Pro Football : Get-the-Quarterback Attacks Have Gotten to Marino This Year

There’s a new Dan Marino in the National Football League this year.

The Miami Dolphins’ extraordinary quarterback who was a threat not long ago to throw a touchdown pass on every play--from anywhere on the field--has disappeared.

The new Marino is as jumpy and skittery and as inconsistent as any other quarterback.

Beyond much question, he has been brought down by the change in defensive philosophy. The defensive thrust now is to smother the quarterback. Like all of his peers, Marino is the focus these days of get-the-quarterback attacks on every down.

They have been after this particular passer, of course, for many years, but it’s much worse this year. And after 6 years in the league, Marino, as he steps up under center today and looks warily around, is a product of all the hits he has taken.

As of 1988, he has sensibly made up his mind to survive, first. Or so it seemed here Sunday. The old touchdown priority appears to be second with Marino.

As the football fans in the crowd of 50,571 can testify, he had enough to beat the Raiders this time, 24-14. But in 1988, that doesn’t take much. Though he was blanked in the first quarter and again in the second half, Marino had that much here.

What he didn’t have was the reckless spirit, the hell-with-it approach to football, that in the old days led him to stand in the pocket as long as it took to throw the touchdown zingers that made him the NFL’s all-time master of long- and medium-range passes.

His handlers don’t really blame Marino for the new Marino. Said Dolphin owner Joe Robbie: “Dan is more erratic this year, but he’s been rushed more than I’ve ever seen.” Blaming injuries, Coach Don Shula said: “We’ve been trying to get an offensive line together.”

Yes, but. As recently as four years ago, the offensive line didn’t matter. The opponent didn’t matter. The rush didn’t matter.

They do now.

People have been asking the wrong question about Jay Schroeder.

It isn’t: “Does this guy give the Raiders a quarterback?”

It should be: “Have the Raiders got anything else?”

Question No. 1 has long since been answered pretty much in the affirmative.

To question No. 2, the proper reply now is: “Not much.”

With Marcus Allen absent because of an injury, the Raiders didn’t have a ground game Sunday. And in the first 10 or 15 minutes after Howie Long was injured, before they adjusted, they didn’t have a defense for Marino.

This is a team that, first, has been wrecked by injuries. Second, at times, the coaches haven’t been much help. When a 50-yard field goal would have brought the Raiders to within 7 points of Miami in the fourth quarter, with plenty of time to get even, the coaches neglected to send in seven offensive linemen, as the rules require. The penalty that took those 3 points off the board effectively ended the game.

Schroeder, however, played some of his best football in 3 years. He has come most of the way back to the 1986 form that made him an all-pro--as Willie Gault and James Lofton would have proved Sunday, all by themselves, if they’d hung onto Schroeder’s most timely bombs.

Of his 4 interceptions, only 1 was a bona fide passer’s mistake. Otherwise, Schroeder was on the money often enough to win this one, particularly when throwing to Mervyn Fernandez, who has become his only reliable receiver.

Schroeder’s problem is that he has come to the right team at the wrong time.

Talking about the Dolphins Sunday, their owner, the man who built Joe Robbie Stadium, said: “This is the best defensive team we’ve had since the Super Bowl (years).”

And that’s the irony of 1988 in Miami. In recent seasons, the weak Dolphin defense gave back too many of the games that Marino won. But suddenly, now that the problem is Marino, the defense has apparently come together.

“We had trouble with Schroeder in the second half,” Shula said. “He can do that to you. The point is that those were the first touchdown passes we’ve given up in a long time.”

Robbie said that three Dolphins have made the difference--Hugh Green, the often injured linebacker, who has returned; Jarvis Williams, the rookie free safety who has surprisingly steadied the secondary, and linebacker John Offerdahl, the only quality football player the Dolphins had on defense last year.

Can three players change one of the league’s worst defenses into one of the best? They can when Shula is coaching the others. It seemed clear enough in the Coliseum that Shula, who is known as the NFL’s finest teaching coach, has made respectable players out of all the members of his new no-name defense.

“When Marino is playing his game, we have the defensive team this year to be a (championship) contender,” said Robbie.

Could be.