EJay
Scout Team
People keep harping on the reason Marino never saw another SB, was because he did not have a running game to help him, I disagree, Marino was an offense all by himself, putting up 30+ points way more then not and making it way to easy.
Totally agree. While a run game would have been nice in certain late game situations, or to keep a defense guessing, it certainly wasn’t a necessity or close to the largest reason Miami didn’t win a SB era.
The Dolphins achilles heel always was their defense. The offense was surely productive enough to win, despite the lack of a complimentary run game. Proof lies in the fact that MIA reached a Superbowl and a couple other AFC Championship games with merely average at best defenses.
The major problem in all three of those games was surrendering 38, 31, and 29 points. Yes, the offense only scored 16, 14, and 10 points in those same games - which surely wasn’t great. But it kinda doesn’t matter from the standpoint of when any team surrenders an average of 32.67 in games like that, they mostly likely aren’t going to win even when the offense is productive at a more acceptable level.
While turnovers and lack of moving chains surely played a factor, many times during Marino’s career the Dolphins lost the time of possession and ball control battle because their defense couldn’t get off the field. Had the defense been more physical against the run or had linebackers that could cover a screen pass, they would have won more games. They would have won more playoff games, and quite possibly a SB.
Even the 16 points they scored in the 1985 SB would have been enough to win 5 of the total games played. Hell, one of the Patriots 6 trophies was won when they only scored 13 points — just barely over a year ago. If Miami had a legit defense, perhaps they could have done the same in games when the offense wasn’t great. But more times that not, they were busy losing games 51-45 or 44-34.
Lastly, the way the game is played today proves that you don’t have to have a run game to win. Rule changes have made it a more pass heavy league, of course. But still, it’s always been possible to win having a run dominant or pass dominant team. A team just has to have competent defense and special teams to compliment it.
Miami rarely, if ever, had both during the Marino era. If the defense didn’t let them down, special teams did.