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How good were the 1972 dolphins?

Wildbill3

Wildbill3

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http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/mia1972.htm


Game-by-game results

| Week | Opponent | Result | Score |
| 1 | at Kansas City Chiefs | W | 20-10 |
| 2 | Houston Oilers | W | 34-13 |
| 3 | at Minnesota Vikings | W | 16-14 |
| 4 | at New York Jets | W | 27-17 |
| 5 | San Diego Chargers | W | 24-10 |
| 6 | Buffalo Bills | W | 24-23 |
| 7 | at Baltimore Colts | W | 23- 0 |
| 8 | at Buffalo Bills | W | 30-16 |
| 9 | New England Patriots | W | 52- 0 |
| 10 | New York Jets | W | 28-24 |
| 11 | St. Louis Cardinals | W | 31-10 |
| 12 | at New England Patriots | W | 37-21 |
| 13 | at New York Giants | W | 23-13 |
| 14 | Baltimore Colts | W | 16- 0

Postseason

AFC Divisional Playoff: won 20 - 14 vs. Cleveland Browns
AFC Championship Game: won 21 - 17 at Pittsburgh Steelers
Super Bowl: won 14 - 7 at Washington Redskins

Pro Bowlers: Dick Anderson (db), Nick Buoniconti (lb), Larry Csonka (rb), Norm Evans (ol), Larry Little (ol), Mercury Morris (rb), Jake Scott (db), Bill Stanfill (dl), Paul Warfield (wr).




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Hey, we beat the Bills 24-23 that year too. Maybe that is a sign that we will be soon be returning to the glory years again!
 
I'm pretty sure they were not only the only team to go undefeated, but also the only team to rank first in points scored and points allowed in the same season...

FYI, the Colts have highest scoring offense right now, but are second to the Bears when it comes to defense...
 
Duh, the best team ever. They won EVERY game, you cannot do better than that. Evry other measurement is subjective. I think its really indisputable, if you win them all, how could any team do better than that. And if the Colts do win them all, they have to be considered the best ever, cause of the two added games.
 
FinFan84 said:
Duh, the best team ever. They won EVERY game, you cannot do better than that. Evry other measurement is subjective. I think its really indisputable, if you win them all, how could any team do better than that. And if the Colts do win them all, they have to be considered the best ever, cause of the two added games.
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For their time they were the greatest ever

But

The NFL has evolved so much, and the game is so differnt if they stepped on the field today they would get killed, no offense to them but todays game is differnt and the talent is greater, also their leading WR only had 29 receptions, the game was differnt back then
 
Wildbill3 said:
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/mia1972.htm


Game-by-game results

| Week | Opponent | Result | Score |
| 1 | at Kansas City Chiefs | W | 20-10 |
| 2 | Houston Oilers | W | 34-13 |
| 3 | at Minnesota Vikings | W | 16-14 |
| 4 | at New York Jets | W | 27-17 |
| 5 | San Diego Chargers | W | 24-10 |
| 6 | Buffalo Bills | W | 24-23 |
| 7 | at Baltimore Colts | W | 23- 0 |
| 8 | at Buffalo Bills | W | 30-16 |
| 9 | New England Patriots | W | 52- 0 |
| 10 | New York Jets | W | 28-24 |
| 11 | St. Louis Cardinals | W | 31-10 |
| 12 | at New England Patriots | W | 37-21 |
| 13 | at New York Giants | W | 23-13 |
| 14 | Baltimore Colts | W | 16- 0

Postseason

AFC Divisional Playoff: won 20 - 14 vs. Cleveland Browns
AFC Championship Game: won 21 - 17 at Pittsburgh Steelers
Super Bowl: won 14 - 7 at Washington Redskins

Pro Bowlers: Dick Anderson (db), Nick Buoniconti (lb), Larry Csonka (rb), Norm Evans (ol), Larry Little (ol), Mercury Morris (rb), Jake Scott (db), Bill Stanfill (dl), Paul Warfield (wr).




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Jealousy makes fans of other teams attack the strength of that schedule, but if you closely scrutinize it here are a few observations:

We beat Len Dawson and Kansas City....winners of Superbowl 4 in 1970, also the team that played us in the NFL's longest game the prior Christmas in the playoffs.....no pushover.

We beat Fran Tarkenton and the Purple People Eaters of the Minnesota Vikings, runner-up in Superbowl 4 in 1970, The dolphins future opponent in Superbowl 8, and losers of Superbowl 9 and 11...a very good football team.

We beat Joe Namath (still in his prime)and the New York Jets twice, Winners of Superbowl 3 in 1969....just 3 years prior, no slouch team either.

We beat the Colts twice, winners of Superbowl 5 in 1971 and losers of Superbowl 3 in 1969.

The Dolphins due to a strange set of rules at the time had to travel on the road to Pittsburgh to take on the Steelers in the AFC Championship game, the same Steelers that would go on to win Superbowls 9, 10, 13 & 14.

Throw in O.J. Simpson and the Electric Company of a much tougher than gets remembered Buffalo team (twice).

So the Dolphins had 6 games on their schedule against teams that won 3 out of the previous 4 Superbowls (Jets, Chiefs, Colts)and losers of 2 of the previous 4 superbowls(Colts, Vikings)

The Dolphins also had games against the winners of 4 out of the next 7 Superbowls (or 2 out of the next 4 Superbowls)(Pittsburgh), ansd the loser of 3 out of the next 5 Superbowls(Minnesota) .

So thats 13 Superbowl appearances by the teams on the 1972 Miami Dolphins schedule that occured between 1969 - 1980, or if we remove the final 2 Superbowls of the Steeler run, 11 Superbowl appearances between 1969-1977, or if we remove the final Viking Superbowl appearance, 10 Superbowl appearances between 1969-1976........an 8 year span.

I realize everybody points to winning percentage that year as the indicator of the strength of schedule, but sometimes good teams just beat each other up and some good teams end up with an off year record wise.

Also, isn't it logical that if the Dolphins beat every team on their schedule that their opponents as a collective would have a worse winning percentage as compared to another great team that LOST 1 or 2 games to the teams on their schedule?

So the Dolphins themselves by being perfect decreased the winning percentage of their collective schedule.
 
I remember seeing them as a young kid. They were the ultimate "TEAM". They do not get the respect they deserve because there was nothing "flashy" about them. Griese used to pass about 10-12 times a game, and Morrall they same. They just ZONKED and Mercury and Kiicked your a$$ all over the field offensively and smothered you with "no-names" defensively. They certainly took on the personality of the greatest coach ever-SHULA! They were the BEST EVER!
 
FinFan84 said:
Duh, the best team ever. They won EVERY game, you cannot do better than that. Evry other measurement is subjective. I think its really indisputable, if you win them all, how could any team do better than that. And if the Colts do win them all, they have to be considered the best ever, cause of the two added games.
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Disagree with your last statement, you can't penalize the Dolphins because the season was two games shorter, remember, they had to do something the Colts won't have to do because the rules have changed, thats win on the road in the AFC Championship game, I say that equalizes 2 games against slouch opponents.

Perfect is perfect, you can't do any better.
 
Alex22 said:
For their time they were the greatest ever

But

The NFL has evolved so much, and the game is so differnt if they stepped on the field today they would get killed, no offense to them but todays game is differnt and the talent is greater, also their leading WR only had 29 receptions, the game was differnt back then
Click to expand...

Dude, you can't do that, number one, the money wasn't good enough back then to allow the players to be full time football players training year round, they had to work second jobs, number two, the talent in many cases is greater due to the infiltration of steroids that began with the Steelers of the 70's as I see it.

I remember watching this DT for the Bucs named Brad Culpepper recently retire and go from 300 pounds down to 180 in a matter of months....roids.
You don't think Bill Stanfill or Manny Fernandez couldn't have done the same thing on roids?

The rules were also different, those marveling at Manning now need to understand, back then as long as the ball wasn't in the air DB's could maul receivers.

Manning receivers can't be touched past 5 yards.

With all the different circumstances its really not even fair or proper to compare era's so dramatically different.
 
My favorite part is going on the ROAD to win the AFC championship game, I guess home field was on a rotating basis back then.

Made the whole thing even tougher.
 
BlueFin said:
Dude, you can't do that, number one, the money wasn't good enough back then to allow the players to be full time football players training year round, they had to work second jobs, number two, the talent in many cases is greater due to the infiltration of steroids that began with the Steelers of the 70's as I see it.

I remember watching this DT for the Bucs named Brad Culpepper recently retire and go from 300 pounds down to 180 in a matter of months....roids.
You don't think Bill Stanfill or Manny Fernandez couldn't have done the same thing on roids?

The rules were also different, those marveling at Manning now need to understand, back then as long as the ball wasn't in the air DB's could maul receivers.

Manning receivers can't be touched past 5 yards.

With all the different circumstances its really not even fair or proper to compare era's so dramatically different.
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The athletes back then wernt as good, and if you notice I said for their time they were the best ever, if they played a team from today they would get killed hands down, due to athletes, rules, and everything else, they wouldnt stand up to todays players

Also if you noticed I said the game was different, which states that I know the rules and the game has changed
 
Playing for the AFC championship was very hard. I would like to see Indy play at Cincy (OUTDOORS, IN SNOW) in January!!!!
 
I don't think the '72 Dolphins were as good as the '73 Dolphins. You really do have to get lucky to some extent to run the table.
 
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