Dolphins winless after first half of season

The Miami Dolphins had the privilege of playing in the first ever regular season NFL game outside the United States. On a cold, wet London evening at Wembley Stadium, the Dolphins lost a sloppy game to the NY Giants, 13-10, hopefully not turning British fans off NFL football forever.

The Dolphins have now started the season 0-8, with 11 straight losses dating back to last season. The weather adversely affected both offenses, with both teams combining for less than 500 yards. The Dolphins D held the Giants to 59 yards passing... and still lost. Cleo Lemon completed 17 of 30 passes for a measly 149 yards, with one touchdown in the final minutes of the game to Ted Ginn Jr., his first TD reception as a pro. Jesse Chatman filled in for Ronnie Brown by rushing 16 times for 79 yards.

The team has a bye week coming up before starting the second half of the season. Let's hope things start getting better.

Ronnie Brown out for season

To add injury to insult, the Dolphins have lost RB Ronnie Brown for the season due to a knee injury suffered against the Patriots. Evidently, that kept Brown from gaining 100 yards against New England as much as anything else, although Brown didn't think it was serious when he came out of the game. He was leading the the NFL in total yards from scrimmage at the time with 991 yards.

Dolphins lose to Patriots, lose Green for season

The winless Dolphins lost to the undefeated Patriots in a blowout that wasn't as close as the 49-28 score indicated. Tom Brady threw 5 touchdown passes in the first half to build a 42-7 lead. Brady finished with 6 TDs and no interceptions. Ex-Dolphin Wes Welker led the Patriots with 9 catches for 138 yards and 2 of Brady's touchdowns.

Cleo Lemon played the entire game at QB for the Dolphins, completing 24 of 37 passes for 236 yards, no touchdowns, and an interception. Ronnie Brown's streak of 100-yard rushing games ended as the Patriots held him to 76 yards.

In other news, the Dolphins put Trent Green on injured reserve, effectively ending his season, and possibly his career. I'm not going to rehash how dumb it was to put all of the team's QB eggs in one basket before the season began. It's just a matter of time before John Beck gets a chance to take some snaps. Why not this game? Who knows -- the coaching staff's moves have baffled me since day one.

Dolphins trade Chambers

The Dolphins traded WR Chris Chambers to the San Diego Chargers for a second round pick in next year's draft. In parting with the franchise's fifth all-time leading receiver, the team is either very confident in Ted Ginn Jr., or they are admitting this is a rebuilding year and they would rather have the extra draft pick, or both. Chambers never quite lived up to expectations in Miami, but he also has never had a good quarterback throwing him the ball. Maybe things will improve for him in San Diego with Philip Rivers.

Dolphins set franchise record for consecutive losses

With a 41-31 loss to the Cleveland Browns, the once proud and mighty Miami Dolphins have lost nine games in a row dating back to last season, the longest losing streak in franchise history. (The streak looks to continue with the next game against the New England Patriots.)

As has been the unlikely pattern this season, it was again the defense that was most responsible for the loss. The 31 points was the most the offense put up this season, but it was still not enough. The Browns gained 244 yards in the air and 140 yards on the ground, and they had a couple of long scoring drives to ice the game.

On the bright side, Ronnie Brown had another 100-yard rushing day, 101 yard on 19 carries. He now trails only Ricky Williams in the number of consecutive 100-yard rushing games in Dolphins history. Subbing for Trent Green, Cleo Lemon completed 24 of 43 passes for 256 yards, 2 TDs, and 2 interceptions.

Trent Green knocked out in yet another loss

The Miami Dolphins lost to the Houston Texans 22-19 to sink to 0-5. To add insult to injury, QB Trent Green was knocked unconscious and sustained another concussion when trying to block Texans DT Travis Johnson. Green was carted off the field and sent to the hospital. Fortunately, he was deemed well enough to leave the hospital and return to the team on his own.

From the football standpoint, the defense let down the team again. Punter Brandon Fields pinned the Texans at their own 3-yard-line with less than two minutes remaining and the game tied. However, Houston marched down the field to score the winning field goal.

Ronnie Brown had another 100+ yard rushing performance, and for once, the defense held the opposing runners in check. However, Miami couldn't mount any passing attack while Texans QB Matt Schaub threw for almost 300 yards, including directing the game winning drive.

Culpepper haunts Dolphins

Daunte Culpepper rushed for three touchdowns and threw two more as the Oakland Raiders defeated the Miami Dolphins 35-17. Culpepper certainly didn't resemble the supposedly injured QB the Dolphins discarded during the preseason. On a couple of his TD runs, he outran the Dolphin defenders pursuing him. While his passing wasn't great, he outperformed his replacement, Trent Green, who completed just 14 of 25 passes with two interceptions for a 55.1 QB rating.

The Dolphins wasted the second good performance by Ronnie Brown this season. Brown carried the ball 15 times for 134 yards and caught another 73 yards worth of passes. However, the defense let the Raiders run wild, piling up 299 rushing yards on 49 attempts. That's 6 yards per run!

The season is now a quarter of the way through. The Dolphins have yet to win a game, and what was thought to be the strength of the team -- the defense -- has looked awful so far. The offense is inconsistent, but everyone expected that. If the defense had lived up to its billing, the Dolphins would be 2-2 right now instead of 0-4.