Reggie Bush

Dolphins Coach Tony Sparano has been promised he won't be fired in the near term. But that's not how it sounded when he told the refs to review a call or else he would be fired. The Dolphins are in shamnbles.

If you’re here to make fun of Reggie Bush, get it out of your system cause that’s not what’s going to happen in this post. Sorry to disappoint. No I’m not.

I wanted to write a longer post looking at the Dolphins, but when I thought about it…it was kind of pointless. Why? Cause from my vantage point, the Miami Dolphins have 1. a lack of talent (which is just hard to overcome in any situation) and 2. aren’t disciplined on the field, which running back Reggie Bush pointed out yesterday.

It’s just embarrassing, I don’t know any other way to explain it,” Bush said. “It’s an embarrassing loss. Had no business losing that game.”

“We were up 15 points with what, five minutes left to go? And we couldn’t win it? It’s disgusting.”

“Right now, this team stinks.”

The Dolphins controlled the game for the first 55 minutes, but allowed Tim Tebow and the Broncos to drive 80 yards for a touchdown, recover an onside kick, drive 56 yards for another touchdown, convert a two-point conversion and kick a game-winning 52-yard field goal in overtime.

Bush said he and his teammates didn’t have any “fight” in the last five minutes.

“Just a lot of undiscipline on our part,” Bush said. “Played good – not great – for 55 minutes. Everybody’s got that relaxed attitude. We just didn’t fight towards the end. We didn’t have enough effort for 60 minutes. We had five minutes to win the game and we couldn’t.”

The coaching is a big part of this, but again, the Dolphins lack player talent, starting at Quarterback. Chad Henne was doing pretty well in passing, but Matt Moore (who has replaced Henne who’s out for the season) just isn’t very good. Neither are the best at making decisions. But the kicker is that the Dolphins’ offensive line has been horrendous in pass protection and are ranked 30th in the league.  On the run, they’ve been “okay,” respectable even. Bush is averaging 3.9 yards per carry, but his attempts are low. Because Miami’s stuffed rank is #2, I think Bush’s low numbers speak more to play calling than teams stacking up in preparation for Bush. Besides, he hasn’t warranted that consistently in years. Regardless, he should have more than 232 yards total for the season.

The Dolphins have remained competitive in games in the first half, including in their loss to the Jets. But the discipline issue is an issue. Throughout that Jets game, you could see a supreme lack of discipline from Miami’s primary star WR Brandon Marshall. Marshall has at times looked like he wanted nothing to do with the ball and less to do with contact even when running along the sidelines. Bush’s point about having no fight left in them is well-taken. Honestly, when you’re winless at this point in the season, your starting QB is out, it feels like why bother?

Sparano needs to find a way to get these guys motivated. The best scenario here is that the rest of their season is an advanced OTA in preparation for a better next season. But even that’s hard to rally around when you know your QB next year will either be Chad Henne or someone who will be starting from scratch. And even if it’s Andrew Luck, his last name is “luck” not “miracle.” The Dolphins need more of the latter than the former.

Still, the Dolphins just should not have lost to the Denver Broncos and I will never forgive them for increasing the hype around Tebow. They should be ashamed for that alone.

The longer this conversation about what is and isn’t an illegal hit goes on, the more I’m seeing players and bloggers set up a choice-and I’m wondering if it’s a false one. That choice being that if players are not able to hit high, or are afraid of hitting high, they will automatically go as low as they can. Consequently, rather than a bunch of head injuries we’ll have a bunch of shattered knees (read: careers) to contend with.

Matt Hudson writes:

Think about the DeSean Jackson – Dunta Robinson hit if the new rule had already been implemented.  Robinson, knowing that a suspension or fine could happen if he hits anywhere near the top of the diminutive Jackson, goes for his knees.  Suppose that conservatively, both players are running at 20 miles an hour.  A helmet to the knee at a combined 40 miles an hour?  Congratulations, NFL – you’ve avoided a concussion.  And blown out a knee in the process.

The hit to Desean Jackson was ugly by all accounts; but set up this way the hit sounds preferable to the alternative.

On twitter, Reggie Bush stated that as an offensive player he opposes the rules because he’d rather be hit up high than below the knees.

Reggie Bush Uses Twitter to Express His Thoughts on Illegal Hits

But are these two options what it really comes to? I’m not so sure.

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