For Once, Two Favorites in Super Bowl : Dolphins’ Offense Proves Too Much for Steelers, 45-28

Miami wide receiver Mark Clayton is known as the Mouth of the South, but he finally ran out of words Sunday at the Orange Bowl.

Asked about quarterback Dan Marino’s performance in the 45-28 victory over Pittsburgh for the American Conference championship, Clayton searched his vocabulary for something new to say.

After several moments, he surrendered. “I’ve already used all my adjectives,” Clayton said.

But since the Steelers had seen Marino up close and personal for only the second time this season--Miami beat them, 31-7, in the sixth regular-season game--they were still capable of being amazed by the National Football League’s Most Valuable Player.

“They have a hell of a passing game, well-designed,” Pittsburgh safety Donnie Shell said. “But it’s not the design that beats you. It’s No. 13.”

“Marino is the best quarterback we’ve seen,” Pittsburgh Coach Chuck Noll said. “No question.”

Cornerback Dwayne Woodruff called Marino “unstoppable.”

Center Mike Webster called him “sensational.”

Webster has been in the NFL for 11 seasons. For the first time in his career, he didn’t take a seat on the bench when the Steelers’ offense was off the field. He stood on the sideline.

“I wanted to watch Marino play,” he said.

He didn’t necessarily enjoy what he saw, but he had to appreciate it.

The victory sends the Dolphins to Palo Alto for the Jan. 20 Super Bowl against San Francisco. It will be Coach Don Shula’s sixth appearance in the Super Bowl, once with Baltimore and five times with Miami.

It would have been the Steelers’ fifth appearance in the Super Bowl if they had won Sunday, but a Pittsburgh native, Marino, did them in.

“I’m sure they love me up there today,” Marino said.

Playing against a team that thought it could blitz him into foolish mistakes, Marino completed 21 of 32 passes for 421 yards and 4 touchdowns. He was not sacked and threw only one interception.

It was his fifth 400-yard game of the season. The only other quarterback to have five 400-yard games in a career was Sonny Jurgensen. It took him 19 seasons. Marino is in his second season.

The only quarterback ever to throw for more yards in an NFL playoff game was San Diego’s Dan Fouts, who threw for 433 yards against Miami in 1981. But he had to have an overtime to do that.

Not since the NFL-AFL merger has anyone completed more passes in an AFC championship game. No one has ever thrown more touchdown passes in an AFC championship game.

Marino even caught a pass, a nine-yarder from running back Tony Nathan, that would have resulted in a first down if the Dolphins hadn’t been penalized for having an ineligible receiver downfield.

It was the only time all day the Steelers showed Marino a lack of respect. They had him covered with a defensive lineman.

“I wish it had been a defensive back,” Marino said.

Hadn’t he humiliated the Steelers’ defensive backs enough?

In an age of ball-control passing, Marino completed eight passes of more than 24 yards. Three of them were for touchdowns, a 40-yarder to Clayton and 41- and 36-yarders to the other wide receiver, Mark Duper. Marino’s final touchdown pass was hardly worth counting--six yards to Nat Moore. Throw it back.

Marino easily could have thrown for six touchdowns. Two 28-yard passes gave the Dolphins first downs at the Pittsburgh one-yard line, both leading to touchdown runs.

After making the cover of Sports Illustrated, Super Duper caught only one touchdown pass in the next 11 weeks before Sunday.

He wasn’t too sure this was going to be his day after a defensive back knocked him unconscious in the first half. Upon returning, he had to ask Marino to repeat plays in the huddle. Still, Duper caught 5 passes for 148 yards.

Nathan caught 8 passes for 114 yards. Clayton caught 4 for 95, even though he missed the second half with a bruised shoulder. He is expected to play in the Super Bowl.

All of the offensive numbers were wonderful, but Shula seemed to be most impressed by one of the more obscure statistics. Only twice, he said, did the Dolphins fail to respond to the Steelers’ blitz. He gave Marino a lot of credit for that, too. The Steelers didn’t think the second-year quarterback would be able to handle it.

“We gave it our best shot,” Noll said. “It was just too tough to try to overcome Marino and their passing game. We weren’t able to cover their receivers.”

The Steelers’ game plan was no secret. They told everyone who asked that they wanted to control the ball with their running game and keep Marino off the field as much as possible. Ground Chuck wasn’t invented in Seattle.

It worked early in the game, sort of.

Through the Steelers’ first possession of the second quarter, they had held the ball for 13:04 to 4:35 for the Dolphins. But all it got the Steelers was a 7-7 tie.

But they stayed with it and led 14-10 on a 65-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Mark Malone to wide receiver John Stallworth with 2:52 remaining in the first half.

That gave Stallworth 11 playoff touchdown catches for his career, breaking former Raider Fred Biletnikoff’s record. Before the day was over, Stallworth would have the fifth 100-yard playoff game of his career, breaking another Biletnikoff record.

Even though the Dolphins were trailing, Shula said they weren’t concerned.

“We always have the feeling we can do things in a hurry,” he said. “When something negative happens, our offense just says, ‘Go for it,’ and it usually works out.”

Using their two-minute offense, the Dolphins responded with a 77-yard, five-play drive, scoring on a 41-yard pass from Marino to Duper for a 17-14 lead.

In retrospect, it is easy to say the Steelers should have been satisfied with that going into the dressing room.

But they weren’t, and it cost them. On first and 14 from the Pittsburgh 20, Malone, under pressure from defensive end Kim Bokamper, threw over the middle to a wide open Lyle Blackwood, who plays for Miami.

The Dolphins took over at the Pittsburgh 35 with 1:03 remaining and scored five plays later for a 24-14 halftime lead.

Less than two minutes into the second half, Marino found Duper open behind the Pittsburgh secondary for a 36-yard touchdown and a 31-14 lead.

The Steelers had one gasp left, driving 72 yards and scoring on a 17-yard pass from Malone to Stallworth that cut the Dolphins’ lead to 31-21 with 7:55 remaining in the third quarter.

But the Steelers’ defense couldn’t stop Miamarino.

“They tried a lot of different kinds of blitzes,” Duper said. “Some times they worked, and some times they got hurt.”

Mostly, they got hurt.

The Dolphins failed to reach midfield only twice. They punted only once until the final two minutes, long after the issue was settled.

After the Dolphins’ lead had been cut to 10 in the third quarter, Marino completed passes of 41 yards to Duper, 20 yards to Nathan and 28 yards to Moore as they put together an 80-yard, 10-play drive for a 38-21 lead.

The next time they had the ball, they drove 66 yards in 9 plays for a 45-21 lead.

The only challenge remaining for the Dolphins was to find more adjectives for Marino. Shula couldn’t think of enough nice things to say.

“He always answers the challenge when you ask him to,” Shula said. “He answers even when you don’t ask him to.”