Hope yes, sign of things to come, no.

To anyone who thinks that what the Dolphins did to the Patriots on Sunday was a sign of things to come this season, your wrong. The Dolphins are still rebuilding. They have one of the youngest teams in the NFL, and a brand new rookie head coach. Don't get me wrong, I am a huge Dolphins fan, and I will support them to the end. (Even if they only went 1-15 last year.) Yes, they did show signs of improvement, but that was only one game against a mediocre team. Yes, I said it, the Patriots are mediocre. The Patriots starting quarterback has not started a game since high school, their best running back is injured, the offensive line is in disarray, and their defensive secondary looks terrible.

Look at the facts, the Patriots had to pick up Deltha O'Neil from the Bengals, after being released, to improve their secondary, even though O'Neil has looked terrible the last few seasons. Even with Brady healthy, he still relied on Lawrence Morency to push the line, and hand the ball off on draw plays every now and then. The Patriots have obviously become one dimensional, and have a quarterback with only two starts under his belt; both coming this year. Yes, they still have big weapons like Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Ben Watson, Richard Seymour, Vince Wilfork, Ty Warren, Adalius Thomas, Mike Vrabel, and Rodney Harrison, but they have to want to play. Obviously, the loss of Tom Brady, one of their team captains, has made the locker room alot quiter. Players, are not upbeat and high tempo like they were last year. Plus, Randy Moss and Wes Welker only work if you can throw the ball deep. The Dolphins admitted that they challenged Cassel to throw the ball deep, but he hesitated every time. Thus you are going to see Moss become the same no effort wideout that he was in Minnesota and Oakland. Fans are going to see a hall of fame performance last year, turn into a pathetic reversal this year.

As for the Dolphins, congratulations on your first win of the season; you guys earned it. Just, don't get cocky. The Dolphins host the San Diego Chargers next week, and don't let San Diego's 1-2 record fool you. The Chargers could easily be 3-0 right now, if they had received a few breaks, and alittle better referee play calling. I have looked at the schedule. I figure that the Dolphins at best, will go 7-9 this season. Sure, I'd like to see them perform like they did against the Patriots, but they are just not that kind of team, they never have been. The Dolphins have always been a giant killer. Lose to the easy teams, destroy the hard ones. The one thing that I did like out of the Dolphins on Sunday was they didn't take their foot off of the Patriots throat. I have watched too many games where the Dolphins just play careful, and let teams back in the game. It was good to see the Dolphins finally keep putting up points, even after the score was 28-13.

In closing, I'd like to say good luck to the Fins. I hope that we see more performances out Ronnie Brown, like the one we saw on Sunday. As well as, to Dolphins' fans, please be patient. We can see some of Parcells' genius already, but they still have long road to travel. They will make the playoffs, and become a Superbowl contender, just 2-3 years from now.