Philbin: Love him or hate him?

Jimmy Bourbon

10 years ago

Whether or not you love Philbin or hate him, he will be the Dolphins head coach to start the season. There are a lot of haters out there that feel that Philbin should not have received a fourth year as the head coach, but Ross opted to stay loyal and stick with the formula of continuity. His 3-year overall record is 23-25, and in two of the three seasons he led the team to an 8-8 record, and in both of those seasons they were in a position to make the playoffs, however, they fell apart at the end of the season when it counted most.

This year Philbin arguably has the most talented roster he has ever had to coach, and after miraculously being saved by Ross, most of the boys at The pay per head services sites like AcePerHead.com would say that this season is playoffs or bust for Philbin. I know that his record is the definition of mediocre, but even though the record has not changed the last two seasons, the team has made improvements.

For starters, the Dolphins played 2 of the 4 teams that were represented in AFC and NFC championship games and they were able to split with the Patriots into two games, and against the Packers, Aaron Rodgers had a heroic last-second touchdown to beat them. This team can play with anyone in the league, and I would even say on any given Sunday they can beat anyone in the league, but the bigger question is can they win consistently, and of course win more games than they lose?

Most sportsbooks would say that Philbin’s two biggest weaknesses are that he sometimes makes head-scratching decisions in regards to his time management, which one would hope would begin to improve as his experience as a head coach increases. Also, it has appeared that he has lacked control in his locker. One can immediately point out the bully scandal as a glaring indication that he did not have control of his locker room, and last season there were two separate occasions where a player became irate on the sideline with Philbin, something you would never see in New England or Seattle. (Wallace and Odrick.) To me, those instances display a lack of respect for the head coach, and playoff-caliber teams do not fall in that category.

On the positive side, Philbin has done a great job of making adjustments after halftime, which can be directly seen from how well the Dolphins have played in the third quarter of games. I hope he can do a better job of starting off the game, but it is a good sign that he can diagnose in-game problems and have the ability to correct them. Secondly, he is an aggressive head coach, that does not sit on games in the fourth quarter, in which his team is leading, unlike past coaches, cough, cough Tony Sparano. On offense at the end of the game, he coaches to score more points in order to close out the game, instead of trying to run out the clock, which is something a good coach should do. (Belichick is famous for that.) He is also not afraid to make the tough call and go for it on fourth downs.

We say this all the time, we talk about which player has the chance to have a breakout year, but we never say that about a coach. However, Philbin now has the best roster he has had since he has been the head coach in Miami, and he has a full three years of heading coaching experience under his belt. So hopefully that combination will lead to an overall improvement in his head coaching and leadership of the team, and possibly a breakout year for him as a head coach. What does the rest of the Miami Dolphins News gurus feel about Philbin and his chances for success with this team?

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