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Dan Marino

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ChaozFilms

It aint over till Queen Latifah sings!
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I'm only 19 so I only got to see Marino play in the mid 90's till his retirement and never got to see his glory days. I just got watching some tape of the 1984 and 1985 seasons and all I could say is Wow...Marino, Duper, Clayton, Moore...has there ever been a tandem as crazily talented as this? How could Marino not get a ring with an offense like that? It seemed like those guys never dropped anything and made scoring way too easy...I mean...not even the 99 Rams "Greatest Show on Turf" looked this good...what went wrong?
 
ChaozFilms said:
I'm only 19 so I only got to see Marino play in the mid 90's till his retirement and never got to see his glory days. I just got watching some tape of the 1984 and 1985 seasons and all I could say is Wow...Marino, Duper, Clayton, Moore...has there ever been a tandem as crazily talented as this? How could Marino not get a ring with an offense like that? It seemed like those guys never dropped anything and made scoring way too easy...I mean...not even the 99 Rams "Greatest Show on Turf" looked this good...what went wrong?
Click to expand...

Very true about the talent but unfortunately we had an unbalanced offense and a good defense. The oline was overrated also due to marino's quick release
 
ChaozFilms said:
I'm only 19 so I only got to see Marino play in the mid 90's till his retirement and never got to see his glory days. I just got watching some tape of the 1984 and 1985 seasons and all I could say is Wow...Marino, Duper, Clayton, Moore...has there ever been a tandem as crazily talented as this? How could Marino not get a ring with an offense like that? It seemed like those guys never dropped anything and made scoring way too easy...I mean...not even the 99 Rams "Greatest Show on Turf" looked this good...what went wrong?
Click to expand...

The defense could not be counted on against good offenses. The only way to beat Marino was to put up 35 points or keep him off of the field by controlling the clock. The Jets used to do the former. The Bills did both for a while.

The lack of a running game hurt at times also, but the defense was the much bigger issue.
 
The O-line was decent in passblocking but Marino made their job easier with his quick release and also his "sixth sense" in avoiding passrushers.
However the O-line was pretty weak at runblocking. That and average defenses combined to keep Marino's fingers free of any cumbersome rings.

Marino in his prime was a joy to watch. He could read defenses with the best, very strong arm, increadibly accurate, blazing release. he couldnt run for crap but he always knew what was going on around him and very often made probowl DE's look silly when he sidestepped their rush and they fell flat on their faces.
At one point in his career a Phins CB (think it was Vincent but not sure) said that in practice his WR would tell him the next play. Marino would throw such a perfect pass that even knowing the play, the CB usually still couldnt stop it.
Bill Walsh, who everyone regards a football genius, stated that Montana was a product of the system. Marino WAS the system.
 
That's why you can rightfully question Shula's greatness. He had one of the greatest QB'S ever, and all thoae years couldn't get a decent defense. Granted, we never ran the ball that well, but man our defense was clueless all those years. Finally, they canned Shula after the playoff loss to Buffalo when the Bills rushed for over 300 yards. Shula, from a defensive standpoint, was very mediocre. In the Super Bowl Glory years, he had Arnsparger, when he left, he took the defense with him.
 
In that great year of 84, they just ran into a better all around team in the 49ers. We were ranked 1st in offense and 7th in defense. They were ranked 2nd in offense and 1st in defense. Their defense was just able to pin their ears back and play dime coverage the whole time in the Super Bowl. There is a quote from Bill Walsh saying that he had like 8 or 9 defensive lineman in that game and they just went all out pass rush every time. Hard to win when you can't run the ball and the defense knows what you are doing.

As for the rest of his career, just pick your poison. Everyone else has pointed it out. It was either a lack of a running game, lack of a solid defense, or a combination of both. Its amazing that without balance on offense that Dan was able to put up the amount of points he did. To win in this league, you must have balance throughout your team. You must be able to run the ball effectively, put points on the board with your passing game, and be able to stop the other team every once in a while. Dan never had that kind of balance aside from 84, but the 49ers were just a better team.
 
Say whatever about Wannstedt while he was here...... but Tom Olivadatti (defensive coordinator) did not do much for us.
John Offerdahl and Louis Oliver were very nice brights spots in the late 80's up to '95-ish..... but William Judson and Paul Lankford (pretty sure those were the corners back then) just sucked. I will forever cherish the prime years of Madison and Surtain
 
zonk4ever said:
That's why you can rightfully question Shula's greatness. He had one of the greatest QB'S ever, and all thoae years couldn't get a decent defense. Granted, we never ran the ball that well, but man our defense was clueless all those years. Finally, they canned Shula after the playoff loss to Buffalo when the Bills rushed for over 300 yards. Shula, from a defensive standpoint, was very mediocre. In the Super Bowl Glory years, he had Arnsparger, when he left, he took the defense with him.
Click to expand...

Shula = greatest coach ever

Shula = average GM

Shula's GM prowess ranged from somewhat above average (late 70's, early 80's) to below average (mid-late 80s). Most of Marino's time, Shula was a below average GM - simply did not have enough good players.

Shula's systems (offense, defense) were fine, but without good enough players -->
1. no running game against good defenses
2. bend and don't break defenses w/o playmakers usually break
 
All I know is that he sure set some standards for QB. He has a "ring" of records to break.
Dan wakes up everyday wondering the same thing. He would love to trade all the stats for a SB ring.
 
Some idiot on ESPN.com said that Dan was to fault for them never winning the big one, then tried to say one game where he made a mistake was the way he always played.
 
ChaozFilms said:
I'm only 19 so I only got to see Marino play in the mid 90's till his retirement and never got to see his glory days. I just got watching some tape of the 1984 and 1985 seasons and all I could say is Wow...Marino, Duper, Clayton, Moore...has there ever been a tandem as crazily talented as this? How could Marino not get a ring with an offense like that? It seemed like those guys never dropped anything and made scoring way too easy...I mean...not even the 99 Rams "Greatest Show on Turf" looked this good...what went wrong?
Click to expand...

They were a lot of fun to watch, you really missed out on some fun years. Unfortunately, they never fielded a complete enough team to win Dan a ring. Always lacking in running game and defense. ALso, the Jills had a nice run of four SB appearances that put a crimp in Dan's style.

GO PHINS~!
 
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