Ol’ Super Duper Is Back, and Miami Wins : AFC: Forgotten Dolphin receiver has five catches for 125 yards and two touchdowns in 20-16 victory over Jets.

At game’s end, the New York Jets had more first downs, more offensive plays, more rushing yards, more passing yards, more total yards, more third-down conversions, more minutes with the ball. More everything, it seemed.

Except points.

Somehow the Miami Dolphins, 20-16 winners Sunday, owned that category, although the Jets aren’t quite sure how it happened. The game was theirs . . . and then it wasn’t.

Explanations are simple enough, really. The Jets had the statistics, the Dolphins had quarterback Dan Marino and wide receiver Mark Duper. Marino, you know. Duper, though, has been missing in action since 1987.

Until Sunday. With Marino’s favorite target, Mark Clayton, sidelined with a tender ankle and the Miami running game stalled with injuries of it own, the Dolphins had little choice but to depend on Duper. Duper thanked them with five receptions for 125 yards and two touchdowns, including the game-winner.

“Duper’s back, for you people who are wondering,” Miami Coach Don Shula said. “We gave him about three or four years to get it back.”

And this from Marino, who has had his own problems this season: “Everybody here says (Duper) wasn’t here. Maybe the media did, but I never questioned him as a player. I always knew he was a good player. Mark is capable of getting open against anybody.”

One of Duper’s better moves came after the game. Saying he was in a hurry to see his family, Duper darted out of the Dolphin locker room and into the parking lot before reporters could find him.

The Dolphins and a Joe Robbie Stadium record crowd of 69,678 didn’t seem to mind. They had their fourth victory in five games and sit atop the AFC East standings with Buffalo. Better yet, they watched two oldies but goodies--Marino and Duper--regain some much needed form.

“Vintage Marino and Duper,” Miami guard Roy Foster said. “Marino and Duper of old.”

Especially Duper, who has been nagged by injuries, embarrassed by drug suspensions, ignored, at times, by the Miami offense. Patience was growing thin.

Tell it to the Jets (2-3), who watched Duper make almost every clutch catch of the day for the Dolphins.

For instance, it was Duper who tied the score, 13-13, with a 69-yard reception from Marino with 7:23 left in the third period. Duper faked a down-and-out pattern and then turned upfield, leaving Jet cornerback James Hasty to consider the back of Duper’s jersey.

It was also Duper who, with the Dolphins trailing, 16-13, broke free on a slant pattern, caught Marino’s pass at the Jet one-yard line and tumbled into the end zone with 1:03 remaining in the game. The catch capped a back-breaking drive that began at the Miami 20 and ended five minutes and 31 seconds later with Duper’s 13-yard score. The Dolphins converted four third-down attempts on the drive, two of which went to Duper.

“He was pumped up,” Marino said. “He knew he had to play well for us to win.”

Not since Dec. 20, 1987, had Duper caught two touchdowns in a game. In years past, he did it with frightening regularity.

More surprisingly, it was Duper’s first touchdown reception in 16 games, the length of a regular NFL season.

The Jets had their chances to win this game. Lots of them. They allowed Miami only one possession in the first quarter, only three possessions for the entire half.

Meanwhile, New York was busy moving up and down the field with drives reminiscent of the ball-control Dolphins of the early 1970s.

--A Pat Leahy 25-yard field goal ended a 16-play, 8:44 drive.

--A nine-yard touchdown pass from Ken O’Brien to rookie wide receiver Rob Moore ended a nine-play, 80-yard trip.

--Another Leahy field goal, this one 19 yards, concluded a 14-play, 8:16 drive that began at the Jet 36. The score gave New York a 13-0 lead.

Equally important was a goal-line stand that denied Miami of a touchdown at the end of the first half. With time running out, Sammie Smith was stopped cold as he tried leaping over the middle of the Jet line.

“A big play, but it didn’t seem to demoralize them, did it?” Jet Coach Bruce Coslet said.

There’s a good explanation for that, too. Its name is Don Shula.

At halftime, Shula addressed his team as only Shula can, which is to say, with passion.

“I want to make damn sure we don’t let (the Jet goal-line stand) affect what happens to us,” he told the Dolphins.

Asked if it was an emotional speech, Shula grinned.

“Me, get emotional?” he said.

Whatever the tone, it worked. So did a revived Miami defense, which entered the game ranked second in the league, although you wouldn’t have known it those first two quarters.

“Everything you could do wrong, we were doing,” Dolphin cornerback Tim McKyer said.

The second half was different. The Jets could manage only one field goal, and their running game was crippled by injuries to their two starting guards, Dave Cadigan and Mike Haight.

Meanwhile, 11 of Marino’s 19 completions and 173 of his 252 yards came in the second half.