Daunte Culpepper, please pick up the white courtesy phone...

Culpeper and Chambers need to develop some sort of chemistry. It was clear that was absent last night. That pass Daunte threw into the end zone that was 10 miles over Chambers' head was perfect evidence.

FWIW, Joey Porter > meh after doing the Daunte dance after a sack last night. Just classic.

 

Modesty prevents from naming at least one other columnist who called this as well.

Well, and the fact that even the denizens of the MST3K board were hip to this:
http://forrestcrow.proboards47.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1140125073&page=1

 

Not being able to run the football didn't help either.
Basically this game exposed Miami's 2 biggest weaknesses: offensive line and too many mental breakdowns in the secondary. Look at their preseason games, same problems.
Culpepper will be better with time but he can't carry this team alone.
He did make some awful throws.

 

I thought that was last year's rant...by everyone.

 

THERE's the buried lead of this thread.

 

The great Nick Saban seems to accept no responsibility for throwing the flag late. What can you do, he asks.

Well, you go to an official nearest the sideline and tell them you will probably want to review it, and you wait right there. The Dolphins sideline wasn't organized on that one.

 

Nick forgets that when you treat the press like shit . . .

 

I'm squarely in the "How can you judge the Dolphins' season based on a reasonably close loss at the defending Super Bowl champions, with that defense?" camp.

When good teams meet all season, one's going to lose every time -- you can look it up. Doesn't mean they aren't still a good team.

Get back to me in 12 weeks or so.

Now, as for my Packers, well ...

 

As someone who has followed for about 15 years or so fairly closely, I was actually as excited about Joey Harrington as Culpepper, he needs a new start, but I like what he brings to the table as a quarterback.

Culpepper has all the tools, running, a cannon of an arm, etc. but he has never demonstrated the mental aspect of the game well in my eyes. Last night again, both of those late picks seemed forced. The first was into triple coverage all the way down field and the second was double coverage before Porter dropped. Agreed with the poster who said he seemed to channel one receiver and that's it — though I suppose his line is nothing to write about either.

As for Saban and the flag, personally, you'd think one official would have caught that out the corner of his eye, if not the referee, but I don't think it would have made much of a difference. The Steelers are money from 1 or 2 yards and a lack of review saved some clock time. The Porter INT was the killer.

 

Ok, now you're REALLY going overboard. Culpepper just came back to play against one of the best defenses in the league from an injury in which he tore his MCL,PCL, AND ACL! In my mind, he's a winner for starting at opening day. And even if you still say that Moss was the only reason he was so good in Minnesota, you can't hide the fact that Culpepper is surrounded by great talent in Miami as well. Chris Chambers,Randy McMichael, Ronnie Brown, a pretty good defense, and a great Head Coach. But I agree, his throws were a little flat footed which showed why some of them were short. But once he works that out, he'll be fine because he's got one of the strongest arms in the league. Once this guy gets the hang of the new offense and gets used to "playing again", he'll be back. Everyone, including you Mr. Whitlock, should calm down. It's the first game of the season.

 

Yes, it's the first game. But Culpepper had the same problems last year when healthy -- bad decisions, inaccurate throws. What Moss did was spread the field for Culpepper so he didn't HAVE to be as accurate. Moss had only one direction -- downfield -- and he took two or three defenders with him. So now you have the whole underneath open, with your receivers getting single coverage, perhaps even a mismatch with a linebacker. Plus, Culpepper has a strong arm, so when Moss got behind the defense, he could get it to him. Which they can't do in Oakland.

Also, remember how strong-armed, but not always pinpoint accurate, Randall Cunningham and Jeff George suddenly looked like stars again when they had Moss?