Biggest key to 2011 Dolphins?

[dolfan13]

If Henne is the scarecrow, then Sparano/Henning/Daboll is the cowardly lion.  No courage to open up the offense.

playing said conservative offense, henne throws 19 interceptions last year... but hey, let's open it up, throw it all over the place. let's go all out for the single season most interceptions thrown record by a qb.

the #1 pick was an offensive lineman, followed up by a slow running back. if you are wanting a reincarnation of the "greatest show on turf", don't hold your breath. this is more like wannyball v 2.0. with a qb like henne running your offense, i don't blame the coaches for a conservative approach to the game. the guy throws passes to members of the other team like he is color blind.

[Dolarltexas]

playing said conservative offense, henne throws 19 interceptions last year... but hey, let's open it up, throw it all over the place. let's go all out for the single season most interceptions thrown record by a qb.

the #1 pick was an offensive lineman, followed up by a slow running back. if you are wanting a reincarnation of the "greatest show on turf", don't hold your breath. this is more like wannyball v 2.0. with a qb like henne running your offense, i don't blame the coaches for a conservative approach to the game. the guy throws passes to members of the other team like he is color blind.

You raise an outstanding point about Henne!  Why should we ever expect him to be any good if he can't even throw for more interceptions than touchdowns when we play the most conservative offense in the league?!  I actually had some hope for him until I considered the ramifications of your very good post. 

Sadness is quickly setting in... Need beer...

[jtex316]

... but hey, let's open it up, throw it all over the place. let's go all out for the single season most interceptions thrown record by a qb.

So essentially what you mean here is that you are hoping Favre comes back to break another INT record.

[jtex316]

Look, it's very simple. You can't be a successful team if you settle for mediocrity.

Look at how Tony Sparano acts after a Field Goal - after EVERY field goal. The guy screams, pumps his fists, and jumps up and down. Essentially, he's celebrating the fact that the offense sputtered out in the red zone and instead of being up 10-0, he's up 6-0.

That's just not an acceptable formula for success. I don't know how to fix it or what the other answers are, but I do know that you just can't settle to go up 3-0, 6-0, and 9-0 every single game and expect to win. You have to get in the end-zone, period - three times a game is 21 points + any FG's can bump you up to 27 to 30 and you're going to be hard to beat if you can pull that off.

Celebrating futility leads to more futility.

[Brian Fein]

Conservative offense leads to failure.  You have to keep the defense honest.  Play conservative, then the defense can just camp out, knowing you're never going to go over them.

Now, if you put that fear into them, they have to respect it.  Not saying to throw 25 yard passes on every play, but at least make them cover the deep guy.  You know how many times last season you see corners drop off a 20+ yard route because they know that guy's not getting the ball?  It happened a lot.  And its not cause Henne can't throw that far - HE CAN. 

You have to keep the defense honest, or else they will blitz you all day and you will get killed.

[Doc-phin]

Red zone production is very obvious and very needed and it is logical to look at aggressiveness and QB play as a solution. 

But don't forget how stacked our defense is (talent wise).  We get back Will Allen, Odrick and depth from Edds.  Solai is primed, Misi has a year under him, Clemons has a year of full time under him, and Alama Frances isn't sick (adds depth).  We ditched the Jason Allen experiment.  Even if nothing changed, our defense was very good last year and look at all the areas we can expect improvement.

Therefore, I expect some damn good defense this year which means we can win with a conservative offense.  If Henne can't show that he can handle being an aggressive QB, I think we can live with him taking us from 20 to 20 (as he has already shown he can do) and improving his work with Marshall in the red zone.

So my key would be a combo of the defense living up to its potential and more Marshall in the red zone.

Side note - If Henne can't show accuracy in the deep game this year, we need to get serious about future options.  But it doesn't mean THIS season can't be a big winner.

[Brian Fein]

So my key would be a combo of the defense living up to its potential and more Marshall in the red zone.

Side note - If Henne can't show accuracy in the deep game this year, we need to get serious about future options.  But it doesn't mean THIS season can't be a big winner.

I completely agree with both of these points.