Only game in town

Weak passing game only thing holding Fins back

Jay Fielder is the incumbent QB, but will he lead the charge to the postseason? Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

By Jacob Luft, SI.com

On the surface, Miami appears to be a cluttered sports market.

Every major professional sport is represented, and the University of Miami football program has been in a league of its own for the better part of two decades.

Upon further inspection, however, the sports landscape of South Florida can be summed up in the following phrase: The Dolphins and everybody else. They say small towns in the Deep South have two seasons -- college football and college football recruiting. South Florida is much the same way with its Dolphins.

On any scorchingly hot day in the middle of the summer, you can drive around with your windows down listening to Jim "Mad Dog" Mandich or any number of sportstalk radio pundits break down to the most trivial minutia of the team's offseason. Callers will work themselves up into a rage about missing out on a top free agent while still retaining the highest degree of optimism for the upcoming season.

If kielbasa and bratwurst feed the annual illusions of Bears fans, then it must be the blinding tropical sun that makes Dolfans believe the year will end in Super Bowl glory.

But it has been 30 years since the Dolphins last hoisted a Vince, and this year will be no different unless they can find a passing game to complement their runaway freight train running back, Ricky Williams. At times, the former Saints workhorse was so utterly dominant last season that defenses sold out to stop him on every play. Any passer worth his salt, working with a decent receiving corps, would have been going up top with play-action precision all day long.

Alas, the Dolphins didn't have a passer worth his salt (Jay Fielder/Ray Lucas) and their wideout depth was so poor they had to drag Cris Carter off of the Inside the NFL set in midseason. They were home watching the playoffs for the first time since 1996 despite having the league's leading rusher and six Pro Bowlers on defense.

To that end, they picked up a quarterback who they hope can pass as a respectable NFL signal-caller in Brian Griese. He hasn't officially been named the starter yet, and you never know when he will trip over his dog on the staircase, but he's only one of Fiedler's patented four-turnover games away from first string.

There is still only one big threat to throw to in Chris Chambers, so they will have to make do with the mediocre Derrius Thompson and possession specialist Oronde Gadsden as complements. And there is still the problem of having a head coach in Dave Wannstedt who consistently plays not to lose, exuding anything but confidence from his players.

On most teams, those pieces wouldn't nearly be enough to consider making a Super Bowl run. But when you have Williams churning out a punishing 1,800 yards Earl Campbell-style and a defense that can stop anybody cold on any given day, it's enough to make the average sun-drunk Miamian have the highest of hopes.