The "Old Days"

[Dolphster]

I'm one of those dinosaurs that was around during the glory days of the 1970's (although I was just a little kid).   I know this is a pretty young bunch here on the site, so I know I probably come off like the grandfather bitching about having to walk 5 miles to school barefoot.  LOL    But seeing the team completely out of gas during the last quarter, made me think back to the Shula era.  Granted, the Pats ran the Fins' defense up and down the field all night and went "no huddle" a lot.  But I imagine that Shula was going out of his mind last night watching the team bent over and sucking wind during the last quarter.  It used to be that the September heat was a huge ally of the Dolphins because Shula worked the team hard in the heat and they held up in it while visiting teams wilted in the second half.  Okay, grandpa is done with his grumpy rant now.   LOL

[Doc-phin]

Well Gramps  , all I can say is that the Patriots didn't just go no huddle a lot, they went no huddle nearly the entire game.

Who has ever done that?  Who is capable of doing that other than Tom Brady?

Don't forget the risk you run going no huddle.  Turnovers due to communication issues and putting your defense on the field a bunch if you don't convert to first downs are big risks.  You have to be nearly perfect and you have to have receivers that are in great shape.

Even the Pats offense was sucking wind at times out there.  If our top 2 corners hadn't have cramped up the entire second half, the outcome would have been much different looking.  We may have still lost (or maybe win), but we wouldn't be talking about record setting passing and each QBs stats would have looked much closer.

This game looks bad on paper and any loss sucks.  But it was a strategy that can't be used week in week out on us or anybody.  It was brilliant and executed brilliantly.  I knew we would see hurry up offense a good bit, but I didn't think it would be all but a few plays.  It was nearly inhuman and we still hung in there till we missed on the 4th and goal play.

[masterfins]

Who has ever done that?  Who is capable of doing that other than Tom Brady?

Jim Kelly

[masterfins]

I imagine that Shula was going out of his mind last night watching the team bent over and sucking wind during the last quarter.  It used to be that the September heat was a huge ally of the Dolphins because Shula worked the team hard in the heat and they held up in it while visiting teams wilted in the second half. 

Yeah, and a bunch of people on this board complain about not having as many 1 pm games.  With this group it's a blessing.

[Doc-phin]

Jim Kelly

I hear about Kelly a good bit and was able to see some of the K-gun stuff, but did he run hurry up the entire game?  Never got to watch that much of his play.

[fyo]

they went no huddle nearly the entire game.

Who has ever done that?  Who is capable of doing that other than Tom Brady?

Well, I'd say Peyton Manning has a pretty good track record of going no-huddle for pretty much every play of every game.

(As for the Patriots, they actually "only" went no-huddle for exactly half of the first 54 plays, per the on screen stat during the game, anyway.)

[CF DolFan]

I hear about Kelly a good bit and was able to see some of the K-gun stuff, but did he run hurry up the entire game?  Never got to watch that much of his play.

I don't think they came out of it some games and if they did, it was very little. 

[Doc-phin]

To be clear I was really talking about active players.  Manning is an obvious answer as being able to run no huddle at a high level, but even he knows the risk in doing so and is unlikely to keep it rolling to the level we saw last night.

I have also noticed teams doing this thing they called a "sugar" huddle on the Thursday night game.  It is technically a huddle but super fast and they barely form any type of circle.  Thought I saw that a few times last night as well.