Can this team win 6 straight to get into the playoffs? If the personel is healthy, the players on both sides of the ball are better than good enough to do this. We have isssues though even when healthy. The D needs to stiffen up on 3rd down situations, seems to be the same broken record game after game, year after year. The O (if healthy) just give my grandma time to pass, and you can make anyone look like an all pro. That's a backwards way to think to open up a running game with 2 good backs we have. The Special Teams have played more like Special Ed. Fields has been ok and Carpenter has been just great. But letting teams run back for great field position, seems like almost every kick and punt..unacceptable! Not putting 2 guys on a gunner...what?? Should have been a firing for that. Shame that 10 games and we are just a mediocre at best, great studs on the field, yet we find ways to let teams win, or get close to make it too interesting last seconds of a game. Time to just tighten them corsets, gals, and say, we want to extend our season. This was not just a year to hope for playoff after upgrades,BUT to be a serious contender VERY deep in the playoffs. Rebuilding, 25 yrs and counting.

I may be one of the biggest optimists out there, but to win 6 straight will be VERY Difficult. We have to go on the road to Oakland with a banged up roster.... We get 10 days to get healthy, but Long will be battling his bum shoulder all season. We get Berger back for Oakland, and Incognito has been a tough man inside all season and hasnt gotten his due. Jerry has been invisible... no wait, correction, he has been visible for holding calls, and killing drives. Carey is going to have to do more on the right side. Lets face it, our OL is not what it was cracked out to be. They are a limping sore spot for this offense. They get very very limited push, and that was what it was geared for...... has the pass protection been good? yes, at times, but they are hurt at this point.... Marshall has to start playing like his 10 million dollar contract shows. He shows up and then costs us yardage with his antics lately... that needs to be tempered. I love his attitude and energy, but at this point, his frustration is becoming a problem. Why have we stopped throwing to Bess?? 4 games with a TD in a row, and all of a sudden he is not getting any more looks. Hartline is starting to evolve, and he is outshining both Bess and Marshall at this point.... This team struggles to put up 15 points consistently, and that's been the story all year.

As for the defense, they are as good as they will ever be. SEVENTY FIVE DEFENSIVE SNAPS and the Bears were held under 300 total yards. Thats pretty frickin unheard of. The Bears are faster KNOX, HESTER, AROMASHADU, FORTE.... all men with more speed than anyone on our D, and we held them in check for the most part. those first down eight yard runs were the knife in our back all game though.... Wake is a force to be reckoned with, and he will reek havoc next season for sure. Davis is the new Revis, and better. Dansby is a monster..... Crowder needs to be called down, lets hope Edds pushes him for the position next season. Its like Channing makes one big play on 2nd down, and thinks the drive is over. I saw Thursday night he got amped up over a 1 yard loss that he was in on, next play he was completely out of position and yielded a first down. I think he is TOO COMFORTABLE knowing that he is an unchallengeable starter at this point. Smith needs to learn how to stay on his man, too often he lets them separate and banks on his size to make up for guys getting past him... McDaniel needs more reps, when he comes off the bench in rotation he is ALWAYS around the ball, I dont know why he isnt getting more looks. Tell you what, this D will be a force next season once they get healthy and Nolan can implement more.

Special Teams isnt as bad as it was. No more blocked punts, no more blocked FGs. The coverage unit is a work in progress. WHY DID WE CUT J ALLEN??? Benny Sapp sucks, period. Carroll had a nice return on the first play, and no one gave him any credit for it. Yes the drive fizzled, but he broke the 50 and no one is talking about it. The gameplan was to contain Hester, and he only had 1 20+ yard return. For what its worth, STs was not the problem on Thursday.

Ok so the question is, can we win 6 straight?? YES. We need to get through Oakland to have a chance though. We are still gonna be banged up on OL and QB going into the game. If we can squeak out a win against a playoff competitor, then we may have a chance. Look, our Playoff outlook looks morbid right now, but it will get better. Just remember, the final month of the season was geared towards divisional rivalries, throughout the league. Is it time to start looking at who can help us? Definitely. Are we out of it? No Way. Will we be out of it if we lose to Oakland? Yes.

Put it this way..... If the Pats beat the Jets, and we beat both the Jets and Pats we both will be 4-2 in the division. We will gain 2 games on the Jets. They still have to play Pittsburgh too. Essentially, we can catch the Jets.... If the Jets beat the Pats, and lose to the Colts we can catch the Pats and have a better divisional record as well. The 3 team AFCE playoff picture is over! We need to take 2nd in the division to make the playoffs. We are tooo far off Balt and Pitt to get in at the 6. Its number 2 in the East or bust now. The South isnt a threat. They all have 3+ divisional games to go, and the cream will separate. The West will too. Lets all just hope for a good Thanksgiving and a Bengals victory, and maybe just maybe some breaks fall our way.

Thigpen beats Oakland, and Henne can come back and save the season. I have no doubt about it that we can beat the Browns at Home with Henne, and then do or die in Jersey for all the money. If we lose against Oakland, we are as good as toast at this point. 6-6 going into New York will not work. If we lose to Oakland we might as well shut down Henne and Long for the season, and get ready for a deep run in 2011. IF we beat Oakland though, we can make a run.

One game at a time. We have 10 days to prepare, THEY BETTER UTILIZE IT!!!

Jared Odrick! WHERE ARE YOU?!?

Well, if Long is put on the IR, Sparano at least has 10 days to prep his replacement, be it Murtha or McQ.

To me, if they do not IR Long they maybe are making a mistake as the young player needs all of the practice time they can grab, unless they plan on rotating fresh bodies in to give Long some series to rest, but still that is a decision they need to make.

As for win the next 6, not to sure as this season has shown me this team can beat teams that are close to it, but not teams that maybe are significantly better than we are and two of the last 6 games are against the Jets and Pats.

Eh, Optimism costs me nothing, hopefully Sparano can get it done.

I'm all for the optimism here guys, I just dont see it. I will agree that it's one game at a time and if we can bring a win away from Oakland, you never know. The Jets and Pats look really good this season, they will both be very hard to beat. I hope I'm wrong and will never doubt that they can win, just treading lightly with my hope. Go Dolphins, show me something!!

With a 3rd string QB? No way.

I say if Long goes on IR, put Carey back at LT. He actually played better at LT than he has at RT the past couple seasons.

Time to wake up !! Isn't going to happen !!!

Winning out would be nice, but the team knew that the Bears game was a must-win game, too. I do think they finish at .500 which is better than last year's team. Just not in the playoffs as we were hoping.

I was kinda thinking we would have more than a 1 win improvement from last season.

Would we still hear the "fire Sparano" chants if we finish at 9-7?

Yeah man quit dreaming... this season is over, no playoffs, and lots of disappointment... it'll be an interesting off-season for sure.

Bill Cowher... please come down from your analyst paradise and take this team somewhere special!!!

Well, as there is optimism, it is very dim. The light at the end of the tunnel, just may be a train. After reading all the replies, and I thank all you guys, cuz most of the imputs are pretty dead on, but I will go back to what I said originally. Win here on out, and you should be in. We all watch this game intensly and know the basics of the football pretty down to the core. Is this team a play off caliber team, NO. Do they have players (when healthy now) that can get us there, Hell Yes! Im not just yet ready to kick out Sparano, nor should I quite give up on Henne yet. A good firery coach, and a bit of a gambler, Henne has one of the better arms I have seen. Just needs better judgement and STOP STARING DOWN recievers. Tweaking needs to be done, and that is as sure as Im sitting here typing this. I DO NOT want yet another year and counting of rebuilding. Really now, over 25 years in a rebuilding stage....Let's pull those girdles and panties on and just win one at a time, gals. 10 days to get all heads straight, good game plan, and start your 6 game (win all) season Sunday. Close the 'black hole' up and slap the ugly raiders.

How do you feel about Jon Gruden?

They both focus on defense or have focused on defense in the past, which is nice.

I think w/ Gruden though, you'll get a lot of the same dinking and dunking that we're already used to.

Gruden is an offensive guy. Loves QB's....loves to spend draft picks acquiring them.

I don't know about you, but I'm sick of that. Lol

Didn't he win a Superbowl with one of the best Defenses ever down in Tampa?

Winning from here on out is really a long shot considering we were a .500 football team when we were at full strength and playing our best football. With backups and in some cases third stringers playing all over the field, we'll be doing well to stay at .500.
I think our team is still ok at this point in the rebuild. Rebuilds take 3-5 years before you see the finished result. We were a 1-15 team when this staff took over and if you ask me we're a remarkably better team now than we were then. So I think we've got to see this one out another season. As long as we don't have a major melt down I think Sparano is the head coach next season. And unless Thigpen plays amazing down the stretch I think Henne will return as our starter for at least one more year. I feel like the expiration date on Sparano & Co. as well as Chad Henne reads 2011, if they fail to make the playoffs next year then its probably time to pull the plug.

He didn't build that D. That was his first season there. Tony Dungy built that Defense.

He made Rich Gannon though. Also got the most out of Brad Johnson.

IF Coach Sparano is unable to get us into the Playoffs NEXT year, then I would be for Gruden. However, Gruden will likely be back on the sidelines next season.

He drafted one. Chris Simms...and he was known in Oakland for "pounding that rock." He then made Rich Gannon into an elite passer, and made Brad Johnson look like a godsend.

One of the reasons he was fired in Tampa Bay was because he wouldn't draft a quarterback and stick with one.

Exactly right.

Kind of his fault kind of not. One thing I do blame him for though, is that epic collapse in 2007.

It amazes how many people are calling for Sparano's head, the guy came into a franchise that in the previous ten years was one of the most dysfunctional franchises. Did we forget the Spielman drafts and Wanny the optimist.This regime has made some costly mistakes.. Will Allen, JT, Roth, Satele, ect... we all know em. Some say Sparano's desperate, atleast he has the guts to make the tough call. So this year is going about as bad as it could, yet were still hovering around 500. A win streak and some luck and were right back in it. Let's give this regime another season before we jump ship and start over.

Indeed.

Good 2nd post. Welcome to the boards.

If the Giants season goes into the tank I would think Cowher goes there & depending on what Garret & the Cowboys do , maybe Gruden goes there if Jerry Jones gives hm more control.
But to the task at hand ... the Miami Dolphins. Im hoping & thinking Sparano & Ireland are back. You cannot continue to have a coaching & staff carousel , it does no good to keep starting from anew every 3rd year. If the turnaround from 1-15 has done anything , it should buy them another year to try to get this thing right. After 4 years however if we are still in the same boat , then Ross will have to huddle with all the minority owners & make a decision.
The team for the most part has been competitive & if the opinion is that we are a new OC from a super bowl then lets see if the opinion is correct.

I would take Cowher or Gruden over Sparano any day. Neither of those guys puts up with crap and the players respect them too. Sparano might be loved, but how much love will be going around after another 7-9 season, or a more likely 6-10?

I don't want to endure another season of Sparano and crew. 3 years is plenty of time to establish a direction. The team is not going in the right direction at all.

K. Go cheer for a different team then.

Look , I see the frustration & if someone has the opinion that they want to see a regime change I can see where they are coming from so I dont think there is a need just to blow them off & tell them to find a new team. But like I said earlier if the turnaround from 1-15 should account for anything , it should be enough to get this regime another year to get on track. Also like I stated changing regimes every 3 years just creates a vicious cycle & does not do the team much good.
I think our problems are much more than a OC but these guys started something here & In my opinion we should give them a 4th year. Let them try to earn their pay & figure this out.

At a bare minimum, Henning has to go. I am tired of giving Sparano a pass though....the special teams coordinator and offensive coordinator should be answering to him. The ST coordinator got the hook, and Henning has to get the hook too...or Sparano needs to pull that leash really darn tight and let Henning know when he is playing the fool.

I'm sorry guys but for anyone to see the bears game and think this team can win is ridiculous. There was effort from only 2 or 3 players from what I saw. There is no way 2 or 3 people can win the game against another professional team who are more likely to want to win.


Until the management changes, those guys are picking up pay checks. I'm just saying that's why I am seeing. Every time I watch another NFL game I see so much effort and play making moves it's as if I'm watching a different league.

It was one game dude. These guys play hard for Coach week in and week out.

It was one game.

Welcome to the boards.