Dolphins Can’t Even Come to Defense of Their Poor Defense

Unfortunately for Coach Don Shula and the Dolphins, Miami’s defensive unit turned in its best performance after Super Bowl XIX. That’s right. After.

The Dolphin defenders, henceforth to be known as Shula’s Sweeties, greeted the press after the 38-16 beating at the hands of the 49ers like deathbed sinners looking for a priest.

Sure, they gave up yards like Rommel in the desert late in the war. The 49ers had 537.

And sure, they made Joe Montana look like the $6 Million Man. Montana passed for 331 and rushed for 59.

But seldom in NFL lore has there been such unanimous rap-taking in a postgame locker room, much less a Super Bowl postgame locker room.

No matter how bad it is, Super Bowls are perfect for invoking the Fifth Amendment. In the case of the NFL, the Fifth Amendment goes something like: “What happened out there today isn’t that important when you consider all those other teams who didn’t even get to the Super Bowl and when you consider that any team can have a bad day and when you . . . “ And on and on. Blah, blah, blah . . .

But not the Dolphins of Super Bowl XIX. No way. Indeed, they were much more defensive in the game than after it. Considering the way they played, that’s saying a lot.

It was almost as if each member of the defense was falling all over himself to be the first to take the blame. The lines to the confessionals wrapped all the way around the locker room. Everybody tried desperately to find a new way to say he was lousy.

Let’s take them one by one:

Don McNeal, cornerback--”Our defense was sad. We didn’t make any plays at all. Montana made all the plays. The occasion was here, and we didn’t rise to it. This is something we will have to live with. This is reality.”

A.J. Duhe, linebacker--”The man (Montana) was just outstanding in everything he did. He found every opening there was, and we gave him plenty. It was just a great performance by a guy in a big game. As for our defense, it was just the opposite.”

Kim Bokamper, defensive end--”We didn’t help our offense at all. We didn’t give them decent field position ever. They were always in a hole. They (the 49ers) did what they needed to do, and we didn’t.”

Doug Betters, defensive end--”Our frustration level was high out there. But if I were a member of the offensive unit, I don’t think I’d feel that same kind of high frustration level right now. The defensive team will take the responsibility for this one. What else can I say?”

Glenn Blackwood, defensive back--”We ran every defense we had on them, but it didn’t do any good. And everybody keeps asking about the fumble (by Freddie Solomon that was ruled an incomplete pass). Well, it was a bad call. It was a fumble. It could have been a big play, but everybody’s forgetting it was second and 10 and we could have stopped them on the next play, which we didn’t.”

Lyle Blackwood, defensive back--”Near the end of the first half, I wasn’t that confident that we could ever get the job done. But we came into the locker room at the half, talked about what we were going to do, told each other that we would go out and do it. And then we went out and did nothing.”

Duhe again--”Every time we did contain Montana, he sort of wiggled around and found some room to do the job. Our plan was to maintain tight coverage throughout. We just didn’t get it done.

Betters again--”They just took it to us. Time after time.”

And Lyle Blackwood again--”We weren’t stopping them on first down. You’ve got to get the other team into a situation where you are dictating what they do. We never dictated anything to them all day. They did all the dictating.

“I’m sure, when we see the films of this one, we’ll see plenty of basic mistakes.

“It really never was a matter of letting down. It was just a matter of playing bad. Real bad.”

And so it went. Post Super Bowl soap opera. As the world turned in the Miami locker room, there seemed little appetite for seeking a brighter day, or searching for tomorrow. This was three issues worth for True Confessions magazine.

Meanwhile, Shula, when asked about his defense, replied: “We had a tough day defensively.”

Shula notwithstanding, if there are such things as moral victories in 38-16 defeats, then the Dolphin defense may have won one in the category of postgame honesty, Super Bowl.

They were lousy and that happens. But they fessed up to it afterward.

That almost never happens.