Dolphins Have Ace, but Rams Have Wild Card : Marino’s 5 TDs Lift Miami; L.A. Makes Playoffs

How nice it was of the Miami Dolphins to award quarterback Dan Marino a game ball after Sunday’s 37-31 overtime win over the Rams at Anaheim Stadium.

It was kind of like giving a measly gold watch to the guy who pushed you clear of a speeding bus.

Game ball? How about a game blimp?

Marino, who hasn’t yet celebrated his 26th birthday, turned the Ram secondary into a Keystone Kops routine as he passed for 403 yards and 5 touchdowns in a win that prevented the Rams from clinching the NFC West title.

Now, they can only do that by defeating the San Francisco 49ers Friday night at Candlestick Park.

The best the Rams could do Sunday was clinch a wild-card playoff spot, courtesy of the Minnesota Vikings’ loss to the Houston Oilers. Still, on most teams, Marino’s numbers are enough to get a win in regulation.

But the Dolphins, those daredevils of defense, allowed the Rams to rally from a 21-7 halftime deficit and eventually send the game into overtime after Eric Dickerson tied the game at 31 on a one-yard touchdown run with 50 seconds remaining.

It set up the biggest play of the day, a scintillating overtime coin toss. With both offenses kicked into high gear, the drama ended at midfield when Dolphin captain Dwight Stephenson wisely called “heads” as the coin flipped through the air.

The Dolphins elected to receive. Ram fans collected their belongings and perched themselves near exit tunnels.

“That flip was the game,” Ram guard and captain Dennis Harrah said. “No doubt, if we’d have won the toss, we’d have gone down to score. We were rolling.”

Was there any stopping Marino? Are you kidding?

The Dolphins took the ball at their 25 and were in the end zone barely three minutes into overtime, with Marino ending the game on a 20-yard scoring pass to Mark Duper.

The key play, though, was a 35-yard run by Ron Davenport that gave the Dolphins a first down at the Ram 32-yard line.

Coach John Robinson said the run may have caught the Rams “on their heels.”

Yeah, maybe. At one point in the second half, the Dolphins had 163 passing yards and 0 yards on the ground. Davenport came into the game with 253 yards rushing this season.

Marino’s scoring pass to Duper was his 29th completion in 46 attempts.

It was also Marino’s 41st touchdown pass of the season.

Marino was so good that he made Ram quarterback Jim Everett’s numbers look like chicken scratches, and Everett completed 18 of 31 passes for 251 yards and 2 touchdowns.

“He does my job so well,” Everett said of Marino.

Marino had touchdown passes of 69, 6, 43, 5 and 20 yards. Duper had three touchdown catches, and Mark Clayton and James Pruitt had one each.

Marino had the Ram secondary running for the Dramamine all day.

Inexplicably, the Rams often ventured away from their famous kindergarten zone defense and tried to stop Marino with man-to-man coverage. The Rams figured it would work if they could get pressure on Marino, who had been sacked only once in five previous games.

The Rams had the right idea but sacked Marino just once.

“We were always in his face,” defensive end Gary Jeter said. “It’s not his offensive line. Everything is timing. He does not want to take a sack. And a couple of times, he didn’t even see where he threw the ball.”

Of course, Ram linebackers and defensive backs shared the same concern.

“His (passing) motion is a blur,” linebacker Mark Jerue said. “I’ve never seen anything like that. I never knew what they meant by ‘quick release’ until today.”

It was enough that the Rams could stay in the game at all with all they had on their minds.

First, there was all that playoff stuff. The Rams could have clinched the NFC West before kickoff had the New England Patriots defeated the 49ers. But that didn’t happen.

And the players didn’t learn until late in the fourth quarter that the Vikings had lost, assuring the Rams’ place in the playoffs.

The Rams also were without fullback Barry Redden, who missed the game with the flu.

“We started out nervous,” Harrah said. “It was like no one wanted to make a mistake.”

Eric Dickerson, though, made one early in the second quarter, when he fumbled at the Dolphin one-yard line.

Luckily for the Rams, the ball was recovered in the end zone by rookie guard Tom Newberry, who scored his first touchdown since high school.

But the Rams’ 7-0 lead lasted about as long as it takes a football to leave Marino’s hand.

So the Rams defense doesn’t give up the big play, eh?

From the Ram 31, Marino handed off to Davenport, who took a few steps toward the line of scrimmage before tossing back to Marino.

The fake planted Ram cornerback LeRoy Irvin’s feet into the Anaheim Stadium turf. Duper raced past Irvin as if he was standing still (he was), and Marino hit his receiver on the run for 69 yards and a touchdown with 13:06 left in the half.

Irvin said he could have used some help on the play.

“Yeah, there was supposed to be a safety,” Irvin said. “But there was also supposed to be a cornerback.”

Irvin was referring to himself.

Dickerson fumbled the ball back to the Dolphins on the next series, with Larry Kolic recovering for Miami at the Ram 39.

Marino turned that mistake into a six-yard touchdown pass to Pruitt.

Marino capped the half by going 43 yards to Clayton for a touchdown with 4:24 left to put the Dolphins up 21-7.

The Rams emerged a different team in the second half.

Everett said the trick was that they stopped worrying so much.

“There was the loss of Redden, and we were trying not to make mistakes,” Everett said. “We learned a valuable lesson.”

Everett then began conducting some lessons on passing.

The 19-yard touchdown pass he threw to Henry Ellard with 11:33 left in the third quarter could not have been thrown better.

Dolphin cornerback Reyna Thompson was almost wearing Ellard’s jersey as the two streaked down the right sideline.

Everett threw while Ellard wasn’t looking, and when Ellard turned his eyes back toward his quarterback, the ball had already arrived.

That made it 21-14 and it seemed the Rams had taken control of momentum.

On the next series, almost from the exact spot, Everett threw the same pass to Kevin House, with Thompson covering.

It looked like a 23-yard touchdown pass but back judge Paul Baetz ruled the pass incomplete, claiming House did not have both feet in bounds.

With the crowd screaming the sports chant of the 1980s, “Replay, Replay,” the play was reviewed and overturned. The play stood and the Rams had tied the game at 21-21.

But it wouldn’t last.

Marino charged 83 yards back down field on the next series to put the Dolphins ahead, this time on a five-yard pass to Duper with 1:35 left in the quarter.

Miami made it 31-21 early in the fourth quarter on an 18-yard field goal by Fuad Reveiz.

But the Rams proved capable of coming back, a trait that is becoming familiar in the Everett era.

“There was a time when we couldn’t do that,” Dickerson said. “It would have been impossible.”

But the new Rams made it 31-24 with 6:47 left on Mike Lansford’s 32-yard field goal.

They then forced the Dolphins to punt and got the ball back with 5:29 remaining.

The Rams moved their way downfield. On a key third down and 10 play at the Miami 35, Everett threw 11 yards to House for a first down.

The Rams worked the clock down with Dickerson before scored with less than a minute left. Lansford tied the game with an extra point.

But all the Rams work was wasted by a flip of the coin in overtime.

The Dolphins worked their way down to the Ram 20 but elected not to center the ball for a field goal attempt.

Of course, when you gain 506 yards in total offense, you can take some chances.

Marino went right to Duper.

“We knew that was the play to run,” Duper said.

Coach Don Shula agreed: “It was an easy read for Marino and Duper.”

If only someone would have told Irvin, who again was on the coverage.

“All I know is that Dan has the quickest release I’ve ever seen,” Irvin said. “The ball gets there so fast that he is able to hit before we can react.”

So now, the division title awaits in San Francisco. Funny, but someone once said the season would end up this way.

“Thank God we’ve got San Francisco Friday,” Ram safety Johnnie Johnson said. “They (the Dolphins) scored 37 points on our defense. That’s hard to live with.”