It’s One Party After Another for Miami’s Duper : Flashy Receiver Celebrates in Style After Three-Touchdown Day at Anaheim

Mark Duper was clearly a man headed for a celebration. It’s awfully difficult to imagine a man who was mourning a loss dressed in this outfit.

The diminutive Miami receiver was striding down the tunnel from the Anaheim Stadium visitor’s clubhouse Sunday wearing bright red nylon shorts, a red-and-white striped shirt and red shoes . . . with a purple comb stuck in his hair for contrast.

In one hand he held a “Silver Bullet,” in the other, the brown bullet that Dolphin quarterback Dan Marino had gunned into his hands three minutes into overtime to give Miami a 37-31 win over the Rams.

The light beer was the kickoff of a party to come, scheduled Sunday night with a group of 20 relatives and friends who had come to see him play. The football that beat the Rams was an early Christmas present for his aunt, Roberta Wesley, from Los Angeles.

“She’s always bugging me for a ball, now she’s gonna get one,” Duper said, smiling. “A touchdown ball and a game ball . . . not bad, huh?”

The Miami coaching staff had honored him with the game ball, but Sunday’s 5 catches for 145 yards and 3 touchdowns was little more than another day at the office for Duper. It was the eighth time this season the 5-foot 9-inch speedster had surpassed 100 yards receiving in a game.

Miami fans have come to expect this sort of show, but the 62,629 at Anaheim Stadium had to be marveling at the way two men can work so closely together on a football field.

Duper’s first touchdown came on a 69-yard pass from Marino on a flea-flicker. The play was executed so perfectly that Ram cornerback LeRoy Irvin could do little more than watch. Marino handed off to fullback Ron Davenport, who lateraled back to Marino as he neared the line of scrimmage. Irvin went for the run fake as Duper sprinted past him, waving wildly for Marino to throw. When he caught the ball, he jogged into the end zone alone.

“That was the easiest touchdown I’ve ever gotten,” said Duper, who already has 34 in just 3 1/2 pro seasons. “I was hoping Dan would get the ball to me as soon as possible. . . . I was so open.”

The second touchdown play was one for the passing clinics. It was only a five-yard pass, but Marino delivered the ball long before Duper made his cut. When Duper turned to look for the ball, it was already directly in front of his belt and he snatched it with one hand. If he hadn’t caught the ball, it might have stuck in his pocket.

It was the third touchdown--a 20-yard pass from Marino--that changed the Rams’ trip to San Francisco next week from shopping spree/exhibition game to showdown for the NFC West title.

“We knew they were going to be playing the run because we were already in field goal range,” Duper said. “I ran an I-takeoff, which means I fake a slant and then just take off down the sidelines.

“It’s a pretty low-risk play. Dan (Marino) goes over the top, and I either get it or it goes out of the end zone. He (Irvin) tried to take my head off, and then I faked inside and went. It was just the perfect play and the perfect pass.”

Duper, clone Mark Clayton and Marino have been thinking alike for almost four years now, and the results have been a scoreboard operator’s nightmare.

Clayton, who had 4 catches for 84 yards Sunday, surpassed the 1,000-yard mark for the second time in his four-year career. Duper has 1,245 this season, the third time he has had more than 1,000.

“They’re both unbelievable,” Marino said. “They both seem to be able to get open against anyone. And they read the defenses just like I do. They always seem to make the right decisions.”

The Rams’ defense, in general, and Irvin, in particular, seemed to make all the wrong moves Sunday.

“Duper’s a nifty little receiver and he’s the kind of guy that if you’re beat by one step, you’re beat,” Irvin said. “It seems like everytime we went man-to-man, they beat us deep.”

The Rams seldom vary from their tried-and-true zone. And Irvin said he hadn’t seen any teams even try to stop the Dolphins with a man-to-man defense.

So why were the Rams caught playing mano-a-mano against the NFL’s Main Man and his Merry Men?

“I don’t know,” Irvin said. “No comment. . . . I take the fifth.”

Coaching decisions aside, Duper said the Ram defense made the mistake of trying to read Marino’s eyes and while the 25-year-old’s baby blues may look sincere, these are definitely lying eyes.

“The Ram secondary has a habit of looking at the quarterback,” Duper said. “But with Dan that’s a big mistake.”

And Duper was glad to help make the Rams pay for those errors of judgment. Then he sported his victory colors and walked off into a Southland sunset.