The worst Dolphins take in history? | Page 3 | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

The worst Dolphins take in history?

Gsmack_42 said:
Or it could be he had bottom 1/3 defenses most of his career.
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What I mean is sure the defense was not always great but that was partly because the offense failed in big games too. The Dolphins were able to run the ball sometimes during those years but Marino had fully control at the LOS and very often elected to check to a pass. The defenders on good teams, like the Bills could pin their ears back and just rush the passer. Marino had his quick release but incomplete and interceptions are not good even when you have a quick release. IMO when the Dolphins played better teams they lost not as much because of talent but because of playcalling which involved Marino doing too many audibles. He has been quoted as saying stuff like "we can run the ball once we are up by a couple touchdowns"

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Golphindolphin said:
Tom Olivadotti would never last on Twatter , no ability to defend any of his positions.
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Oh My God Wow GIF by 9Now
 
nick_in_nh said:
What I mean is sure the defense was not always great but that was partly because the offense failed in big games too. The Dolphins were able to run the ball sometimes during those years but Marino had fully control at the LOS and very often elected to check to a pass. The defenders on good teams, like the Bills could pin their ears back and just rush the passer. Marino had his quick release but incomplete and interceptions are not good even when you have a quick release. IMO when the Dolphins played better teams they lost not as much because of talent but because of playcalling which involved Marino doing too many audibles. He has been quoted as saying stuff like "we can run the ball once we are up by a couple touchdowns"

Can you edit posts here?
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Yes, it's at the bottom of your post.
 
nick_in_nh said:
What I mean is sure the defense was not always great but that was partly because the offense failed in big games too. The Dolphins were able to run the ball sometimes during those years but Marino had fully control at the LOS and very often elected to check to a pass. The defenders on good teams, like the Bills could pin their ears back and just rush the passer. Marino had his quick release but incomplete and interceptions are not good even when you have a quick release. IMO when the Dolphins played better teams they lost not as much because of talent but because of playcalling which involved Marino doing too many audibles. He has been quoted as saying stuff like "we can run the ball once we are up by a couple touchdowns"

Can you edit posts here?
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The thing is...he wasn't wrong. Miami simply couldn't run the ball. Part of that was Marino's fault. He never learned how to properly sell a PA pass; Bruce Smith used to say that he could tell what a play would be by the way Marino set his feet pre-snap when he was under center.

The other part was that Miami had absolute trash at RB. Dan only had one 1,000 yard rusher in his career, and that guy (Karim Abdul Jabbar) simply wasn't very good - Jimmy Johnson just decided to keep smashing him into the LOS. That was the first time Miami had a rusher with 300 attempts. And from 1988 until the end of his career, his lead RB was league average or better exactly twice. He only had one season where his lead RB had a ypc of just 4 yards.

Also, during his prime years, Miami's defenses weren't just "not always great." They were *awful*. I've always said that Marino's best individual season wasn't 1984 - it was 1986. Miami kept having to come back from behind, and Marino practically dragged them up and down the field himself. Everyone knew Marino had to keep passing on them, and they still couldn't stop him. That team's defense gave up 50+ points in two separate games. It gave up 500+ yards four times. It only kept opposing offenses under 300 yards in three games. That defense finished 26th out of 28 in yards allowed, and it cost DC Chuck Studley his job.

Enter Tom Olivadotti in 1987. Tom took that 26th yards against ranking and raised it to...26th . And then in 1988 it vaulted to 26th. Some humor aside, it did get slightly better in 1989, when it jumped to 24th. Under Shula, Marino had a top-10 y/a defense exactly twice. Both of those seasons, Miami won playoff games.

Marino wasn't perfect. But he was great at the most difficult position in the most team-oriented sport there is. If you want to fault him for something else, go ahead and fault him for this: He was really, really good at making Miami more competitive than they should have been - he got them meaningless wins that cost them draft position with fourth quarter comebacks. For a while in the 80s and 90s, John Elway was known as the king of comebacks (probably due to "The Drive" against Cleveland, which was spectacular.)

But Elway wasn't. When Elway and Marino retired, the king of comebacks in the fourth Quarter was Dan Marino.
 
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Poor drafting...poor handling of free agency...too loyal to lousy defensive coordinators...lack of a consistent running game (by running backs) are all reasons why the greatest QB never won a super bowl, but he himself not running is absolutely one of the more ridiculous opinions every posted on FH!
 
FSUDoles said:
David Woodley ran a ton….you know why? He couldn’t throw. If he could’ve, we win Super Bowl XVII. Not a great take….I mean…awful.
No disrespect 16…RIP
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He won several playoff games by just hanging in there.. do you know anyone recently who did that?
 
Highzenga said:
View attachment 170344Besides Wilson, no running qb has won a Super Bowl this century. Mahomes and Ben could move a little. Elway could barely walk when he won. Qbs should not be running.
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Good work. How about Peyton’s win w the Broncos? He couldn’t even walk. Couldn’t throw either w the pinched neck thing. Defense and ST set up or scored all 3 TDs.
 
phintim said:
Yea there was no running game because that's how Shula wanted it but Marino was hell on wheels tossing those short passes to those scatbacks out of the backfield tons of yardage. The real issue was not having a running game was to run the clock out and keep the defense fresh. Everyone blamed the defense back in that day but it was offenses inability to run out the clock that led to a very worn out and injury depleted defense each year.
That why there was no Superbowl but we looked pretty good at the beginning of each year.
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That was part of it (defense wearing out). The other part was the players in defense were generally too slow and not athletic enough on the whole minus a few exceptions at times such as Offerdahl.

Dan Marino only played w 3 players currently in the HOF. Dwight Stephenson (for Dan’s first 3 or 3.5 years) and Jayson Taylor and Zach Thomas - both LONG after his prime. Our roster just wasn’t as good as the Broncos, Raiders and Bills who got to all of those SBs in the 80’s and early 90’s instead of us. They all have many HOF players on their squads.
 
royalshank said:
That was part of it (defense wearing out). The other part was the players in defense were generally too slow and not athletic enough on the whole minus a few exceptions at times such as Offerdahl.

Dan Marino only played w 3 players currently in the HOF. Dwight Stephenson (for Dan’s first 3 or 3.5 years) and Jayson Taylor and Zach Thomas - both LONG after his prime. Our roster just wasn’t as good as the Broncos, Raiders and Bills who got to all of those SBs in the 80’s and early 90’s instead of us. They all have many HOF players on their squads.
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Imagine Dan with our 82 defense.
 
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