For Marino, It Has Been a Matter of Adjustments

Dan Marino seems to be playing more efficient football these days for the Miami Dolphins, who are suddenly up to 4-2. His new coach, Jimmy Johnson, hinted last month that he would bench the 36-year-old quarterback if necessary--but that doesn’t now seem necessary.

For those who assume that the NFL’s best passer since Joe Namath is throwing the ball about as well as ever, there are two possible explanations for the recent improvement in Marino’s results:

* He is adjusting to new receivers. As a project, that is the hard part when trades or other company decisions or retirements take out such good ones as Irving Fryar and Terry Kirby or the Marks brothers, Clayton and Duper.

* Marino is adjusting to a conservative new offense. That can be harder yet. Since Johnson’s first hour in Miami, he has insisted that the Dolphins run the ball, which on this team means running Karim Abdul-Jabbar on first and 10. Next, very often, it means running Abdul-Jabbar on second and seven. Then it means trying to pass for a first down on third and five or six--which, in a blitzing era, puts a load on any passer.

The load is too heavy, sometimes, for even Marino--certainly heavier than passing on first and 10 when no one is blitzing. But on third and long this month, he is hitting more often than last month. He’s adjusting.

As for Marino’s receivers, there’s an insufficiency of experience at all three positions, including tight end, except for O.J. McDuffie, a journeyman.

That’s a bother because two good receivers running the same pass patterns don’t run them identically. They may make their cuts at the same time but they don’t look the same to the passer. For instance, one guy sways a little, the other a lot. Thus, passers must learn to read the individual. That takes time.

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New way: One thing is greatly different now in Miami from what it was in Dallas when Johnson took the Cowboys to victory in the 1993 and ’94 Super Bowls. And that is Johnson’s tame new offense.

In Dallas, with Troy Aikman at quarterback and Norv Turner the offensive coordinator, Johnson’s team played the West Coast or Bill Walsh offense. One year when Aikman threw four touchdown passes in the Super Bowl, he threw them all on first-down plays.

In Miami this year and last, with Johnson’s old friend Gary Stevens as offensive coordinator, Marino has been held in something of a straitjacket. Handing off on first down robs any passer of an extra chance to throw and avoid the deadly three-and-out.

During Marino’s best seasons in Miami, he was allowed to pass aggressively, which is not only much easier but also, as a rule, a better way to win NFL games.

It is perhaps a mark of Marino’s greatness, however, that as he adjusts to new receivers, he also seems to be settling into Johnson’s new offense.

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Redskin party: To achieve their upset last Monday night, the Washington Redskins, now coached by Turner, played typical Turner football to beat the Dallas Cowboys, whose coach is Johnson’s successor there, Barry Switzer.

In the late 1980s, when Turner was a Ram assistant, he became aware of the West Coast offense by coaching against San Francisco.

And his first principle is the same as Walsh’s: Be prepared to attack on first down with either a pass or a run, thus keeping the other team off balance.

“Third down doesn’t take the measure of any passer,” Turner says. “On third down, the defense dictates to the offense. You measure quarterbacks on first-down passing.”

As a head coach, Turner keeps improving. He isn’t yet another Walsh, or Johnson, but his understanding of modern offense could be more complete than Johnson’s. The one thing that Miami is missing now is what Johnson had with Turner in Dallas: a great offensive scheme.

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Life of Emmitt: This won’t be remembered as back Emmitt Smith’s best season. Smith was a terror in Dallas when Turner was calling the plays there.

Smith was, of course, then in his prime. But more than that, the Johnson-Turner-Aikman Cowboys usually ran Smith on second- or third-down plays, when their opponents, expecting a pass, were attacking not Smith but Aikman.

For example, one of Smith’s longest Super Bowl touchdown runs was on third and 10 when Turner called a draw play.

The Cowboys have been worrying about Smith’s lack of touchdown production this year in the so-called red zone, and, as shown in last Monday night’s game, this kind of thing helps explain it:

* On first and goal in a critical red-zone series, Smith was stuffed by the Washington players who had anticipated a run.

* On third and goal, trying to pass against the blitzing Redskins who had anticipated a pass, Aikman barely escaped with his life.

Result: no touchdown.

With more early-down passing this season, Aikman might have scored more often. And if Smith had been asked to run fewer first-down power plays and more passing-down draw plays, he might have scored at least once.