Dolphins coach Tony Sparano said tonight's meeting with Atlanta is a "good challenge" for his team.
Although Dolphins coach Tony Sparano prefers to evaluate his players in practices and scrimmages rather than preseason games, he has singled out tonight’s test vs. Atlanta as a “good challenge” for his progressing team.
“This is a team I consider a playoff team from the NFC, and from our end we consider ourselves to be one,” Sparano told the Palm Beach Post on Thursday. “This will be a good challenge. I’d like to play well when you bring your first groups out there for a little more time.”
The Dolphins are coming off an electric 27-26 win vs. Jacksonville where the offense, led by Chad Henne’s 152-yard, 2 TD performance, racked up 341 total yards and 19 first downs. With the starters slated to see significant time in the game, the first-string offense hopes to gel further, while the defense, who has been torched by opposing QBs, wants to show improvement in their coverage.
“This is a huge test for us. This game will give us a sense of how much we’ve grown up,” said S Yeremiah Bell.”I’ve let the guys know we need to step it up. We’ve got a good quarterback coming in in Matt Ryan and some good receivers coming in. We’ve got to do our part, bottom line.”
Facing a quality opponent will greatly benefit Miami, as six of their first eight opponents in the regular season made the playoffs in 2009.
