Columnist Dean Juipe: Dan's down as Dolphins get dunked

The game jumped off the big board.

Miami plus 3? At the Jets? Come on, what's the catch?

The Dolphins won last year's game at New York and they won the year before that, too. In fact, they'd won seven of the previous eight with their AFC East counterpart.

Any diligent checker of trivia knew the particulars, not only about the series' recent history but that the Jets were starting a backup quarterback and the game was likely to be played in the rain.

Besides, shouldn't this be Dan Marino's big season? Shouldn't this be the year in which he does a John Elway and wins a world championship before the onset of middle age takes him to the broadcast booth or home to the wife and kiddies?

Elway and Marino came into the NFL the same year -- 1983 -- and each has walked a similar path. They're big, solid men with fantastically quick releases and a knack for recognizing trickery.

Yet both have served time as bridesmaids, shackled to the misconception that they haven't fully succeeded because their teams never won The Big Game.

But Elway shook off that description last year, leading the Denver Broncos to the Super Bowl championship after years of near misses and mixed futility.

Aha. If the fates are conspiring, this year it should be Marino's turn, right?

Wrong, if Sunday's disappointing swan dive at the Meadowlands is any indication. Miami, three points and all for interested bettors, was a 20-9 loser and anyone liking the Dolphins to go all the way now has to reassess his or her position.

Granted, it's just one game and it came on the same sorry day that Buffalo somehow defeated San Francisco, but it was a slap in the face to Dolphins fans -- and melodramatists -- everywhere.

Marino, who just turned 37, has had a cherry of a career but it's reality check time. The Dolphins, despite their 3-1 record, are missing something.

Jimmy Johnson thought he knew what it was last spring when he changed coordinators and chucked his team's offensive philosophy. A superior head coach by any count, he set out to revise the Miami attack by accentuating the running game and promising extended pass routes.

Unfortunately, he doesn't have the personnel to make it work. Poor Dan doesn't have anyone like Mark Clayton (1983-92) or Mark Duper (1982-92) going deep, and the Dolphins' ground game is mediocre to a fault.

Even at 50 years old or whatever he is these days, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar probably still has a better first step than his virtual namesake, Dolphins running back Karim Abdul-Jabbar. Kareem may also get down the field quicker than Miami's not-so-fleet fleet of receivers.

Explosiveness? It was likely limited to the locker room, given that Marino left the field more than once cussing under his breath.

He's 135-82 as a starting quarterback, has attempted and completed more passes than anyone in the league's history, and has more seasons leading the league in completions than anyone who has ever played. Now he's on a team that is strong defensively but can't always move the ball.

Sunday's totals: 121 yards passing and 34 on the ground. Those are embarrassing numbers even by UNLV standards.

Oh well. More than a few Las Vegas "wise guys" liked the Dolphins at New York and the game was getting a good word-of-mouth play among the heavy hitters. These are guys who go by the book and aren't easily fooled.

But it's 2 to 1 they look back today and feel they were victimized by sentimentality. They were looking for a vintage performance and, instead, found mortality.

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