Dolphins end season with number four quarterback under center.

And not by choice either. The NFL season is now in the books for the Miami Dolphins and the team ended with a 7 - 9 record one year after winning the AFC East. Miami lost yesterday to the Pittsburgh Steelers 30 – 24 and ended the game with Tyler Thigpen from Coastal Carolina University playing quarterback.

Chad Henne played the entire first half and then did not answer the bell for the second half due to a mysterious eye injury. Enter rookie Pat White looking thoroughly overwhelmed by the situation and the end result of his play was that the offense was stagnant and ineffective. White left the game on a stretcher after a very scary helmet to helmet collision which paved the way for Thigpen to enter the game. He rallied the team, threw for a touchdown and moved the offense well enough to set up another score on an end around by Hartline. From there Miami looked in charge of the game, but alas, Thigpen threw two critical interceptions which sealed the game and thus the season’s fate.

Although head coach Tony Sparano has called the result of this season’s campaign mediocre it is hard to find a lot of fault with the Dolphins record given the injuries the team sustained during the year. The team lost its starting quarterback (Pennington), tailback (Brown) and nose tackle (Ferguson) at different points in the season, never to return. The team also lost its versatile number three back (Cobbs) and its top cornerback (Allen) also not to return to play during the season. There were also other more minor injuries.

I’m not making excuses for Miami. I would have loved to have seen the team play better and be in the playoffs, but they were competitive in just about every game. Although the defense gave up some big plays at critical times and the offense didn’t always move the ball effectively the Dolphins played hard throughout the year and never quit. There need to be some changes in the off season and in my view acquiring Pat White was a waste of a draft pick, but the current management has built a solid foundation for the future considering the team is only two years removed from a 1 – 15 record.