When was Marino officially past his prime and why?

[Dphins4me]

If memory serves me (and I def. could be wrong), the last time the Dolphins went to the AFC championship game was 91 (or 92). To me, that is getting close. All Marino did towards the end of his career was win the wild card game and then get blown out in the 2nd round. I love Marino as much as any Dolphins fan (smiling at the poster on my wall), but after he tore his achillies, he was a sitting duck. I'll never forget Marino's 1 yard TD run against Buffalo (I think lol), it looked like a 50 yard TD run, him trying to get to the corner of the end zone lol

The '94 team lost to SD 22-21 in the division game and could have won had Stoy made the FG at the end of the game. But you are correct in the last time they went to the Championship game. Its was '92.

The '94 season was really Marino's last chance. After that the '95 team imploded and then JJ took over and started over.

Sad thing is the '93 team might have been his best chance. They were 9-2 even after he went down. It was when Mitchell, Vincent, Webster and a couple others went down with season ending injuries that the wheels came off.

You are correct after his injury he was never able to even run bad. He was still good in the pocket, but by the end he was just a sitting duck.

 

[Dphins4me]

I think Marino was never really "past" his prime, I would compare his career to Brett Favre's right now, he wasn't as consistent as he was at a younger age but he was still very effective, you can't expect a QB to throw 40 td's every season. I think his last season he started to look old, it just seemed every pick he threw was returned for a TD. Now I believe he never really had Pro Bowl WR'S after the Marks bros. After they left the best WR they had was Slow J McDuffie who wasn't a deep threat.

Marino hit more wide open defenders that year than I have ever seen him hit.

Now, I'm not sure whos fault it was, but he threw several passes that left me scratching my head.