Four plays that show coach’s genius
Concluding a week in which South Florida was shook by the death of Don Shula at 90, Dolphins fans have read a cornucopia of superb work to regale us with tales of his greatness.
We’ve heard about 17-0 seasons and 347 wins. His toughness. His longevity. His indefatigable adherence to the rules. His family. His post-NFL red-meat renaissance.
As the years went on, there were the expressions of deep affection for and from his former players. And, always, his jaw.
Here’s a look at a scant few seconds of his career as the winningest coach in NFL history. It highlights his ingenuity, intelligence and fearlessness within a game.
These four plays jumped out from football’s norm at the time. The calls have been mimicked since but at the time were arresting in their daring and efficacy.
Dec. 3, 1973, Orange Bowl: Steelers
The Dolphins, in defense of their 17-0 season of 1972, were working on a mark that has been even less approached in the NFL’s annals: two losses over the span of consecutive seasons.
As the season reached the home stretch, the Pittsburgh Steelers, a budding league dynasty, rolled in for a Monday night affair Orange Bowl’s AstroTurf.
It looked like a laugher early as Miami pounced to a 27-0 secondquarter lead, powered by two Dick Anderson interceptions for touchdowns. The Steelers, however, stormed back in the final 30 minutes, getting within 30-24 late. With less than two minutes remaining, Miami faced a fourthand-inches from its 11 with the clock running.
In the TV booth, the “Monday Night Football” trio of Howard Cosell, Don Meredith and Frank Gifford marveled at the seeming aggression of not trotting in the punting unit. on the
The supportive tone quickly turned to sharp criticism, though, as the announcers believed the Dolphins to have unintentionally taken a delay-of-game penalty with 1 minute, 10 seconds left and then saw Shula still keep quarterback Bob Griese and Co. on the field.
Cosell bellowed: “I don’t get it either, and I don’t think [rival AFC Central coaches] Paul Brown gets it, or Nick Skorich gets it either!”
Griese took the snap at the 6 and dropped back — and back and back. Then he stepped out of the end zone, and the method to the madness dawned on the broadcasting cognoscenti.
“A safety!” exclaimed Meredith. Gifford said, “Sure.”
Then came Cosell with — as sheepishly as he could muster — “Shula’s ahead of us all!” Meredith piped in with admiration: “Yeah he is. That’s why he is there.”
The Dolphins still led by more than a field goal and by fewer than seven points at 30-26, but now they would get a free kick from their 20 instead of a rushed punt from the back of their end zone.
Dolphins safety Jake Scott, a few minutes later, squelched any further threat with an interception of Terry Bradshaw at the Steelers’ 42.
The Dolphins improved to 11-1 and 28-1 since the beginning of the 1972 season. They would lose six days later in Baltimore but win their final four games and a second Lombardi Trophy.
The closest a team has come to the Dolphins’ 32-2 (.941 winning percentage) record in 1972-73 has been the 2003-04 New England Patriots, putting up consecutive 17-2 title seasons for an .895 win percentage.
Sept. 14, 1980, Orange Bowl: Bengals
The beginning of the 1980 season had as much uncertainty attached to it as any in Shula’s Dolphins career to that point.
The previous year had seen the Dolphins finish in the bottom half of the NFL in yards gained for the first time in the coach’s first decade in Miami, and the team was averaging fewer than 10 wins a year from 1976-79.
To make matters worse, in the season opener the Dolphins did something they hadn’t done in their 20 games against the Buffalo Bills during Shula’s tenure: lose.
Against a Bengals team coming off two consecutive 4-12 years, the Dolphins sputtered squarely toward their first 0-2 start under Shula, trailing 14-0 in the fourth quarter and then 16-7 after a safety with 6:12 left.
Then Shula again threw a wrinkle at the football world. After a safety, a team has a choice to kick off from its 20 or punt it. Most of the time, it is a punt. However, one twist is that the ball — whether punted or kicked — is live after 10 yards, like with a standard kickoff.
However, an onside punt was just not something that was seen in the NFL. So the Dolphins had punter George Roberts squib the ball into the ground. It got past 10 yards and was recovered by Miami defensive back Jeff Allen.
The Dolphins then scored a touchdown a minute later when Nick Giaquinto recovered a Duriel Harris fumble in the end zone, making it 16-14 with 5:02 remaining.
Miami then forced a three-andout and got a punt block from Bill Barnett, with Miami recovering at the Cincinnati 30. Four plays later, the Dolphins seized a 17-16 lead on a 39-yard Uwe von Schamann field goal with 1:55 on the clock.
The onside punt may have ended up as the difference between Shula finishing with two losing seasons instead of three in his 33-year NFL career, as Miami huffed and puffed to 8-8.
Jan. 2, 1982, Orange Bowl: Chargers
The most famous of Coach Shula’s dives deep into the playbook.
Some late-arriving fans had just taken their seat for the divisional playoff game against the Chargers, only to see that San Diego had ripped off a 24-0 lead with time still remaining in the first quarter.
Shula pulled the trigger on switching quarterbacks with 12:05 left in the half, when Don Strock replaced David Woodley. Strock eviscerated San Diego, going 12-for-15 for 120 yards passing in 12 minutes, but with six seconds remaining Miami was parked at the Bolts’ 40, outside of von Schamann’s range.
Then came one of the most famous plays in NFL history, known as the hook-and-lateral.
Strock dropped back a quick seven steps and rifled the ball from the San Diego 48 to Duriel Harris on the right hash mark at the 25.
Harris cradled the ball then
shoveled the ball underhanded to the trailing running back Tony
Nathan.
Nathan, on the dead run, caught the ball at the Chargers’ 27 and, holding it aloft much of the remaining way, cruised into the end zone, cutting the deficit to 24-17 at the intermission as the sellout Orange Bowl erupted in a thunderous cascade of noise that shook the old building to its foundations.
NBC’s Don Criqui exclaimed seconds after Nathan scored: “Hall of Fame! Hall of Fame football play! That goes to Canton!”
The Dolphins rode the tsunami of OB electricity to a 38-31 lead, and they were knocking on the doorstep of a clinching field goal when Strock, on a second-and-7 from the Chargers’ 21, handed off to rookie fullback Andra Franklin. The Chargers knocked the ball loose and recovered with 4:39 left.
Dan Fouts led San Diego to a tying touchdown, but still Miami was able to line up to end the game. However, von Schamann’s 43-yard try was tipped by Kellen Winslow and the game went to overtime.
After the Bolts saw kicker Rolf Benirschke hook a 27-yard try that would have ended the marathon, the Dolphins got a third chance to punch their ticket to Cincinnati and the AFC championship game, but von Schamann shanked a low liner into the line of scrimmage.
The Dolphins could not survive the third giveaway, and Benirschke did convert from 29 yards out with 1:08 left in the first overtime period.
Still, the Dolphins, powered by the “Hall of Fame” play, were put in position to win the game.
Nov. 27, 1994, Giants Stadium: N.Y. Jets
The 1994 Dolphins, who had gotten Dan Marino back from his ruptured Achilles tendon from the previous year, started 7-2 but then endured consecutive three-point losses as they limped into The Meadowlands at 7-4.
The 6-5 Jets got the jump on the Dolphins, racing to a 24-6 lead with less than four minutes left in the third quarter. The Dolphins fought back and had momentum after pulling the score to a more manageable 24-14 heading to the fourth quarter.
Another touchdown and the Dolphins trailed 24-21. A Marino
completion to Mark Ingram to the Jets’ 8 with 38 seconds left and the clock rolling set the stage for one of the most indelible Dolphins memories in the series against Gang Green.
Marino — executing a play that backup quarterback and former Miami Hurricanes star Bernie Kosar had brought over from Cleveland — hustled the team to the line, flicking his right hand downward as he approached the center, as if he would be spiking the ball to stop the clock. Only Paul Frase rushed for the Jets on the play, and Marino tossed a dart, again to Ingram and past a bewildered Jets defensive back Aaron Glenn.
Marino closed up the second half of the game 24-for-30 for 275 yards and four touchdowns.
That inventiveness never would have seen the light of day with a number of coaches, and they would have indeed spiked the ball, tried two plays and then, if necessary, go to overtime with a field goal. But Shula rode the hot hand and it decimated the Jets.
A quartet of plays, ranging two decades. They were just four grains of sand on a beach of accomplishment for Don Shula, but they say everything about his broad ability to win games.
As in 347 of them.