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Dolphins Head Coach Tony Sparano
Tony Sparano is feeling a little bit better these days, thanks to two straight victories against AFC East teams and a bye week that allowed him to take a deep (short) breath. But don't think he's satisfied. Sparano talks about the challenges of Sunday's game against the New Orleans Saints as well as a variety of other topics in this exclusive interview with Dolphin Digest editor Andy Cohen for MiamiDolphins.com.
Q. Coach, how do you prepare for a team that is 5-0 and has beaten everyone by at least 14 points?
TS: You prepare the same way you prepare for anyone else. Every week when you go into a ballgame you are trying to create a masterpiece. You are trying to make it the best game you can make it. Everybody in this league is searching for the perfect game, that's what we do this for, to be the best at what we do. The opponent doesn't matter as much as how we handle what we need to handle.
Q. When is the last time you saw an offense with this many playmakers?
TS: This really isn't unusual. We've played the Colts with a bunch of playmakers, Atlanta with a bunch of playmakers, San Diego with a bunch of playmakers, so the list goes on and on. Every ballgame we play a team that has a bunch of weapons, good quarterbacks, good receivers, good backs, you name it. Right now it has become the norm for us.
Q. So what makes the Saints special?
TS: What makes them special is, first of all, their quarterback, he's an outstanding player. They are a very well coached team on both sides of the ball. They have a good belief in their system and the execution of their system. They have good players everywhere.
Q. The natural assumption is that the Dolphins have to keep the ball away from this Saints offense ... how critical is that?
TS: I think it's critical. Either we have to control the ball or we have to score at a high pace. One of those two things have to happen in this game. If you don't possess the ball, you're not going to have a real good chance. But we have to possess the ball with meaningful drives. In other words, at the end of them, there has to be some kind of punctuation, some kind of score at the end of those drives.
Q. When the Saints do have the ball, how important is it to put big-time pressure on Drew Brees? Is that really the only way to slow him down?
TS: It's very important. Not necessarily in the form of blitz pressure because it's not this guy's first rodeo out there. He is going to be able to smell that from a mile away and get the ball out. We're going to have to win individual match-ups during the course of this game and create pressure that way, create pressure with four-man rushes along with six and seven man rushes. But the worst thing that can happen is to make Brees comfortable back there and in a rhythm. I think last week against the Giants he hit 12 or 13 in a row at one point. That can't happen.
Q. You mentioned the Giants game. What were your thoughts as you examined what the Saints did to the Giants?
TS: The Giants are a good team. What the Saints did to them was hit on big plays. I watched that tape and said to myself, 'that's a darn good football team we're playing this week.' But if we're going to be a good football team we have to be able to play well against good football teams. This is the challenge we're looking forward to.
Q. What's the message to your players about this game?
TS: We want to do something a little different. Last year we were 2-4 after this game and we want to do something to change that. We don't want to go down that road again. We also want to try to take the Saints to a place where they haven't been. Over the past few years the Saints have lost eight out of 10 times when it came down to seven points or less. On the other side of the pancake, we've won nine of the 13 games that came down to seven points or less. So you have to try to take this Saints team to a place that they haven't been.
Q. In what ways do you think the bye week might have helped quarterback Chad Henne?
TS: It helped Chad from both a self evaluation standpoint and a system evaluation standpoint. He was very good and diligent in taking a look at himself, looking at the poor throws and poor reads, not so much watching his highlight reel. He watched the lowlights, trying to figure out how to make those things better. From a system standpoint, he did a good job trying to understand what we as an offense need to do a little differently to be more successful.
Q. Coach, the general league wide consensus on the Wildcat is that while it may be a gimmick with some teams, it is not with the Dolphins because of how much you practice it and how it is a large part of your offense. Do you buy that theory?
TS: Sure, I buy it. I've said this before: gimmicks to me are one, two, three times. But when you do something 10 or 12 times a game for however many times we run it, it's not a gimmick any more. It becomes a part of what you do and that's what we are.
Q. On a play like the supposed pass interference penalty on Will Allen late in the Jets game, do you send that to the league if you disagree and what usually happens?
TS: Yes, you send it into the league. I did not send that play into the league. You do send some of them. What happens is the league gets back to you within 24 hours, pretty quick, with an explanation of what happened on that play. Sometimes the explanation is that they got it wrong. They are not afraid to say that even if it's old news by then. At the same time, they will give you a great explanation of what happened and why they made the call that they made. For me, the calls that I send in are not so much the nit-picky calls. I send in things I think my team needs to learn from. I like to bring that information back to the team and say here's the definition and this is why this was done.
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