Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Much At Stake In Philbin, Tannehill's Third Year




Forget 2013. It's over and done with. Nothing but a mere memory nightmare now.

Forget the offseason, too. The hirings, the firings, and the signings? They're all in the past now. Old news.

Forget what you heard, what I told you, and what you saw over the past month of these Miami Dolphins. It's all out the window now. That was training camp and preseason. It was all smiles then, nothing was on the line, there was no pressure, no heat.

That's all gone now. Yesterday the calendar flipped to September, and that simple turning of a page should have told you everything you need to know.

There are stakes now. The game's count once more. The interceptions and misfires hurt again. No longer will the mistakes be swept under the rug. The go to excuse of "it's only preseason, they'll get it" no longer works.

For Joe Philbin, Ryan Tannehill, and the Miami Dolphins, everything changed when the calendar turned yesterday.

And the clock has begun ticking.

Exactly five days from right now we'll be mere hours away from kickoff in South Florida. Not just any kickoff, either. No, kickoff against the big bad New England Patriots.

Nothing like a division rivalry right off the bat to get you back in regular season mode, huh?

And that's only the beginning. Sunday is only the first of 16 make or break games for these Dolphins, for this regime.

Joe Philbin and Ryan Tannehill have four months, 16 games, to prove they belong. They are 15-17 together in two seasons, and have so far come up goose eggs in postseason appearances.

They gave us hope last season, no arguing that.

But so did Sparano and Henne.

Hope only goes so far, lasts so long. If Philbin and Tannehill are to have different fates than there aforementioned predecessors, then hope better start yielding results when the dust settles on this season.

If it doesn't then this will be there last together. There's no questioning that, no disputing it, and no arguing it.

Because the truth is this: This team is too talented to not be a playoff team this season. And if the Miami Dolphins are watching rather than playing when January roles around, with the talent in that locker room, there will be two people to blame:

The quarterback, and the head coach.

Fair or not, and it's not, that's just the business of the NFL. When you're in Ryan Tannehill and Joe Philbin's position, you're either the hero, or the goat. There's no in between. It's as black or white as anything out there.

If this team takes that coveted next step in 2014, it'll be because of the great coaching by Joe Philbin, and the great directing by Ryan Tannehill.

If they fail, it'll be because Tannehill and Philbin failed.

The calendar has turned to September.

Football is back.

And once again, so much is at stake.

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