Marino's FIRST Start is Epic! (Bills vs. Dolphins 1983, Week 6) 

He lives on in that hit from '85 when Wilber Marshall KO'd him and sent him flying in the Silverdome.

Bad team unfairly means bad QB it’s the same as Lynn Dickey. Ferguson had two functioning knees and a longer career but Dickey finished 3rd for MVP 1983 during his only “healthy” season and like Ferguson is forgotten.

@@BillyRamirez oh yeah, he was laid out. Bears took out 2 qb that game

No, he was rated right where he should have been. Never made a pro bowl, never took the Bills on a deep run. I liked him, but he was very inaccurate on most Sundays. He had some good games, to be sure, but he's not one of the top 100 QBs of all time. That said, had he had a good QB coach, and some stability in Buffalo, I think he might have been better than his stats show. He had some DREADFUL years (Throw out his rookie season, which was horrible, but 1977 and 1982... yikes). Throw out the 3 OJ years and the 2 good years when Chuck Knox started there, and Joe's teams went 32-65. That's putrid for a "good" QB. He won ONE playoff game in his career. If I was a Bills fan, I'd root for the guy, but you gotta face facts. He had some ability, but he was never in the top 5 QBs in any season he played in, and most times, not in the top 10. Why these franchises thought Chuck Knox didn't deserve a job is anybody's guess. He turned the Rams, the Bills, and the Seahawks into winners, but they canned him because they didn't win the BIG ONE...smh. The Seahwks let him stick around after leading them to a 9-7 wildcard team that made it to the AFC Championship game in his first season there. He took them to the playoffs most years, even though they were in a TOUGH division with Oakland and Denver in the 80's. I loved Ground Chuck. www.pro-football-reference.com/players/F/FergJo00.htm

@@comfortat Yeah, but that's the same with every player. Once you throw away the good stats, all you have left are bad stats. "Look at his HOFer...if we don't consider all his good games and seasons, he kinda sucks".

He was very underrated. NBC had a legend as #1 pbp back them (Dick Enberg), but Charlie could lead anywhere. He did many great games anyway

Jones was a legend too. NBC had those two along with Marc Albert Don Criqui, and Bob Costas doing games.

Just damn good commentators. Damn football was alive in these legendary days.

The great Charlie Jones and Len Dawson. My all time favorites

@@shanetrimble9265 my favorite play-by-play announcer NFL on CBS Pat Summerall NFC and NFL on NBC dick enberg AFC from the 70s 80s and early 90s

If you go on Wikipedia, his career stats show differently

@@Misterfreezeable No receivers worth a penny nor a descent running game.

@@Misterfreezeable I think they're more than respectable.

@@Misterfreezeable I know his statistics and most of his interceptions came up when Ferguson was over the hill. However, the statistics back in that time were not as good for most QB’s as is today, you are overlooking some intangibles. For example Dak Prescott have way better numbers than Roger Staubach and he has not win anything big. Joe Namath have even worse stats than Ferguson or Bradshaw and still he is a legend. Stats is not all.

@@WarsZTop well said

As a 49er fan, I'm glad he didn't the year that he did go to the Super Bowl. Although, I think he did deserve a Super Bowl ring much more than Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson.

@@GopherBaroque61 As a phins fan, honestly we weren't experienced enough. The 49ers took that advantage and it showed, but I'm pretty upset Marino never got another chance.

If he had a decent running back than yeah.

@@aidan_anguiano5389 As time went on, however, Marino and the Marks Brothers (Duper and Clayton) were a force to be reckoned with.

This game hes not much better than tua.an we all bitch bout him.

He threw a pretty ball.

Thing is who can name the guys he was throwing to ... as opposed to Marino who was throwing to Clayton, Duper and Nat Moore already in his career....

I always thought Ferguson was the most technically proficient thrower I ever saw. His form should be studied by every young QB.

Dude he was

I can Byron Franklin was a solid Wr

I don't think Ferguson ever gets the credit he deserves, got overshadowed pretty heavy by another #12 but Fergie almost got the Bills to the show in 80 and 81

And he was in the league FOREVER

No, he was rated right where he should have been. Never made a pro bowl, never took the Bills on a deep run. I liked him, but he was very inaccurate on most Sundays. He had some good games, to be sure, but he's not one of the top 100 QBs of all time. That said, had he had a good QB coach, and some stability in Buffalo, I think he might have been better than his stats show. He had some DREADFUL years (Throw out his rookie season, which was horrible, but 1977 and 1982... yikes). Throw out the 3 OJ years and the 2 good years when Chuck Knox started there, and Joe's teams went 32-65. That's putrid for a "good" QB. He won ONE playoff game in his career. If I was a Bills fan, I'd root for the guy, but you gotta face facts. He had some ability, but he was never in the top 5 QBs in any season he played in, and most times, not in the top 10. When you look at his comparable QBs, none of them were very good either... guys like Jim Harbaugh and Norm Snead keep showing up. Here you go: www.pro-football-reference.com/players/F/FergJo00.htm

Possibly among his best games. The broadcasters mention this being a career high number of yards passing for him to that point in his career, and he'd been playing for ten seasons. I'm glad he got the win here as he played his butt off that day.

He had a few pro bowl worthy years.

God bless the Marks, Clayton and Super Duper. Neither played in week 1, probably 'cause the OC and/or Shula has a problem with starting young players. But once they get over themselves and get Marino, Clayton, and Duper together on the field, it's tough not being successful. Makes me think of Burrow with Higgings & Chase, or Mahomes with Kelce, Hill, and Watkins. Would have been interesting to see how quickly Marino achieved his greatness if his top two targets for 1983 were Tommy Vigorito and Tony Nathan (who David Woodley had to throw to in game 1 vs the Bills).

@@RageDaug That wasn’t who Woodley had to throw to, that was all he could complete his awful throws to.

@@bjchit yep, that was my point. Dude wants to give all the credit to Marino, insinuating Woodley was garbage, when Woodley had no one to throw to, and Marino had a pair of superstars. And not to take anything away from Dan. I still think he's in the argument for GOAT, it's just not a fair 1 to 1 comparison between Dan and Woodleys performance that year.

@@RageDaug Woodley had Nat Moore and Duriel Harris to throw to, he just couldn’t get his wounded ducks to them very often because he was terrible.

@@bjchit sure, and Marino had two superstar receivers to throw to. So yeah, super valid comparison to judge Woodley's 1 game versus Marino's 1 game I'm sorry, it's just a dumb comparison.

There's no fuckin way he ran a 4.8😅

@@kadelewis1363 Did u see Marino when he was young and in college? He ran a 4.85 at his pro day. He wasn't a stiff like Tom Brady Marino could move. This is before he ruined his knees. Look at his college and early years highlights of him running.

Turtle Marino athlete😂😂😂😂😂 look at his rookie legs, is a shame turtle Marino.

@@kadelewis1363 Did u see young Marino at Pitt?

@@TheEdub1 Ok, Ill take a look

Last one was Juju vs Lions one month ago

This made me think of his shootouts vs Ken O’Brien.

My thoughts word for word!!

That would be very unfair statement. Marino was a phenom. His early teams were the best he had. If Marino played today he'd have had 6,500 yards. Watching him in his early years I forgot he was able to move around a lot better prior to his knee injuries. He was fairly mobile.

@@deanmarten I think it fits well. Threw over 300 yards. Got his team into field goal range twice to win. Only for his kicker to shank it twice and then the defense to give up big plays and lose the game.

@@TheRealDill93 He also had a decent running game in his first season or 2. After that- NO "D" NOR RUNNING GAME EITHER! If he were to have had those 2 areas the way he should have had them he would have at least had a better chance at winning a SB.

I was truly diggin' the Red helmets for the Bills.

@@youletterrybone80 Same 💯

The bills unifroms seen here are basically the same they have now

@@youletterrybone80 You know they changed to the red ones to differentiate themselves from the rest of the AFC East ... at this time all five teams had white helmets.

@@Videowatcher10p Was going to say Buffalo has basically come full circle.

If you gave Marino the 1985 Bears defense, the Giants defense with Strahan, even Tampa's defense from last year, he would have won 7 of them!!

You mean couldn't play defense ;)

Never had a good running back either.

@@brads.7525 Please explain how not having a defense (even though he had one several times) caused him to be so bad in the playoffs with a 77 passer rating? What did his own defenders do to cause that? How did he lead an offense to 10 total points in his last 2 playoff losses? What did his defense do to cause him to not score?

@@jimbear3797 He had good running backs. Marino chose to pad stats in the regular season rather than hand off. The Dolphins were a decent running team and every year they slowly ran less and less until no running back was even getting the ball 200 times/season. They chose to rely on Marino's arm to win them a Superbowl and it failed miserably, but Marino and his ego loved it in the regular season so he kept the program rolling until Jimmy Johnson came around.

If Shula had a flaw as a HC, that flaw was getting too excited with Dan's game. Not because he wasn't great, he was. But that, maybe, was a reason to not build a all around great team. The Dolphins of the Marino era always seemd to have a serious lack of running game and, on times, defense. Even a talented passer can only do so much

@@otaviofrn_adv Yeah... I think Dan wanted ALL the glory and therefore became too predictable if you ask me. Wanna beat Miami back in the day.. defend the pass because they always had a suspect running game. Imagine Thurman Thomas in Miami or another great back? Miami hasnt been to a SB since well Marino lost to Montana in SB 19. Closest they got was the 1992 AFC Championship game ...

The new stadium is wonderful after the upgrades but the one issue is those dumb luxury seats. Owners pocket that money is why and Ross spent a fortune upgrading the place

Also a bit more shocking that Don Shula is the all time wins leader and only won two SBs

The Bills played a bit of a role in that, although the Dolphins probably would've been slaughtered by the NFC East as well

Shula is to blame. He was seduced by Marino’s talent as a passer and didn’t build a well rounded team. He never got Dan a good running back or an OL that could outmuscle the defense. He basically wasted the 2nd half of the 80s trying to win by throwing the ball, and then when he tried to build a well rounded team he drafted guys like Sammie Smith. A devastatingly bad pick. Miami needed a back to keep up with Buffalo who was ascending. Even if he panned out it probably wouldn’t matter. The Bills cost Marino the 1st half of the 90s, losing playoff games to them 3 times. By the time the Bills fell off and Jimmy came on board Marino was aging out.

@@ajburrr I blame that on Shula’s blind loyalty to his assistants and front office personnel.

@@lzv6990 pretty exact,except I would take it a step further and instead of blaming Shula for not gettin the back for Marino,it was actually not building a D capable of slowing ANYBODY down with the exception of the 90 and 92 seasons and both yrs the D faded the last half of those seasons,although yea woulda been nice to have a back,but I'm not real sure Marino even wanted to run the ball,as with JJ he looked completely out of place handing the ball off and even then with a solid D and somewhat of a running game it still came down to him throwing the ball,well into his 30s

1987 was when the Bills turned it around against the Dolphins. After this game the Bills would lose 6 straight to the Dolphins until 1987

@@daved1535 True but at least it was the beginning of a change. The Bills were almost always an automatic W for the Dolphins for most of the '70s up to this date.

Dolphins are still ahead in the all time series 61-54-1, so the phins still own the bills.

@@Ptrixle Yeah well, since 2000 the Bills are 26-18 against the Phins. It's pretty much evened out and I could see by the end of this decade the all-time record will be tied or within a couple games of each other.

Jim Kelly had to be the biggest joke in the sport, 4 straight years he took the bills to the superbowl and lost all 4 of them!

@@JM-po7fr last time I checked a qb is only one of 22 or so players on the field.

No he wasn't. He was a gunslinger like Favre where they threw A LOT, and also threw A LOT of INTS. Surprisingly Marino's pass completion percentage was a mere 59%. He's a Top 10 QB for sure.

@thegreatrenaldo7718 most of that % came from the end of his career early to mid it was much much higher. Marino was the most accurate gun slinger of all time JR try harder. His last few years brought that down but don't take away from his greatness. Easily top 5 all time. The reason the league was slinging it is a large part to do with Marino to begin with, where it was run first mostly before him. He didn't only change the game and position He held every passing record for 20 years. Still holds records, most passing yrdd (61,361) most 4th Quarter come backs (40) ..So yeah Greatness in the flesh. He'd toss 60 tds in this current league

@@tyrannicaltypomichaeltester End of his career? Yeah Guess again. He held most every record because HE called 70% passing plays and neglected a running game. If you think he's the greatest QB ever then you know nothing about football. He threw ALL the time so if he did play today his number would be about the same. I've actually watched him play in person about 10 times, have you? He's Favre and Kelly, Lots of yards, TDs and INTs with pedestrian completion percentage. There's a reason why he only went to ONE superbowl.

@@thegreatrenaldo7718 Ueah that reason is The Phins NEVER HAD A RUN GAME TO HELP TO BEGIN WITH or a defense. Casual hard to believe you watched him play saying all that nonsense...What I said stands and is true the records all of it. Also off course I watched him myself I watched greatness. As Payton manning also said and Joe amd others

If he played in this era he would have thrown for 6000 yards and 55tds per year. Back then they played with only 2 wrs. The game favored defense too much and most head coaches were defensive coaches so they wanted it that way

Less violent hits??? Better medical care yes. But people get off this myth the game is less violent today. Marino wouldn’t be better than Mahomes or Hurts, let alone Brady or Manning or McNair or Andrew Luck etc.

The game itself didn’t favor defense it was the culture of the game that wouldn’t embrace that it’s THROWING MORE not less that controls the game better. It took the Brady era for the culture of the game to change.

Cousins, Rodgers, Watson, Richardson, Jones, Taylor, Tannehill, and Stafford would all like to have a word with you. You can add Mahomes to that list too, since he's always limping around. Whatever protection these qb's may have, the hits still come, and the game is still brutal and injuries still happen. There is no guarantee for any qb to last in this era no matter what you want to believe. The game is faster than ever before and the players aren't selling cars or real estate in the offseason.

​@@STP43FAN1 Most defensive players do not know the basics of tackling and wrapping up the players. The more violent hits you are eluding to is when they launch their helmets and bodies at wide receivers because they have never learned the basics and artistry of tackling.

How did Marino's defense stop him from scoring in the playoffs? How did his defense cause him to have a 77 passer rating in the playoffs? The running game disappeared when Marino showed up because he wouldn't hand the ball off. All they thought to do was pass, pass, pass. The coaches fell for it, the fans fell for it, but the smart teams didn't fall for it, and those smart teams were the ones that won championships. 10 points in his last 2 playoff losses speaks volumes.

he came from ou so that might explain a lot

Ferguson had a really good set of receivers at that time.

Roethlisberger had the best start to a career of any QB in history imo. I loved watching Marino play he was awesome but Big Ben had a great supporting cast and was amazing his rookie season.

Have you forgotten what Big Ben did? Or how about Tom Brady once he was allowed to start? Or maybe you don't remember Kurt Warner getting thrown into the starting job because Trent Green was injured in pre-season? 3 guys that finished the job that Marino couldn't because "the other team was better and it just wasn't fair".

Was it just me or was von Schamann bad !!!????

Amen

Well, we were 0 for the 70s, so it very well may have been.

It was. Buffalo had bad to horrible teams in the 60''s, 70's, and 80's. They got it together in the 90's but lost 4 straight Super Bowls.

@@brads.7525 Some of the teams, in the 60s were really good. They won two straight AFL titles. They should have beat the Giants in 91, and probably would have two more, if Minnesota didn't give Dallas all those high draft picks.

Yup, the Orange Bowl was a house of horrors for the Bills.

@@rjflesher So was Rich Stadium, when they played the Fish.

Really that bad in the Jags?

@@BridgeEntertainment2001 Man, that game was the jaguar eating the dolphin alive. 62-7 is a beatdown no matter what

Marino really declined very fast. He could barely throw the ball in his last few seasons. He should have hung them up 3 years before he retired. Marino was embarrassing himself!

@@brads.7525 WTF??u better go back and watch some of those gms,it was NEVER his arm,he could still throw the ball,even in his last season,look at the talent he had around him in the jj era??it was his legs NOT his arm,BRADYS arm is SHOT,has been for 3 seasons but look what hes got around him,and his arm was never as good as Marinos,embarrassment??ur a F'N embarrassment for not knowing WTF ur talkin about!?

So you didn't see him the week before single Handley. Make a call back against the seahawks in the fourth quarter in that playoffs​@@brads.7525

never been to the OB huh?

My favorite pair of wide outs to this day huge 🐬 fan ,I was 9 years old at the time of this game.

He was good Dean....he just had mediocre talent around him for the most part

Came here to say the same thing.

The white helmets look way better than those abysmal red ones

Thanks God the Bills return to the White helmets

That field general got his troops killed 10 times in he playoffs. He never delivered them to the ultimate victory. 77 passer rating in the playoffs. He disappeared when it mattered most.

@@roland7584 as great as Shula was he never gave dan a run game or defense. Look at the rankings

Jimmy Johnson gave him the best defense and a good running game, and Dan delivered with 10 points in his last 2 playoff losses. He simply wasn't the best ever no matter how you slice it. The defense that was there when Dan showed up was a great defense. The guy just couldn't get it done. The great qb's take their opportunities and make the best of it. Marino could never do that, and for some reason there's 17 years of excuses and it's everyone else's fault including 2 Hall of Fame coaches. Marino killed the running game. Just look at the numbers and the fall off on rushing attempts. When they had rushers that averaged 4 yards/carry or better, it still didn't matter because Marino wasn't going to hand them the ball enough to make it matter. Stop the clock with a ton of incomplete passes and score quickly, and you can't keep your defense off the field long enough and the defense suffers no matter who the players are. He did that throughout all his prime years. The rushing attempt rankings don't lie.

Yes love it!

The best QB seasons ever are the ones where they hold up the Superbowl trophy. Individual stats in a team game are way overrated and when you throw more than everyone else, of course you'll have more yards and more td passes. Do it when it matters, and it becomes a big deal.

Uwe von Schamann was bad!!!!!

Has to be.

I thought the same thing. now he's probably a female inspector in Florida 😂

@@edge224 No it's making a run for Governor of California as Caitlyn Jenner

Yeah, I was wondering if this is about when the Dolphins fired PK Ray Finkle.

Long time Dolphins 🐬 fan here & I agree 👍

@@victorwilliams9674 That was a magical time. 80s in Miami. Long bombs to Duper and Clayton with those palm trees in the background as they race for the endzone

@@timburr4453 Miss those days

And Dan the Man was part of the team that started losing playoff games in the Orange Bowl.

I saw him in a few Arkansas games. Always thought he had beatiful form.