'85 Dolphins dodged a bullet by not making Superbowl. | Page 3 | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

'85 Dolphins dodged a bullet by not making Superbowl.

One thing that people might not remember from that game was a great game plan by Shula. He decided to have Nat Moore line up at TE and their LB's couldn't cover him. I'm not gonna say we'd have beaten them again in the SB that year but I'd have like our chances. We had the one QB that could get rid of the ball fast enough to avoid their pass rush and the WR's that could make plays as well.

But we'll never know.
One of my memories of that game was either in the third or fourth quarter Ditka was going off on Buddy Ryan on the side line's because he refused to change his coverage on one of our player's. I do remember it was Wilber Marshall who was in coverage I just can not remember who he was covering. Whoever it was they was handing Wilber his lunch. Singletary was looking very average that game also
 
One of my memories of that game was either in the third or fourth quarter Ditka was going off on Buddy Ryan on the side line's because he refused to change his coverage on one of our player's. I do remember it was Wilber Marshall who was in coverage I just can not remember who he was covering. Whoever it was they was handing Wilber his lunch. Singletary was looking very average that game also
That was Nat Moore he was trying to cover. Shula had a great plan for that game.
 
We seem to remember that game differently OP.

Fins were up 3 TDs by the half and throttled back...

Plus, it was a Monday night game, so the heat wasn't a factor.
Danny took them apart...one of the 5 greatest defenses in NFL history!

The magic of the evening was the 72’ Dolphins on the Dolphins sideline to support the team stopping the Bears from reaching perfection!

One of the
 
Vegas wasn't even a big believer that the Bears were going to win....they were a two point favorite.
That's not right. Chicago was -4 all week. Occasionally it would dip to -3.5 then be pushed back up. On game day some of the wise guy joints dropped to Bears -3.5 and stayed there through kickoff. I never saw -4.5 all week.

Chicago would have been a 7 to 8 point favorite over Miami in the Super Bowl. Most spots were planning to open it -7.5

I thought -- and still think -- the Dolphins would have been brutally exposed, just like a year earlier. There was a vast, vast class and physicality difference between the AFC powers and NFC powers in that era. Regular season results didn't mean much of anything. I can't count how many guys I knew who always tried to make a matchup case for the AFC team and paid for it. The one time it nearly worked was 1988 because Cincinnati had a big strong offensive line and there was some talk they could run the ball and shorten the game against the 49ers. It played out that way for 59.5 minutes. But none of the AFC teams that relied on passing and outscoring the opponent managed anything but a disaster. Both lines would collapse.

Still, I would have liked to have seen it. This isn't the NBA where the best team has 7 games to prove it. No question the Bears were far superior but they would have to avoid all the inconvenient stuff like turnovers, and big plays from the other side. Miami never would have moved the ball like the first game. It would have been big plays or nothing. There seems to be quite a bit of denial here toward how dominant that Bears team was. The entire season means exponentially more than one game. With a team like that there is no such thing as matching up poorly.
 
I know Dolphins beat Bears earlier, but everything that could've gone wrong for Chicago that day went wrong. Backup QB, blocked punt against, ricochet ball right to Duper.
Take away the blocked punt leading to very short field, and the deflection-ball TD, and there goes the margin of victory.
But, the reason I really write the thread post is in watching Miami play the 2 late games they did vs New England. You can find both on youtube. Both really displayed Miami's weaknesses on defense and that the lack of running game was so costly.
The Bears were running at full speed going into that Superbowl. NE had the best D in the AFC, a good running game, and Irving Fryar and Stanley Morgan on the outside and...we saw how that worked out.
Bears would've had much more success running the ball in the dome and that Bears D would've smoked Miami's offense because of that inability to run.
Miami played every card they could've to beat the Bears the first time. There wasn't going to be anything else they could do from a 'scheme' perspective to offset their liabilities vs that murderous Bears D.

Getting back to my thread title... would we have rather had Marino be 0-2 in Super Bowls? Would we have wanted to see our guys get smoked and essentially humiliated?

The flipside of this was just how disappointing that AFC championship game was. The whole team had their heads up their *** that day. Marino wasn't even good and had a bad fumble to go along with Dolphins RBs crapping up the place. The weather sucked but it didn't stop the Patriots from running at will and taking advantage of play-action ease.
The Pats, sadly, deserved that victory but..to what avail?

Hey, because Miami missed the SB that year, we've been able to have 'bragging rights' and enjoy the video of that win to break up the perfect season. It's the perfect memory but it would've lost luster if Bears would've smoked the 'Fins in the SB.

This is quite possibly the worst post I’ve ever seen on this board.

So...Miami got off light by NOT getting another chance at a ring?
 
That's not right. Chicago was -4 all week. Occasionally it would dip to -3.5 then be pushed back up. On game day some of the wise guy joints dropped to Bears -3.5 and stayed there through kickoff. I never saw -4.5 all week.

Chicago would have been a 7 to 8 point favorite over Miami in the Super Bowl. Most spots were planning to open it -7.5

I thought -- and still think -- the Dolphins would have been brutally exposed, just like a year earlier. There was a vast, vast class and physicality difference between the AFC powers and NFC powers in that era. Regular season results didn't mean much of anything. I can't count how many guys I knew who always tried to make a matchup case for the AFC team and paid for it. The one time it nearly worked was 1988 because Cincinnati had a big strong offensive line and there was some talk they could run the ball and shorten the game against the 49ers. It played out that way for 59.5 minutes. But none of the AFC teams that relied on passing and outscoring the opponent managed anything but a disaster. Both lines would collapse.

Still, I would have liked to have seen it. This isn't the NBA where the best team has 7 games to prove it. No question the Bears were far superior but they would have to avoid all the inconvenient stuff like turnovers, and big plays from the other side. Miami never would have moved the ball like the first game. It would have been big plays or nothing. There seems to be quite a bit of denial here toward how dominant that Bears team was. The entire season means exponentially more than one game. With a team like that there is no such thing as matching up poorly.
With Marino you always had chance...sometimes it just comes down to matchups.

The Dolphins had a good O-line and who knows how it plays out?

I was more upset at fumbling away the opportunity for a rematch than worrying about whether we could beat than again.
 
Hey, because Miami missed the SB that year, we've been able to have 'bragging rights' and enjoy the video of that win to break up the perfect season. It's the perfect memory but it would've lost luster if Bears would've smoked the 'Fins in the SB.

Dude I see your point but ...nah man...you take that 'W' each and every time...every single time...there was no bullet dodging here and the only thing that Bears game reminds of is that we didn't make it to the SB....and only wonder had we made it would we have BEAT THEM DOWN even worse the 2nd time around.

Maybe I am too much of a homer but....that's just the way my heart thinks when it comes to this team...
 
This is just a loser mentality ...sorry bro, there's no reason we'd be better off not making the super bowl especially considering he never made it back.
 
I know Dolphins beat Bears earlier, but everything that could've gone wrong for Chicago that day went wrong. Backup QB, blocked punt against, ricochet ball right to Duper.
Take away the blocked punt leading to very short field, and the deflection-ball TD, and there goes the margin of victory.
But, the reason I really write the thread post is in watching Miami play the 2 late games they did vs New England. You can find both on youtube. Both really displayed Miami's weaknesses on defense and that the lack of running game was so costly.
The Bears were running at full speed going into that Superbowl. NE had the best D in the AFC, a good running game, and Irving Fryar and Stanley Morgan on the outside and...we saw how that worked out.
Bears would've had much more success running the ball in the dome and that Bears D would've smoked Miami's offense because of that inability to run.
Miami played every card they could've to beat the Bears the first time. There wasn't going to be anything else they could do from a 'scheme' perspective to offset their liabilities vs that murderous Bears D.

Getting back to my thread title... would we have rather had Marino be 0-2 in Super Bowls? Would we have wanted to see our guys get smoked and essentially humiliated?

The flipside of this was just how disappointing that AFC championship game was. The whole team had their heads up their *** that day. Marino wasn't even good and had a bad fumble to go along with Dolphins RBs crapping up the place. The weather sucked but it didn't stop the Patriots from running at will and taking advantage of play-action ease.
The Pats, sadly, deserved that victory but..to what avail?

Hey, because Miami missed the SB that year, we've been able to have 'bragging rights' and enjoy the video of that win to break up the perfect season. It's the perfect memory but it would've lost luster if Bears would've smoked the 'Fins in the SB.
lay off the crack pipe dude, it’ll kill ya.
 
Man, you got di**ed once what’s to say we wouldn’t have di**ed your bears twice (circumstances, anything to add?? :-)
 
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