Rather fair points.7DnBrnc53 wrote: ↑Sat May 23, 2026 3:52 pm1984 SB XIX: The 1984 Dolphins were a one-dimensional team with no defense (in hindsight, it doesn't shock me that Marino didn't return to a Super Bowl).If the AFC was a shaky conference and the NFC a myth, then how exactly does one look at that entire 13 year run between SB’s 18-32?
One question though: Why did it not surprise you that Dan Marino never made it back to the Super Bowl again?
As for the ‘84 Dolphins, at least in the regular season it looks like an ok defense though admittedly regressing if not getting older (seventh by points but lower by my stat on defense I think) I’ve seen people say it was pretty good until A.J. Duhe had a career ending injury.
It may have been a regressed defense and not to get hung up on semantics, but I probably wouldn’t say a team that was seventh in points had “no defense”. (though they didn’t play well in the playoffs)
Unfortunately for Marino, he had his rookie year overlap with a really good season from the Killer B’s (that defense gets a bit overlooked in my book; they were really good for 3-4 years before then), and his historic 84 campaign aligned with an ok one, then that defense aged and fell off a cliff and may have cost him a second MVP two years later in 1986.
The Killer B’s declined in the mid 80’s, but given that Marino was still one of the better quarterbacks in the league into the mid 90’s, did you think the Dolphins couldn’t build another good defense? (In hindsight they did, but at the twilight of Marino’s career after it was too late to contend again)