2009 Season Begins - Wheeler Dealer's Blog

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Wheeler Dealer's Blog

2009 Season Begins

Posted on September 2, 2011 at 06:51 PM.

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This team will go far! I started 2009 with unremarkable wins over NO, TB and Jacksonville.

They are a combined 9-5 after 5 weeks! My Week 5 game was Carolina. While they were only 1-2 their personnel looked a bit better than mine. Once the game started, it was apparent that their coaching staff had as much impact on the play results as mine. They had this rookie HB, Sweetney, who rated to get better with every carry.

I think this game turned on play calling. When my coaches realized I would be calling most of the plays, they gave me a list! I stayed within a set of plays my players knew. I have about 60 offensive plays on my "can call" list and used about half of those. I did a little formation substituting to help keep Ronnie Brown fresh.

Even so, I thought the refs might cost me the game, and not in the way you think. With about 40 seconds left in the half I hit a FG to go ahead 10-0. On the ensuing (I learned that word in college!) (Or maybe I heard it on ESPN?) KO the Panthers got a holding call. They were at their 36. I just dismissed the penalty menu item thinking the ref would "do the right thing" like he always had before! WELL, NO.... he interpreted this as declining the penalty, giving Carolina the ball on the 36 rather than the 26. No big deal, right?

Delhomme now hit three straight passes into three different Dime, Zone Defenses. Scott Suisham barely had the time and the leg to close the half with a 46 yard FG. Doesn't sound like much, right?

Then in the 4Q with the score 10-6, the Panthers were almost to midfield when they got a holding call and lost a fumble on the same play. This time I wasn't delegating the choice, I was declining this penalty. But, when I looked at my choices there were a lot of pronouns used and it wasn't clear who was who! While I was looking for my Magic Eight Ball, all of a sudden the ref marches off the 10 yards and gives Carolina the ball back!

Well, justice prevailed and my Dolphins held on to win 13-6. I really need to talk to the Commissioner about this. I'm sure Hyde will back me up, he's very happy right now that my Dolphins are 4-0!

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Nothing lasts forever, and this streak came tumbling down in a very messy way at an inopportune time. Buffalo was next and there's nobody the Miami fans hate more than Buffalo. This game got off to the most discouraging start of any football game I've ever seen. We took the opening KO and immediately got holding penalties, back to back. My OC got so flustered he topped that with a delay of game. We managed to wriggle back out to the 20 by 4th down and it appeared the worst was over. Then came the blocked punt, run in for a touchdown, of course.

Oh, well, it's only 0-7. We took the next KO and this time it was sacks rather than penalties. Three in a row to be precise! maybe those holding calls weren't so bad. Soon the Bills had the ball on our end of the field and drove effortlessly to another TD!

Down 14 and we are barely underway!

We did rally back within one point but ultimately succumbed 24-19. Mr. Singer was in a really foul mood, not to mention the fans and the media. my approval rating went from 86 to 57, and this with a 4-1 team tied for the division lead.

About now a lot of my time was being taken by the financial side of the business. I have some of my important players coming up for renegotiation next year, so it was more important to watch next year's cap number than this year's. I decided to deal with anyone I might want on my team next year with the thought that there would not be much in the way of bonuses and incentives. That way I can cut players freely next year without incurring penalties. A by product of this approach is that this year's cap space goes up and 2010 goes down.

I ran into several unfortunate demands by useful players. My starting DT, M Patterson, who I traded for (making $600K) wanted $21.4M over 6 years! Both of my backup OLBs and both backup DEs wanted silly numbers even though they just rated a bit better than the unemployed. I'll just have to sift through the leftovers again next year.

More Difficult was Mark Clayton. He currently makes $1.7M and rates as my best receiver. He wants $5.7/2. That's not out of the question, but he only started this year as an OVL 77 and went down to a 75 early in the season. (Many of my player's ratings went down early in the season and then came back late in the season.) I expect both of my draftees, Kidd and Clayton, to catch or surpass Clayton by next year. He has to go.

The surprise was my UDFA RB Dewayne Hayes. He looks really good for a 24 year old OVL 77>87. To my eye he runs the ball better than L Booker, my higher rated, #2 HB. I moved him up to #2 hoping he would develop faster and cost less. Whoops, he wanted $13.4M/6 including a bonus. Serious sticker shock from a player making $290K! I put him back on 3rd string in hopes he would be more reasonable later.

Back to the field. We won an easy game against Oakland and a close one against Atlanta. Baltimore was next up. The scouting report indicated they preferred to run, but closer inspection showed they really only ran on obvious down and distance and threw in a bunch of QB draws and scrambles in most situations. This took some getting used to!

By the time it was over Troy Smith passed for 222 yards and ran for 51 more!

This game turned on few plays at the end of the first half. The Ravens were up 10-6 and we were forced to punt with about 30 seconds left in the 2nd Quarter. I thought the ball had gone into the end zone for a touchback and was rummaging in my duffel bag for the M8B when my DC, Mike Smith, started whooping and shouting. The ball had stopped at the one and while I was otherwise occupied, we scored a safety!

We got a nice runback and a scoring pass to go into half up 15-10! The second half was tight but we held on to win 25-18. Those 9 quick points sure came in handy!

Back to the office. I ultimately decided to sign Hayes for $11.4/6 inc. bonus. If he develops like I expect, that will be a bargain compared to Booker who will be up for a new contract next year. I picked up a nice backup OL (25, OVL 78>79) who was injured and put him directly onto IR. He signed a reasonable extension. That also lets my trainer practice his skills and only costs some of Hyde's money.

Finally, I found a good CB (24, OVL 82>86), Chris Houston, on the FA market. He immediately becomes my best CB! I signed him to an extension for $13.1M/6. My cap space for 2010 is currently -$0.5M. I hope that will play out something like this. The cap should go up $3M or more before I have to cut to fit. That should give me enough space to sign my draftees and walk-ons. If not one cut should make enough room.

The larger concern is the important contracts expiring after 2010. QB A. Woodson, C S Satele, RB R Brown, DE J Taylor, K A Serna, FB R Mauia, RB L Booker. The first three are pretty much must do's! My hope is that the impact will hit future years where I have $36M cap space in 2011. My concern is that I may need more 2010 cap space to resign Woodson. May be time to cut ties with J Taylor!

Back on the gridiron, there followed a 12 point victory over Tennessee and a surprisingly defensive struggle with P. Manning and Indy, 13-6. The rematch with Buffalo went much better and now we stood at 10-1, second in our division to the 10-1 Pats! Our loss was to the Bills, a division foe and theirs was to Tampa Bay, an NFC power.

Games 12 and 15 were with New England and it looked like we had to win them both to take the division. A careful review of their roster revealed why they were doing so well. Damn, they have a bunch of good players and really good coaching to boot!

The game was just a good butt kicking. We did manage to spring two big pass plays (44 by Conely and 67 by Ginn) to go into half at 14-14. But it was really never that close. Miami got only 29 yards rushing, made 11% of third down conversions and got no points in 2 trips to the red zone. Turnovers were 4-0 plus two failed fourth down conversions in favor of NE. A final score of 30-14 was deceptively close!

Twelve point victories over the Jets and Texans (with J Taylor going to IR) brought us back to NE at 12-2. NE still had only the one loss. This game felt entirely different. K Phillips picked off Brady's 1st pass to get Miami off to a 3-0 lead. There followed a long stretch where Miami had the best of it building a 17-0 lead. NE came back to make it 17-7 but the Dolphins had their first chance at a kill shot with less than a minute left in the half. It was 3rd and 5 on the NE 15 when Ellis Hobbs picked off a Woodson pass and took it 90 yards for a TD. A nice two minute drill got Miami back a FG to go into half up 20-14.

The 3Q went scoreless but NE seemed to gain some traction in the 4th despite losing ground on the scoreboard. Two Gostkowski FGs were more than offset by a 61 yard Woodson to Conely connection and a 94 yard Ginn KO return. That looked like a kill shot. 34-20 with 4:15 left in the game. But, noooo...

NE methodically marched down-field to score on a 3 yard pass with 2:00 left. No onside kick!!! Miami ran the ball three times suffering losses on each play, NE got the ball back and scored the tying TD with seconds to spare!

The Pats won the toss for OT but then that fickle fellow, Moe Mentum, changed sides once more. New England went three and out, a nice punt return followed by a first down allowed Serna to win the game with a 44 yard FG!

37-34 Dolphins!! This time we out rushed them 62-31 and were almost even on third down conversions and red zone performance. Maybe it was the orange jerseys! Or maybe it was because Randy Moss was out!

Down to the last game and we could have home field throughout or be a wild card depending on next weekend's results! Has there ever been a wild card with a 14-2 record?

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I swear my team played the first half of the Jets game like it didn't matter. (now that would be some thoughtful programing!). We were down 16-3 at half but woke up and won 27-16. Turned out, it didn't matter, NE won and Miami got the same wild card at 14-2 it would have gotten at 13-3!

Our wildcard playoff game was at Pittsburgh. They were a dedicated running team but Steven Jackson was out. They still had Willie Parker to fall back on! Who can afford Willie Parker for a backup! We were up 17-0 at half but just managed a 17-10 final, largely due to a classic goal line stand early in the fourth quarter. First down at the two, three shots into the line followed by a PA pass got them nothing!

There was a wacky game quirk right at the end. On fourth down, in the 4Q, with more time on the play clock than the game clock, I get a "defining moment" challenging me to go for it. So I said OK, I wasn't punting anyway! Now it made me call a play w/o moving the game clock and my QB took the snap immediately instead of letting the time run out. Pittsburgh got off two Hail Marys from mid-field!

The Colts were next. You may recall Miami won a 13-6 meeting during the regular season. This game was the opposite but the Dolphins prevailed again, 52-42, thanks to Ted Ginn's TWO KO returns for TDs! Manning threw for 557 yards and 6 TDs, breaking Norm Van Brocklin's record of 554! Time for a rubber match with New England!