Pope: Without a label, Dolphins’ defense still sticks it to the Joe Namath’s Jets
The Jets were averaging 35 points a game until the Dolphins’ “No-Name” defense took a throatlock and choked them, 27-17, Sunday.
They may still be “No-Names’” in Super Bowl VII in Los Angeles in January. Which is just jim-dandy with them.
“We love that ‘No-Name’ business, honest,” linebacker Nick Buoniconti explained to some extreme skeptics Sunday. “We hope nobody hangs a label like *Fearsome Foursome’ or ‘Purple People-Eaters’ on the front four, or any tag on the entire defense.”
By Buoniconti’s lights, it’s a combination of present pride and original rejection.
“Just look at our defense. We have only two No. 1 draft choices in there, Bill Stanfill at end and Jim Dunaway at tackle. Vern Den Herder has been great at end and what was he? A No. 9 choice out of a little college [Central] in Iowa.
“Manny Fernandez at tackle was a free agent. So was Doug Swift at linebacker. Mike Kolen on the other side was a No. 12. The cornerbacks, Tim Foley and Curtis Johnson, were third and fourth picks. Lloyd Mumphord, who’s in there a good bit on the corner, was a No. 16, for crying out loud.
“Dick Anderson was a No. 3, but Jake Scott, the other safety, was a seventh. And me, I was drafted 13th by Boston in 1962, and then they traded me to Miami.
“Don’t you think that makes you feel pretty darned good when you go out and stop Joe Namath and an offensive line like the Jets have?”
Buoniconti didn’t need supporting statistics. The score was enough of that. But he could have cited one big one.
Namath plastered Baltimore with six touchdown passes two weeks ago. He threw none against the Dolphins.
Broadway Joe was sacked once, but sacking isn’t the whole answer anyway. The answer is pressure. Forcing the quarterback to hurry. That’s what the “No-Names” did to Namath.
Of course it didn’t hurt the Dolphins when some of Namath’s receivers acted as though their mitts had been dipped in bear-grease.
“Tell you something about that, too,” said Fernandez. “Those Jet receivers heard steps behind them out there today. That’s part of good defense, getting receivers to worry about being popped. That takes their mind off their work pretty good.”
And what of the Jets’ celebrated pass protection, a trademark of Weeb Ewbank-coached teams?
“Their pass protection is just as good as ever,” Fernandez said slyly. “It’s just that our rush is better.”
For sure, Coach Don Shula has been putting in some overtime noodling on the defense besides the offensive zinger — three wide receivers in simultaneously — he stuck into the Jets.
The Dolphins continue effective with the “53” defense, substituting defensive end Bob Matheson (No. 53) for tackle Dunaway and sometimes dropping Matheson into the secondary, leaving a three-man rush.
Shula also uses five backs on occasion, most notably against Namath. In that, he puts Mumphord in Foley’s place at cornerback and removes linebacker Kolen with Foley staying in the game and deploying himself as the situation demands.
“The five-back defense is best against a Namath,” Shula said in a remarkable understatement..
He doesn’t have to tell Namath. Broadway Joe knows. So does the football world, with the Dolphins the only unbeaten bunch and no other American Conference East team with fewer than two losses apiece.