That’s a good take by Peter King. Both QBs were nearly flawless all game - Joe went out strong. But it was Marino’s day. It was like watching two heavy weights exchange blow after blow until one finally got a shot in (the INT).
One of my favorite all time Miami playoff games under Shula
- Thread starter royalshank
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ChitownPhins28
Basement Dweller
I kinda wish the video showed Miami D snuffing out more of those KC drives. KC was making it look so easy in the first half. I kinda wonder what Shula and the D coordinator figured out at halftime to slow down the KC offense. That, plus it seemed like Miami's offense did anything it wanted the whole game.
Contrast this with most of the game the following week where San Diego really controlled the trenches. Miami got that lead cuz Marino had a good flurry of pass plays but couldnt sustain in 2nd half and San Diego wore down Dolphins D. We still almost won and wouldve if not for a bad snap on the FG attempt.
ChitownPhins28
Basement Dweller
The previous season we hosted the AFC Championship game and Buffalo dominated the trenches so much we got beat down. We could just never win in the trenches in Marino's tenure. No team ever won a thing if they lost the line of scrimmage.
Jimmy Johnson always tried to correct it but he just could never, either. However, Jimmy Johnson's early-round drafting sucked. Gotta think that if Minnesota didnt want Herschel Walker so bad the 90s Cowboy Dynasty never happens. JJ did find Zach and JT in late rounds, but did he ever draft a good player in Miami's early rounds?
It took a long time, but I found the article. It was by Michael silver, not Peter King. My apologies. I haven't seen this article in 24 years or so (I know it is from January 1995 but I used to keep and re-read Sports Illustrated issues for a couple years past their published date. I didn't re-read this particular issue any later than 1996).
Showdown
The backdrop was identical to that of his most momentous throw, and as Kansas City Chief quarterback Joe Montana stared into the west end zone of Miami's Joe
vault.si.com
This is absolutely true. Though the ‘92 hosted the Title game I believe we had the same record as Buff and got the tiebreaker. They were still much better than us that year. In 93 they were their weakest of the 4 SB teams and I think only went 10-6. Not sure if they had lost some guys or what but they just weren’t as good that year. As for JJ - you have a good point - I can’t recall his early picks besides Jabbar and Avery.
Yeah it was Dan’s revenge on Montana for Super Bowl 19... meant a lot to me at that time because of it.
jcaponio
Starter
That ‘94 San Diego loss was the worst officiated game I’ve ever seen, in any sport. There were so many awful calls both ways.
Natrone Means fumbled the ball out of the end zone and they gave us the ball on our own 1 instead if the 20. SD got tackles Parmalee for a safety on the very next play. A huge two points that we could have used later on.
Later, Means steps out of bounds at the 3 yard line and is magically awarded a touchdown.
Then Keith Jackson loses his mind and throws a forward lateral, which SD picks up. The refs then say because it was a forward pass that hit the ground, it’s called incomplete and we somehow get the ball back.
On their last drive, SD scores on a long touchdown pass with about 3 minutes left, but it’s called incomplete even though the receiver clearly has two feet inbounds. This actually hurts us, since they score a touchdown to take the lead anyway, but Marino now has only 40 seconds left to get into FG range instead of the full 3 minutes he would have had if they got the call right. We only have time to make it to the 30 yard line, where Stoyanovich misses his 48 yarder by a mile, and Marino’s last real chance at another Super Bowl goes up in smoke.
Yeah, I watched the game back a few months ago. I remembered the Means fumble and Parmalee safety. I forgot about Keith Jackson's forward lateral until I watched the game back. Obviously, I will never forget Stoyo's miss. I thought for sure he would split the uprights when he walked onto the field. I still think it was a real shame when Jimmy Johnson let Stoyanovich go in 1996 and kept Joe Nedney. Nedney had a huge leg but was so erratic on field goals. He later became a more consistent kicker with the Titans and 49ers, but he wasn't very good the first couple years of his career. I actually had to look up to see where he went before Tennessee. I vaguely remember him kicking for the Cardinals but forgot he had stints in Oakland and Denver. Long story short, Nedney's issues eventually led us to Olindo Mare. Mare was a fine kicker but I always preferred Stoyo.
EJay
Scout Team
I tell people that all the time. Somebody needs to tell Marino hater Bob Kuchenberg and Mercury Morris that too.
Just count up the number of HOF players on those Niners teams then compare it to Marino’s teams circa 1984-1997. Same will be true of Brady and his Patriots teammates once all is said and done.
FWIW, the Dolphins defense was in the bottom half of the league 12 of those 13 seasons.
Marino elevated teams that weren’t that good w/o him. @bane and @royalshank brought up 1993, which was a prime example of this. 4-1 with him, 5-6 without.
Naysayers like to slam Marino for never winning a SB when the cold reality was, replace him with Montana, Brady, Manning, etc. and those same Dolphins teams still don’t win a SB.
The one legit shot Marino had in 1984, they faced arguably the 49ers best all-around team during their 80’s, 90’s hey day. And one of the best Super Bowl era teams.
Next to the 2007 Patriots, that 1984 Niners team came closest to matching the 1972 Dolphins unbeaten record. Their only loss was by 3 points to PIT in a game they held a 7 point Q4 lead.
Most fans think of the 1985 Bears, but that team got beat by two TD’s by our Dolphins as their lone loss. Furthermore, the ‘84 Niners beat the precursor to that ‘85 Bears team 23-0 just prior to beating Marino and MIA in the SB. The Dolphins lost by a similar margin (22).
Not many teams throughout history were beating that 49ers team.
Circling back to Kuchenberg and Morris, who piss me off with their arrogance and ignorance. While both were great Miami Dolphins, someone needs to get through to them that the Dolphins would have won SB’s w/o them. They certainly contributed and helped, but they weren’t difference makers on their own.
Besides, those teams largely won on the strength of their no name defense.
Transport Kuchenberg and Morris to the 1984 - 1997 era Dolphins and guess what? They don’t have rings either. Meanwhile Marino easily ends up with a ring on those early 70’s teams.
Point of the matter is exactly what was quoted above. Better teams were built around those other players.
Marino is as much a winner as any other QB or player that can be named. When a game was in the balance and he had the ball in his hands, he succeeded a lot more than he failed, regardless of the talent around him. That’s a winner.
Not being part of a SB championship doesn’t disqualify anyone. Not everyone played on a team with enough talent to do so.
I see John Elway in the same light. He elevated flawed teams that were exposed by better opposition. But an aged and shell of himself Elway was finally able to be part of a winner once the talent around him wasn’t so flawed. Especially the defense.
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