The game passed Shula by to some degree. I remember as a fan thinking he needs to retire but at the same time feeling like I was having sacrilegious thoughts. It hurt to see him go but I think it was also necessary to improve. Just too bad JJ turned out to be fools gold.
I was responding to what OP said, which was that the Dolphins of old were giving up 35 points. It wasn’t true. And if it scoring was lower, those dolphins team were still giving up 25 points and under every year.
Understood. There were obviously games where points were off the charts like 51-45 vs the Jets but that’s not an every week thing. Watching those late 80’s teams though - they just couldn’t get off of the field on 3rd downs. Teams were good at playing keep away from Marino at the time
Of course, it happens to all of them. Happened to Landry and Noll in the 80s. And Belichick is not winning any more championships in NE, not with that QB. The only reason Shula lasted into the mid-90s was because he drafted Marino. But that was the only thing he did. The early 80s team fell apart around Marino in his prime, and by the time Shula finally reloaded, the Bills had zipped past them. And Shula had no answer for the Bills, none: 0-3 in the playoffs against them, lost once in the wildcard, once in the divisional round, and once in the championship game.
I don't disagree, I was just pointing out that OP's statement of "Tell me im not reliving my 80's and 90's Dolphins of Marino 30 pts and Def giving up 35" wasn't factual.So this motivated me to look up league scoring over the years. Back in the Marino era 24 PPG would have been 20% > league average most years. Where scoring began going up was 2004 and 2007 respectively after the passing rule changes that allow everyone and their mother to throw for 4,000 yards and 30 TDs. Interestingly enough, scoring is down this year relative to the prior couple of seasons.
NFL Season By Season Scoring Summary | Pro-Football-Reference.com
Check out the NFL Season By Season Scoring Summary Stats including league totals and averages and more on Pro-football-reference.comwww.pro-football-reference.com
Good stuff. 61-13 when scoring 30+ sounds pretty good. Except for the L vs the Jets 51-45. Eff that game
Marino joined a team that was recently in the '82 Super Bowl, so they were pretty good. Dan's arm took them to the '84 Super Bowl, with help from what was left of the Killer Bs defense. After that, the defense started going downhill. We all know how Miami had no answer for Jim Kelly and Thurman Thomas. That was a real shame, because with a better defense, it probably would have been Miami going to those SBs, and Marino would have a ring.
I remembered one thing about that game; I thought that Miami lost because of a defensive pass interference against the Jets that wasn't called, but I just discovered I was wrong. I just watched the end of the game on Youtube, and the non-call wasn't pass interference, it was a fumble. Miami kicked off to the Jets in OT, and the Jets returner fumbled the ball when he got hit and Miami recovered it around the 20 yard line. After watching the replay, the announcers said that it was clearly a fumble, but the Officials let the Jets run a play to keep the ball (apparently, instant replay was new), and two or three plays later they scored a TD to win. If the Officials had correctly ruled it as a fumble or allowed instant replay to review the play, Miami could have easily kicked a FG to win.
Those Bills teams just had too many top tier players. As you say, had we some guys of the caliber of Bruce Smith and C Bennett we likely make a couple SB appearances between ‘90-‘95. At the end of the day, we were really the only team in the AFC that gave the Bills any trouble during that time. Problem was we were in the same division. ‘93 was a shame cause we were better than them I think. We had routed them at Orchard Park and were 4-1. Marino was playing his best ball since the ‘84 campaign when he went down. The Bills were on the tail end of their dominance and may have only been 10-6 that year if I recall correctly. I think ‘93 was the year - Turkey Day game and all.
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