Marino, Miami Aren’t Done Yet

The plan was to not rely on Dan Marino’s arm, play tedious Jimmy Johnson ball, bore the Seattle Seahawks into submission and then steal a win away on Olindo Mare’s kicking.

But after holding Marino to nine first-half passes and getting the Seahawk defense to come up to stop the run, Johnson gave the stage to Marino for one more fling at greatness.

And the old gunslinger’s aim remained true. Marino shot down the Seahawks in the Miami Dolphins’ 20-17 victory in an AFC wild card game, closing down the Kingdome and still giving himself the chance to put an Elway-like wrap to his record-book career.

It was Miami’s first playoff victory on the road in 28 years, Marino’s first after seven career defeats outside of Miami. It also sends the Dolphins to Jacksonville on Saturday for the next round of the playoffs.

Denver quarterback John Elway held the Lombardi Trophy over his head the past two seasons and ran off the field as the most valuable player after the last Super Bowl and announced his retirement. He played in five Super Bowls, winning two, but left the game with regrets that Dan Reeves’ style of coaching prevented him from posting Marino-like statistics.

But now it’s Marino, 8-9 in the playoffs with only one Super Bowl appearance--a loss--some 15 years ago on his resume, trying to gracefully coexist with Johnson’s style of coaching and put the Elway polish on his career with a season-ending win in Atlanta in three weeks. “I thought Dan did a good job in the game,” said Johnson, who showed that it must be difficult to bite your tongue and talk at the same time. “I think Dan did a good job throwing the ball.”

That’s as good as it gets when it comes time for Jimmy Johnson to talk about his veteran quarterback, the rift between the two at the heart of the rumors that have Marino or Johnson or both leaving after the season.

Johnson told his team during the week that he was scaling back the offense to eliminate turnovers, a poke at Marino, who had been intercepted a dozen times the past six games, three of the errant passes being returned for scores.

“Dan knew that was what it was going to be,” wide receiver O.J. McDuffie said. “We talked about it in meetings all week and we knew that was the deal. We were going to run the ball as much as we could. And we were going to keep our throws under 25 yards.”

Johnson might as well have put a sling on Marino in the first half, asking one of the most feared arms in football history to remain holstered.

“Danny said to us to just hang in there, and if he could hang in there throwing the ball only nine times in the first half, then we could,” McDuffie said. “He was pretty good about it. Now if the game wasn’t close and we were getting beat by two touchdowns and not throwing it, he might have been a little different.”

The Dolphins trailed at halftime, 10-3, and for a team that had come limping into the playoffs, a loser of five of six games, there was no reason to think this might not be Marino’s final half of football.

Marino, who lost the first playoff game of his career against Seattle in 1983, has yet to say if this 17th season will be his last, but his erratic play in recent weeks since suffering a pinched nerve in his neck and bulging disk have many believing each game might very well be his last.

“He’s got a pretty good poker face,” guard Kevin Gogan said. “I know that’s the talk and I understand his family was brought into Washington for the last regular-season game, but he’s never said anything like, ‘This is my last game.’ ”

If this is his last season, however, and he goes nowhere beyond next Saturday’s game with Jacksonville, his fourth-quarter drive to nudge the Dolphins ahead of the Seahawks will be a fitting exclamation point to a Hall of Fame career.

He had already shown flashes of heyday Marino, completing all six of his passes on the first drive of the second half, including a one-yard touchdown dart to Oronde Gadsden to tie the score.

“That was big,” Johnson said, “because at that time we only had about 60 yards in total offense. Taking the opening drive in the second half and driving the length of the field to tie it up showed we could move the ball and score.”

But Seattle immediately responded with Charlie Rogers’ 85-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and a 17-10 edge, and remained ahead, 17-13, after Mare’s 50-yard field goal in the third quarter.

With 66,170 fans screaming in the Kingdome, a building that will be demolished in March to make way for a new stadium in two years, the Seahawks appeared to be in command. The Dolphins still had 9:09 to play, but had the ball at their own 15-yard line.

After a running play resulted in a two-yard loss, Marino’s arm appeared to go dead while trying to throw to Tony Martin. The ball bounced well short of Martin, giving Miami a third and 12.

A false start on tackle Richmond Webb pushed Miami back five more yards, a third and 17 now stretching the limits of Marino’s arm. In the old days, defenses would have backpedaled in fear with Marino standing in the shotgun formation, but now he’s just old, and it would not have been uncharacteristic of Johnson to be conservative and call for a draw, punt, play good defense and try again.

But Marino took the snap, stayed calm in the pocket--as he has so many times in becoming the NFL’s all-time leader in passes, completions, yardage and touchdown passes--and threw a high pass to Martin, who stretched out to catch it for a 23-yard gain.

Marino went back to Martin for 17 more yards, and after Johnson called for one of his token running plays, he threw for 20 more yards to Martin. This was how Elway played in his final days, stepping back to let Terrell Davis soften up the opposition, and then when needed, gunning down the opposition with his arm.

A 24-yard pass play on third and 10 to Gadsden took the ball to the Seattle five-yard line. Marino then allowed running back J.J. Johnson to finish the drive, going up the middle for three yards and then scoring off left tackle.

“Dan has played longer than anybody in football,” said a dejected Seattle Coach Mike Holmgren, “and he’s pretty good.”

Holmgren’s quarterback, Jon Kitna, was playing in his first playoff game and could not match Marino’s last-quarter charge. On Seattle’s last 10 plays, Kitna was sacked twice, threw five incomplete passes and had another intercepted by Miami defender Terrell Buckley.

“He has to take it to the next level,” said Holmgren, but that’s for next season.

This one’s not over for Marino & Co.

“I don’t know how many times we ran the ball [37], but I know we ran it a lot,” said Marino, who completed 12 of 21 passes for 168 yards in the second half. “We wanted to play good defense, not turn the ball over and give ourselves a chance to win in the end, and it worked out perfectly. When you go out on the road and win in the playoffs, that’s huge.”

But was there a thought any time during the second half that this might be his last game?

“There was so much going on in the game that I never had time to even think that this might be my last game,” he said. “I am not smart enough to think about all that other stuff, especially with the crowd noise and everything that is going on. The only thing I could think about was the game and our strategy to win.”

The strategy was to win without Marino, which might eventually be the case for Miami, but not just yet.

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KINGDOME COMES TO END

Final game played in stadium that was a roaring success in terms of crowd noise.

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