The Dallas Cowboys had backups in for the entire game last night, and the Miami Dolphins still could not gain their first win of the preseason. The Dolphins dropped to 0-4 in the preseason, after their 30-14 beat down by their big brother, the Dallas Cowboys. (The reason I say big brother, is because since Bill Parcells and his crone Jeff Ireland came to Miami, the Dolphins have signed so many cast aways from the Cowboys organization, that the team was jokingly called the Miami Cowboys by its fans.)
It was a painful preseason to watch for phins news fans, however the one good thing that can be taken from losing, is that there are many reasons why they lost, either loose coverage in the secondary, unable to score in the red-zone, no pressure on the QB, poor run defense, or receivers dropping a lot of catchable balls. Yes, none of these things are encouraging, but at least if the coaches can decipher what the problems are, then there is good chance that they can address these issues in practice, and eventually fix the problems. This team resembles a child who is getting it’s first taste of the outside world, it is going to make mistakes and cause it’s parents to scold them, but the key is can it learn from it’s mistakes and grow into a self independent and successful entity?
Clearly, the Dolphins are very far from being a successful team, but at times they show flashes. Now the Dolphins brass needs to make some important decisions because the deadline for the 53 man roster is 9pm on friday evening. Two players who I felt helped their chances of making the team in this last preseason game were QB Pat Devlin, and WR Rishard Matthews. Pat Devlin has looked decent in each of his appearances, and with the injury to David Garrard, I believe the correct sports betting strategy is to go with the cheaper and younger player, over the more expensive, older, and injured player. Rishard Matthews had a very good last game catching all 3 of the passes that were targeted to him, for 47 yards. He also has shown his ability in the kick return game, and the sports betting strategy is that the Dolphins will decide to keep him on the roster instead of the disappointing Clyde Gates, who has shown absolutely nothing since he has put on the aqua and orange jersey.
It will be interesting to see who gets cut on friday, and even more interesting to see who other teams cut. The sports betting strategy is that Ireland will surely be acting like a chipmunk in the woods scouring for available acorns, once the clock strikes 9pm on Friday.