Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

I watched this in '85 and again over the weekend - glad there are full games available now.

I don't know where I've been, but I honestly thought noise was something the visiting team had to deal with. In the game, the Bears QB Fuller several times was able to get the game stopped by complaining about the noise to the officials. The announcers mentioned that they couldn't call a penalty on the Dolphins, commented on the refs asking Shula to quiet the crowd, mentioned there needed to be a rule, etc. It all seemed kind of bizarre. I thought QBs dealt with that using a silent count. Does anyone know the history of the rule?

The one thing I was disappointed is there wasn't one spot where the announcers broke down anything the Bears were doing on defense and I was watching on my phone which meant I had a small screen and it was tough to rewind. Joe Namath noticed Marino was rolling out, but there wasn't much X's and O's talk. The one play that stuck in my mind from '85, the blocked punt, surprised me as I remembered it being earlier in the game and it was actually at the end of the half.

Trying to watch a classic football game on your phone is like eating Thanksgiving supper using only your bare hands.

Good analogy I hate upgrading, but I may at least get one of those large screen phones at some point.

It's been over 30 years but I seem to recall Cosell and company talking about how rolling Marino out of the pocket helped to neutralize the Bears' 46 Defense. With their considerable pass rush kept in check the quick Miami receivers were able to use their speed on the Bears DBs giving them a big advantage. I think their third down conversion rate was very high in that game, with lots of yards after the catch.

TanksAndSpartans wrote:Good analogy I hate upgrading, but I may at least get one of those large screen phones at some point.

I've never owned a smart phone and never will; they'll have to pry my old fashioned flip phone from my cold dead hands. I'm not on the Facebook or the Twitter, and I never felt the need to have 24/7 internet access at all times. I just find those Iphones to be too addictive.

TanksAndSpartans wrote: I don't know where I've been, but I honestly thought noise was something the visiting team had to deal with. In the game, the Bears QB Fuller several times was able to get the game stopped by complaining about the noise to the officials. The announcers mentioned that they couldn't call a penalty on the Dolphins, commented on the refs asking Shula to quiet the crowd, mentioned there needed to be a rule, etc. It all seemed kind of bizarre. I thought QBs dealt with that using a silent count. Does anyone know the history of the rule?

I don't remember the details of it but there was a rule about crowd noise. I do recall penalties and/or stoppages due to crowd noise in the late 1980s. It seems ludicrous that such a thing ever was a thing.

QB's complaining about noise in the Kingdome -and the officials warning a penalty or charging the Seahawks with a timeout- was a common occurrence.

Every year it really made Elway look bad (not his play) because he'd whine all game and literally look like he was about to cry, about crowd noise.

I remember one game I was at there was a sequence when he stepped back from under center and complained, official agreed the crowd was allegedly 'too loud', he got back under center then stepped back again complaining, official then gave warning of a penalty if the crowd didn't quiet down. Naturally then the boos that followed that announcement were 'too loud' and Elway/Broncos wouldn't play under those conditions so there was another warning, more boos, people stood around, until crowd noise got down to about half-effort and the game went on. Really killed the crowd atmosphere, which I guess was the point.

Esiason is another one I want to say I remember being in the Kingdome and him complaining about crowd noise.

The way certain QB's whined from '89 on was really unbecoming.

Thanks for the crowd noise responses - I must have just completely blocked it out of my memory that QBs could complain to the officials about noise. Fuller came off whiney in my opinion - the Orange Bowl is an open air stadium.

Back to the game, Marino definitely connected on some passes using the roll out, but I don't think it was the deciding factor - his quick release was able to beat the pressure, but granted some of those quick release pressure beaters were a bit off target. It was just one of those games, a perfect storm - the Dolphins low ranked D played inspired, the Bears came out with a backup QB and a gameplan that used Payton, who was coming off 7 straight 100-yard games, as a decoy for the first quarter and and a half, Dolphins were home with a lot to play for only one season removed from a Super Bowl run with record breaking offense, etc., etc. Aside from the crowd noise issue, I was surprised the Bears defense just didn't look special, taking this one game out of context, it didn't look to me like a team with one of the best defensive seasons all-time by any team. I may need to watch one more time just to focus on what the Bears defense was doing.

TanksAndSpartans wrote:Thanks for the crowd noise responses - I must have just completely blocked it out of my memory that QBs could complain to the officials about noise. Fuller came off whiney in my opinion - the Orange Bowl is an open air stadium.

Back to the game, Marino definitely connected on some passes using the roll out, but I don't think it was the deciding factor - his quick release was able to beat the pressure, but granted some of those quick release pressure beaters were a bit off target. It was just one of those games, a perfect storm - the Dolphins low ranked D played inspired, the Bears came out with a backup QB and a gameplan that used Payton, who was coming off 7 straight 100-yard games, as a decoy for the first quarter and and a half, Dolphins were home with a lot to play for only one season removed from a Super Bowl run with record breaking offense, etc., etc. Aside from the crowd noise issue, I was surprised the Bears defense just didn't look special, taking this one game out of context, it didn't look to me like a team with one of the best defensive seasons all-time by any team. I may need to watch one more time just to focus on what the Bears defense was doing.

And this time, watch it on a big screen.

I remember the Orange Bowl crowd noise being an issue in the late-season ’81 Eagles@Dolphins Monday Nighter.