And now Tom Brady looks like he’ll be coming back healthy and with the Cassel trade the Pats have an extra draft pick and a shit ton of extra cap room to shore up that defense. Even if Brady’s comeback fails, I see no reason why Matt Gutierrez can’t come in and play every bit as well as Cassel did last year. The guy has yet another year in the Pats’ system and he performed infinitely better than Matty C did in the pre-season. Cassel is just another Steve Bono, Elvis Grbac or Scott Mitchell. The Pats didn’t lose much by losing him.

The Jets should also be better this year. And that’s not just because losing Favre at this stage in his career might be addition by subtraction. With him at the helm, the Jets would all too often abandon their solid running game because they had the old gunslinger back there and it was what they were supposed to do. Leon Washington was running all over the Phins, but they went ahead and threw the ball 40 times with Favre and he was picked three times and that’s why Miami won. What scares me is that the team’s defense, which was already solid, has been substantially improved with free agency additions, trades and having a new head coach in Rex Ryan who coached some amazing Ravens D’s.

And, now, with the addition of T.O., I think the Bills also leapfrog the Phins. Sure, he could also blow that team up but he usually does well in his first season with new teams. Not to mention the fact that our secondary was ass last season and couldn’t stop any team that had a good WR. Lee Evens, for one, has been a Dolphins killer and now he has T.O. lining up opposite him with the always dangerous Roscoe Parrish (from the “U”) in the slot. We don’t have a starting caliber CB opposite the aging Will Allen and our safeties are more known for their run support than pass defense. Even if we draft some CBs, rookies tend to get burnt a lot even when they do come out of the gate strong.

Combine all of that with the fact that we’re looking at what might possibly be the toughest schedule in the NFL and I see a recipe for disaster. 9-7 is likely our best case scenario, but 6-10 or 5-11 seem much more likely at this point. That said, I still love the direction of that the “trifecta” is taking this team and like that they’re trying not to overpay free agents and appear to be concentrating on the all-important draft. I think they’re grooming this team for long-term success and I’m a huge fan of that. I think the team and organization is on the right path; we’re just likely going to hit a speed bump on that path this season record-wise even if we’re on a rise as a team. Look out for us in 2010 and 2011!

One of my many duties at Quick Hit when I’m not designing the football game or giving Brandon Justice massages with happy endings is to do a lot of community-oriented work such as writing blogs and development diaries. Given my background with this site, my old fan sites, Working Designs and IGN.com, it’s pretty much the cake part of the job since I’ve been sharing my thoughts and opinions with the netizens of the World Wide Web for nearly 13 years.

My first significant entry, other than my initial introduction which none of you should need, is my dev diary on Fixing the QB Passer Rating. It doesn’t necessarily do with the development of the game, other than the fact I plan to use the formula in player stats, but it should give you a little insight how my mind works as far as football and statistics are concerned.

While that gave me a lot of hope, the way things were going early on in the Dolphins game had me nervous beyond belief. They were seemingly dominating the Jets, but kept making significant boneheaded mistakes. The Pennington fumble, the Ricky drop on what would’ve been a huge pass play, and the errant pass by Ronnie Brown that could’ve been a potential long TD. Throw in those and all the false starts and offsides and I was beginning to think it just wasn’t meant to be. Luckily, things started to come together. Favre started trying to put his interceptions record out of reach, and we held on to a euphoric 24-17 win.

To be quite frank, I don’t think we have any shot at all at making it to and winning the Super Bowl. We won’t likely make it out of the first round. However, after suffering through a 1-15 season last year, just making the playoffs is a huge victory for me. That said, it’s the playoffs and anything can happen. Maybe we surprise some folks, myself included, and we make a nice little run.

I’m still a bit pessimistic about their chances at beating the Jets, but it’s pretty simple for them — if they win they’re AFC East champs and in the playoffs, if they don’t, they’re most likely left out in the cold. After last year’s 1-15 disaster, I honestly couldn’t have wished for anything better than this. I’m proud of them either way and it’s been a very fun year of watching them play.

Things are also looking good for the Dolphins after winning yet another close game today. They’re still in a 3-way tie for first place in the AFC East with the Jets and Pats, and are still in complete control of their destiny. They beat the Chiefs and Jets and they’re in. If not, then they’re probably watching the playoffs from home yet again.

Winslow got 30+ yards bringing his point total up to 4 and Lindell made a couple of extra points bring him up to 9; this made the score 67-66 in my favor after Dawson made that 56 yard FG to give the Browns the lead with 93 seconds left to play. I was actually hoping that Dawson would’ve missed because then the Bills would’ve just run out the clock but he made it with plenty of time left for Buffalo to get into FG range. Then the idiotic Romeo decided to squib kick it and put give the Bills prime field position near mid-field and the Bills quickly marched into FG range. I was absolutely livid. I was thinking that he would surely make the kick and I would lose to one of our league’s worst teams 69-67.

But then when the Bills were lining up for the field goal I thought to myself “wide right” and then I typed “WIDE RIGHT” in my aim chat window to Dave Toole. Then the announcers started talking about “wide right” in the Bills lore…and then…Lindell missed the kick “wide right” and I squeaked out a 67-65 victory! And unless the official scoring changes between now and this morning, I will be sitting pretty at 8-3 and with a playoff spot potentially locked up!

The one apparent downer to my fruitful football weekend, which began on Thursday, is that my fantasy football team has a very precarious 15 point lead over one of the worst teams in the league, with that team still having Winslow, Randle El, and Lindel to play. He also has the Cards D going right now while all I have is 2nd string Mewelde Moore. If I lose this game, it was be heartbreaking given the competition and the fact that I got home 1 minute too late and was stuck with BenJavus Green-Ellis who I was going to bench in favor of either Ted Ginn Jr or Lance Moore (15 and 16 points respectively) if Sammy Morris was cleared to play, which he was. I ended up with 0 points in that slot instead of at least 15. The late work day on Thursday just might cost me a victory that I was favored to win by 51 points. Sad Christmas if that happens.

The Miami Hurricanes took care of business against Wake Forest and still have an outside shot at the ACC title or at least being bowl eligible. The Dolphins played great today and beat down the Buffalo Bills, with Ginn Jr finally showcasing his playmaking ability. And that’s not all, my fantasy football team scored 109 points and barring a 40+ point outburst by Scaife on MNF should up its record to 6-2 and into a three-way tie atop the division.

And in what might quite possibly be the best news of the weekend, I weighed-in this morning at 299.6 lbs. Hopefully I won’t ever allow myself to go up past the 300 mark ever again for the rest of my life. If I do, I give you permission to put a bullet in my head. It feels good to be back under 300 lbs and I can’t wait till my wrist and ankle/foot heal up so I can start getting back into the gym on a regular basis.

Most of his tirade about Kiffin in yesterday’s press conference didn’t make any sense at all and he often contradicted himself in the same damn sentence. He physically handed him the letter, but then says he FedEx’d it? What the fuck, dude? Make up your Mr. Burns-esque ancient damaged mind. He’s clearly the problem with the Oakland Raiders and the team will continue to be one of the laughingstocks of the entire league until he finally dies. However, that will probably never happen, as he’ll likely still be running the Raiders into the ground 500 years from now while he’s nothing but a talking head like in Futurama.

My hope is that Kiffin ends up coaching the Kansas City Chiefs next year and starts beating the crap out of the Raiders every year just like Shanahan and the Denver Broncos. It would be completely befitting and proof that there is indeed a God out there.

Yet, nobody suspects him? Sure, he hasn’t failed any drug tests…but the NFL cannot and does not test for HGH. They do piss tests and HGH can’t be tested for in urine. If he was doing it, he could do so with very little risk of getting caught. Hell, he could even be doing it legally given his age and the fact that the NFL allows players to use HGH if medically prescribed. I even read an article back in May that said 5% of the players in the NFL are allowed to use it.

Nevertheless the media keeps covering his season with blinders on much like they did with baseball during the beginning of the steroid era when it was so blatantly obvious that everyone was juicing yet nobody talked about it. It’s just not him, either. I’ve read tons of articles this year talking about older players doing better than ever. ESPN.com has had articles about a renaissance of old receivers playing well past their prime, same with the 30+ crowd of RB’s. Is everyone blind or am I just too cynical?

Despite the rant, the truth is that I don’t care whether or not athletes of any sport uses HGH or steroids. If it turns out Brett is really on it, I wouldn’t think any less of him. The fact that he’s playing amazingly well is a good thing because he’s one of the most exciting players to watch in football or any other sport. I’d love for him to be doing it if it keeps him around and playing at a high level into his 40s.

I just wish Shaun Alexander would’ve had the foresight to do it this year, because if he did maybe my fantasy football team wouldn’t have sucked so much. This is the 3rd straight year I’ve had to take solace in the fact that I “won” the loser’s bracket of the playoffs. That’s just as worthless as the award I got for being the sexiest kid in fat camp when I was a 12.

The fact is that a lot of the greatest coaches in the history of NFL got off to rocky starts every bit as bad as Cam’s. Tom Landry was 0-11-1 in his first season. He finished with the 3rd most wins ever with 250 against 162 losses and 6 ties. He also went on to win two Super Bowls and five NFC championships.

Pittsburgh’s Chuck Knoll started off his coaching career by leading the Steelers to a 1-13 record in 1969. If they would’ve canned him after that, they would’ve missed out on his 193 career victories and four Super Bowls.

Bill Parcells, the man who fired Cam, started off with a horrific 3-12-1 with the NY Giants and still kept his job. Jimmy Johnson kept his after going 1-15 in his innagural season for the Cowboys. Both franchises made the right choices in keeping them because they each went on to win a pair of Super Bowl championships.

Last but not least, the legendary Bill Walsh’s head coaching career started off with a miserable 2-14 season with the 49ers. He wasn’t canned and he eventually won 3 Super Bowls while crafting an offensive system so genius that it made everyone believe Joe Montana and Steve Young were great quarterbacks.

All that said, I’m not at all against his firing. I never really thought much of him and wasn’t excited when he was hired, so I’m not losing any sleep over him being kicked to the curb. I also can’t blame Parcells or the recently hired GM Jeff Ireland for wanting to hand pick the coach for the team instead of giving Cam a fair shot. Their jobs and reputations are on the line here and it makes sense that they’d want a coach that they felt more comfortable with.

The weird thing is that no matter who gets the job, the coach is undoubtedly going to look good in his first season. The thing with a 1-15 season is that there’s really no room to go but up. I could see the Dolphins going 6-10 next year with or without Cam, so whoever is taking over is going to look like an upgrade regardless of whether he really is or not.

I’m just hoping that whoever we do hire is a keeper. Five coaches in five years just isn’t good for any franchise and that has to stop. The good news is that I do feel confident in the ability of Parcells and Ireland to judge talent. I’m confident in them finding a great coach and in doing the right thing with the first pick of the upcoming NFL draft. For the first time in a while, I feel the Dolphins organization is in capable hands. I hope that my optimism proves to be deserved.

For one, Big Tuna is the type that gets bored easily. He takes over teams, makes them winners and then bails, whether or not they actually make it to the promise land. His past four coaching tenures have been for four, three, and four years respectively with not a single Super Bowl to show for it. If the Dolphins don’t turn around quickly, will that make him more eager to stay and complete the job or will it just make him want to go back to his cozy ESPN gig?

On the plus side, the dude’s a proven winner. I think he’s been somewhat overrated as a head coach because of his career record with and without Belichick being substantially better with, but every team he’s gone to improved after he got there. That’s definitely a good quality for someone taking over control of my dismal Dolphins.

That said, too much credit might be given to him for turning things around. The Pats went from 2-14 to 5-11 with him. The Jets 1-15 to 9-7. The Cowboys 5-11 to 10-6. Improvements, sure, but I could see teams making improvements like that without any changes other than better luck and less injuries. He could have the magic touch, but it’s entirely possible he’s just taken over jobs from really crappy coaches where there was nowhere to go but up.

But, hey, while I have my doubts, I can’t seem to keep in the excitement I’ve been feeling since these reports started coming in. The big guy knows football, knows what it takes to get to the Super Bowl and is destined for the Hall of Fame. I hope he accepts the offer, takes full control over the team, and does whatever he needs to do to return the Dolphins back to prominence.

I come back, while toting my newly purchased Rock Band for Xbox 360, to find that the Fins beat the Ravens on a long TD bomb in OT after Matt Stover missed a potential game winning FG. I personally wouldn’t have had a problem with 0-16, but I’m quite sure the players didn’t feel the same, so it’s likely a huge monkey is off their backs. Good for them!

The D gets a stop on the first possession, only to be sent back on the field after a Ginn “muff” that gives the Bills great field position. It results in a TD. Then we have Schulters be an idiot and spike the ball after recovering a fumble for a penalty, which of course, ends up not being a fumble and his delay of game penalty giving the Bills the first down in addition to getting the ball back. Beck gets stepped on twice resulting in a couple of losses. The ball slips out of Beck’s hand when trying to pass resulting into Bills INT return for a TD.

Even when things do go Miami’s way, they don’t. Cam benches Beck and puts in Cleo, who immediately connects on a long pass to Ginn that’s followed by a Gado TD run. The bad? I’ve seen enough of Cleo to know he’s not the QB of the future, now is the time to see if Beck is it or if he’s another mistake by this organization. Putting Lemon in was a stupid decision by Cam.

Winning now isn’t important (even though I’d love to see one); we need to find out if Beck is worth a damn or not. We can’t find that out with him on the bench (oh, and Lemon just threw his 2nd INT to go along with  a trio of fumbled snaps…so it’s not like he’s really helping us WIN anyway).

Cam’s a fucking douche bag. This team is laughably bad. I guess it’s for my love for comedy and humor that I’m going to finish watching this game.