History of the Marino Years | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

History of the Marino Years

The Bopkin

The Bopkin

Seasoned Veteran
Club Member
Joined
Feb 25, 2003
Messages
4,379
Reaction score
11,031
Location
Pennsylvania
For those of you who weren't around during Marino's time, I know there are a lot of documentaries out there, but I saw this one today that does a good job of not only giving the Marino point of view but also parallels the history of the team during those years 1983-1999.
It's a good watch. A lot of cool footage in there too that I hadn't seen in decades.

 
No running game, poor defenses. That's the reason. When you lose games to the Jets 51 to 45, and lose to the Jets throwing 500 plus yards or all those games and playoff games against Buffalo back in the day. Or to go out giving up 62 points to Jax. Not hard to see the reason. Jimmy Johnson also ruined Marino still in his prime in 1995.force fed Karim Abdul Jabbar the ball with under 4 yds per carry and took passing away from Marino. Went from top offense when Jimmy took over to bottom feeders on offense majoroty of his 5 years. To this date no coach has done any better than Don Shulas last season. A 37-22 loss in the fordt round of the playoffs. They pushed Shula out and 27 years later still have not took one step further than that last game.

Phins Up! I'm hopeful. CD and the killer staff he put in place will turn it around. As long as defense plays similar again under Boyer and he can make Tua serviceable.
 
In general, the AFC had the quarterbacks but the NFC had the defenses.

An oversimplification, but a lot of truth in that statement. Kelly was 0-4 with Buffalo. Elway's early super bowls were blowout losses. Marino's only trip was against a dominant SF team.

It was always a head-scratcher that Shula couldn't build a complete team around Marino, especially in terms of finding a run game.
 
fmcowboy said:
To this date no coach has done any better than Don Shulas last season. A 37-22 loss in the fordt round of the playoffs. They pushed Shula out and 27 years later still have not took one step further than that last game.
Click to expand...
Not quite true. Shula went 9-7 his last year with the biggest bunch of underachievers ever assembled. We were 10-6 in '98 when we beat Buffalo in the WC game. 11-5 in '00 (playoff win over Indy) and again in '01(lost WC). 11-5 in '08 (lost WC). 10-6 in '16 ( lost WC) and 10-6 in '21.
 
Last edited:
So many mistakes with draft , injuries to key players that ended careers, bad luck, coaching staff decisions , along with buffalo hurt super bowl chances.

Big thing also was there was no free agency for many years except plan b. So you were stuck with your team unlike now you can remake team quickly
 
SF Dolphin Fan said:
In general, the AFC had the quarterbacks but the NFC had the defenses.

An oversimplification, but a lot of truth in that statement. Kelly was 0-4 with Buffalo. Elway's early super bowls were blowout losses. Marino's only trip was against a dominant SF team.

It was always a head-scratcher that Shula couldn't build a complete team around Marino, especially in terms of finding a run game.
Click to expand...
NFC won every SB from ‘84-‘96. And really the seeds were being sewed in ‘81 when the Niners won, then Skins in ‘82 and only the raiders - the last physical team from the AFC - won in ‘83. It was NFC in all but one from ‘81-‘96. And all of the QBs (exception Montana) were in the AFC. Defense and power run games won SBs in that era and the NFC has all of those teams.
 
it wasn’t Marino’s fault they never won a SB but the fact they had the best passer in the league for over a decade and they only appeared in one SB is still disappointing.

Shula was never able to put a complete team around Marino during his career and that was the reason Marino will go down in history as the best QB to never win a championship.
 
I've always wondered what would happened if Bill Arnsparger would of stayed in Miami for another year following the 1983 season. Miami played SF in '83 on the road in SF and beat them 20-17. The 49ers went to the NFC championship game that year and lost a close game to Washington.

1year later in 1984 Arnsparger leaves and the defense takes a step backwards. If he stayed in '84 I can't help think that Superbowl game with SF is a lot closer and Dan would of had a chance to win one. That was Marino's best shot to win it all. After 1984 the defense completely fell apart even though they went to the AFC championship game in '85. They never had a defense to compliment Marino.
 
Well Shula wanted olivadatti . But all good things come to a end , I suppose
 
Miami1 said:
I've always wondered what would happened if Bill Arnsparger would of stayed in Miami for another year following the 1983 season. Miami played SF in '83 on the road in SF and beat them 20-17. The 49ers went to the NFC championship game that year and lost a close game to Washington.

1year later in 1984 Arnsparger leaves and the defense takes a step backwards. If he stayed in '84 I can't help think that Superbowl game with SF is a lot closer and Dan would of had a chance to win one. That was Marino's best shot to win it all. After 1984 the defense completely fell apart even though they went to the AFC championship game in '85. They never had a defense to compliment Marino.
Click to expand...

Arnsparger was the DC on all the Great defenses of the 70’s and early 80’s….They would have been better.
 
BahamaFinFan78 said:
For most of Marino's years, the teams were not that good. Take him off and then would have struggled to make .500.
Click to expand...
In the late 80s, the team did struggle to get to .500 with Marino, and in 1988 they didn’t make it. Missing the playoffs four years in a row with Marino in his prime is the low point of Shula’s career: how bad must the team have been if even Marino can’t win more games in a season than he loses?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom