Miami Dolphins fire Defensive Coordinator Paul Pasqualoni

Bill Jempty | Monday, January 11, 2010

Many of the team’s fans blame him for the Fins 3-game losing season at the end of the season. From AP-

After a slide that drifted the Miami Dolphins’ defense into a state of mediocrity during a season that included too many missed tackles and too many blown assignments, the first person being held accountable is the man who runs the unit.

On Monday, defensive coordinator Paul Pasqualoni was fired.

“I want to thank Paul for his services to the team, and I want to wish him the best,” coach Tony Sparano said in a statement.

Pasqualoni’s departure isn’t a major shock, although it appeared Sparano originally was pinning the defensive transgressions on the players’ lack of execution more than the coaching that was taking place during the season.

I’m actually surprised Sparano did fire Pasqualoni. The defense did play poorly at season’s end but there was a reason. For one thing, the linebacking corps is either old(Jason Taylor and Joey Porter) or erratic(Channing Crowder), the defensive backfield is either sub par(safeties Gibrill Wilson and Yeremial Bell) or talented but inexperienced(Sean Smith and Vontae Davis). Miami went 11-5 in 2008, but as I have repeated many times, that was misleading. The Dolphins schedule was weak and their margins of victory against those teams was rarely more than 7 points. This year they played real teams and went 7-9 like I expected them to do.

The Dolphins are in better shape today than they were when Sparano, Pasqualoni, and the rest of the staff came in after the firing of Cam Cameron. Again, the team went 1-15 in 2007 with a old defense. The defense still isn’t great, but it was improving. It’s my opinion that Sparano made a emotional and dumb decision based on just three games. Pasqualoni was made the scapegoat for the 2009 collapse, and he didn’t deserve it.

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