They’re Still Winners . . . Still Play Hurt

That Dan Marino sure has lost it, hasn’t he? Too old at 36 and nine surgeries and counting.

Can’t run anymore. Can barely walk anymore, for goodness sake.

Time to shuffle another legend out the door and bring in the Craig Erickson era, right coach?

Hey, Jimmy Johnson, you see that?

You see Marino torch the New York Jets last weekend for 372 yards and two touchdowns?

You see how the Jets couldn’t so much as lay a pinkie on the guy, much less put him in the vise-like grip of Hugh Douglas?

You see how Marino won his sixth consecutive game against the Jets, who have become the elixir for whatever ails him?

Think it’s time to switch gears and bring in the Craig Erickson era?

Not on your life.

Not when this man, who throws a football better than virtually anyone else on earth, can pull a game like this out of his creaky body.

Not when this man, who was thrown into an unjustified controversy by the coach who once said the only reason he took the Miami Dolphins job was because Marino was the quarterback, can dissect a defense with the precision of a biologist dissecting a frog.

Not when Marino is still Marino.

But just in case you were wondering, no one had to ask Johnson whether he considered benching Marino, which is what ignited this whole mess in the first place when Johnson said that yes, maybe it was time to get a look at Erickson during Marino’s erratic regular season opener.

Even so, Johnson surely does not like to see the kinds of numbers the Dolphins offense put up yesterday, with the lone exception being the 31 points on the final score sheet.

He cringes when he sees Marino throw 38 passes, while the running backs combine for only 30 carries and 93 yards. That may have been good enough for Don Shula, who built a wondrous offense but never a championship around Marino, but it wasn’t good enough for Johnson.

Which may explain why the two-time Super Bowl winning coach, rather than address the virtues of the best player on his roster, concentrated instead on what happened last weekend.

“We still didn’t get 100 yards rushing,” Johnson said. “I’m a little disappointed in that.”

And when he was asked to remember a pass that stood out, he chose Marino’s shortest and ugliest one, the kind of throw you complete to a small child, not the kind that only a Hall of Famer can complete.

“He made a nice throw when he hit Bernie Parmalee,” Johnson said.

The coach was referring to Marino’s shovel pass on third-and-seven from the Jets’ 33 in the final minutes of the fourth quarter, when Marino scrambled for a few seconds and then pitched the ball forward to Parmalee, who went 21 yards to set up the Dolphins’ final score.

“Bernie was the last resort on that play,” Marino said. “I threw it underhand to him and he caught the ball, so it was a big play for us.”

But there were other big plays, the kind Marino has made so often against the Jets. There was the screamer down the middle for Charles Jordan on third and 14 from the Jets’ 26, as Jordan raced toward the end zone, fumble inside the 5, and then saw O.J. McDuffie pick up the loose ball and run it in for a 24-14 lead with 4:09 left.

There was the 22-yard touchdown throw to Lamar Thomas near the end of the second quarter, a pass that was lofted just perfectly over cornerback Otis Smith’s head. And there was his across-the-field throw to a wide open Karim Abdul-Jabbar, who had taken advantage of a blown coverage and turned it into a 36-yard touchdown early in the period.

Not a bad way to silence the critics, eh Dan? ‘Specially that guy standing on the sidelines?

“I think the critics are the press and whoever,” said Marino, declining to be more specific about “whoever,” even if he’s the guy beneath all the hair spray.

“I’ve always been positive all year, and I’m going to continue to be, no matter what the circumstances are. I don’t let those things bother me.”

Especially not in the wake of his semi-annual dismantling of the Jets, who have not beaten Marino since Sept. 12, 1993. In fact, they still have not completely recovered from “The Spike,” the play in 1994 that sent the franchise into its well-chronicled tailspin.

“Over the years, we’ve had some success here,” he said. “I feel pretty good when I play here, maybe because I feel so comfortable. It’s a good win for us. It’s in the conference. It’s in our division. The Jets have been playing very disciplined football under Bill Parcells, and they play hard the whole time.”

But not even the presence of Parcells was enough to drive a stake through Marino’s presence. Only when he walks away from the game--or when Johnson sends him away.

“I’ve been on the other side when he’s playing,” said Dolphins tackle James Brown, a former Jets lineman. “He can kill you. That spike play, I was here for that. We played a good game, but just fell apart at the end. We were never the same after that.”

You mean the team, or the franchise?

“Both,” he said.

Marino has that effect on you, doesn’t he? Not bad for a guy who admits he occasionally wonders how he keeps playing after so many Sundays.

“There are times when your body doesn’t feel that good, but I’ve always had a good feel in the pocket,” he said. “I usually feel pretty good before most games, It’s during the week I don’t feel so good.”

But even if Marino is held together by stretched tendons, loose ligaments, two knee braces and more protective padding than Mike Richter, he’s still one of the best quarterbacks on the planet.

Too bad it’s just a matter of time before the lights go out on his brilliant career. Please, Jimmy. Do yourself a favor. Don’t make the mistake of turning them out until Marino tells you it’s time.