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Tony Sparano's comments following Wednesday's practice
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
4:19 PM EDT, September 24, 2008

(On the new faces at practice) - "Yeah, a couple new guys. We ended up, as you've seen, signing (G) Matt McChesney (practice squad) and (TE) Joey Haynos (53-man roster) today. [Matt] is just good lineman that we wanted to take a look at. He's a guy that has some position flexibility inside, a pretty tough guy, smart guy and fits a lot of the qualities that we like. (Joey) Haynos is a young tight end that we really thought a lot of and is a guy that I think can help us as we get going here. He's a pass catcher, those type of things."

(On how tough it is to decide who gets let go) - "It's tough, it really is. As we get on in this thing, the more you turn the bottom of the roster, the fewer options you have to make moves like this. Jalen (Parmele) is a young, promising kid that was doing a nice job for us out there at practice, but we have to do what we have to do right now."

(On what happened to Coach Jim Reid) - "I'm not really sure what happened right now. I just know he was running and came back inside and I'm not really sure right now. They just took him off to the hospital and we'll see and get a better idea in a little while."

(On when it steered in the other direction for Jalen Parmele) - "I think what happens is, when you have two backs like Ronnie (Brown) and Ricky (Williams), and you're pleased with what (Patrick) Cobbs has done right now, you start to count and think, 'Alright, it's going to take a few injuries before we get to one of these guys.' There is another guy down there right now that is on the practice squad with (Lex) Hilliard that has done some nice things as well. We have a couple good young backs, or had a couple good young backs, and we feel like we have three pretty good backs up with the Varsity right now. That's where the decision comes in."

(On if there was any more enthusiasm in practice this week coming off a win) -
"Yeah, I thought the guys bounced around pretty good. They had a little bit more pep in their step, all of that good stuff. Most importantly, just a little bit more confidence. We tried to make them real aware that, that game is over with and we move by it. We've got some work to do this week on some things that we need work on."

(On having a week like this gives you a luxury of working on things that you couldn't in a normal week of preparation) - "Absolutely, it gives you the opportunity to work on them and work on them a little bit longer. During a regular work week you can only get 'X' amount of third downs or maybe 'X' amount of red zone plays and you really can't focus on specific problems that have occurred over the last couple weeks. You can't look back like that; you've got to get going. That's what we did today. Today we hit a bunch of third down stuff; we hit some specific problems that have taken place over the last couple weeks. We hit the special teams really hard and did it all in an efficient practice. The guys finished almost eight minutes ahead of schedule today. They practiced fast with good enthusiasm and good tempo."

(On how much, if any, did he watch Monday night's game between the Jets and Chargers) - "I didn't watch any."

(On what he likes about the pass rush right now) - "I think, first of all, that has been a big key. Obviously, what Joey (Porter) did the other night and Joey has really been doing that for the first couple weeks. He had a sack in the first game and then was around the quarterback a couple times there. This week I thought he provided a lot of pressure. They were trying to single-block him out there and I think he did a nice job that way. That happens when you get good push in the middle, too, and you're getting pressure that way. I thought a couple guys that really did a nice job this week, and there were several of them that did, but I thought (Kendall) Langford and (Phillip) Merling really provided a lot of pass rush this week. They were kind of pain in the necks and they were up in the backfield playing on that side of the line of scrimmage in the pass rush. When you can get some of those things happening, all of a sudden and you're getting two bodies on one guy, somewhere or another somebody has to win an individual matchup and I think that's happening a little bit."

(On how much Chad Pennington's accuracy contributed to what the offense did against New England) - "I think it was a great deal, certainly. I think most importantly, we had some access out there. We created some access; some ways to get people off the line of scrimmage a little bit cleaner, do some of those kind of things. I think that had a lot to do with it as well. That being said, if you can throw them the ball and give them a chance to run with it, and that happened in the middle of the field a few times. (Greg) Camarillo's ball, he's able to run with it. (Anthony) Fasano caught a few of them, he was able to run with it. Even Ted Ginn, Ted made a great catch on the 'In' route over there, but he had to put that ball inside of Ted a little bit to protect him from the safety. I thought he made a bunch of nice plays out there with his location, which gave us the opportunity to run after the catch and that's something we in this room talked about last week a little bit."

(On how you generate that access for receivers to get off the line of scrimmage cleaner) - "I think a little bit formationally, moving some people around, getting some people motioning a little bit, doing some of those kind of things. That created a little bit of the access, but certainly from a formation standpoint that helped us."

(On LaDanian Tomlinson throwing the option pass) - "He's tremendous at it, he really is. The number of touchdowns, it's a hard deal to prepare for a guy like this because, first of all, you know if he gets an inch, he can go the distance. He's shown it time and time again to be able to finish runs in this league. All of sudden you start to crowd the box a little bit on him and you do get people flying to the ball because you know you need to tackle this guy and then he throws it over your head. We have to be disciplined in the back end of the coverage without a doubt, but most importantly, I think you've got to get people around him in a hurry. That's the only way I think you can do it."

(On growing up if he saw any of the old Giants do that) - "I've never seen anybody do it like this guy does it - and they do it all over the field with him."

(On Ronnie Brown being named AFC Offensive Player of the Week and his emergence) - "We talked about this during the week last week a little bit, it only takes one week and all of a sudden something like this can happen. With Ronnie, I thought we saw him coming around a little bit, even in his limited carries against Arizona; I saw a little bit of a spark and a little bit more burst coming out of him and a little bit more confidence. He just was able to make some plays this week for us. It's not one guy that does that. There were a bunch of good blocks out there and there were a lot of people making blocks down the field for Ronnie; I think he'd be the first to tell you that. And certainly we were able to create a little bit more space for him to run."

(On if the key with what they did with Ronnie Brown against New England to keep defenses guessing in the future) - "What those guys do on defense and how they prepare one way or the other isn't my problem. It's out there. People see the films. They know now that there is this package and as I said yesterday, we might 15 more things coming off of this package and we might put it to bed and not run it for a long time. We'll see what happens. Nonetheless it's out there, and I know if it was my team I'd have to practice against it a little bit. I'd have to make some arrangements to try to take care of it."

(On how coachable his team is) - "They're pretty coachable. The one good thing is when you have some success you gain a little bit more credibility, I think. This group has stayed the course all along. They really have. They were great last week in practice; I said it during the week. They really paid attention to detail. I can see them getting better every week, but when you're standing out there and you don't see the results - certainly you people can't, but I see it every week. I see them getting better and better. I see guys, individually, getting better and better. I think that they'll just continue to do that right now. Today was a good practice."

(On the performance of the offensive line against New England) - "I was pleased with their performance, certainly I was. I don't want to make this sour grapes one way or the other, but there are things that they can do better, and they know it. There are things we can do better all over that film. I stood here against Arizona and said, 'We could play better. We should do X, Y and Z better.' We won a game and we can do a lot of things better in that area. There were some fundamental stuff in there that was just not real pretty, but effective because they played hard. The effort covered up the technical things that went on throughout the course of the game. I think all of a sudden when you're running a little harder and you're pushing a little bit harder and all of those things, they make up for maybe not putting your foot here or not putting your hand here or not putting your hand here. So you get away with it a little bit. That's not something I want to let happen. That's what we're talking about this week."

(On the next step for rookie DEs Kendall Langford and Phillip Merling) - "Phillip starts in specific packages. Kendall starts. I think that the next step for these guys is consistency, in my mind. It sounds easy but in this league it is hard to do. Some of these young, all of a sudden by now, 'Well we've played four preseason games, we were in camp for two weeks already. We just played three regular season games.' They're ready to go home for Thanksgiving by now. That's the truth. 'When is the bowl game? Let me know and I'm coming back to go.' We're looking down the road at 13 weeks straight here. So consistency, the stamina that it takes to do it time and time again, I think is really the next step for them. You can't be one of these guys that just shows up and does it one week and doesn't do it for two more weeks."

(On if he is pleased that so many rookies are contributing this year) - "I'd be crazy to say that I wouldn't be. I really am pleased with that. It makes you feel really good about where you're going down the road with this team. We don't really worry about down the road. We worry about now, and I like what they're doing. Right now these guys are young guys that are contributing hard, and there's a bunch of them out there that are doing this. I've been pleased with that."

(On the progress of G Ikechuku Ndukwe made from the Arizona game to the New England game) - "He played on his feet a lot more in this week's game. That's a big thing. Hr played on his feet a lot more, which tells me he was a little bit more confident in what he was doing out there. I thought I saw him play with m ore power in this game. From a fundamental standpoint, which I made this statement versus Arizona, that was the thing EK needed to do better coming out of the Arizona game. From a fundamental standpoint, I think his game grade probably went up seven or eight points that way. He played better, fundamentally. He executed his assignments better, played a little bit faster and played on his feet."

(On if he remembers the last time he got doused with Gatorade before last week) - "In think it happened to me one time in Dallas, maybe, we had a 230-something-yard rushing game or somewhere around there, and some of my players did it me one time there. Before that, I was at the University of New Haven, I believe we had just beaten California-Davis in the Yale Bowl, in the game that put us into the National Championship; the semi-final game. I think that was the last time, so certainly I wasn't accustomed to the feel of it."

(On what the shock of that was like) - "It wasn't good. At the time it was great; you could have done anything to me at that point. It was just nice knowing that it came from the players."

(On LB Reggie Torbor sitting out of practice today) - "We're just watching Reggie right now. He got a little bit of a strain in his hamstring during the game, and it's just a precautionary thing right now. He should practice tomorrow."

(On if CB Michael Lehan is back) - "Yes. He's fine."

Team-released transcript

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/football/pro/dolphins/sfl-tonyqa092408,0,3424279.story (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/football/pro/dolphins/sfl-tonyqa092408,0,3424279.story)

Looks like Rick is the new Dolfan619