cleveland               10  6   0   .625  326   245   9-3     5-1       
Pittsburgh              8   8   0   .500  234   253   6-6     1-5       
Baltimore               7   9   0   .438  255   321   6-6     3-3       
   
  AC South              W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
Indianapolis            11  5   0   .688  455   337   8-4     4-2       
Jacksonville            8   8   0   .500  297   296   6-6     2-4       
Tennessee               7   9   0   .438  347   340   6-6     2-4       
Houston                 5   11  0   .313  228   357   4-8     4-2       
   
  AC East               W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
New York J              10  6   0   .625  326   314   7-5     5-1       
Miami                   8   8   0   .500  380   345   6-6     3-3       
New England             7   9   0   .438  293   279   6-6     4-2       
Buffalo                 0   16  0   .000  183   424   0-12    0-6       
   
  AC West               W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
Denver                  10  6   0   .625  389   324   8-4     4-2       
Kansas City             7   9   0   .438  270   318   6-6     3-3       
San Diego               7   9   0   .438  293   314   6-6     3-3       
Oakland                 6   10  0   .375  253   310   4-8     2-4       
   
  NC North              W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
Chicago                 13  3   0   .813  301   191   9-3     5-1       
Minnesota               7   9   0   .438  294   340   5-7     3-3       
Green Bay               6   10  0   .375  281   307   4-8     2-4       
Detroit                 5   11  0   .313  201   290   4-8     2-4       
   
  NC South              W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
Tampa Bay               13  3   0   .813  386   223   10-2    5-1       
New Orleans             11  5   0   .688  414   285   9-3     4-2       
Carolina                10  6   0   .625  282   287   8-4     3-3       
Atlanta                 6   10  0   .375  287   364   3-9     0-6       
   
  NC East               W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
Philadelphia            13  3   0   .813  387   215   9-3     5-1       
Dallas                  9   7   0   .563  331   297   5-7     2-4       
Washington              8   8   0   .500  270   240   6-6     4-2       
New York G              3   13  0   .188  207   315   3-9     1-5       
   
  NC West               W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Conf    Div  
Arizona                 9   7   0   .563  345   333   6-6     4-2       
St. Louis               9   7   0   .563  332   290   6-6     4-2       
San Francisco           9   7   0   .563  332   392   7-5     3-3       
Seattle                 3   13  0   .188  216   334   2-10    1-5

Here is the team summary before our wildcard game:

Code:

Front Office Football 2007
1977 Summary for Miami Dolphins
   
Year                1977                                      
Record              8-8                                       
Winning Pct.        .500                                      
All-Time            49-79                                     
Winning Pct.        .382                                      
Playoffs            1-1                                       
Playoff Visits      2                                         
Bowl Wins           0                                         
Head Coach          Ellis Fairfield                           
Record              42-86                                     
Winning Pct.        .328                                      
Off. Coord.         C. Blake                                  
Def. Coord.         R. Reid                                   
   
Miami Dolphins          Team      Rank  
Rushes per Game         28.4      12 (T)      
Rushing Yards           135.2     2           
Yards Per Carry         4.75      1           
Pass Attempts           31.0      25          
Completions             19.1      20          
Completion Pct.         61.7      5 (T)       
Passing Yards           216.0     14          
Yards Per Attempt       6.97      7           
Yards Per Catch         11.29     10          
Total Yardage Gained    342.5     4           
3rd Down Conversions    37.0      10 (T)      
Points Per Game         23.8      6           
Pass Rush Pct.          9.1       5           
Pass Defense Pct.       63.6      27          
Turnovers               28        20 (T)      
Turnover Margin         -8        26          
   
Opponents               Team      Rank  
Rushes per Game         26.8      13          
Rushing Yards           100.3     6           
Yards Per Carry         3.75      6           
Pass Attempts           32.2      14          
Completions             20.0      22          
Completion Pct.         62.1      28          
Passing Yards           209.9     18          
Yards Per Attempt       6.52      21 (T)      
Yards Per Catch         10.50     13          
Total Yardage Gained    294.0     10          
3rd Down Conversions    34.9      22          
Points Per Game         21.6      28          
Pass Rush Pct.          5.8       1           
Pass Defense Pct.       69.9      19          
Turnovers               20        28 (T)      
   
Week  Team  Versus        Oppnt  
1     31    at NED        23      
2     10    at TBY        37      
3     48    IND           31      
4     17    at CIN        23      
5     31    BUF           14      
6     27    at CLE        24      
7     9     PIT           13      
9     0     NED           30      
10    41    BAL           13      
11    17    at NYJ        20      
12    38    CAR           7       
13    10    at KCY        23      
14    41    ATL           14      
15    24    NYJ           30      
16    17    at NOS        33      
17    19    at BUF        10      
$$WC        at DEN                
   
Passing                 Pos   Att   Comp  Yards Y/Att TD    Int   Rate  
7 D. Sanders            QB    468   298   3340  7.14  26    19    86.5    
**Team                  ---   496   306   3456  6.97  27    22    82.2    
$$Opp                   ---   515   320   3359  6.52  18    13    82.2    
   
Rushing                 Pos   Att   Yards Y/Att TD    Fum  
32 N. Newton            RB    347   1719  4.95  14    3       
46 K. Crichlow          RB    88    402   4.57  2     3       
**Team                  ---   455   2163  4.75  16    16      
$$Opp                   ---   428   1604  3.75  15    17      
   
Receiving               Pos   Targ  Catch Yards Y/Ctc Y/Tar Drop  TD  
85 P. Antonides         WR    116   71    1052  14.82 9.07  6     4       
87 C. Swift             WR    108   62    823   13.27 7.62  10    7       
32 N. Newton            RB    67    49    308   6.29  4.60  2     3       
88 F. Cole              WR    78    47    595   12.66 7.63  3     9       
86 O. Dunkelberger      TE    41    24    252   10.50 6.15  3     0       
29 D. Blanda            FB    24    21    121   5.76  5.04  1     2       
   
Defense                 Pos   Tack  Asst  Sack  Hurr  Ints  Defn  PDPct  
95 L. Alarcon           ILB   125   47    0.0   0     1     7     74.1    
56 T. Dellinger         OLB   66    28    3.0   1     2     3     74.1    
57 M. Kimbrell          OLB   52    22    1.0   3     1     5     74.4    
93 E. McWilliams        DE    51    11    11.5  24    0     0     80.9    
99 R. Petkovich         DT    47    13    3.5   6     0     0     81.4    
41 B. Pirrup            CB    35    9     0.0   0     1     7     78.2    
25 A. Barton            CB    34    9     1.0   0     1     3     77.6    
44 R. Tigchelaar        S     33    13    1.0   0     1     4     85.1    
75 N. Dobbins           DT    33    9     6.5   11    0     1     81.9    
34 D. Mihna             S     28    12    0.0   1     0     1     74.6    
77 H. Hughes            DE    27    13    5.5   21    0     0     81.7    
43 A. Terry             S     27    10    0.0   0     1     4     79.8    
37 C. Pearson           S     26    5     0.0   0     1     5     76.5    
33 R. Barkley           CB    25    0     0.0   0     1     2     76.2    
42 P. Lane              S     23    13    0.0   0     0     3     79.0    
92 S. Goodwin           DT    19    7     0.0   4     0     0     80.7    
28 A. Harrison          S     16    6     0.5   0     0     1     74.3

I will go over the stats and how our individual players ranked in the league following the playoffs.

UP next: Wildcard preview vs. Denver and then GAMEDAY will be live and in real time as I play it. Stay tuned.

DolphinFan1 · 02-03-2007, 10:12 AM

We head to snowy Denver where it is 32 degrees and a 7 MPH wind.

Denver is favored by 3.

Denver is in the top half of the league in most catergories. They are weakest in rushing and defending the run. That's where we need to attack. Their QB is very good with 23 TD and 8 int. Their RB is weak, he has 1300 yards but only a 3.66 ypc and 6 fumbles. They have a very strong offensive line on the left side.

They are on a 2 game losing streak to end the season. They did have a 7 game winning streak just before that. So we have the momentum as we won our last game.

They have a +11 TO margin where as we are -8.

Their leading tackler is a safety.

So this could be a game of offenses even in the snow.

Other wildcard games: Cleveland Browns (10-6) at New York Jets (10-6), Carolina Panthers (10-6) at Philadelphia Eagles (13-3), New Orleans Saints (11-5) at Arizona Cardinals (9-7).

Time to play the games.

UP NEXT: GAMEDAY LIVE AS IT HAPPENS.

DolphinFan1 · 02-03-2007, 10:26 AM

GAMEDAY:

WILDCARD WEEK: MIAMI AT DENVER:

Welcome to snowy Denver where the Miami Dolphins come in to face the Denver Broncos in an AFC Wildcard game. Denver is favored by 3 and with the weather conditions look to see a lot of running from Miami.

Their 2nd year RB- Neal Newton racked up over 1700 yards to lead the league. He has an amazing 4.95 ypc which ranks 2nd in the league and he has 14 TD. Denver has a pair of RB who have combined for over 1900 yards and 19 TD. Their ypc aren't as good as Newton's however.

Denver's QB Marcus King is in his 10th year. His production is a bit down this year from his career highs. But he still put up good numbers. Only a 58% completion pct. but 3500 yards and 23 TD with only 8 int.

On Miami's side, Darrell Sanders in his 11th season has put up career highs in Completions: 298, Attempts: 468, Yards: 3340 and TD: 26. He did have 19 interceptions but was solid for Miami for most of the year.

We are just about set for the kickoff so let's get down to the field.

DolphinFan1 · 02-03-2007, 10:36 AM

1ST QUARTER:

Miami wins the toss and receives. CB- Adrian Douglas returns it to the Miami 24 and that's where the Dolphins will start. Denver comes out playing the run and Miami sees it and comes out throwing. Sanders hits Newton and WR- Hancock on a couple of short passes to move the chains. Another pass to Newton for 10 yards and then OG- Lee opens a hole for backup RB- Crichlow and he busts through the line and gets 11 yards. Miami has a 1st down at the Denver 43. A couple of short runs sets up a 3rd and 4 at the Denver 37. Sanders tries to hit WR- Cole with a pass on 3rd down but it falls incomplete and Miami will have to punt. Still a nice opening drive by Miami to start the game and move the chains. P- Singleton's kick goes into the endzone and Denver will start at their 20 with 11:01 to play in the 1st quarter.

DolphinFan1 · 02-03-2007, 10:48 AM

Denver comes out running and gets one first down. But on a 3rd and 6 from their 36 they commit a false start to push them back to their 31 and sets up a 3rd and 11. Miami plays the pass and Denver gives the ball to RB- Curtis Lane. He breaks a pair of tackles and he reaches the ball out for the 1st down marker. Miami MLB- Lincoln Alarcon and DE- Everett McWilliams hit him just before the 1st down marker and knock the ball loose. Denver's Nicky McIntyre pounces on it at the Denver 41, but it is just short of the 1st down. Denver goes for it from their own 41. Miami plays the run but it doesn't matter as they get 3 yards and the 1st down. Two plays later Lane gets another 10 yard run and loses the ball again. But again Denver recovers it. They have a 1st down at the Miami 44. Denver converts a 3rd and 8 for 15 yards and then another 1st down and they have it at the Miami 16. An incomplete pass and a run for 2 yards sets up a 3rd and 8 at the 14. Miami plays the run and King finds WR- Shauntae Joe in the back of the endzone for the 14 yard TD pass. They hit the extra point to take the 7-0 lead. Miami gets a holding call on the kickoff return and will start at their 5 yard line trailing 7-0 and only 1:18 to play in the 1st quarter.

DolphinFan1 · 02-03-2007, 10:54 AM

Miami tries to run on 1st down, but Denver is ready and stuffs the leagues leading rusher for no gain. Sanders tries to hit SE- C.J. Swift on a go pattern but it is incomplete. On the play a Miami player is down. It is FL- Phillip Antonides. He is being carted off the field. That's not good news for Miami. He is their leading receiver in yardage. On a key 3rd down and 10 from their 5 with the risk of giving the ball right back, Sanders again tries to hit Swift. This time he connects for a 20 yard gain and a 1st down at the 25 as the 1st quarter ends.

We'll be back after a short break.

DolphinFan1 · 02-03-2007, 11:00 AM

2ND QUARTER:

Miami cannot continue the drive when Sanders only hits one screen pass for 0 yards and Newton can only get 3 yards on 3rd down draw play. A good 54 yard punt by Singleton but the Denver return man, Funerburk gets a 20 yard return to the Denver 38. Miami safety Patrick Lane makes the tackle and strips the ball loose. It is on the ground. However, Denver again gets the fumble. That's 3 fumbles today and all 3 Denver has managed to recover. Missed opportunities by Miami.

DolphinFan1 · 02-03-2007, 11:04 AM

Denver gets one first down and then Miami stops the next two passes to set up a 3rd and 10. Denver runs it and Lane runs through a huge hole but LB- Dellinger makes the tackle just short of the 1st down at the Miami 43. They decide to punt this time and it's a good one. Denver downs the ball at the Miami 7 and that's where they takeover with 10:50 to play in the 1st half with Miami still trailing 7-0.

DolphinFan1 · 02-03-2007, 11:10 AM

Denver comes out playing the run and Sanders finds FB- Darryl Blanda for 10 yards. After a couple of penalties by both teams, Sander hooks up with WR- Cole on a 27 yard play and Miami has a 1st down at their 42. Another pass to Swift for 15 after a run by Newton and Miami is in Denver territory. A 4 yard run by Newton and a blocked pass sets up a 3rd and 6 at the Denver 38. Sanders tries to hit Swift but he had to throw it before he was ready when Denver's Myron Gifford put the pressure on. Another Miami drive ends just out of FG range. A nice punt by Singleton pins Denver at their 3 yard line.

DolphinFan1 · 02-03-2007, 11:16 AM

Denver comes out throwing and is taking to the Miami defense eating up chunks of yardage. After a few 1st downs, Denver has the ball at the Miami 42 with 2 minutes to play in the 1st half. A false start pushes them back and then on a 3rd and long, Miami DE- Harvey Hughes pressures King and the Miami defense holds. Miami gets the ball at their 14 after a 7 yard return by CB- Douglas.

DolphinFan1 · 02-03-2007, 11:20 AM

Miami is content to run out the clock with only 50 seconds to play in the 1st half and bad field position.

Halftime score: Denver 7 Miami 0.

Other games; Philadelphia leads Carolina 21-3, New Orleans leads Arizona 14-10 and The New York Jets lead Cleveland 14-10.

We will take a break at the half. Stay tuned later for the second half. Can Miami come back and spring the upset?

DolphinFan1 · 02-03-2007, 01:02 PM

We're almost ready to start the 2nd half. Let's take a look at some of the halftime stats:

Denver leads in total yards 165 to 140.
Denver leads in 1st downs 10 to 8.
Denver also leads in 3rd down conversions, 4/7 while Miami was only 1/5.

Let's go down to the field to talk with the head coach of the New England Patriots, Glenn Flynn.

Coach, what surprised you the most about the 1st half?

Glen Flynn: Well, I was surprised with how much better the Denver running game was. Curtis Lane out rushed the leagues leading rusher by 36 yards and had a better ypc.

What does Miami have to do to come back and pull the upset?

Glen Flynn: Well, we played Miami twice and split. But let me tell you that just because Newton only has 31 yards in the 1st half doesn't mean he can't rack up 150 in the 2nd half. He just gets stronger as the game goes on. He wears down defenses. I think it plays into Miami's favor only being down by 7 as they can stick to their gameplan, pound Newton. If you saw the game earlier this year when he almost got 300 yards, you know how he just exploded in the 2nd half.

One final question coach. What's your prediction on the final score?

Glen Flynn: Well, even with Newton I think the home crowd and the fact that Denver gets the ball to start the 2nd half is a little too much. Denver 17 Miami 14.

Thanks coach. Well, it's almost time to kickoff the 2nd half.

View Poll Results: What do you think of the new format? In particular the Weekly reports.
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01-18-2007, 12:22 AM	#52
DolphinFan1 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Connecticut	1977 Week four: Gameday GAMEDAY: Week four: Miami at Cincinnati: 1st QUARTER: We stop them after an intial 1st down when Tigchelaar defends a pass. On our 3rd play, Crichlow runs for 3 yards and fumbles and Cincinnati recovers at our 32. Not a good start. Four plays later they make us pay with a TD pass and lead 7-0. (Just a note, former Dolphins receiver Lincoln High is playing for Cincinnati and he caught a 19 yard pass on the drive.) We drive to the 9 yard line but stall and settle for the 26 yard FG to cut the lead to 7-3. Sanders converted 2 third downs to Swift early in the drive. We stop them on 3 plays thanks to an unsportsmanlike penalty on them. We have the ball at our 34. We end the 1st quarter with 2 consecutive false start penalties and start the 2nd with a 3rd and 15 at our 29. 2nd QUARTER: We can't convert and have to punt. The penalties hurt. They drive right down the field and have a 3rd and 16 at our 27 after a big sack. The 3rd down pass is dropped and we escape a bad defensive drive with only a FG allowed. We trail 10-3. We only get one first down on our next drive and punt again. After one 1st down we hold them to a punt. High dropped a pass on 2nd down. Nice to see all our former players are not superstars after I let them go. A penalty on the return gives us the ball at our 9 yard line with 4 minutes to go in the half and down by 7. Stupid, stupid! Sanders throws a bad pass which is intercepted at our 32 and returned to our 25. Not a good play when we just needed to run a little to get out of our own end. They make us pay 5 plays later to take a 17-3 lead. We make an attempt to get into FG range before the half but stall at their 47 and go into the locker room down 17-3. In other games in our division: The Jets are winning by 7 at halftime, N.E. is trailing by 14 early in the 3rd and Buffalo is down by 13 in the 3rd. 3rd QUARTER: We start the 2nd half with the ball trailing by 14. Sanders hits Cole for 13 to start the drive. Then he hits Antonides for 23 and he had 11 YAC. We have the ball at their 42. Another 23 yard pass to Antonides gives us a 1st down at the 19 yard line. Then a pass to Dunkelberger for 12 and we have a 1st and goal at the 7. A one yard loss by Newton followed by a 3 yard catch by Cole gives us a 3rd and goal at the 5. Sanders drops back and throws to Craig who catches it and gets to the endzone. We cut the lead to 17-10. Sanders was 6/6 for 79 yards and a TD pass. Impressive drive coming out of the locker room. Now let's see some defense. The 1st play is a sack by Petkovich. 2nd play is an 8 yard catch by High which sets up a 3rd and 7 at their 25. Our defense steps up when Tigchelaar intercepts a pass at their 43 and returns it to the 17. We have our chance to tie the score. Another stupid play by Sanders when on the 2nd play he is intercepted in the endzone. We are not even trying to run the ball. They start to drive but we hold them but we have it at our 7 after the punt. We go 3 and out and they have great field position at their 44. We hold them after a 1st down but CB- Barkley goes down with an injury and doesn't return. We are already thin at CB with Pirrup out. That will hurt. We have a 3rd and 1 at our 29 and Crichlow gets stopped for no gain. We need to convert those. The end of the 3rd has us trailing 17-10 and they have a 2nd and 6 at their 43. 4th QUARTER: They get to our 26 and we hold them to a FG try. We need to block this to keep it a one score game. They hit the 43 yard FG to extend the lead to 20-10. The Jets are still leading now by 14. N.E. and Buffalo are still trailing by double digits. On a key third down and 8, Sanders is pressured and throws it deep to Swift. He makes the catch 25 yards and we have a 1st and 10 at the Cincinnati 43. On the following play, Sanders is sacked and loses the ball. Springer keeps us alive by recovering it at the 50. We can't recover from the sack and have to punt. The punt pins them at the 6. Maybe our defense can force a turnover deep in their territory. They are eating up clock on this drive as we had a chance to stop them early on a 3rd and 10 from their 22 and they get 10 yards for the 1st. We finally force a punt at our 47 but their is only 3 minutes to go in the game and we trail by 10. We can't get a 1st after 4 plays and lose it on downs. We hold but they get a FG and lead 23-10 with 1:30 to play. Just to make it interesting, Sanders completes a couple of long passes and then hits Swift for a 10 yard TD strike to cut the lead to 23-17 with 30 seconds to play. Now we just need to recover the onside kick and hit another bomb to win. We can't recover the kick and the game is over. We lose 23-17. The Jets won. N.E. and Buffalo lost. Notes, injuries and stats: Barkley has a severe wrist sprain and is out for about 3 weeks. He was already starting in place of Pirrup who is out for 4 more weeks. So we have only 3 healthy CB. OLB- Jerry Litingo, who we cut after preseason, was signed by the Jets. Crichlow and Newton were an anemic 42 yards on 19 carries. Sanders was 26/44 for 308 yards with 2 TD and 2 INT. Our receivers played well: Swift led the team with 7 catches for 95 yards and a TD. Antonides had 5 catches for 83 yards. Cole had 6 catches for 67 yards. Alarcon had 10 tackles and 2 assists. (He's been a good pickup in place of Cochrane. Nice to see one of my trades is paying off.) Petkovich had our only 2 sacks. Buffalo comes to town next week with an 0-4 record. N.E. heads to Baltimore. The Jets go to Cincinnati. Now, Cincinnati is 4-0 and we just lost to them. So, you just know the Jets will win and Buffalo will play above their 0-4 record against us. We need to decide what to do about our CB situation. We won't have Pirrup and Barkley back until our bye week in 4 weeks. We have moved up in the power rankings to #6 with 69. Up next: 1st quarter of the season standings and team summary __________________ GM of the Milwaukee Muscle Men of the ZFL. The 1st team in ZFL history to have a perfect losing season. I am on a quest to show that the Dolphins can win the Super Bowl. Or should I say Front Office Bowl, with FOF2K7. The revival of an old favorite, FOFC Wrestling Dynasty Last edited by DolphinFan1 : 01-18-2007 at 12:22 AM.

01-21-2007, 10:33 PM	#55
DolphinFan1 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Connecticut	1977 WEEK FIVE: BUFFALO BILLS 0-4 AT MIAMI DOLPHINS 2-2 PREVIEW: Sunny, 69 degrees and calm. We are favored by 12. We are #6 in power rankings and Buffalo is #31. I decide there is no one on the FA wire who is better than our current CB. Unless someone else goes down we will go with what we have. The rookie Terry will start at LCB opposite Barton in place of the injured Pirrup and Barkley. The other inactives are Chavarria, Hancock, Chandiramani, Ramirez and Gilmore. Up next: Gameday, Buffalo at Miami __________________ GM of the Milwaukee Muscle Men of the ZFL. The 1st team in ZFL history to have a perfect losing season. I am on a quest to show that the Dolphins can win the Super Bowl. Or should I say Front Office Bowl, with FOF2K7. The revival of an old favorite, FOFC Wrestling Dynasty

01-21-2007, 10:34 PM	#56
DolphinFan1 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Connecticut	1977: Week Five Gameday GAMEDAY: 1977 WEEK FIVE: BUFFALO AT MIAMI: 1ST QUARTER: One note as we start the game. Tudrick is starting for them once again. He did fairly well against us last year. Let's change that. Our defense holds them to a 3 and out when Pearson defends a pass on 3rd down. But once again we fumble the punt return (Tigchelaar) and they recover at our 39. A few plays later they turn it into a TD. You see why I was worried about an 0-4 team. We just can't fumble the ball. Sanders puts together a nice drive mixing the run and pass and we have a 3rd and goal at the 3 yard line. He then throws a screen pass to Craig which goes nowhere and actually lost a yard. We have to settle for the short FG. We trail 7-3. We need to punch those in. The quarter ends with our defense going to sleep and they are at our 21 with a 1st down. 2nd QUARTER: We are making a former Dolphin (Tudrick) look like a HOFer again. He completes three 3rd and longs for 1st downs on this drive. The last for a 17 yard TD. We trail 14-3. On a big 3rd and 7 at our 24, with the risk of giving the ball right back, Sanders hits Cole on a 16 yard pass and a 1st down. Another key 3rd down converted as Sanders hit Crichlow for 4 yards on a 3rd and 2. We have a 1st down at their 48. Once again a 3rd and 2 at the 40 and Sanders comes through with a 19 yard completion to Antonides. Newton gets us to the one yard line and Sanders hits Blanda on the one yard TD pass and we cut the lead to 14-10. Great drive by Sanders. On the 1st play we get a TFL and force a fumble but they recover it. That would have been a great opportunity late in the half. A dropped pass and a short completion and we force a punt. The punt is short and we have great field position at our 44 with a chance to take the lead with 3:30 to play in the half. The 1st play is a 23 yard pass to Antonides. Five more yards to Dunkelberger and we have a 2nd and 5 at the Buffalo 28. The next play Sander throws a long pass to Swift. He catches the 28 yard TD pass and we take the lead 17-14 with 2 minutes to play in the half. We force a punt after 3 plays and have the ball at our 28 with just over 1 minute to play in the half. Looks like we are content to go into the locker room with the lead with a running play and a short screen pass. However, on the short screen pass to Blanda, he breaks a tackle and gets 25 yards. We have a 1st and 10 at the Buffalo 44 with 44 seconds to play. But on the next play, Sanders throws an interception at the 38 and they have it at their 45. They try to get into FG range but run out of time. We go into the locker room leading 17-14. We lost a great opportunity there. In other games, Cincinnati is leading the Jets 10-0 and Baltimore is leading N.E. 10-6. 3rd QUARTER: We get the ball to start the 2nd half and our receivers pick up where they left off. Sanders hits Antonides on a 32 yard pass which 17 was after the catch and a broken tackle. That puts Antonides over 100 yards receiving on the day on 5 catches. Two more nice passes to Swift gives us a 1st and goal at the 10. The next play is a pitch to Newton which Mohr creates a hole and he gets the 10 yard TD run and a 24-14 lead. Great way to start the 2nd half. A big sack by Petkovich and Hughes on 3rd down forces a punt and we get the ball right back. We try to run it twice and only gain 2 yards and fail to complete the pass on 3rd down and they have the ball at their 14 after the punt. They are ripping off yardage and have a 3rd and 7 at our 38 when we force an incompletion on a QB pressure. However we are offsides and they have another chance. They try to run and we hold. Incredible, we stopped a 3rd and short. But they go for it on a 4th and 1 at our 32 and get the 1st down. But wait...an offensive holding call brings it back! Finally a call goes our way. They punt. Baltimore extends their lead on N.E. to 17-6 and Cincinnati has a 16-0 lead on the Jets. N.E. is in the 4th and the Jets are late in the 3rd. We are getting nothing on the ground and a false start gives us a 2nd and 17 at our 13. But Sanders hits Antonides again, this time for 22 yards. Another 17 to Antonides and we have a 1st and 10 at their 48. Again a loss of yards on the 1st down run and then another false start. We have another 2nd and long. Antonides catches another pass for 13 yards which gives us a 3rd and 5 at the Buffalo 43. Sanders is over 300 yards and Antonides is over 150 yards. On the 3rd down play Sanders looks for who else but Antonides. He finds him for a short gain but he is open and gets 37 yards after the catch and the 43 yard TD. That drive was all Sanders and Antonides. We lead 31-14 to end the 3rd. 4th QUARTER: They drive to our 37 but we hold. Our 1st play is a pass to Newton for 26 yards. We have a 3rd and 19 and Sanders finds Antonides again but only for 11 yards and we have to punt. N.E. has cut the lead to 17-12 at Baltimore late in the 4th. Cincinnati still leads by 16 against the Jets. We stop them on three plays and Barton gets a 7 yard sack on 3rd down. They go for it on 4th and long at their 18 and we hold them. We have it at their 29 with 8 minutes to play in the game leading 31-14. We run the ball on every play and get one 1st down but have to settle for a long FG try. But we took a lot of time off the clock. Hammond misses the 38 yard try. We still lead 31-14 with 3:16 to play. Incidently this game, most of the passes into double coverage are not completed. Strange. We stop them on a 4th down and have the ball with 2 minutes to play. Kolodziejski gets some work in the game now. He's just in their to hand off and we get a 1st down and Buffalo uses their timeouts and we take some knees to end it. We win 31-14. I switch to the other games in the division. Just as I switch to the N.E. game they complete a last second drive to win the game 18-17. The Jets lost so we still have a 1 game lead in the division. This was a great game by the team after the early fumble and we let them take a 14-3 lead. Sanders and Antonides had great games. Newton couldn't get anything on the ground. The OL didn't allow a sack and DL put pressure on Tudrick all day even with only 2 sacks. Other notes, injuries and stats: Sanders was the player of the game: 24/28 for 384 yards with 3 TDs and 1 int. Antonides had 10 catches for 213 yards and 1 TD with 78 YAC. Swift added 63 yards and a TD. Newton had an anemic 2.05 ypc. Crichlow had 8 rushes for 43 yards. On the injury front, Barkley is 2 weeks away. Pirrup is ahead of schedule as he is also about 2 weeks away. He is probable this week but I don't want to risk it. Terry played decent in his place. No new injuries. UP next: We try to keep it going as we head to Cleveland __________________ GM of the Milwaukee Muscle Men of the ZFL. The 1st team in ZFL history to have a perfect losing season. I am on a quest to show that the Dolphins can win the Super Bowl. Or should I say Front Office Bowl, with FOF2K7. The revival of an old favorite, FOFC Wrestling Dynasty

01-22-2007, 12:18 PM	#57
DolphinFan1 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Connecticut	1977 WEEK 6: MIAMI DOLPHINS (3-2) AT CLEVELAND BROWNS (3-2) PREVIEW: Sunny and 60 degrees with a 1 MPH wind. We are favored by 6. We have moved up to 73 and #5 in the power rankings. Cleveland is 44 and #21. We will use the same lineup as last week as I don't want to risk Pirrup. We are facing the #1 pick in this year's draft: NT- Ricky Droughns. The Jets travel to play N.E. this week so we need to win to hold our 1 game lead. They are both 2-3. Buffalo plays Pittsburgh. Up next: Gameday Week 6 __________________ GM of the Milwaukee Muscle Men of the ZFL. The 1st team in ZFL history to have a perfect losing season. I am on a quest to show that the Dolphins can win the Super Bowl. Or should I say Front Office Bowl, with FOF2K7. The revival of an old favorite, FOFC Wrestling Dynasty Last edited by DolphinFan1 : 01-22-2007 at 12:19 PM.

01-18-2007, 09:32 PM	#54
SFL Cat College Starter Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: South Florida	If you really want to get the Fins over the hump, hire Nick Saban!!!

01-22-2007, 02:06 PM	#58
DolphinFan1 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Connecticut	1977 Week six: Gameday GAMEDAY: 1977 WEEK 6: MIAMI AT CLEVELAND: 1st QUARTER: Cleveland starts with the ball and takes it to us and finishes with a 29 yard TD run and the early 7-0 lead. Sanders hits Cole on a 3rd down play to keep the drive alive. Then on a 3rd and long from the Cleveland 32, Sanders hits Swift on a 32 yard TD pass to tie the score. Our defense holds them to 3 plays this time but the punt pins us at our 3 yard line. Newton gets us out of trouble with a 15 yard run. He broke 2 tackles. It's about time as he hasn't done anything for 2 games. Another 3rd down play and Sanders hits Antonides for just enough yardage for the 1st down. The passing game is starting to open up some running lanes as Newton and Crichlow run for 10 and 15 yards respectively on successive plays to give us a 1st and 10 at the Cleveland 28. Another 6 yard run and that ends the 1st quarter with the score 7-7 but we are at the 22. 2nd QUARTER: Newton continues with a 13 yard run to give us a 1st and goal at the 9. A sack pushes us back to the 15, but it doesn't matter as on the next play Sanders hits Blanda on a 15 yard TD pass for the 14-7 lead. Two great drives to start the game for our offense. Our defense isn't too sharp today as they move down the field until McWilliams pressures the QB on a 3rd down at our 33 and we hold. They punt instead of trying the 50 yard FG and we have it at our 20. An offensive holding call stalls our drive and we punt it right back. A big return gives them the ball at our 45. We can't stop them and they tie the score at 14. We go 3 and out and have to give it right back to them at the 2 minute warning. A good punt pins them at their 9. The clock runs out and we go into the locker room tied at 14. Our offense went to sleep after the 1st two drives. We get the ball to start the 2nd half. We need a statement drive. At halftime, N.E. leads the Jets by 4 and surprisingly, Buffalo leads Pittsburgh by 3. 3rd QUARTER: A short KO gives us the ball at our 42 to start. Let's make it work. A short run and then a 29 yard pass to Antonides, with 13 coming after the catch, gives us the ball at their 26. A key 3rd and 11 and Sanders hits Swift on a 22 yard pass. We have a 1st and goal at the 5 yard line. Two plays later Sanders finds Swift again on a 3 yard TD pass and we have a 21-14 lead. Swift has 5 catches for 83 yards and 2 TD. Our offense woke up to start the 2nd half but our defense is still asleep as they start with a 47 yard pass. Our defense is anemic as they take it right down the field for the tieing score. I need to rethink our CB situation next week. I may need to play Pirrup at less than 100%. It just gets worse as Sanders throws an interception at our 37 on a 3rd down play and our defense, (if you want to call it that), is right back on the field. Our defense stops them on 3rd down but not before they get enough yardage to hit the 46 yard FG and the 24-21 lead. Another short KO gives us the ball at our 44 to start. Newton rips one for 15 yards and we are in Cleveland territory. A nine yard pass and another 10 on the ground from Newton gives us a 1st down at the Cleveland 22. Two more runs give us a 1st and 10 at the 12 to end the 3rd. 4th QUARTER: Two plays and we have a 3rd and 1 at the 3. The give is to Crichlow and he can't get the yard. We settle for the short FG and the tie at 24. Our defense had an easy time as Cleveland committed 4 false starts on the drive and we force a quick punt. We start at our 44 with 11 to play in the game and tied at 24. 3rd and 5 at our 49 and Sanders comes through again to Swift for 6 yards and the 1st down. The next play is a screen pass that goes nowhere and Newton fumbles the ball. Dunkelberger is alert however and we keep the ball. A 3rd and 1 at the 36 and Blanda catches one for 4 yards and a 1st down. A few plays later we have a 3rd and 2 at the 4. Sanders hits Crichlow on a pass but for only 1 yard and we have a 4th and 1 at the 3. Hammond hits the short FG and we take the lead 27-24 with 5 minutes to play. The 2nd play they hit a 31 yard pass and they have a 1st down at our 44. McWilliams steps up and sacks the QB on successive plays to set up a 3rd and 20 at their own 46. They only get one yard on the short pass and our defense holds. After the punt we have the ball at our 23 with 2:53 to play and a 3 point lead. We just need to run out the clock. The first play is a run for one yard. On 2nd and 9, Newton breaks one for 28 yards and we have a 1st down at the Cleveland 48. A false start pushes us back but Newton rips another long gain this time for 22 and Cleveland spends their last timeout. Another 1st down running the ball and we run out the clock. WE WIN 27-24!!! Big win for this team. I switch games to catch the Jets finish off the Patriots. Pittsburgh just scored to take the lead against Buffalo. They hold on to win. Stats, notes and injuries: QB- Glen Perry was signed by Jacksonville. Notes, stats and injuries: McWilliams DPOW with 4 tackles, 1 assist, 2 knockdowns, 1 hurry and 3 sacks. He was the reason we won the game at the end when he sacked the QB twice on Cleveland's last drive at our 44. Sanders was 27/33 for 261 yards with 3 TD and 1 Int. and player of game. Strange as McWilliams was player of week. Newton had 153 yards on 22 carries after a very slow start. Antonides had 97 yards on 7 catches and Swift added 92 yards on 7 catches but 2 TD. Hammond hit both FG and the game winner late. Great pressure kick. Our OL only allowed one sack. Lee was 4/6 on KRB with 1 pancake block. Springer was 3/6 on KRB with 1 pancake block. Green was 3/5 on KRB. This was a team win as the offense kept us in the game until the defense woke up and then the defense held on for the win. Another key was we held the #1 pick Droughns to only 3 tackles. That's it. We are 4-2 and are in 1st place by one game. We play a 3-3 Pittsburgh team at home this week before our bye week. It would be nice to be 5-2 at our break and leading the division. No new injuries and Pirrup and Barkley are probable and about 1 week away from full strength. Our coaching staff think there is a low chance of reinjury. I will risk it as we need the win before our bye week. Other notes through 6 games: Sanders has his career best in completion pct. so far. Also 15 TD is a career high as is his QB rating at 107. Let's hope he keeps it up. Swift has been the scoring machine with 7 TD through 6 games. FA pickup Cole only has 18 catches for 236 yards, but 9 catches on 3rd down and 7 converted for 1st downs. That's been key for us to have a key 3rd down target. Hammond is 8/10 on FG with his only misses are one for 38 and 1 over 50. I can live with that. Better than last year's kicker. Up next: We face Pittsburgh before our bye week. __________________ GM of the Milwaukee Muscle Men of the ZFL. The 1st team in ZFL history to have a perfect losing season. I am on a quest to show that the Dolphins can win the Super Bowl. Or should I say Front Office Bowl, with FOF2K7. The revival of an old favorite, FOFC Wrestling Dynasty Last edited by DolphinFan1 : 01-22-2007 at 02:16 PM.

01-24-2007, 09:03 AM	#59
DolphinFan1 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Connecticut	1977 WEEK 7: PITTSBURGH STEELERS (3-3) AT MIAMI DOLPHINS (4-2) PREVIEW: Sunny, 90 degrees and a 9 MPH wind. Hopefully the heat will wear them down. Power rankings we are a 71 and moved up to #4. Pittsburgh is #22. We are favored by 8. Injuries: Pirrup and Barkley are probable and both are active this week with Pirrup starting. Inactives: Chavarria, Hancock, Chandiramani, Ramirez, Gilmore, Fredrickson and Harrison. The Jets play Cleveland at home, both are 3-3. N.E. (2-4) play a 5-0 Cincinnati team at home. Buffalo (0-6) travels to Baltimore (2-4). Up next: Week 7 Gameday __________________ GM of the Milwaukee Muscle Men of the ZFL. The 1st team in ZFL history to have a perfect losing season. I am on a quest to show that the Dolphins can win the Super Bowl. Or should I say Front Office Bowl, with FOF2K7. The revival of an old favorite, FOFC Wrestling Dynasty

01-24-2007, 09:05 AM	#60
DolphinFan1 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Connecticut	GAMEDAY: 1977 WEEK 7: PITTSBURGH AT MIAMI: GAMEDAY: 1977 WEEK 7: PITTSBURGH AT MIAMI: 1st QUARTER: Pittsburgh gets the ball to start and a penalty starts them at their 14. Two quick first downs before we stop them on a 3rd and 6. The punt pins us at our 8. Newton starts us off with a 14 yard run with a key block by Mohr. Another 8 yards on a block by Burford. A third straight run for 2 yards and the 1st down. Springer with the block. The next play is an 11 yard completion to Cole when Pittsburgh plays the run. Another 8 yard pass to Newton this time and we have a 2nd and 2 at the Pittsburgh 49. No gain on the next run. A bad pass on 3rd down and we stall. But a nice drive to get us out of bad field position. A chance to pin them deep, but the punt goes into the endzone. Our defense holds them to 3 plays when Kimbrell hurries the QB. A great return by Tigchelaar to the Pittsburgh 21 is nullified on a holding on the return. We start at our 39. Newton continues where he left off the 1st drive with 2 runs of 9 and 12 yards. But then Sanders throws an interception at the Pittsburgh 22. That's two good chances lost. A 4 yard run then a sack by Dobbins and Dellinger sets up a 3rd and 11 at the Pittsburgh 21. Hughes tips the 3rd down pass away and we hold them to another 3 and out. We start at our 39 again. A 1st down run goes nowhere. Then Sanders hits Swift for 30 yards. Our OL is blocking well as Newton rips another 7 yards. Mohr creates an opening and Newton has another 6 yards. He finally is stopped for a 1 yard loss and a dropped pass to Swift sets up a 3rd and 11 at the Pittsburgh 21. Sanders runs for it and only gets 4 yards. We will settle for the 34 yard FG try. Hammond hits the FG for the 3-0 lead at the end of the 1st quarter. In other games, Baltimore is leading Buffalo 14-7, Cincinnati leads N.E. 7-0, and the Jets are leading Cleveland 3-0. 2nd QUARTER: Pittsburgh starts the 2nd a big run, but it is called back on a penalty. A 2nd and long pass into double coverage is incomplete and they have a 3rd and 17 at their 15. We have a chance to put their defense right back out their on this hot day. They can't complete the pass and we force a 3 and out again. A short punt and good return by Tigchelaar gives us the ball at the Pittsburgh 30. They are expecting the pass, but we keep it on the ground. Mohr creates a huge hole for Newton who gets 16 more to give us a 1st and 10 at the 14. Two more yards gives us a 2nd and 8 at the 12. Our OL finally caves a little and gives up a 7 yard sack. We have a 3rd and 15 at the 19. A short pass to Antonides only gives us 6 yards. We will settle for the 30 yard FG try. Hammond hits it and we lead 6-0. I hope these chances don't come back to bite us. On the positive side, Newton is a monster today. He has 73 yards on 12 carries through 1 1/2 quarters. Baltimore is all over Buffalo 28-7. N.E. has tied Cincinnati at 7 and the Jets and Cleveland are tied at 3. A big KO is a touchback and they start at their 20. Our defense is playing well again but they get the 3rd down conversion for just enough yards. Another 3rd down, Ward sacks the QB and we hold. The punt gives us the ball at our 38. I like our coach's offensive playcalling in this one. They are playing the run, and rightfully so. But our coach calls a pass and Sanders hits Swift to 17 yards. Back to the ground for 4 and then another pass to Swift for 20 more. We have a 1st and 10 at the 21. Two short runs sets up 3rd and 6 at the 17. Sanders hits Burford for only 3 and we have to settle for another FG. Hammond hits the 31 yard FG and we lead 9-0. We are moving the ball well but keep stalling. The way this is going, Hammond is going to be our MVP of this game even with Newton's great runs. Two nice stops on runs gives them a 3rd and 9. Then McWilliams pressures the QB and they have to punt and we get the ball right back with 2:51 to play in the half and we get the ball to start the 2nd half. On a 3rd and 7, Mohr creates a hole and Newton rips another 18 yards. Two short passes gives us a 3rd and 6 at the Pittsburgh 44 with 20 seconds to play in the half. A 3rd down pass to Swift is dropped and we lose a great opportunity. The 1st half ends with us leading 9-0. We really dominated the game so far but failed to punch it in. In the other division games: Baltimore 35, Buffalo 10 late in the 2nd quarter. New Engand 14, Cincinnati 7 late in the 2nd quarter. Cleveland 10, N.Y. Jets 10 middle of the 2nd quarter. 3rd QUARTER: We start the 2nd half with the ball at our 28. A 6 yard pass to Antonides and then 8 yards on the ground by Newton. Newton is over 100 yards already. Crichlow gets 5 yards but coughs it up and Pittsburgh recovers it at our 32. Costly turnover when we are really dominating the game. Let's see if our defense can hold them. Our defense holds them to dump off passes and we hold. But they hit the 43 yard FG to cut our lead to 9-3. But it could have been worse. Our pass defense is much better today as their QB is only 6/13 for 27 yards. But that could be a combination of a bad QB or receivers. Our offense goes 3 and out and we have to punt the ball right back to them. A good punt gives them the ball at their 23. Just as I praise our pass defense, they proceed to move down the field and with the help of an unnecessary roughness penalty gives them a 1st and 10 at our 19. They finish the drive with a TD and what was once a 9-0 halftime lead is a 10-9 deficit. I said we needed TD not FG earlier. Back to the ground for 8 yards and then a pass to Antonides for 18 and we have a 1st down at our 48. Crichlow makes up for his earlier blunder and rips one for 16 yards with a key block from Springer. We lose 3 yards and then 2 incomplete passes and we stall at the Pittsburgh 39. A promising drive ends in a punt. But a nice punt by Singleton pins them at their 5. Let's see if our defense can make something happen. We stop them on the first two plays and they have a 3rd and 6 at their 9. Time for our defense to play like they did in the 1st half. That's how the 3rd quarter ends. Baltimore is still killing Buffalo. N.E. and Cincinnati are tied at 14. Cleveland leads the Jets by 7. 4th QUARTER: The 3rd down pass is stopped short by a yard by Alarcon but we get called for defensive holding and they get the automatic 1st down. That's a killer penalty. That penalty seems to have deflated our defense as they move it at will to our 31 with a 1st down. Another 1st down at our 20. Finally a play as Franz sacks the QB for 8 yards. But we still need to hold. We hold them on 3rd down and they will settle for the 34 yard FG try. They hit it to extend the lead to 13-9 with 9 minutes to play in the game. If we had just converted one of those FG into a TD we would be tied right now. But no use crying over spilt milk. Our defense has played surprisingly well and kept us in the game. Time for the offense to put a TD drive together to win this game. Crichlow returns it to our 38 and fumbles the ball....NO! But he recovers his own fumble. His job is on the line. I will not accept these fumbles. The 1st play is a screen pass to Newton for 8 yards. A 3 yard run by Newton and we have a 1st down. Money man Antonides catches one for 17 and we have a 1st and 10 at the Pittsburgh 34. A short pass for 2 and then an incomplete pass sets up a 3rd and 8 at the 32. This is a key 3rd down here with 6 minutes to play. An incredible play as Sanders hits Newton for the 8 yard completion and just enough for the 1st down. But we lost center Mohr on the play. That could hurt us. We have a 1st and 10 at 24. 1st down is an incomplete pass to Cole. Someone needs to step up for a TD. We have settled for FG all day and that won't cut it being down by 4. A 2nd down pass to Antonides is knocked down which sets up another big 3rd down at the 24. Sanders hits Swift, but for only 4 yards and we stall again. We have a 4th and 6 at the 20, down by 4 with 5 to play. What will our coach do? He decides on the FG to cut the lead to one and then hoping to get the ball back and a FG to win it. Hammond lines up for the 37 yarder....and he misses is to the right. UGH! His 2nd miss from under 40, but at a really bad time. We still trail by 4. A couple of big plays eats up yardage and clock but we hold. But we are in a hole. We have it at our 7 yard line with 2 minutes to play and one timeout. Well, time for these high priced offensive guys to make it happen. First down pass to Swift is dropped. He picked a bad time to have butterfingers. He's been money all season. Then Dunkelberger drops a pass. What is going on? The 3rd down pass to Swift is intercepted and that will end our chance to win this one. We lose 13-9. I switch to the other games in our division. Buffalo is still losing big. N.E. is trailing by 3 but Cincinnati has the ball late. The Jets trail Cleveland by 14. We lost a great opportunity to open up a lead in our division if these scores hold up. The scores do hold up, everyone in our division lost. So this loss hurt. Especially when we only managed 3 FG when we moved the ball easily in the 1st half. The turning point was the opening drive of the 2nd when Crichlow fumbled deep in our own end. Our defense held them to a FG but the momentum shifted to Pittsburgh and we never recovered. Other notes, stats and injuries: I am happy with the defense and how they played limiting Pittsburgh to only 13 points. If you give up only 13 you will win most games. And our OL was blocking excellent for Newton. We just need to finish the drives. On the injury front. Pirrup and Barkley are now 100% and risking playing them didn't hurt us. They beefed up our defense even if we lost. We lost center Mohr for 4 weeks with a strained foot ligament. So the rookie Hickman will start in his place. He is a step down from Mohr, but not terrible. Sanders finished the day 18/30 for 162 yards and 2 int. Definitely not as well as he's played so far. Newton had 121 yards on 22 carries and he added 4 catches for 24 yards. Swift added 71 yards and Antonides had 47 yards. But Swift had 3 dropped passes. Alarcon had 9 tackles and 3 assists. Our OL was a force today. 12/23 with only 1 SA. Better than 50% blocking. If we do that every week we will win most games. This lose hurt but we head into our bye week with a one game lead in the division. Something we haven't been able to do in previous years. After the bye week, N.E. comes to town and we have a chance to sweep them. Since our bye week is only one week away from the midpoint of the season, it's a good time to evaluate where we are, where we need to be, standings and stuff. UP next: Standing, team summary and roster report __________________ GM of the Milwaukee Muscle Men of the ZFL. The 1st team in ZFL history to have a perfect losing season. I am on a quest to show that the Dolphins can win the Super Bowl. Or should I say Front Office Bowl, with FOF2K7. The revival of an old favorite, FOFC Wrestling Dynasty

01-25-2007, 10:06 AM	#62
DolphinFan1 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Connecticut	1977 Weeks 8-9 1977 WEEK 8: Bye The Jets beat Buffalo to keep them winless and move to withing 1/2 game of us for the division lead. N.E. beat Cleveland to climb within 1 1/2 games of us. Cincinnati finally lost so the only undefeated team left is Philadelphia at 7-0. 1977 WEEK 9: NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS (3-5) AT MIAMI DOLPHINS (4-3) PREVIEW: Sunny, 92 degrees and calm. We won the 1st meeting in the 1st game of the season 31-23. Power rankings: Miami #7 with a 57, N.E. #9 with a 56. We are favored by 2. Injuries and inactives: C- Mohr is still out for about 4 weeks. Other inactives, Chavarria, Nishioka, Chandiramani, Gilmore, Fredrickson and Harrison. Key matchup: Miami rookie center- Hickman vs. N.E. 11 year veteran NT- Matthew Noonan rated 57/57. N.E. 2nd all time sacks, blocked passes and hurries. Can the rookie hold him off? Up next: Gameday __________________ GM of the Milwaukee Muscle Men of the ZFL. The 1st team in ZFL history to have a perfect losing season. I am on a quest to show that the Dolphins can win the Super Bowl. Or should I say Front Office Bowl, with FOF2K7. The revival of an old favorite, FOFC Wrestling Dynasty

01-25-2007, 10:18 AM	#63
DolphinFan1 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Connecticut	1977 Week 9 Gameday GAMEDAY: 1977 WEEK 9: NEW ENGLAND AT MIAMI: 1ST QUARTER: Other division games: Cincinnati travels to Buffalo and the Jets go to Pittsburgh. We start with the ball at our 20. Sanders starts us off with a 14 yard pass to Swift. Lead by a nice block by Springer, Newton rips one for 9 yards. An offensive holding call followed by a loss of one yard, sets us up with a 3rd and 12 at our 32. Sanders can't complete the 3rd down pass and we have to punt. A promising start is ended with a holding call. A booming punt by Singleton for 65 yards pins them at their 3 yard line. Maybe he's trying to keep his job as he is a FA after this year. They get a 16 yard pass play on 2nd down to get out of the shadow of their own goal. We are stopping the run, but they are passing on our defense at will and have a 1st down at our 41. They are using only short passes but are completing them for 1st downs and they are at our 18. They complete the 17 yard drive from their 3 yard line for a TD. Our defense was nonexistent. We can't get a 1st down as another offensive holding call gives us a 3rd and long and the pass to Antonides is short of the 1st down. New England gets the ball right back. Another booming punt by Singleton and a holding call pins them at their 8. Let's see if we can stop them this time. The 1st quarter ends with N.E. leading 7-0 and they have a 3rd and 8 at their 31. Cincinnati leads Buffalo 14-0 after 1 and the Jets and Pittsburgh are tied at 7. 2nd QUARTER: Another 3rd down completion and they are moving it again. On the next play, Kimbrell intercepts a pass at our 42. Our defense finally makes a play. We are pathetic today as after a false start we get 0 yards and punt. This is awful as they again complete passes at will. We finally hold them to a FG as their 3rd down pass is short. But our pass defense needs help. Our run defense is only allowing 3.4 ypc. But we trail 10-0. We go 3 and out again. There are going to be some jobs on the line if they don't start producing on offense or defense soon. A good return on the punt gives them the ball at our 45. Now we can't stop them on the ground as they are running on us. They get down to our 1 yard line and we actually stop them for no gain on a 3rd and goal. They hit the FG for the 13-0 lead, but it could have been worse. The 1st half ends with us running out of time on a drive. We go into the locker room trailing 13-0 but the score doesn't tell the story. Total yards: N.E. 232, Miami 67. 1st downs: N.E. 16, Miami 3. N.E. 9/11 on 3rd downs, We were 0/4. N.E. 45 plays to our 17. That was a pathetic 1st half of football by our team. It's amazing we are only down by 2 scores. Cincinnati leads 28-0 over Buffalo, Pittsburgh leads the Jets 13-7. 3rd QUARTER: On the 1st play of the 2nd half, we knock out their QB. Their backup QB proceeds to complete a pass for 17 yards! Then he proceeds to scramble for 10 yards! We finally defend a pass on 3rd down and force a punt. Kimbrell defended the pass. So he has an interception and a pass defended. Is he the only one on defense who showed up today? We start at our 20 and Newton gets a 10 yard run. We then proceed to get -1 yards on 3 plays and have to punt. We just didn't show up today. Another 60+ yard punt pins them at their 8. Singleton has 5 punts with a net average of 50 and 3 inside the 20. So besides Kimbrell, our punter came to play today. We finally force a 3 and out and should get good field position. We have it at our 45. We need a score here. We only gain 5 yards and have to punt again. Is this the same team that was 4-2 a couple of weeks ago? Another punt inside the 10. We stop them on 3 plays again. We have the ball at our 47. So we are getting good field position we need to do something. We start with a sack and a fumble, thankfully Springer recovered the ball. We go 3 and out again. I don't think it's all because Mohr is out. Our OL isn't all that bad without him in the lineup. I think the bye week hurt us. Another booming punt pins them at their 5. On the 2nd down play we lose Pearson to a serious hamstring injury. That's not good. We hold them to another 3 and out and they punt. But we are running out of chances trailing by 13 late in the 3rd. We have it at our 43. We lose 3 yards on the run. Then Antonides breaks one for 18 with 12 coming after the catch. It's about time. We then go 3 and out after that. This is pathetic. A good punt pins them at their 8. That's 6 inside the 20. They get 12 yards on a run and that ends the 3rd quarter with the score still 13-0. Cincinnati leads Buffalo 31-0 late in the 3rd. Pittsburgh leads the Jets 16-7 after 3. We had a chance the last few weeks to take control of the division. But we are playing like a team that just doesn't want it. 4th QUARTER: They proceed to basically put this one away with a long TD drive and lead 20-0. This is with their backup QB. We have some serious issues on this team. Another 3 and out and I can't watch anymore of this. No wait! We go for it from our 20 on a 4th and 10 and guess what....we don't gain a yard. Turnover on downs. They add a FG and then Kolodziejski comes in and throws a pick for a TD. We go on to lose 30-0 in the worst game I have ever seen. I switch to the Jets game as the Bills are getting blown out. The Jets get a late TD but lose to Pittsburgh 19-14. So we still lead the division by a 1/2 game but we don't deserve it. Notes, stats and injuries: Here are the ugly stats on the game: Rushing yards: N.E. 146 to 19. Total yards: N.E. 377 to 122. Total plays: N.E. 78 to 49. 1st downs: N.E. 24 to 7. TOP: N.E. 40 to 20 Our longest drives were 6 plays and 26 yards. I won't even go on. Forget individial stats save one: Singleton, 9 punts, 45.9 net average with 7 inside the 20. We would have lost to a college team with this performance. On the injury front, Mohr is still 3 weeks away from returning. Pearson is out for the season with a hamstring pull. I put him on IR. Looking at the FA wire, I don't see any safeties better than what we have. So my options are limited. I decide to see who I have on my team who could make the switch to FS. My scout tells me that rookie 4th round pick, CB- Terry could make the switch and maybe improve his ratings with a small experience hit. I decide to make the switch as he won't get much playing time at CB with Barton, Pirrup and Barkley ahead of him on the depth chart. GREAT! He was rated 27/37 before the move. He is now 27/49. If he fully develops he could be a good safety for us. That should fill the hole left by Pearson. Now I need to fill the roster spot at CB. I find a 9 year veteran, RCB- Adrian Douglas who has a career 80.3 PDpct. He is only rated 31/31 but good in run defense, BNR, Play diagnosis, interceptions, and can also play some special teams and kick returns. He will be a dime back for us. After signing him he goes to 34/34. Well, that takes care of our roster. Now time to prepare for next week's game. UP next: We try to rebound against Baltimore __________________ GM of the Milwaukee Muscle Men of the ZFL. The 1st team in ZFL history to have a perfect losing season. I am on a quest to show that the Dolphins can win the Super Bowl. Or should I say Front Office Bowl, with FOF2K7. The revival of an old favorite, FOFC Wrestling Dynasty

01-26-2007, 11:40 AM	#64
DolphinFan1 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Connecticut	1977 WEEK 10: BALTIMORE RAVENS (4-4) AT MIAMI DOLPHINS (4-4) PREVIEW: Sunny, 75 degrees and a 10 MPH wind. We are favored by 4. We have dropped to 14 in the power rankings and Baltimore is 23. Buffalo travels to N.E. and the Jets have their bye week. Let's hope Buffalo can get their 1st win. The Jets come to town after their bye week. So the next two weeks could make or break our season. Up next: Gameday __________________ GM of the Milwaukee Muscle Men of the ZFL. The 1st team in ZFL history to have a perfect losing season. I am on a quest to show that the Dolphins can win the Super Bowl. Or should I say Front Office Bowl, with FOF2K7. The revival of an old favorite, FOFC Wrestling Dynasty

01-26-2007, 11:48 AM	#65
DolphinFan1 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Connecticut	1977 Gameday: Week 10 GAMEDAY: 1977 WEEK 10: BALTIMORE AT MIAMI: 1ST QUARTER: Newly acquired Douglas starts us off with a good kick return to our 40. Newton then goes through a huge hole created by Green and gets 30 yards. Where was that last game when we needed a spark? Sanders and Cole connect on a 3rd and 9 for 21 yards to give us a 1st and goal. Cole gained 9 yards after the catch. A run and a short pass gives us a 3rd and goal at the 5. Let's punch this in the endzone. Sanders drops back to pass, he tosses a pass to Cole who catches it and gets into the endzone for the TD. *We take the early 7-0 lead. That's our 1st TD in 3 games.* Our defense holds them to a 3 and out. One note I forgot to mention. Rookie Terry is making his 1st start at FS. I know it was risky but it was the best option. The short punt gives us the ball at our 40 again. On a 3rd and 8, Sanders hit Swift for 18 yards and a 1st down. (New England just scored a TD against Buffalo.) Another pass to Swift for 22 yards gives us a 1st and 10 at the Baltimore 18. A short run and pass and we have a 3rd and 3 at the Baltimore 11. On the play, Lee creates a hole and Newton squirts through for 4 yards and the 1st down. *The next play is a 7 yard TD pass to Cole and we lead 14-0.* Cole looks to be the man today. After a defensive penalty gives them a 1st down, we stop them when Burkhart sacks the QB on 3rd down. He strips the ball loose, but Baltimore recovers at their 31. But we force a punt. Another short punt gives us good field position again, this time at our 47. On the 1st down play, rookie center Hickman creates a hole for Newton who gets 9 yards. Nice to see the rookie make a block. Two plays later, Sanders throws an interception at the Baltimore 32. We could have really opened up the lead there. Tough break. After one 1st down, we get a couple of QB pressures and force a punt. This time we start at our 22. We end the 1st quarter with a 14-0 lead and the ball at our 39 with a 2nd and 5. New England leads Buffalo 7-0 after one quarter. 2nd QUARTER: A 3rd and short converted to Swift and we keep the drive alive. A long pass to Antonides and Dunkelberger gives us a 1st and 10 at the 13. *On a 3rd and 5 from the 8, Sanders hits 2nd TE Burford on an 8 yard TD pass and we extend the lead to 21-0!* They get a couple of 1st downs and then our DL forces 3 QB hurries and they have to punt. Where was this pressure the last 2 games? We start at our 26. (Buffalo just got a FG, but they still trail N.E. 7-3.) We have to punt this time after a 3 and out when the 3rd down pass to Swift is short of the 1st down. (N.E. just got a quick TD to extend the lead to 14-3 on Buffalo.) On a 3rd and 2, Dobbins sacks the QB. But we commit an unnecessary roughness penalty to give them a 1st down. On the next play, Dellinger intercepts a long bomb at our 8 yard line. We can't get a 1st down and have to punt. They have it at their 45. Dellinger isn't playing like a rookie today as he sacks the QB on the 1st play for a loss of 15 yards!!! A false start gives them a 2nd and 30 at their 25. Another false start pushes them back to their 20. A nine yard pass gives them a 3rd and 26, Dellinger made the tackle again. On the 3rd down play, newly acquired Douglas makes an interception at their 41. Nice to see the new guy make a play. New England adds a safety and lead 16-3. Looks like Buffalo is heading for an 0-10 record. We get 11 yards on a pass to Swift and then 8 more on a pass to Newton. A penalty gives us a 1st and 10 at the 12 with just over 2 minutes to play in the half. Crichlow gets 9 yards to set up a 2nd and 1 at the 3. Bush gets knocked down and Newton is tackled for a 3 yard loss to give us a 3rd and 4 at the 6. A pass to Burford, but he is stopped just short of the 1st down marker. *We hit the 20 yard FG and take the 24-0 lead. But OG Lee went down with an injury on the play and will not return.* They just run the ball to end the half. We go into the locker room with a 24-0 lead. I have to say this is a big difference than last week. The only negative is losing Lee. At the half N.E. leads Buffalo by 16. They just added a FG. 3rd QUARTER: Our defense comes out and continues there smothering play and force a 3 and out. This was important as we needed to keep the momentum in our favor. Baltimore is 0/8 on 3rd downs. Our coach calls 3 running plays and Baltimore was ready for them and we only gain 5 yards. Looks like our coach is trying to use clock but I think it's a little early for that. A big punt gives them the ball at their 23. A sack by McWilliams gives them a 3rd and long and we stop them again. We have it at our 39. A short pass opens up some running lanes for Newton as he rips off 10 and 13 yards and we have a 1st and 10 at the Baltimore 35. Hickman makes another block and Newton gets 12 more. Hickman once again and Newton gets 16 more to give us a 1st and goal at the 7. *The next play, Green creates the hole and Newton gets the 7 yard TD run for a 31-0 lead.* New England is running away from Buffalo in their game 26-3. A QB hurry by McWilliams on 3rd down forces a long FG try. They miss it and we still lead 31-0 with 2 minutes to play in the 3rd quarter. After a 14 yard pass to Antonides, Sanders gets the rest of the day off. Kolodziejski comes in for some work. We can't get another 1st down and punt. Our defense is caught sleeping after a 6 yard loss on an run. We then allow a short pass to a WR and he breaks it for 86 yards and the TD. The 3rd quarter ends with us leading 31-7. 4th QUARTER: *INCREDIBLE! On the kickoff, Alston returns it 98 yards for the TD! We lead 38-7!* I would have taken just one of these TD against Pittsburgh 2 weeks ago. Here is the crazy game again. They complete a 2 yard pass, and Terry makes the tackle and forces a fumble. They recover it and return it 78 yards and a TD. They go for 2 and fail. *We lead 38-13.* A pass and a long run by Newton gives us the ball at the 10 of Baltimore. But we only get to the 2 yard line. *Hammond adds the FG and we lead 41-13.* We trade punts. Then on Baltimore's next drive we lose Tigchelaar to an injury and he doesn't return. *We win 41-13!!!!* New England beats Buffalo so we lead our division by 1/2 over N.E. and 1 game over the Jets who we face next week. NOTES, STATS AND INJURIES: Buffalo is the only winless team at 0-10. Philadelphia finally lost, so no one is undefeated anymore. The word on Tigchelaar is he is out for about 6 weeks with Torn calf muscle. That will hurt our special teams as he was a good punt returner. But Alston and Douglas showed they can return punts and kicks. The other injury is to Lee. He is questionable for 4 weeks with a sprained knee. That hurts as we are weak a OG. But I will move backup rookie tackle, Levine to guard until Lee returns. He is a better option than our backup guards. Also, Mohr isn't healing very fast as he is still out for about 3 weeks. I wonder if age has an effect on healing in this game. Seems to be. I have to say that Hickman played well in his 2nd start in place of Mohr. Also that Terry make a nice transition to FS and played a solid game. So did Douglas in his 1st game with the team. They are all going to have to play like that to win this division. Newton had 161 yards on 30 carries with 1 TD. Sanders was 23/27 for 208 yards with 3 TD and 1 int. Swift had 6 catches for 70 yards. Cole only had 3 catches for 33 yards, but 2 TD. Singleton is still making a case to be our punter next year as he had a 45.2 net. Dellinger led the team with 6 tackles and 3 assists and also added a sack. He also had an interception. Our defense had 6 sacks. McWilliams and Hughes had 7 hurries and 4 knockdowns. Our OL didn't allow a sack. Green was 4/10 with one pancake block. Springer was 4/7 with one pancake block. Hickman was 3/7. This was a big win for this team as bad as we played last week vs. N.E. We need another big win against the Jets next week to hold onto the division lead. We will have to do it with some key injuries. Up next: A big division game against the Jets. __________________ GM of the Milwaukee Muscle Men of the ZFL. The 1st team in ZFL history to have a perfect losing season. I am on a quest to show that the Dolphins can win the Super Bowl. Or should I say Front Office Bowl, with FOF2K7. The revival of an old favorite, FOFC Wrestling Dynasty

01-28-2007, 07:49 PM	#66
DolphinFan1 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Connecticut	1977 WEEK 11: MIAMI DOLPHINS (5-4) AT NEW YORK JETS (4-5) PREVIEW: Sunny, 61 degrees and 9 MPH wind. We are favored by 4. We are #13 in the power rankings while the Jets are 30. I guess no one is impressed with their 4-5 record. Our opponents have a .536 winning pct. The Jets opponents have a .429 winning pct. Key matchup: The Jets OL vs. the Miami pass rush. Can we get pressure on their average QB? They have a very good OL. Hughes and McWilliams will have to play like they did last year. Injuries and inactives: Tigchelaar, Lee and Mohr are all injured and inactive. The other 4 inactives are: Chavarria, Nishioka, Gilmore and Fredrickson. Up next: GAMEDAY __________________ GM of the Milwaukee Muscle Men of the ZFL. The 1st team in ZFL history to have a perfect losing season. I am on a quest to show that the Dolphins can win the Super Bowl. Or should I say Front Office Bowl, with FOF2K7. The revival of an old favorite, FOFC Wrestling Dynasty

01-28-2007, 08:02 PM	#67
DolphinFan1 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Connecticut	1977 WEEK 11: GAMEDAY: MIAMI AT NEW YORK GAMEDAY: 1977 WEEK 11: MIAMI AT NEW YORK: 1ST QUARTER: New England and Buffalo have bye weeks this week so it's just the Jets and us playing this week in our division. The Jets start with the ball at their 21. Our DL is up to the task on the 1st three plays as Dobbins knocks down a pass on 1st down. Then they get pressure on the QB on 2nd down and force and incomplete pass. Then on 3rd down, LB- Dellinger and DE- Hughes combine for a sack and we force a 3 and out. So the early key matchup is Miami DL 1, Jets OL 0. Great defensive start. They get a booming punt and it pushes us back to our 19. A false start pushes us back 5 yards. Crichlow runs for 3 yards on 1st down. Then on 2nd down, Newton runs through a huge hole created by OT- Levine, starting at G in place of injured Lee. Newton ran for 46 yards on the play. We have a 1st down at the 37 of the Jets. A couple of short runs gives us a 3rd and 4 at the 31. Sanders throws a pass to Antonides who gets 13 yards and the 1st down. That's a big 3rd down conversion as we were just on the edge of K- Hammond's FG range. We have a 1st down at the N.Y. 18. Crichlow gets 8 yards on the 1st down play. Newton finally comes back in the game after his big run and gets the 1st down with a 6 yard run led by OT- Green. We have a 1st and goal at the 4. Another run for 2 yards and we have a 2nd and goal at the 2. Green makes another good block and Newton gets into the endzone for the score....no, we get called for offensive holding and the TD is taken off the board. I guess Green's block was too good. So we are at the 12. Newton gets 3 yards, so now we have a 3rd and goal at the 9. On the 3rd down play, Sanders is sacked for 8 yards. OT- Bush allowed the sack. So now we have to settle for the FG try. *Hammond hits the 34 yard FG and we lead 3-0.* But the penalty hurt. It cost us 4 points. But I'll take points on our 1st drive. They get one 1st down and then our defense holds them. Another good punt and we have it at our 19 again. We only gain 1 yard as Sanders was 0/2 passing on this drive and we punt. The 1st quarter ends with them on a drive at our 28 and we lead 3-0. 2ND QUARTER: What I feared is happening. They are winning the battle on the offensive line pushing us around and running all over us. To top it off, we lose CB- Barton to an injury on the drive. He doesn't return. We finally make a stop on a 3rd down with McWilliams making a big sack and forcing a 42 yard FG try. *They hit the FG and tie the score at 3.* We go 3 and out again as we try to run 3 times. We stop them on 3 plays as Hughes hurries the QB. We try to pass on 1st and 2nd down and the passes are not completed, but N.Y. gets called for defensive pass interference and we have a gift 1st down at the Jets 43. Sanders is horrible today, 1/4 for 13 yards. Newton breaks another long gain for 23 this time and we have it at their 20. Besides the 2 long runs by Newton, our offense is nonexistent. As I say that, Crichlow comes in and rips one for 16 when OG- Springer opens a huge hole and we have another 1st and goal at the 4. Let's get the TD this time. Crichlow gets 3 yards and we have it at the 1. *Backup T- Ramirez blocks for Newton who gets into the endzone...TD MIAMI. We lead 10-3.* Nice blocking by the OL. A penalty on the kickoff return pins them at their 7. On 2nd down, we allow a long pass for 46 yards. They get down to our 27 where we stop them just short of the 1st down. *They hit the 44 yard FG and our lead is cut to 10-6.* We have the ball at our 17 at the 2 minute warning. Instead of running out the clock, our coach stupidly calls 3 passing plays which Sanders fails to complete on any of them. To top it off, he gets sacked on 3rd down to push us back and the Jets have time to get something going. They get the ball at their 37 with 52 seconds to play in the half. A long run and another long pass and they have a 1st down at our 15 with 21 seconds to play. They get called for tripping on the next play to push them back to our 25. A 6 yard pass sets up a 3rd and long but only 3 seconds to play and *they will try the 36 yard FG. No wait...they go for the long TD pass and Hughes pressures the QB and we hold them to end the half with the 10-6 lead.* We got a break at the end of the half. I am not happy with our offensive playcalling. Also, our offense is not a factor with the exception of a couple of long runs by Newton and Crichlow. Sanders is dreadful today. Our defense has been giving up some big gains, but held the Jets to 2 FG. The loss of CB- Barton seems to have hurt our pass defense. 3RD QUARTER: We start the 2nd half with the ball at our 32. The 1st play is a dropped pass by the usually sure handed Antonides. But Crichlow bails us out with a 13 yard run and a 1st down. We have a 3rd and 6 and Sanders completes a screen pass to Newton who gets 8 yards after the catch and we keep the drive alive. Sanders then completes a 23 yard pass to Swift, but it's called back for offensive holding. UGH! On a 2nd and 18, Sanders hits Antonides for 21 yards with 11 coming after the catch. It just gets worse for our offense when on a 3rd and long in FG range, Sanders is intercepted at the 15 and they return it to the 24. I hope our coach is thinking of making a QB change here as Sanders clearly doesn't have it today. They drive right down the field and our defense finally holds at our 25. *They try the 42 yard FG and it's missed to the left. We still lead 10-6.* Our defense is playing bend but don't break. Newton gets 11 yards on the 1st play and we have a 1st down at our 43. We go backwards after that and Bush allows another sack and we punt. A booming punt by Singleton and they have it at their 20 after an 11 yard return. We force a 3 and out when Dobbins gets a QB hurry. They get a good punt and we have it at our 24. LB- Franz was injured on the play, but he should return. We complete a short pass on 1st down but get called again for offensive holding. These penalties are killing us. Sanders tries 3 more passes and he is pathetic and we have to punt. We had -14 yards on that drive. How are we still leading 10-6 in this one? They return the punt to our 49 and there is a fumble, but recover. We needed to get that. That ends the 3rd quarter. 4TH QUARTER: Dobbins gets a big sack for a 12 yard loss on 2nd down to set up a 3rd and 19 at their 42. THEN, STUPID, STUPID, STUPID. I will be firing my head coach for his poor offensive and defensive playcalling in this one. Also some defensive backs job's are on the line. They throw a bomb and complete it for 44 yards on a 3rd and 19!!!! They finish the drive with a TD a few plays later and our tentative lead is gone. *We now trail 13-10.* We didn't deserve to lead in this one anyway. We have 11 minutes for our offense to show up and try to score to win this one. We get one first down and have a dropped pass on 3rd down, but an unnecessary roughness penalty on N.Y. keeps our drive alive. On a 2nd and 8, Sanders throws to little used SE- Hancock and he completes one for 16 yards and we have a 1st down at the N.Y. 34. Then he completes one to Dunkelberger for 13 more. Maybe Sanders is waking up. *Green throws a huge block and Newton breaks one for 21 yards and the go ahead TD. Great run by Newton. We retake the lead 17-13.* They have the ball at their 26 with 6:55 to play. A lot of time in this one. We allow another long pass for 15 yards. We stop them on 1st and 2nd down and then on 3rd and 10 they complete one for 17 yards. But it's called back for illegal use of hands. We get a break. It's now 3rd and 20 at their 31. Let's stop them this time. They try to run and only gain 5 yards and we hold them thanks to a penalty. We have the ball at our 25 with a 4 point lead and 5 to play. We try to run and use clock and can't get a 1st down. To top it off, Singleton picks a bad time to shank a punt and they get a big return to our 28. There is 2:41 to play. We stop them on 1st and 2nd down, but they complete a 17 yard pass on 3rd down. Another 10 yards and they have a 1st and goal at the 1. We need a turnover. *They get the one yard TD pass and the 20-17 lead.* We have the ball at our 38 with 1:28 to play and 3 timeouts trailing by 3. 1st down: incomplete. 2nd down: A long pass to Cole is incomplete, but a 5 yard penalty gives us another chance. *Sanders can't complete another pass and we go on to lose this one 20-17.* This was disappointing as we only needed to get the offense going to win this one. As bad as our pass defense was, we were in the game. Notes, stats and injuries: Well, we are now tied at the top of the division with the Jets and N.E. with 5-5 records. But we don't deserve to be there after starting 4-2 and going 1-3 in our last 4 games and our offense only showing up in one of those games. Our defense kept us in all the games except the N.E. game. But I still think our biggest need in the offseason will be a shut down corner. Then I may also rethink the QB situation. The stats were not pretty with the exception of Newton who had 126 yards on 23 carries and 2 TD. But a bunch of those yards came on 2 very long runs. Crichlow had 49 yards on 7 carries. Sanders was a pathetic 8/24 for 71 yards and one interception. Alarcon led the defense again with 9 tackles, 3 assists and 2 passes defended. Our starting DL was ok with 11 tackles, 2 assists, 2.5 sacks, 2 blocks, 6 hurries and 6 knockdowns. Our OL did ok with run blocking but allowed 3 sacks, two by Bush. Our secondary was bad. Now for the injuries: CB- Barton is doubtful for about 4 weeks with a pulled groin. He will be deactive. LB- Franz suffered minor concussion in the game and played. But he is probable for about one week. He will also be deactive as I don't want to risk it. Barkley will start in place of Barton, and Fredrickson will take Franz's spot in the backup LB role. As for the existing injuries: C- Mohr is progressing well finally and is about 1 week away from full strength. There is a moderate risk of reinjury, so he will sit out one more week. G- Lee is still questionable for about 3 more weeks. As it is a knee injury, no way I will risk it. S- Tigchelaar is still out for about 5 more weeks. The injuries aren't devestating and maybe someone will step up to keep his spot on the team for next year. Because the way it looks right now, I am ready to cut the whole secondary and my QB. They need to start playing to save this season. As I will deactivate all the injured players, that means only 2 healthy inactives for next week's game vs. Carolina. Chavarria and Nishioka are the other 2 inactives. Up next: Can we rebound to stay in the playoff hunt against a 7-3 Carolina team? __________________ GM of the Milwaukee Muscle Men of the ZFL. The 1st team in ZFL history to have a perfect losing season. I am on a quest to show that the Dolphins can win the Super Bowl. Or should I say Front Office Bowl, with FOF2K7. The revival of an old favorite, FOFC Wrestling Dynasty

01-28-2007, 11:18 PM	#68
larrymcg421 Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Georgia	Ugh. I hate the Jets. I took care of them for you in my dynasty. __________________ Top 10 Songs of the Year 1955-Present (1976 Added) Franchise Portfolio Draft Winner Fictional Character Draft Winner Television Family Draft Winner Build Your Own Hollywood Studio Draft Winner

01-28-2007, 11:39 PM	#69
DolphinFan1 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Connecticut	Good because I can't seem to beat them. I've been reading your dynasty. As you can see, we win one and lose one. __________________ GM of the Milwaukee Muscle Men of the ZFL. The 1st team in ZFL history to have a perfect losing season. I am on a quest to show that the Dolphins can win the Super Bowl. Or should I say Front Office Bowl, with FOF2K7. The revival of an old favorite, FOFC Wrestling Dynasty

01-29-2007, 11:00 AM	#70
DolphinFan1 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Connecticut	1977 WEEK 12: CAROLINA PANTHERS (7-3) AT MIAMI DOLPHINS (5-5) PREVIEW: Sunny, 68 degrees and a 1 MPH wind. Carolina is favored by 4. Their pass offense and pass defense is near the bottom of the league. Maybe our secondary will have a good game. We are facing a guy I had on my draft board in the 1st round this year, OG Lenny Armstrong. He is only 9/41 on KRB with 2 sacks allowed. At 22% blocking, he is not a force yet. He is 66/78 so he is a stud. Keys to the game: Can our secondary stop a mediocre offense? Their DL is comprised of all pro players except their RDE, can our OL hold them off to get our offense going? Can Sanders rebound to have a good game and keep us in contention for a playoff spot? Up next: gameday __________________ GM of the Milwaukee Muscle Men of the ZFL. The 1st team in ZFL history to have a perfect losing season. I am on a quest to show that the Dolphins can win the Super Bowl. Or should I say Front Office Bowl, with FOF2K7. The revival of an old favorite, FOFC Wrestling Dynasty

01-29-2007, 11:12 AM	#71
DolphinFan1 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Connecticut	1977 Week 12: Carolina at Miami GAMEDAY: 1977 WEEK 12; CAROLINA AT MIAMI: 1ST QUARTER: Well, we start out allowing a 20 yard pass play, so I guess we can't even stop a middle of the road QB. But our defense steps up after that forcing a punt. Alarcon had a defended pass on 2nd down. The punt puts us at our 11. Newton breaks one for 19 yards on 2nd down. On a 3rd and 1, Crichlow breaks one for 13 and we have a 1st down at our 49. A 13 yard pass to Dunkelberger and then an 18 yard pass to Blanda gives us a 1st down at the Carolina 20. A holding call pushes us back, but on the next play we get a 1st down on an illegal contact penalty. We are at the 23. Two short plays sets up a 3rd and 3 at the 16. Sanders hits Cole, but he is stopped just short of the 1st down marker. He fumbles the ball. But he recovers his own fumble and gets 8 yards to the 6 and a 1st down. That could have been a disaster. Newton then rushes for 5 yards and we have a 2nd and goal at the 1 yard line. *The next play, Newton punches it in and we take the lead 7-0.* Great opening drive by the offense. 14 plays, 86 yards and a nice mix of run and pass. I am so sick of giving up 3rd and longs for 1st downs. We stop them on 1st and 2nd downs with the help of some false start penalties. They have a 3rd and 21 at their 12. We get pressure on the QB and he throws it up and they make the catch for 22 yards and a 1st down. After we stop a run on 1st down another completion for 16 yards. This from a near bottom of the league passing offense. The 1st quarter ends with the score still 7-0 but they have a 3rd and 3 at our 38. Other division games: Buffalo and N.O are scoreless, As are N.E. and Atlanta, Tampa Bay and the Jets are tied at 3. 2ND QUARTER: What a play to start the 2nd quarter. Backup safety Harrison blitzes and he and McWilliams sack the QB. They force a fumble and DT Goodwin recovers it at our 44. We needed that. We are moving the ball well again with Sanders completing short passes and then he hits Newton on a go route for 19 yards and we have a 1st down at the Carolina 15. *The next play, Carolina overplays the pass and the handoff is to Newton. OT Green creates a hole and Newton gets the 15 yard TD run and we lead 14-0.* All Right!!! Points off turnovers. They take it right too us as we cannot stop the pass again. *They finish the drive with a 7 yard TD run with Armstrong leading the way. I said he was a stud. Our lead is cut to 14-7.* A nice return on the kickoff by CB Douglas gives us the ball at our 44. After one first down we have a 3rd and 8 at the Carolina 43. Sanders hits Cole for 11 yards and the 1st down. Key 3rd down conversion. After a 3 yard run, Green again creates a hole and Newton breaks a pair of tackles and gets 27 yards and is stopped just short of the endzone. We have a 1st and goal at the 2 yard line. *After Newton is stopped on 1st and 2nd down, Crichlow gets a chance. C- Hickman creates the hole and he gets into the endzone and we lead 21-7.* Nice block by the rookie. Carolina has the ball at their 15 with 2 minutes to go in the half. It would be nice to stop them before the half and we get the ball to start the 2nd half. They have a flurry of plays and get to our 40. But an intentional grounding call pushes them back. On 3rd and long, DT- Petkovich sacks the QB and forces a fumble. DE- Hughes recovers it at their 35 as time runs out. We go into the locker room leading 21-7. Other division games: Buffalo had a short lead of 7-0, but N.O. scores twice very quick and leads 14-7. Atlanta leads N.E. 13-0. Tampa Bay leads the Jets 10-3. So we are getting help today. Hopefully we can make it work for us. 3RD QUARTER: We start the 2nd half with one first down but stall at our 41 and have to punt. A nice punt puts them at their 13. They move again at will and we finally make a play with our secondary. CB- Pirrup intercepts a pass at our 47. It's about time. We go to work and Sanders hits Cole for 11 to start the drive. After a couple of short plays we have a 3rd and 6 at their 38. C- Hickman creates a hole for Newton who gets a huge run for 26 yards. *A 4 yard run by Newton and then Sanders hits Newton for an 8 yard TD pass and we lead 28-7.* Newton has 3 TD today, 1 receiving and 2 rushing, Crichlow has the other one. We finally make a play on 3rd and long and defend a pass. But we get called for pass interference and give them a 1st down. Two plays later we make another play when LB- Dellinger intercepts a pass and returns it to 50. That's 4 turnovers forced today. It's about time. We were -8 for the year. We move the ball again and on a pass to FL- Antonides, Sanders is injured on the play. But he stays in the game. Newton is ripping up huge yardage today as he gets another long run, this time for 19. OT- Levine created the hole. Newton has 145 yards rushing today. The next play, *Sanders hits Antonides on a 6 yard TD pass and we are pulling away in this one as we lead 35-7.* We needed this. We stop them on 3 plays. The 3rd quarter ends with a loss of 2 yards and we have a 3rd and 12 at our 8 yard line. 4TH QUARTER: Kolodziejski comes into the game with us leading 35-7. He can't get the 1st down and we punt. They get to our 32 and we hold them They try the 49 yard FG and miss it. We go 3 and out but are content to run it on every down with a 28 point lead with 10 to play in the game. We force a 3 and out. We continue to trade punts until CB- Douglas makes an interception with 2 minutes to play. Our coach lets our 3rd string QB- Winters get some snaps in the game now. *We get a 43 yard FG from Hammond and we win 38-7!!!* Other division games: Buffalo is heading for a winless season as they lose again. The Jets come on strong in the 2nd half to beat Tampa Bay. I switch to the N.E. game which is in the final minute. Atlanta leads 20-14 but N.E. has a 1st down at their 38. Atlanta holds on to win. So the Jets and us are tied atop the division at 6-5, but they beat us so they have the tiebreaker right now. We do have to play them again. N.E. falls a game back. This was a good rebound game for us. Now we need to string a couple in a row. Notes, stats and injuries: Three big team stats in this one: We had an all time low 4 penalties for 46 yards, We won the turnover battle 5-0 and and we were 5/5 on in the redzone with all TD. Individual stats: Newton had 154 yards on 31 carries with 2 rushing TD and one receiving TD and 6 runs of over 10 yards. Sanders rebounded to have a good game protecting the ball, 15/20 for 128 yards with 2 TD. He didn't have to throw much with Newton and Crichlow carrying the load. Singleton is still booming punts for net averages over 44 yards. Our secondary had 4 passes defended and 2 intercepted. We also had one pass defended by Alarcon and Dellinger intercepted one. Our OL had 13 KRB with no sacks allowed. Next week we head to Kansas City and face a 4-7 team who Philadelphia just beat 26-0. They have lost 3 of the last 4 games scoring only 15 points and allowing 84 points in the 3 losses. Hopefully we can continue to stay in the playoff hunt. The Jets face a hot Houston Texan team who started the season 0-7 and have won 4 in a row. New England plays Tennessee who are also 4-7. Buffalo isn't worth mentioning at 0-11 and have all but sewn up the #1 pick in the draft. Injuries: The word on QB- Sanders is he has a sprained ankle and is probable for about 2 weeks. I will play him as we do need this game as it is another conference game. If he gets knocked out, hopefully Kolodziejski can carry the team. CB- Barton is still questionably for about 3 more weeks with his pulled groin. He will still be deactive as I'd like to have him ready against the Jets in 3 weeks. C- Mohr is still one week away and the coaching staff says there is a moderate risk of reinjury. He will sit out again. He is taking a long time to heal. OG- Lee is also a couple weeks away and he is also a moderate risk. I need these guys healthy so I will go it with what we have. S- Tigchelaar is still out for 4 more weeks. OLB- Franz is fully recovered from his concussion. Up next: We head to K.C. to try and keep our playoff hopes alive. __________________ GM of the Milwaukee Muscle Men of the ZFL. The 1st team in ZFL history to have a perfect losing season. I am on a quest to show that the Dolphins can win the Super Bowl. Or should I say Front Office Bowl, with FOF2K7. The revival of an old favorite, FOFC Wrestling Dynasty

01-29-2007, 02:23 PM	#72
larrymcg421 Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Georgia	I foresee an 11-5 finish. __________________ Top 10 Songs of the Year 1955-Present (1976 Added) Franchise Portfolio Draft Winner Fictional Character Draft Winner Television Family Draft Winner Build Your Own Hollywood Studio Draft Winner

01-29-2007, 10:48 PM	#74
DolphinFan1 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Connecticut	I had planned on playing a little tonight before bed, but I will try maybe tomorrow. I just got a phone call that a good friend at my church is in the hospital. He doesn't know who he is or anything. I don't have a lot of details. But I will be doing a lot of reading and praying. For those of you who are Christian, believe in God or pray, his name is Roger. Signing off for tonight. Thanks. __________________ GM of the Milwaukee Muscle Men of the ZFL. The 1st team in ZFL history to have a perfect losing season. I am on a quest to show that the Dolphins can win the Super Bowl. Or should I say Front Office Bowl, with FOF2K7. The revival of an old favorite, FOFC Wrestling Dynasty

01-30-2007, 09:47 AM	#75
DolphinFan1 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Connecticut	1977 WEEK 13: MIAMI DOLPHINS (6-5) AT KANSAS CITY CHIEFS (4-7) PREVIEW: Sunny, 50 degrees with a 3 MPH wind. We are favored by 6. We have moved back up to #4 in the Power Rankings. K.C. is #20. Key matchup: The 11th pick in the draft, OLB- Todd Raymond is starting for them. He is a guy I passed on with the 9th pick and traded down because he was overrated. He is at 63/70 now and has 62 tackles and 19 assists. We need to keep him in check. All of our injured are deactive and I let Franz sit on the bench one more week to see if Fredrickson can show me something in a backup role again. Our inactives are the same as last week. Up next: GAMEDAY __________________ GM of the Milwaukee Muscle Men of the ZFL. The 1st team in ZFL history to have a perfect losing season. I am on a quest to show that the Dolphins can win the Super Bowl. Or should I say Front Office Bowl, with FOF2K7. The revival of an old favorite, FOFC Wrestling Dynasty

01-30-2007, 10:03 AM	#76
DolphinFan1 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Connecticut	1977 WEEK 13: GAMEDAY: MIAMI AT KANSAS CITY GAMEDAY: 1977 WEEK 13: MIAMI AT KANSAS CITY: 1ST QUARTER: We start out with the ball and Sanders immediately makes me regret playing him as on the 1st play he throws an interception to their other OLB. I guess I was worried about the wrong guy. They have it at our 16. Not a good start. *Four plays later they get a 6 yard TD run and the 7-0 lead.* So much for them only scoring 15 points is 3 of the last 4 games. We start at our 20 and Newton runs three times for 21 yards on 3 nice blocks by our OL. We use the short passing game along with the running game and get to the 29 of K.C. and that's when Raymond defends a 3rd down pass and stops our drive. Looks like he's already hurting us. We try the 46 yard FG and Hammond's kick falls just short. So we still trail 7-0. On the 2nd down play, LB- Fredrickson blitzes and sacks the QB. He forces a fumble which DE- McWilliams recovers at their 29. That's a great play by the defense to give our offense another chance. Now I'm glad I played Fredrickson in place of Franz. On a 3rd and 2 from the 21, we get a 3 yard run from Crichlow to get the 1st down. But wait...it's called back for offensive holding. We now have a 3rd and 12 at the 31. Sanders throws a deep pass to Cole and it's not complete as he was pressured to let it go early. To top it off, we commit a false start on the 4th down play which was a long FG try anyway and now are at their 36. We punt. What was a promising drive following the turnover, results in nothing. We cannot allow a 4-7 team to dictate to us how the game will go. We need to take control. Here we go again. A 3rd and long pass into double coverage is completed for the 1st down. Another 3rd and 10 where McWilliams is chasing the QB and he throws it up for the 11 yard completion for the 1st down. This is awful. No pressure this time and they get another long pass, this time for 27 yards and have a 1st and goal at our 6. *On the last play of the 1st quarter, they get a 1 yard TD run and lead 14-0.* We need to wake up and break this win one, lose one string we are forever on. And we need to defend some passes on 3rd down. 2ND QUARTER: We start the 2nd quarter with a 9 yard pass to Newton and a 14 yard pass to Burford to give us a 1st down at the K.C. 47. We need a score here. We then proceed to go 3 and out. Another pathetic performance by our offense. Thankfully, the Jets and N.E. are both trailing by 7 in their games. But there is a long way to go. They drive to our 33 and have a 3rd and 23 after a couple of penalties. Let's see if we can stop them on 3rd down. The only reason we stopped them is they throw a screen pass for one yard. I don't know why they just don't throw deep on every ball. We can't stop it. Their QB is 8/9 for 105 yards. *Of course they BOOM the kick throw the goalposts. A 49 yarder. We trail 17-0.* We get one 1st down, but then a penalty pushes us back and we can move it no more. We punt again. Singleton again pins an opponent deep. It's downed at the 4. We need a turnover now. Here we go. We play the run, they pass twice for 18 yards and are out of trouble. We suck!! Hey, we actually stop them on the next three plays and they punt. We start at our 30 with 2:13 to play in the half trailing by 17. We need a score before halftime to have a shot in this one. After a one yard run and a defensive penalty, OT- Green opens up a huge hole. Newton breaks one for 57 yards and we are in business at the K.C. 7. A one yard run and a false start followed by a run for no gain gives us a 3rd and goal at the 11. Sanders drops back and throws to Cole and he's running for the endzone....but he is stopped at the 3 yard line by guess who....LB- Todd Raymond. Hammond hits the 20 yard FG and we get on the board before halftime. That should have been a TD with a 1st and goal from the 7. Penalties are killing us. The 1st half ends with K.C. leading 17-3. In other games: N.E. is trailing 21-7 and the Jets are trailing 17-14. 3RD QUARTER: They start out the 3rd quarter with one 1st down and we hold. But the punt pins us at our 6 yard line. Sanders starts us off with a short 3 yard pass to SE- Swift who fumbles the ball. But RB- Craig is there for us and returns it 11 yards to the 20. He may have just saved us any chance in this one with that recovery. We then have a 3rd and 4 and Sanders hit Dunkelberger for 19 yards and a 1st down. It's about time. The next play is a 30 yard pass to Swift and we have it at the K.C. 25. So much for that. An incomplete pass and then we allow 2 sacks to take us out of FG range. The Jets have taken the lead 21-17 in their game. We need to rebound in this one. Our defense is trying to keep us in this one with a 3 and out and they are playing very stout against the run. A long punt gives us the ball at our 25. We go 3 and out and allow another sack on 3rd down and it doesn't look good in this one or our chances at the division with the Jets winning. *They drive down the field and we hold them to a 48 yard FG. Another long FG. Who is this guy? We now trail by 17 again, 20-3.* We end the 3rd after a long pass and a loss on the next play. 4TH QUARTER: Kolodziejski is in the game. We have a 2nd 13 at the 46. He proceeds to throw 2 incompletes and we punt. Incidently, Raymond defended one of the passes again. Looks like he is showing me how he feels about being snubbed by us in the draft at the 9th pick. Singleton pins them at their 4, but we are running out of time. We need a turnover here. We don't get the turnover, but we hold them one yard short of the 1st down. CB- Douglas returns the punt to our 43. We need a TD now! Kolodziejski starts with a 19 yard pass to WR- Cole. Then he throws 3 passes and only completes one for 3 yards. And the coach punts from their 35 with 11 to play trailing by 17!! What!! We needed to go for it to have a chance. Our defense holds to a 3 and out. But it probably won't matter now. Of course they boom a punt 62 yards. Funny how everyone plays better against us. *Kolodziejski tries to keep us alive with a quick drive and ends it with an 18 yard pass to Cole and we cut the lead to 20-10 with 8:15 to play.* A couple of false start penalties pushes them back and we force a punt after a 3 and out. We start at our 27 trailing by 10 with 5 minutes to play. We turn it over on downs when Kolodziejski can't complete a pass. We hold them to a long FG try and they miss it to give us one last hope. Just over 2 to play and we need 2 scores. But Kolodziejski is intercepted by who else....LB Raymond to end any chance we have. To rub it in, their kicker hits a 56 yard FG. We lose 23-10. The Jets win to take a one game lead in the division. The Patriots lose. But we are in trouble at 6-6. Buffalo had a chance to drive for the winning score down by only 3 with 2 minutes to play but fumbled the punt return and they are now 0-12 Raymond ate us up today. Not that it helps us much as we already played them twice, but N.E. lost their 5 year (4 starting) QB to a degenerative hip condition for 101 weeks. His career may be cut short. Notes, stats and injuries: Let's start out by saying that LB- Raymond wasn't stopped as I said he needed to be. He had 7 tackles, 1 assist, 2 passes defended and one int. On our side we had Newton rush for 107 yards on 18 carries. Sanders was ineffective at 10/18 for 133 yards with 1 int. Kolodziejski wan't any better at 5/17 for 95 yards with 1 TD and 2 int., but he came in when we were in a hole. On the positive side, we only allowed 226 yards and gained 322. But we gave them the short field with the turnovers. WRs Cole and Hancock lead the team with 45 and 50 yards receiving respectively with Cole getting a TD. MLB- Alarcon led the team again with 9 tackles and 7 assists. OLB- Dellinger had 6 tackles and 3 assists. Our OL allowed 4 sacks which hurt any momentum we tried to get. At 6-6 and trailing both the Jets in our division and the last wildcard by one full game, we need wins badly. We probably have to win out or at least 3 of 4 and definitely beat the Jets in 2 weeks. The more the weeks go on, I now am convinced we need a stud cornerback no matter what the cost. Even when Barton comes back he hasn't been a game changer and we need that in our secondary. Our next two games are at home against Atlanta (5-7) and the Jets. We need to win both as we then head to N.O who are (9-3) and finish at Buffalo. So we are in good shape schedule wise if we win our two home games as we should beat the Bills. But we need to get over this win one lose one mentality. Our guys need to understand we play every week, not every other week. Injuries: We get C- Mohr back this week. Sanders is still not 100% but he will play again. OG- Lee and CB- Barton are still about 2 weeks away from full strength. S- Tigchelaar is 3 weeks away. Up next: We face Atlanta in an almost must win situation __________________ GM of the Milwaukee Muscle Men of the ZFL. The 1st team in ZFL history to have a perfect losing season. I am on a quest to show that the Dolphins can win the Super Bowl. Or should I say Front Office Bowl, with FOF2K7. The revival of an old favorite, FOFC Wrestling Dynasty

01-30-2007, 11:50 PM	#78
DolphinFan1 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Connecticut	1977 WEEK 14: ATLANTA FALCONS (5-7) AT MIAMI DOLPHINS (6-6) PREVIEW: Sunny, 60 degrees and a 6 MPH wind. We are favored by 4. Atlanta has a few key injuries. Their all-pro guard is out as is their very good safety. Their other guard and cornerback are less than 100%. So they are coming in wounded. Key matchups: They have a very good veteran QB who has started 8 games and has only thrown 3 int. Their RB also has rushed for over 1100 yards and 4.24 ypc. We need to stop these two. Also they have two offensive tackles I had targeted in the draft. RT- Gary Hargrave is only rated 44/60 and was a 1(8) pick. Their 2nd round #7 pick, LT- Edwin Wilkins is rated 68/68 and has been a force for them. I missed him with my pick. He didn't workout and was overrated so I got scared away. So this will be the other key matchup. On defense their best player is their OLB who is rated 60. So clearly the test for us this week will be stopping their offense as we should be able to move the ball on their defense. Let's get it done. Up next: GAMEDAY __________________ GM of the Milwaukee Muscle Men of the ZFL. The 1st team in ZFL history to have a perfect losing season. I am on a quest to show that the Dolphins can win the Super Bowl. Or should I say Front Office Bowl, with FOF2K7. The revival of an old favorite, FOFC Wrestling Dynasty

01-31-2007, 12:01 AM	#79
DolphinFan1 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Connecticut	1977 Week 14: GAMEDAY: ATLANTA AT MIAMI GAMEDAY: 1977 WEEK 14: ATLANTA AT MIAMI: 1ST QUARTER: The Jets face a (9-3) New Orleans team this week, so maybe if we take care of business they will help us to set up a showdown vs. the Jets next week. We start with the ball at our 20. On a 3rd and 1 we get a 5 yard run from Crichlow with a key block from Springer. Nice to not go 3 and out to start the game. On the next play, Springer creates another hole and Newton breaks a tackle and gets 28 yards. On a 3rd and 5 from the Atlanta 33, Springer gets his 3rd key run block on this drive and Newton gets 10 yards and the 1st down. We finally get stopped on 3rd down at the 19 and have to settle for the 36 yard FG try. *Hammond hits the FG and we lead 3-0. Nice 10 play drive to start the game.* I'll take the 3. Bad news in N.Y. They just got a TD and take the early 7-0 lead against N.O. They commit an offensive holding call on 2nd down and then Pirrup gets a defended pass to set up a 3rd and 15 at their own 22. They come out with a 5 WR set and Alarcon stops the pass and we hold someone to a punt on a 3rd and long. It's about time. We start at our 37. Springer continues where he left off and creates another hole and Newton rips another 13 yards. He has 58 yards on 7 carries so far. An incomplete pass and a 6 yard scramble by Sanders sets up a 3rd and 4 at their 44. They play the pass and we give it to Crichlow and he gets 5 yards and the 1st down thanks to a key block by OT- Bush. The next play, Newton gets 16 more on a key block by OT- Levine in place of injured Lee. We get stopped again inside the 20, this time at the 18. We will try the FG again. *Hammond hits the 35 yarder and we lead 6-0.* I hope this isn't another one of those FG games where we get hurt for not punching it in later. N.O. gets a FG and trails 7-3 against the Jets. N.E. trails Carolina 14-7. Our defense came to play today as we stop them again on 3 plays. A big punt and a good return by CB- Douglas gives us the ball at the Atlanta 48. Newton rips two more good runs on a pair of blocks by C- Mohr. Nice to have him back. OT- Bush creates a hole now and Newton takes it to the Atlanta 13. A nine yard pass to Dunkelberger gives us a 2nd and 1 at the Atlanta 4. That's the end of the 1st quarter. N.O. has just taken the 10-7 lead on the Jets. Carolina still leads N.E. by 7. 2ND QUARTER: *After Newton gets dropped for a 1 yard loss, Sanders hits WR- Cole on a 5 yard TD pass and we lead 13-0.* We needed the TD there. With Newton running all over them, we needed to make a statement. I said I wasn't worried about their defense except for their OLB, who incidently is making most of their tackles. But our OL is dominating their DL. After a 2 yard run, Atlanta commits 2 false starts and then an incomplete pass to set up a 3rd and 18 from their 14. They come out in a 5 WR set and complete a pass, but for only 9 yards and we force another 3 and out. Nice to see we are not giving up the 3rd and longs this game. We start at our 36. We have a 3rd and 6 and Sanders hits Newton on screen pass and Newton scampers for 7 yards and the 1st down. A couple more 1st downs and then OT- Bush opens another hole for Newton who gets 13 more and takes it to the Atlanta 20. Newton has 121 yards on 15 carries so far. The next play we get an illegal hands penalty to push us back to the 30 and a 1st and 20. But Sanders hits Antonides for 17 to give us a 2nd and short. *The next play, Springer does it again and Newton gets through the hole and gets the 13 yard TD run. We lead 20-0.* They get good field position at their 40 after the kickoff. The 1st down pass is incomplete and then they get a 19 yard pass to our 41 for their first 1st down with 6:13 to play in the 1st half. Now they are moving as a couple plays later they get 18 more and are at our 18. We are back to our old ways as a 3rd and 10 is a 13 yard completion to our 5. Two runs and a loss of 2 yards sets up a 3rd and goal at our 7. *Of course we can't stop the 3rd down pass for the TD. Our lead is cut to 20-7.* In danger of giving it right back with 2 minutes to play in the half, Sanders completes a 3rd and 7 to Antonides for 13 yards and the 1st down. Following the 2 minute warning, Sanders finds Antonides again for 24 yards and we have it at their 40. A 13 yard pass to TE- Burford and we have it at the 27. After a dropped pass, the next play Sanders is intercepted on a tipped pass. We lost a great opportunity there. On the 1st play following the turnover, McWilliams is pressuring the QB and he throws it deep. It's into double coverage and CB- Douglas intercepts it at our 44. Nice to see our defense stop a pass thrown into double coverage. A 10 yard pass to Dunkelberger and we have it at their 46 with 31 seconds to play in the half. Cole then catches one for 13 and we have it at the 33 with 19 seconds to play. A 3 yard run by Newton and we spend our last timeout and will try the 47 yard FG just before halftime. *Hammond's kick falls just short and we go into the locker room leading only 20-7.* The turnover hurt us. At the half, The Jets and N.O. are tied at 10. Carolina leads N.E. 21-7. And Buffalo is on their way to 0-13 record as they trail 28-13. 3RD QUARTER: On the opening kickoff of the 2nd half, Atlanta fumbles but they recover at their 34. All of a sudden on the last two drives we cannot stop the pass again and they drive right down the field. *They finish with a 12 yard QB scramble and our lead is now cut to 20-14.* We start and run the ball and Newton is pounding it. *Then Dunkelberger creates a huge hole and Newton breaks 2 tackles and gets a 57 yard TD run! We extend the lead back to 13 at 27-14.* Nice drive to answer. Newton is over 200 yards. The kickoff is a touchback. Our defense needs a stop to get their confidence back like the 1st quarter. The game is back to it's crazy things again. A long pass into double coverage is completed for 22 yards. I hate that this happens repeatedly. That opens up a hole for a 17 yard run and all of a sudden our defense can't stop them. They are at our 45. We finally get a sack and that sets up a 3rd and 19 at their 46. WOW! We get a defended pass on a 3rd and long when S- Terry steps up. Great. We start at our 19 after the punt. Sanders throws a screen pass to TE- Dunkelberger and he gets 19 yards after the pass. We can't get another 1st down and have to punt. OT- Levine was injured but he stays in the game. The punt by Singleton is a good one and pins them at their 4. Another 3rd down we can't stop gets them out of trouble. That ends the 3rd with Miami leading 27-14 and they have it at their 25 and a 1st down. T.B. leads Buffalo 38-24, Carolina leads N.E. 28-10, and the Jets lead 17-10. 4TH QUARTER: Just as we start the 4th, N.O. ties the score against the Jets. They get to our 41 where we stop them short of a 1st down. The punt pins us at our 7. *We get a 2 yard pass and then Levine opens a hole for Newton. NEWTON BREAKS A PAIR OF TACKLES AND GOES 91 YARDS FOR THE TD! INCREDIBLE! HE HAS 295 YARDS ON 23 RUSHES AND 3 TDS! We lead 34-14.* That was a big TD for us. On the following drive, S- Mihna goes down with an injury and doesn't return. We don't need to lose anymore players with the showdown with the Jets next week. DE- Hughes makes a sack on 3rd down. They go for it on a 4th and 12 from our 40 and Hughes knocks the pass down and we get the ball. We lead by 20 with 8 minutes to play. The Jets are back up by 7 against N.O. We are getting no help today. Kolodziejski is in the game and they are heavily playing the run and Newton loses 3 yards on 1st down. It may be hard to get over 300 yards as everyone is in the box right now. We can't get a 1st down and punt. Again on a 3rd and 20 we allow a 25 yard pass for a 1st down. But on the next play we actually stop them. MLB- Alarcon intercepts a pass. *We get a 4 yard TD run from Newton to give him 4 TD on the day and 297 yards. We win 41-14!!!* The Jets go on to beat N.O. 24-20 to still lead the division by one game. N.E. and Buffalo lost. Notes, stats and injuries: Well, we won 3 games 2 years ago. We won 6 last year. We have 7 wins with 3 games to go this year. So even with our pass defense problems, we have turned it around. We just need a little more to get us over the hump. How Newton didn't get offensive player of the week is beyond me. They gave it to T.B. QB- Odom, 25/31 for 342 yards and 4 TD. Newton had 297 yards with 4 TD and a 9.9 ypc. He also broke the record for single game rushing for a player. Looking at the standings and wildcard race. We trail the Jets. Also, Jacksonville, Cleveland and Pittsburgh all won so we trail all by 1 game still. So we got no help this week. Looks like we may need to win out to make the playoffs. Stats: We outgained Atlanta 515 yards to 302, due in a large part to Newton's almost 300 yards rushing. Another game with low penalties, 4 for 34 yards. We scored on our 1st four possessions with 2 FG and 2 TD. Newton had 30 rushes for 297 yards with a 9.9 YPC with 4 TD and 10 rushes over 10 yards. Sanders had an efficient day as he was 21/27 for 185 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT. Antonides led the team with 60 yards receiving. CB- Douglas and MLB- Alarcon each had an interception. Our secondary stepped up with 5 passes defended and one interception. Our OL stepped up big for Newton and gave up no sacks. Springer lead the team with a 5/11 performance on KRB. Overall our starting OL was 16/31 with 3 pancake blocks. Better than 50% blocking. Great win. Now for the injuries: The big new injury is to starting SS- Mihna. He has a pulled groin and is doubtful for about 4 weeks. He will miss the Jets game. With Tigchelaar still questionable and in better shape, he will try to give it a go against the Jets. If he can't go, the rookie Harrison will get his 1st start in a big game. The other new injury is to OT- Levine who has been starting at G in place of Lee. He has a bruised ribcage and is probable. He will start against the Jets with Lee still probable with a sprained knee for about 1 more week. A ribcage is a lot less risky than a knee, so Lee will sit out again. CB- Barton is still probable for one more week with his pulled groin. Our coaching staff think there is a moderate risk of reijury, but we need him. So I will risk it. Up next: With the division on the line, The hated N.Y. Jets come to town __________________ GM of the Milwaukee Muscle Men of the ZFL. The 1st team in ZFL history to have a perfect losing season. I am on a quest to show that the Dolphins can win the Super Bowl. Or should I say Front Office Bowl, with FOF2K7. The revival of an old favorite, FOFC Wrestling Dynasty

01-31-2007, 12:29 PM	#80
DolphinFan1 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Connecticut	1977 WEEK 15: NEW YORK JETS (8-5) AT MIAMI DOLPHINS (7-6) PREVIEW: Sunny, 71 degrees and calm. We are favored by 4. Keys to the game: The #1 key is to win this game as we won our last one. We need to break this show up every other week. We also need to win a big division game late in the season. How do we do that? Play solid pass defense like last week against Atlanta. The other keys are to get pressure on the QB as they have a very good OL and our DL needs to penetrate. Our OL needs another solid game so Newton can control the game. If we can keep the ball away from their offense, we can win the game. Injuries to note: The Jets are without their top CB who is out with a broken arm. Up next: GAMEDAY __________________ GM of the Milwaukee Muscle Men of the ZFL. The 1st team in ZFL history to have a perfect losing season. I am on a quest to show that the Dolphins can win the Super Bowl. Or should I say Front Office Bowl, with FOF2K7. The revival of an old favorite, FOFC Wrestling Dynasty

01-31-2007, 12:41 PM	#81
DolphinFan1 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Connecticut	1977 WEEK 15: GAMEDAY: N.Y. JETS AT MIAMI GAMEDAY: 1977 WEEK 15: NEW YORK AT MIAMI: 1ST QUARTER: Baltimore plays at Pittsburgh, Cincinnati plays at Cleveland and Jacksonville plays at Houston in the other games of teams we are chasing in the wildcard race. But we need to take care of business 1st. Here we go. We start with the ball at our 20. We get a couple of 1st downs on nice runs by Newton and Crichlow with nice blocks by our OL. But we stall when C- Mohr allows a sack and the lost yardage we can't recover from. We punt from our 48. Singleton punts a little too good as it goes into the endzone. They start with a false start and then a 4 yard run. On 2nd and 11, McWilliams gets pressure on the QB. He throws into double coverage and it's not completed. McWilliams gets credit for forcing the incompletion. It's about time a pressure results in an incomplete pass. However, here is a 3rd and 11 coming up. They complete a pass for only 6 yards and we hold. There was also an offensive holding call on them so it wouldn't have mattered. We decline and force a 3 and out to start our defense. Great start and it's about time. A good return by Tigchelaar is negated on a holding call. We start at our 24. On a 3rd and 9 in danger of punting it right back, Sanders hits SE- Swift on a 20 yard pass for the 1st down. After a holding call pushes us back, Sanders throws an ill advised pass and it is intercepted and returned to our 16. We can't afford to give up the ball. *Our defense holds them to a FG. They hit the 31 yard FG and they take the early 3-0 lead.* Our defense stepped up after the turnover. Let's see it our offense can rebound. We start at our 20 and our 3rd holding call of the day pushes us back. Not a good start by our OL. However, WR- Cole comes up with a big 16 yard reception to set up a 2nd and 4 and on the next play, Springer blocks for Newton who gets 5 yards and the 1st down. After another 1st down, Sanders throws a long pass into double coverage and I hold my breath. However, FL- Antonides catches the ball for 26 yards to give us a 1st down at the Jets 30. Two more runs and that ends the 1st quarter. We have a 3rd and 3 at the 23 of the Jets. End of 1st quarter: Jets 3 Miami 0 Baltimore leads Pittsburgh 7-0, Cincinnati leads Cleveland 3-0 and Jacksonville and Houston are scoreless. 2ND QUARTER: On the 3rd down play, New York expects a pass and instead Newton gets the ball. Springer blocks and Newton just gets the 3 yards for the 1st down. A one yard run by Crichlow and then a block by RT- Bush lets Crichlow break one for 14 yards and we have a 1st and goal at the 5. *The next play Sanders drops back to pass and hits Antonides for the 5 yard TD pass and we lead 7-3!!!!* They get a good return on the kickoff and start at their 47. Not a good play by our coverage team. They get 9 yards on 1st and 2nd down to set up a 3rd and 1 at our 44. Can we stop them? DE- Burkhart and DE- McWilliams bust through the line and sack the QB for 7 yards and we stop the 3rd and short. All Right!!!! However, the punt pins us at our 3 yard line. But a nice defensive stand. An offsides call gives us 5 yards. But we get flagged for a false start so we are pushed back to our 4. We get a 5 yard run by Newton, but give it right back on the next play with another false start. We need to stop the penalties. We already have 5 which is more than the whole game last week. Dunkelberger bails us out with an 11 yard reception and we are out of the shadow of our own goal. But guess what. On the next play we get called for illegal use of the hands so we have a 1st and 18 at our 8. We are killing ourselves. We go backwards and allow a sack on a 3rd and long and have to punt from our 2 yard line. That was one of the worst offensive series I have seen by this team. Singleton gets off a 47 yard punt (good considering the position he was in), and they return it to our 40. The run 3 times and plow through our DL and have a 2nd and 4 at our 21. Then they get a 21 yard TD pass....but wait....it's called back for offensive holding. Let's see if we can stop them now. Ridiculous!!!! They throw a pass into double coverage and of course complete it for 14 yards and the 1st down. But they fumble the ball. And they recover it and go 17 yards on the fumble for the TD. That is stupid!!! Sometimes I hate this game. They retake the lead 10-7. We start at our 33 with 5 minutes to play in the 1st half. We go 3 and out and have to punt it right back. Our OL is not blocking for our RB like last week. A couple of long passes and they have it at our 26. Just like that. Again another play where McWilliams is chasing the QB and he throws it up and completes it. *We can't stop them as they pound it and get an 8 yard TD run and take a 17-7 lead.* Looks like we are back to the show up every other week mode again. I will accept any help or ideas anyone has on how to break this. This is stupid. We try to get something going with about a minute to go before halftime. Sanders completes one for 18 and then throws two incomplete passes. But on 3rd and 10 from our 42, he hits Cole and he breaks a tackle to break free. He goes all the way, 58 yards for the TD!!! He got 37 YAC. We are back in the game just before halftime. We go into the locker room trailing 17-14. Baltimore leads Pittsburgh 13-0, Cincinnati leads Cleveland 9-0 and Houston leads Jacksonville 17-7. So things right now are going are way if we can pull this one out. 3RD QUARTER: We allow another good kick return and they start at their 39. We allow another 3rd down conversion and they are at the 50. The next play, DT- Goodwin stops the RB for no gain and knocks the ball loose. There is a scramble for the ball. DT- Petkovich recovers it for us at our 49!!! We created a turnover. Let's see if we can turn it into points. Two runs get us a 1st down. Then two incompletes by Sanders. However, N.Y. gets called for defensive pass interference and we have a 1st down at the Jets 20. The next play is stopped for no gain, but N.Y. gets called for offsides. However, we lost TE- Dunkelberger on the play. He doesn't return. Two more runs for no gain set up a 3rd and 5 at the Jets 15. Sanders tries to hit Cole on the 3rd down play, but it is incomplete and we have to settle for the FG try to tie it. *Hammond hits the 32 yarder and we tie the game at 17.* At least we go points off the turnover. Our special teams is killing us. A short kickoff and a 40 yard return gives them the ball at our 40. We stop them short on a 3rd and 6 and they have a 4th and 1 from our 31. What will they do? *Of course they hit the 48 yarder to retake the lead 20-17.* CB- Douglas gets a decent return to give us the ball at our 31. On a 2nd and 9, Sanders throws into double coverage and Antonides catches the pass for 27 yards. But wait...we get called for offensive holding again and it's negated. Our special teams and penalties are killing us. We can't recover from the penalty and have to punt. A nice punt but they get a another good return and start at their 35. We allow a 1st down and then a sack sets up a 3rd and 12 at their 43. Can we stop them on a key 3rd down to keep us in the game? They drop back to pass and throw it deep, DT- Goodwin pressures the QB and the pass is....NOT COMPLETED!!! Wow! We finally make a stop. Now our offense needs to score. They boom a punt and we start at our 20 after the touchback. *The 1st play, Sanders tries to hit Antonides and the pass is intercepted and returned 38 yards for the TD! We now trail by 10, 27-17.* UGH! We are doing it again. We go three and out on the next drive and are on our way to another disappointing division loss. The 3rd quarter ends with us in a big hole, trailing 27-17. 4TH QUARTER: *They take it right down the field and we hold them to a FG and they lead 30-17 with 9:28 to play and our season slipping away.* We go 3 and out and SE- Swift drops a 3rd down pass which would have kept the drive alive. Singleton booms one 61 yards and they have it at their one yard line. Maybe our defense can force a turnover here. They get 5 yards and we hold but we are running out of time. We squander good field position after a holding on the punt return penalty. We start at our 33 with 6 minutes to play down by 13. Sanders only gets 1 completion for 2 yards on the 1st three plays. However, he hits, Swift on 4th and 8 for 9 yards to keep us alive. But the next 4 plays are incomplete and that will end any chance at a win or the division crown again this year. We get the ball back after a blocked FG and have one last prayer with just over 2 minutes to play. Sanders takes us down the field with little time to cut the lead to 30-24 with 48 seconds to play. We will try the onside kick. We cannot recover it and we will go down in this one 30-24. Don't let this score fool you. We were never really in this one at about midway through the 3rd quarter. The only good news is Baltimore beat Pittsburgh, and Houston beat Jacksonville. Cleveland won. But we are still barely alive in the wildcard race, but the Jets win the division leading by 2 with 2 to play. This loss drops us to 7-7 and again we win one lose one. Notes, stats and injuries: Newton only gained 69 yards on 23 carries in this one. Sanders was 18/40 for 244 yards with 3 TD but 2 costly picks. Cole had 4 catches for 97 yards and a TD. Swift had 4 catches for 60 yards. Antonides had 3 catches for 47 yards and a TD. Alarcon led the way again with 12 tackles and 2 assists. Our OL only allowed 2 sacks but was only 9/26 on KRB. Not bad, but not even close to last week. Our WR dropped 5 passes today. A telling stat was Sanders was only 3/10 on 3rd downs with 2 conversions. The only new injury was to TE- Dunkelberger. He has a high ankle sprain and is out for about 4 weeks. So unless we get a miracle to make the playoffs, his season is done. Burford will start in his place and Chavarria will make his 1st appearance of the season in two TE sets. OG- Lee and CB- Barton have fully recovered. S- Tigchelaar came through the game without reinjuring himself. He is close to 100% and will play next week. LT- Levine is almost 100% and he will play again, but he will return to his backup role to Green and Bush at T. S- Mihna is still questionable for about 3 weeks with his pulled groin. He will sit out again. So we need to beat a 10-4 New Orleans team on the road next week and then beat Buffalo the last week of the season and hope for some others to lose. One more note as I close the book on this disappointing week. Buffalo lost and they are 0-14 and officially have the #1 pick in the draft. It will be interesting what they do, as they appear to have a lot of holes to fill so a trade down may happen. We'll see. Up next: We try to rebound and keep our slim playoff hopes alive against a very good New Orleans team. __________________ GM of the Milwaukee Muscle Men of the ZFL. The 1st team in ZFL history to have a perfect losing season. I am on a quest to show that the Dolphins can win the Super Bowl. Or should I say Front Office Bowl, with FOF2K7. The revival of an old favorite, FOFC Wrestling Dynasty

01-31-2007, 11:37 PM	#82
larrymcg421 Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Georgia	Ouch, a tough loss. That was an amazing performance by Newton the previous week. What is the wildcard situation looking like? __________________ Top 10 Songs of the Year 1955-Present (1976 Added) Franchise Portfolio Draft Winner Fictional Character Draft Winner Television Family Draft Winner Build Your Own Hollywood Studio Draft Winner

01-31-2007, 11:46 PM	#83
DolphinFan1 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Connecticut	We are trailing by one game, but 4 teams are in it for one spot. __________________ GM of the Milwaukee Muscle Men of the ZFL. The 1st team in ZFL history to have a perfect losing season. I am on a quest to show that the Dolphins can win the Super Bowl. Or should I say Front Office Bowl, with FOF2K7. The revival of an old favorite, FOFC Wrestling Dynasty

01-31-2007, 11:47 PM	#84
DolphinFan1 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Connecticut	As for Newton, he has turned out to be a great back in only his second year. I have to get him some help on the defense to win more games. I don't want to kill him running 30 times a game. __________________ GM of the Milwaukee Muscle Men of the ZFL. The 1st team in ZFL history to have a perfect losing season. I am on a quest to show that the Dolphins can win the Super Bowl. Or should I say Front Office Bowl, with FOF2K7. The revival of an old favorite, FOFC Wrestling Dynasty

02-01-2007, 09:53 AM	#85
DolphinFan1 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Connecticut	1977 WEEK 16: MIAMI DOLPHINS (7-7) AT NEW ORLEANS SAINTS (10-4) PREVIEW: Sunny, 68 degrees and calm. N.O. is favored by one. N.O. is # 2 in the league in PPG and we are #3. Key matchups: We face OLB- Quentin Christopher who we targeted in the draft. He is only rated 54/69 but has 80 tackles and 16 assists. He also has 4 interceptions and one for a TD. So he is a playmaker we need to shut down. Their offense is stacked with all pro players so that is going to be a challenge for our defense. The only plus is this is the week we usually show up to play. We lost last week. So we should win this week. Their defense has some studs also. Besides Christopher, their MLB, RDE and RDT are very good. So we need to run to the other side and try to avoid these guys. Easier said than done. Up next: GAMEDAY __________________ GM of the Milwaukee Muscle Men of the ZFL. The 1st team in ZFL history to have a perfect losing season. I am on a quest to show that the Dolphins can win the Super Bowl. Or should I say Front Office Bowl, with FOF2K7. The revival of an old favorite, FOFC Wrestling Dynasty

02-01-2007, 10:02 AM	#86
DolphinFan1 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Connecticut	1977 WEEK 16: GAMEDAY: MIAMI AT NEW ORLEANS: GAMEDAY: 1977 WEEK 16: MIAMI AT NEW ORLEANS: 1ST QUARTER: We start out moving the ball well until a 3rd and 2 at the N.O. 39. Sanders tries to hit TE- Burford for a 1st down and their CB steps in front of Burford for the pick. I wonder if Dunkelberger would have made the play or at least broke it up. On a 3rd and 7, they throw it deep and of course complete it for 26 yards. A few plays later, another long pass for 32 yards and they have a 1st and goal at the 2. *Their 1st run of the day is a 2 yard TD run on the next play and we trail 7-0.* On the ensuing kickoff, CB- Douglas goes down with a ribcage injury. He stays in the game. We get one 1st down but 2 false starts push us back and we can't recover and have to punt. *They take it right down the field and get another TD. The TD pass was into double coverage (what else is new) for 35 yards with 19 coming after a broken tackle. We trail 14-0.* *Mixing the run and pass well, Sanders engineers a nice 80 play drive which he finishes with an 11 yard TD pass to FL- Antonides. We cut the lead to 14-7.* But to have a chance, our defense needs to stop their offense. We kickoff and they start at their 13 which ends the 1st quarter. 2ND QUARTER: Our defense steps us and stops them on 3 plays when DE- Hughes pressures the QB to throw before he was ready on 3rd down. A short punt gives us the ball at our 47. On a 3rd and 9 from the 38 of N.O., Sanders throws a long pass to TE- Chavarria. He makes the catch for 27 yards to give us a 1st down at the 11. Big catch in his 1st game playing this year. I guess he's trying to make a case to stay on the team. *Two plays later, N.O. plays the run and Sanders finds WR- Cole on an 8 yard strike for the tieing TD.* We give them good field position at their 44 after a short kickoff. They are taking it right down the field on our defense again. Then on the drive, S- Tigchelaar goes down with a serious leg injury. They get down to our 8 yard line on a 3rd and 4 and DT- Petkovich drives through the line and stops them for no gain to force the FG try. *They hit the FG to retake the lead, 17-14.* A sack and a penalty kill our drive without a 1st down and we punt it right back to them. A short punt and they have it at our 44 to start the drive. *Our defense allows them to our 8 again but stop them and we force another FG to keep us in the game. They lead 20-14 just before halftime.* We only get one play off before halftime. So we go into the locker room trailing by 6 with our slim postseason hopes on the line. In other games that matter for our wildcard hopes. Every game is close and we have a chance so far. 3RD QUARTER: We start the 2nd half on a good note. N.O. commits a false start penalty and then LB- Dellinger sacks the QB so they have 2nd and 21 at their 27. Then LB- Alarcon and DT- Petkovich bust through the line for a 1 yard loss on a run. So we have a big 3rd and 22 to stop here. The pass is only for 13 yards so we stop them.....but wait we are called for defensive holding and an automatic 1st down. NO! We can't give this offense second chances. Our defense stops them amazingly on the next three plays when their 3rd down pass is stopped just short of the 1st down. We get one 1st down and then another pass to Burford is intercepted. I gotta wonder if this is coincidence or I am onto something. Two passes to Burford have been intercepted. *They don't take long as 4 plays later they get the TD and a commanding 27-14 lead.* In danger of giving it right back, Sanders hits WR- Hancock on a 24 yard pass on a 3rd and long to keep us alive. Hancock is showing me he can make a play here and there since he took over as the 4th receiver over Nishioka. The next three plays are for over 10 yards each and we have a 1st and goal at the 8 yard line. The next play is an 8 yard TD pass to Cole but it's called back for offensive holding. Newton then busts through the line with a block by Springer and we have a 2nd and goal at the 7. The 2nd down pass to Hancock is blocked at the line to set up a key 3rd and goal with time winding down in the 3rd quarter and our season. Sanders can't complete the 3rd down pass to Antonides and we stall after a costly penalty. *Hammond hits the short FG and we cut the lead to 10 at 27-17 but we needed 7 right there.* Another short kickoff and good return and they start at our 46. The last couple games our special teams coverage has been killing us. Our defense stops them at our 32 when DT- Goodwin blocks a pass on 3rd down. *They hit the 49 yard FG to extend the lead back to 13 at 30-17. Does anyone miss FG against us?* We end the 3rd quarter with two ineffective runs. 4TH QUARTER: We have a 3rd and 11 at our 35. We only get a 2 yard pass and have to punt and just about ends our chances. They are not content to run and kill some clock. *They continue to pass on our defense, but a key 3rd down sack by DE- McWilliams forces another FG, but they lead by 16, 33-17.* We start at our 9 after a penalty on the kickoff. We have 8 minutest to score 2 TDs and two conversions. We only manage two first downs and we have to punt and that will do it with under 6 to play. We get one last chance when we stop them with just under 3 to play. But as Sanders takes us down the field inside the 40, he throws his 3rd interception of the day. We use our timeouts to get it back and I don't know why we bother. Sanders wastes no time throwing his 4th pick of the day to end the game 33-17. Notes, Stats and injuries: Well, we broke the win one lose one curse, except it was a lose two that did it. Not what we wanted. Somehow we are still alive for the last wildcard spot. But a lot of things have to happen and I am not sure what. But Jax. at 8-7 leads the way. Pittsburgh is also 8-7 so they have a chance with a win and a Jax. loss. Baltimore and us are 7-8 and somehow still alive for the wildcard. So we need to beat an 0-15 Buffalo team and hope for a lot of help. We lost to Pittsburgh and beat Baltimore in the regular season. We didn't play Jax. So it will come down to another tiebreaker. But you know the Bills are going to get their 1st win to spoil any slim chance we have. We can't make them go 0-16, can we? Let's try!!!! New injuries: S- Tigchelaar reinjured his torn calf muscle and is out for 8 weeks. S- Mihna is still questionable for 2 weeks with his pulled groin. But I will risk it and play him. TE- Dunkelberger is still out for 4 more weeks. CB- Douglas is probable with his bruised ribcage. He will play. LT- Levine is 100%. Stats on the game: Newton only had 61 yards on 16 carries. Sanders wasn't very good when we needed him. The stats are misleading. He was 22/38 for 255 yards with 2 TD and 4 int. Antonides had 8 catches for 106 yards and 1 TD. Alarcon was a monster as he had 15 tackles and 7 assists. Our OL only allowed one sack but they only had 4 KRB. We now go to play an 0-15 Buffalo team who we beat in week 5, 31-14. Up next: Can we finish the year with a win to get to 8-8? __________________ GM of the Milwaukee Muscle Men of the ZFL. The 1st team in ZFL history to have a perfect losing season. I am on a quest to show that the Dolphins can win the Super Bowl. Or should I say Front Office Bowl, with FOF2K7. The revival of an old favorite, FOFC Wrestling Dynasty

02-02-2007, 11:16 AM	#87
DolphinFan1 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Connecticut	1977 WEEK 17: MIAMI DOLPHINS (7-8) AT BUFFALO BILLS (0-15) PREVIEW: Snow, 22 degrees and a 12 MPH wind. Great! Just what we need. Maybe our coach will pound Newton down their throats. We are favored by 9. I've never seen a preview on a team like this. Buffalo is 26th in one catergory, 27th in another, 29th in another and then 30-32nd in everything except rushing yards per carry (2nd) and rushing yards allowed per carry (1st). We are 1st in rushing yards per carry. So it will be their only strength against our big guy Newton. We face our old nemisis: QB - Karl Tudrick. We stopped him the last time. Let's do it again. Looking at the 4 teams involved in the final wildcard spot, we are 7-8 and so is Baltimore. Jax and Pitts. are 8-7. So it's clear they have to lose for us to get in if we win. And we beat Balt. so that may not matter but it won't hurt if they lose. So we will be rooting for all three to lose if we beat Buffalo and we should be in. Up next: GAMEDAY __________________ GM of the Milwaukee Muscle Men of the ZFL. The 1st team in ZFL history to have a perfect losing season. I am on a quest to show that the Dolphins can win the Super Bowl. Or should I say Front Office Bowl, with FOF2K7. The revival of an old favorite, FOFC Wrestling Dynasty

02-02-2007, 11:35 AM	#88
DolphinFan1 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Connecticut	1977 WEEK 17: GAMEDAY: MIAMI AT BUFFALO GAMEDAY: WEEK 17: MIAMI AT BUFFALO: 1ST QUARTER: We start out with the ball and I am ready to fire my coach right now. With a blowing 12 MPH wind and snow, he comes out throwing on every play and only completes one pass for -2 yards. He should have pounded it with Newton. You'd think we were the 0-15 team. Buffalo starts with the ball at their 25. On the 1st play, DT- Dobbins sacks Tudrick. Then on 2nd down they complete a 1 yard screen pass and they fumble the ball when S- Terry strips the ball. S- Mihna recovers for us at the Buffalo 20. All Right!! We made a play on defense. We are killing ourselves with penalties again. Two penalties push us back to the 30 and we have a 2nd and 20. Another screen pass for 0 yards but we get called for offensive holding. So now it's 2nd and 30 at the 40. Sanders finally completes a pass for over 1 yard when he hits WR- Cole for 18 to give us a 3rd and 12 at the 22. Then he hits RB- Craig for 7 more to give us a better FG try....but wait....we get called for offensive holding again. Now we have a 3rd and 22 at the 32. Sanders hits FL- Antonides for 16 yards to give us the ball at the 16. But it's 4th down. *We will try the 33 yard FG in the snow. Hammond hits the FG and we lead 3-0.But we had 4 offensive penalties on that drive alone. Our defense stops them on 3 plays. They are playing the run heavily and Newton gets stuffed for -7 yards on 2 carries. But Sanders hits Newton on pass on 3rd and long and Newton breaks free for a 27 yard gain and a 1st down. The next play is a 18 yard completion to Antonides and we have a 1st down at the Buffalo 33. A run for 3 yards and a pass for -1 gives us a 3rd and 8 at the 31.We only get 3 yards on a run and will try a long 45 yard FG in the snow. Hammond misses it so we still lead 3-0. On a 2nd down play, they run for the 1st down and fumble the ball again. This time they recover it. The 1st quarter ends with Buffalo at our 37 with a 3rd and 6. In the other 3 games with wildcard implications: Baltimore and Cincinnati are scoreless, Indy leads Jax. 14-7 and Cleveland leads Pitts. 3-0. 2ND QUARTER:* On the 3rd down play, McWilliams hurries the QB and the 3rd down pass is incomplete. They punt and it goes in the endzone. We get one first down and then have a 3rd and 7 at our 34. Sanders drops back to pass and throws it deep to SE- Swift. He makes the catch for 19 yards and the 1st down. Another 16 yards to Swift and we are at the Buffalo 31. Swift has 3 catches for 46 yards on this drive. We then run the ball 3 times and get stopped on a 3rd and 2 at the 23 and we have to try another FG. Another miss from Hammond. Seems the weather is a big factor in today's game. Hammond has been almost automatic this year. We still lead just 3-0. On the 1st play after the miss, we lose DE- Ward to an injury and he doesn't return. We hold them to just 3 plays and on 3rd down, DT- Dobbins sacks the QB again for a loss of 7 yards. A short punt and we have the ball at our 41. We get one first down and then stall at the Buffalo 39 when OT- Bush allows a sack. The punt goes into the endzone and Buffalo will start at their 20. They get one first down then a couple of penalties push them back and we hold them. On a 2nd and 2 after a Buffalo penalty, Green creates a hole and Newton finally breaks one for 24 yards. He only had 4 yards on 8 carries before that run. We have a 1st down at our 47 with 2 minutes to play in the half. A 14 yard pass to Antonides on 2nd down gives us the ball at the Buffalo 39. On a 2nd and 8 we come out with a 5 WR set and Buffalo is looking for a run. HUH? No wonder they are 0-15. Sanders finds Hancock for 28 yards and we are at the 9. Crichlow runs for 6 yards and we have a 2nd and goal at the 3. *The next play Crichlow punches it in from 3 yards out and we lead 10-0.Crichlow has more yards than Newton today. Figure that out. Great drive by the offense when we started at our 15 with just over 3 minutes to play in the half. That's then end of the 1st half and we lead 10-0. Very sloppy 1st half. We missed 2 FG, and both teams combined for 14 penalties for 115 yards. Cincinnati leads Baltimore 10-0. That's good. Indy is all over Jax. 28-10. That's good. Cleveland leads Pitts. 10-9. That's good. 3RD QUARTER:* Buffalo comes out throwing to start the 2nd half and we are giving up the deep ball again. *We can't stop this winless team and they take it right down the field and get a 9 yard TD run to cut our lead to 10-7.* In danger of going 3 and out, Sanders finds Cole for 11 yards and a 1st down. We do go 3 and out after that 1st down and Buffalo will get the ball back when LB- Howard stops Cole just short of the 1st down. Maybe our defense had to warm up after sitting in the locker room at halftime because they stop Buffalo on 3 plays this time. We start at our 32. We can do nothing on offense and then Sanders' 3rd down pass is intercepted and Buffalo has it at our 44. A false start and then a sack by DE- McWilliams pushes them back to their 46 with a 2nd and 20. A 5 yard pass sets up a 3rd and 15 and we of course allow a 19 yard pass for the 1st down. They get to our 21 and we hold them. *They hit the 38 yarder to tie the score at 10. What did I say last game? Everyone hits every FG against us. Even in the snow.* The 3rd quarter ends and we get a 1st down at our 36. Cincinnati now leads Baltimore 24-0, Indy 41, Jax. 13. Cleveland leads Pitts. 16-9. 4TH QUARTER: We continue to move the ball well until an offensive holding call negates a 1st down and we can't get another 1st down. We punt again. Our defense comes up big with a 3 and out. We get help from a Buffalo offsides call and still can't get a 1st down. We are letting an 0-15 team hang around. Buffalo gets called for 2 false starts on sucessive plays which helps us hold them to a 3 and out. The two teams have combined for 23 penalties for 170 yards. Awful. We have the ball at our 32 with 6:35 to play and the score tied 10-10. We need to score now!!! The 1st play Sanders throws deep to Cole who catches it for 37 yards. 1st down at the Buffalo 31. Buffalo plays the run on the next play and Sanders finds Swift for 14 and we are now at the 17. After a 1 yard loss, Newton gets a 14 yard run by a key block by Springer and we have a 1st and goal at the 4. Buffalo is offsides to give us 2 more yards. *Two plays later, Springer opens another hole and Newton gets the 2 yards for the TD. We lead 17-10.* Buffalo commits a penalty on the return and start at their 7 with 3:38 to play. A false start and a short run creates a 2nd and long. *They try to throw a long pass and get called for holding in the endzone and we get 2 points on the safety!!!! We lead 19-10.* We can't get a 1st down to kill the clock, so Buffalo will get it back. We get called for pass interference and they are at our 13 with 1:46 to play. Incredible! They complete a pass for 12 yards and the receiver tries to extend the ball to the endzone and CB- Douglas knocks the ball loose. S- Mihna recovers for us at our 1 yard line. We run out the clock and win 19-10 to keep Buffalo winless. It wasn't a pretty win but with the weather conditions, I'll take it. Now to see if we made the playoffs. Checking the scores, Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Jacksonvill lost, so let's see if that was what we needed to get in. I check the standings and see we sneak into the playoffs with an 8-8 record. All Right!!!! We are heading to cold Denver Colorado to face a 10-6 Bronco team. Notes, stats and injuries: This was a big win on the road in the cold. Even though Buffalo was winless, it is never easy against a division opponent. I check out the tranaction wire and see, OG- Gomez (we released him at the start of the season) was picked up by New Orleans as one of their G is on IR. Here are some stats on the game: We outgained Buffalo 381 to 195. We were both horrible on 3rd downs, Miami 3/13, Buffalo 2/10 Penalties: Miami 13/137 yards Buffalo 17/113. A total of 30 penalties and 250 yards. Awful. Maybe it was the weather, but it's still bad. Newton rushed for 86 hard yards on 27 carries. And he had 1 TD and 3 runs over 10 yards. Sanders was 20/27 for 269 yards with 1 int. Our top 3 receivers did their job except get into the endzone. Antonides had 6 catches for 78 yards, Cole had 5 catches for 71 yards and Swift had 4 catches for 60 yards. Alarcon led the defense again with 9 tackles, 3 assists and one pass defended. Dobbins only had 2 tackles but he had two big sacks. Our OL had a mixed day. They blocked well for Newton and Crichlow on some plays, then on others they either didn't block or got called for offensive holding. Springer, Lee and Green combined to go 11/22 with no sacks allowed. Bush gave up our only sack, but like I said there were numerous offensive penalties. Now for the injuries: DE- Ward went down early in the game and he has a pulled groin and is questionable for 1 week. Game time decision. SS- Mihna played through his injured groin and he is close to 100% so he will play again. CB- Douglas' ribcage is still less than 100% but he will play. FB- Blanda has a sprained ankle and is probable for about 2 weeks. He will try to give it a go. Checking out our playing time issues: LB- Fredrickson has been disgruntled all year and he is unhappy now. He is only a backup and that's all he will be doing. He is a RFA after this year so it looks like he won't be a Dolphin next year. QB- Kolodziejski is disgruntled. He feels he should be starting. Well, as bad as Sanders has played in some games, most of the issues were from the defense. Sanders has put up career bests in yardage, completion pct. and TDs. FS- Lane is disgruntled. Maybe he feels he should start. But he is a rookie and raw. Terry has made the transition from CB and played well. So deal with it. UP next: Final regular season standings and team summary for regular season. Then we will head to DENVER for our wildcard game. __________________ GM of the Milwaukee Muscle Men of the ZFL. The 1st team in ZFL history to have a perfect losing season. I am on a quest to show that the Dolphins can win the Super Bowl. Or should I say Front Office Bowl, with FOF2K7. The revival of an old favorite, FOFC Wrestling Dynasty Last edited by DolphinFan1 : 02-02-2007 at 11:37 AM.

02-03-2007, 10:12 AM	#90
DolphinFan1 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Connecticut	1977 WILDCARD WEEK: MIAMI DOLPHINS (8-8) AT DENVER BRONCOS (10-6) PREVIEW: We head to snowy Denver where it is 32 degrees and a 7 MPH wind. Denver is favored by 3. Denver is in the top half of the league in most catergories. They are weakest in rushing and defending the run. That's where we need to attack. Their QB is very good with 23 TD and 8 int. Their RB is weak, he has 1300 yards but only a 3.66 ypc and 6 fumbles. They have a very strong offensive line on the left side. They are on a 2 game losing streak to end the season. They did have a 7 game winning streak just before that. So we have the momentum as we won our last game. They have a +11 TO margin where as we are -8. Their leading tackler is a safety. So this could be a game of offenses even in the snow. Other wildcard games: Cleveland Browns (10-6) at New York Jets (10-6), Carolina Panthers (10-6) at Philadelphia Eagles (13-3), New Orleans Saints (11-5) at Arizona Cardinals (9-7). Time to play the games. UP NEXT: GAMEDAY LIVE AS IT HAPPENS. __________________ GM of the Milwaukee Muscle Men of the ZFL. The 1st team in ZFL history to have a perfect losing season. I am on a quest to show that the Dolphins can win the Super Bowl. Or should I say Front Office Bowl, with FOF2K7. The revival of an old favorite, FOFC Wrestling Dynasty