The (big) little things

Staying healthy and limiting turnovers, penalties, and dropped passes. These are all things that any coach would tell you are extremely important to having a successful season. The Dolphins have done amazingly well in all of these areas through the first quarter mark, even in the two losses.

Health is a really big one. The Dolphins have had only one loss for the season, and it was a big one in Donald Thomas, but beyond that the injury report has been shockingly empty (to the point that ProFootballTalk has cried foul). You've got to credit the coaching staff, as it seems that Sparano knows every players play count off the top of his head. They've got a really good system of rotating players and keeping them fresh, with the belief being that injuries happen when players get tired. So far it has worked, and a little bit of luck never hurts either (No awful pun intended).

Turnovers? One on the last pass of the game against the Jets and the fumble by Bess against the Chargers to remind us of what the last four years were like. Besides that: nothing. Amazing job. Couple that with being among the lead leaders in fewest penalties, and you see why the Dolphins are playing so much better.

Finally, for a team with such a dropped passes problem in the preseason, the receivers seem to have glue on their hands. One side of me wants to say it's just because we haven't passed the ball to the receivers very much, but the fact of the matter is that we haven't dropped the ball this year. Eliminating the mistakes we made last year, along with the injuries, has played a big part in improving the 2008 Miami Dolphins.