Dumb…idiot…Patriots homer. These were just a few of the names I was called when I said the Miami Dolphins would win 8 games at most. Well, I’m not that big of a “I told you so” type of guy. But, I told you so.

Everyone wanted to look at the fact that the Dolphins finished 2005 on a strong note, winning their last 6. Of course no one even thought to mention the fact that six of their nine wins came against teams with sub .500 records, and their last came in a game against the Patriots in which New England rested its starters for the second half of the game. I know someone is going to say, “Well, you can only play who’s in front of you”, which is true. But you can’t just discount the fact that their schedule was not the toughest.

Then came the 2005 off-season. The ‘fins trade for Daunte Culpepper and now all of a sudden, the Dolphins will make the 1999 Rams offense look like a CFL team. I heard people say, “Man, this will be the next great offense. We got one of the best 1-2 punches at receiver in the league. And who’s going to stop McMichael over the middle”? Well, someone better tell McMichael that the season has already started and they’re playing football and not hot potato. I guess that some of those prognosticators also forgot that Culpepper was recovering from micro-fracture surgery on his knee. Not to mention that the last time he was healthy, he was terrible (12 INT’s and 5 fumbles in just 7 games with Minnesota in 2005). I did not think that he would be as good as he was a few years ago, but I did not expect him to be as bad as he has been this season either. He has been sacked 21 times this season. That is the most by any quarterback with less than 5 starts.

The Miami Dolphins are the perfect example of that “sexy pick” that everyone falls in love with in the pre-season. I said in my AFC East preview that I am always weary about these teams that people fall in love with because those teams never succeed. On paper, the Dolphins are one of the most talented teams in football, but my big question in the pre-season was whether or not they could put it all together. Well, we’re not even halfway through the season, and I think that question has already been answered.