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Dolphins Head Coach Tony Sparano
Consistency The Key Down The Stretch
This hasn't been the easiest of weeks for Tony Sparano. The Dolphins lost a game to AFC East rival New England last Sunday and also lost receiver Greg Camarillo with a knee injury in that game. It is time to regroup heading into the homestretch of games and Sparano speaks about that challenge, as well as several other important issues, in this exclusive column for Dolphin Digest online.
Q. Coach, tell us what this week was like in light of the disappointment of losing to the Patriots?
TS: We went right back to work. Monday was an important day. We put the New England game away and tried to correct all the issues that came up. We started over again on Wednesday and started concentrating on winning our seventh game against St. Louis. It was a week to refocus all of our thoughts on getting it done. I emphasized to our players that they can't look back. It's all about moving forward now.
Q. What are your challenges as a head coach at this exact point in the season?
TS: To get our team to understand the consistency it takes at the end of the season to be considered one of the good teams. The good teams at this time of the year play good. Our team needs to be mature enough to understand that. Our team needs to play good, really good, down the stretch, and that's easier said than done.
Q. Is it good for a team to play mad, and does that usually mean it will play better?
TS: For this team it means it will play better. Some teams it depends. You can lose a little bit of focus when you play mad. But with our team here what I've noticed is a trend of winning two, losing two, and the players start to get humbled and mad. The next thing you know they concentrate a little bit more and end up bouncing back. I think they are pretty mad now and maybe that's good.
Q. You've already won a couple of big road games this season - at New England and at Denver. With four of the last five on the road, are the keys to winning different away from home?
TS: The keys to winning are different when you're on the road because there are additional distractions, the crowd, the venue, the elements. Here in South Florida, not having weather as an issue is an advantage. As we look down the road, there will be games when weather and crowd noise are issues and we have to be ready for that. We have to stay focused.
Q. You lost Greg Camarillo for the season this week. We know it's tough whenever you lose a player, but when you lose a player with Camarillo's attributes, is it even more difficult?
TS: Yes, I think so. You lose a guy you know is one of the staples of your beliefs. You talk about tough, smart, disciplined players. You talk about all the characteristics it takes to be a good player for the Miami Dolphins and Greg Camarillo was just that. When you lose a player like that, you lose one of those examples every week.
Q. The running game has gone hot and cold this season. Talk about the importance of taking pressure off Chad Pennington and the passing game by becoming a more consistent running team?
TS: It's the most important thing. If we don't run the ball consistently over the next five weeks, with the places we have to play at and the things we need to do, we're going to be in big trouble. We won't achieve the goals we want to achieve. We have to be able to run the ball and we have to be able to stop the run at this time of the year. There is no use downplaying that.
Q. You often refer to yards after the catch. How do you coach against that, and isn't that often the difference between being a good receiver and a great one?
TS: Yes, it is the difference between a good receiver and a great one. Some of the good receivers just catch the ball; the great ones make more yards after the catch. How do you coach against it? It is just really tackling. We have to get a little bit closer to receivers with our defenders and we have to tackle. In our last ballgame, the Patriots had 192 yards after the catch. We've done that one other time, against Houston, and that's not good enough.
Q. Since this is a copycat league, do you expect other teams to use the spread offense against your defense, and what can you learn from what happened against the Patriots?
TS: Yes, I would say so. I think some teams will try to do that. New England can do that because of their personnel, and they can do it pretty well. When you have players like Randy Moss and Wes Welker and Ben Watson and Kevin Faulk, it makes it more difficult. Somewhere along the line, you just don't match up as well. Some of the other teams may try this, but they might not have the personnel. The other thing is, your offensive line better be pretty good when you're doing that. The Patriots did a nice job of blocking us. As far as guarding against it, obviously we have a plan in place to try and combat that. We'll see where we're at when it happens again.
Q. Finally, Coach, in light of this week being Thanksgiving, what is Tony Sparano most thankful for?
TS: I'm thankful for a lot of things. I'm thankful for my family and having the ability to spend some quality time with them. But I'm also thankful for my Dolphins family here. I'm very thankful for the opportunity to be the coach of this team and I'm thankful for my players. Every day when I come to work here, I enjoy what I'm doing and I'm so thankful that I've been given the chance to do it.
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