Miami Dolphin Talk

1. What's happened to Mike Nolan? I'm a believer that you question coaching in an inverse relationship to the available talent. The worse the talent, the louder the questions. In other words, it's often not a coaching issue.But that doesn't explain some strange decisions by Nolan this season. Let's look at three:

 A. Karlos Dansby wasn't on the field for Cleveland's game-winning touchdown drive. Dansby is considered your best and most versatile linebacker. He's certainly the highest paid free agent you brought to the defense. There were some conditioning issues with him at the start of the year. But this was a 13-play drive, so there was time to note his absence.

 B. Cameron Wake was asked to cover Santonio Holmes, which resulted in a touchdown. Good coaching by the Jets, who obviously saw something in the Dolphins' scheme to set up that matchup. Wake is a great pass rusher. As a change-up you can see rarely dropping him into coverage. But against a receiver?

 C. The two-point conversion defense on the field against Denver. I raised this point in my blog yesterday. The left side of the Dolphins line consisted of nose tackle Tony McDaniel, end Wake and, behind him, safety Yeremiah Bell. Denver not only had bigger blockers but numbers when they pulled their left guard to that side. Everyone knew Tebow was going to run the ball. But McDaniel said Monday they had the wrong defense in for that.

Let's put this into perspective: the main problem with the Dolphins continues to be an offense that's scored 16 or fewer points the past five games. That puts a great burden on the defense. And the biggest defensive problems this year have been the absence of cornerback Vontae Davis and safety Chris Clemons in opening games against Tom Brady, Matt Schaub (and Andre Johnson) and Phillip Rivers. Still, let's be fair. We wanted to crown Nolan last year. Some decisions aren't helping the cause this year.


 Scratch Jacksonville from those in line for the No. 1 overall pick. Its 12-7 win of Baltimore gave it a second win and almost certainly takes it from the running. It also looked bad enough in winning that it might lose one of its two games to Indianapolis.

 Denver coach John Fox on recovering the onside kick: "I've been involved in 357 games in my coaching career and it's never once happened to me."

 Herm Edwards had a good quote on coaching Tim Tebow: "They are going to have to run the spread offense with this guy and run the running game out of the spread. If you want to win some games, let him play that way. If you put him in a conventional offense, he's going to struggle."