Now that Miami's season is over, who does everyone think the Dolphins' Annual Designated Messiah will be next year? Allow me to define the term:
Every year Miami starts off hot prompting all the "experts" to say "This is their year!" Then they tank in the second half of the season, and either lose early in the playoffs or miss them altogether. Inevitably, they make some change in the offseason that leads the same "experts" to proclaim they have FINALLY found the missing piece to the puzzle and this will certainly be their year. This piece is the Dolphins' Annual Designated Messiah. This year the ADM was Ricky Williams. Past ADMs have been Dave Wannstedt, Sam Madison, Zach Thomas, Jimmy Johnson, Keith Jackson and any number of journeyman running backs.
So getting back to my original question, now that the almighty Ricky Williams has failed to restore the Dolphins' past glory, what coach, coordinator or player will they add next year to make everyone proclaim them as the rightful heirs to the Miami dynasty of the early 70s?
I think they'll stick with Ricky as the "DM"... they had a decent year. Of their 7 losses, 4 were to playoff-caliber teams (KC was a solid team all year, and lost only one game by more than a touchdown... to the AFC's top team). Every team slips once, so MIN is understandable... but the two losses to Buffalo were inexcusable, and the sole reason they are sitting at home until the summer. Only the Raiders had more convincing wins over good teams than MIA. The 'Phins won 30-3 over NYJ, 30-3 over SD and 26-7 over BAL.
(To be fair, the Jets did stomp SD 44-13 and drilled GB 42-17 and NE 30-17 when it mattered most... the Raiders had 9 winning spreads over 12 points, and 6 of those were against Week 17 playoff contenders.)
My calls:
CLE 20, PIT 17, last minute score wins it
NYJ 34, IND 30, with 31 pts in the 4th Quarter (21 by the Colts)
GB 30, ATL 17, the Packer-backers blood-thirsty after the Jets loss
NYG 16, SF 13, reversing the Week 1 final score
GB 20, TB 17, on a Favre 4th quarter drive in a violent game
PHI 28, NYG 17, in McNabb's emotional return
TEN 26, CLE 13, McNair runs wild
OAK 31, NYJ 28, in overtime
TEN 27, OAK 24, avenging the stomping the Titans got early in the year
PHI 24, GB 17, with GB too exhausted and bruised from the previous two games to keep up. (If PHI loses to the Giants, then GB wins at home and goes to SB37)
TEN 28, PHI 13, in a SuperBowl with crummy commercials. The Titans overcome "the tackle" and the Eagles go 0-2 in the Big One. Hey, one of them had to.