Philbin credits preseason success to careful planning and strategy

Written by Matthew Cannata | Twitter: @PhinManiacs
The Miami Dolphins finished 3-1 in preseason and head coach Joe Philbin says that their success in preseason isn’t by accident. In fact, the way they were going to approach the games was figured out during strategy meetings all the way back in early July before the team began training camp.

“We targeted, when we sat down in July, when we came back we filled out kind of a form. We planned out how many snaps we think a player will need to get ready for the season. For the vast majority of the guys, we kind of hit the targets on most of them. We talked about a guy like Ja’Wuan James, do we play him, he’s a rookie, and does he need some more snaps. I think we had him at 125 or thereabouts in three games. So I think he’s had enough football to be ready.”

In Thursday night’s game against the St. Louis Rams, the Dolphins were down 13-0 until the second half when they started making a comeback, led by none other than quarterback Seth Lobato. Philbin was pleased with how the team responded, even though it was a bunch of backups.

“I told the guys in the locker room, I thought anytime you come back from thirteen points down and win the football game in the fourth quarter, it’s a testament to the character of the guys. We made some plays in the fourth quarter in all three phases of the game. We really hadn’t really been making a whole lot of plays in the vast majority of the game but we made some there. I thought it was a good team win.”

"I told the team in the locker room, I thought it’s been the best training camp and preseason that I’ve been a part of. Not just the record, I like the way we’ve won the games. I like the way we played the game that we lost. I mean, if we’d take a gun snap from center, we might be 4-0. I know some people say, that’s not real important, but I like the way the guys have played. I think they’ve played 60 minutes of football each and every week. That’s a good start. That’s a good starting point in the National Football League.”

The Dolphins now turn their attention completely to the New England Patriots as they square off against them on Sunday, September 7 to kick off the 2014 NFL season.

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