This Loss May Signal Change for Dolphins

FOXBORO, Mass. — It is only overstating a tad to note that on a chilled and slushy December Sunday, New England lore was rewritten by the midafternoon collapse of Dan Marino.

One if by land, two if by sea . . . and 46 if by slant pass.

Forty-six was the special signal barked by Marino before a third-quarter snap in the Miami Dolphins’ 17-3 NFL wild-card playoff loss to the New England Patriots.

Forty-six was an audible informing his teammates he was changing the play to a slant pass.

Forty-six was a secret number that was no secret.

The Patriots had long since deciphered it, understood it, even practiced against it.

Linebacker Todd Collins heard it, motioned to his team, repositioned himself to make the interception, and did.

“Threw it right to me,” Collins explained.

Collins carried the interception 40 yards for a touchdown, giving the Patriots an insurmountable 14-0 lead in a football game that was more like a Cold War.

The Patriots were the spies. The Dolphins were the suckers.

“We kind of knew what Marino was doing on that play,” Patriot safety Willie Clay said. “But then, a lot of times we knew what they were doing.”

The frequent Patriot blitzing led to frequent Marino audibles, most of which the Patriots understood thanks to teammate Keith Byars.

A former Dolphin.

“Just doing my duty,” Byars said with a smile that could not hide his distaste for Dolphin Coach Jimmy Johnson, who released him last season. “Hey, we didn’t know everything. They did occasionally huddle, didn’t they?”

Johnson was not humored.

“It was so bad out there, they were laughing at our players,” he said. “They knew every signal, every audible . . . everything we were doing.”

The Patriots will take their fired-up defense to Pittsburgh Saturday for a second-round playoff game against Kordell Stewart’s Steelers, while the Dolphins are left to figure out:

In a secrecy-laden world where coaches even cloak their practices from low-flying planes, how can you allow somebody to steal your playbook?

“They knew some of the plays,” acknowledged Marino, “and it affected the game somewhat.”

Apparently the Dolphins couldn’t have been any less obvious if they had been a third base coach shouting, “Bunt!”

The Patriots held the Dolphins to 162 total yards. Held Marino to 17 completions in 43 attempts with two interceptions. Held them to seven yards or fewer in half of their 14 drives.

Where Marino went, they went. Where the Dolphin wide receivers went, they were there first.

The more the Patriots blitzed, the more Marino audibled, and the more the Patriots laughed.

The outmanned Dolphins probably would have lost anyway. This only the raised the embarrassment quotient.

“Half the league knows our plays,” Johnson said, noting that the Detroit Lions scored on an interception against Miami after stealing an audible.

Johnson was not blaming Marino, about whom he grudgingly said, “Dan’s a competitor, Dan can still win football games, yeah, I’ll take him back.”

He also was not blaming the Patriots, who won their third game against the Dolphins this season and whose defense is legitimately good enough to scare Pittsburgh.

Deciphering signals is part of the game. Players who change teams always rat on their former squad.

This usually isn’t a problem because some NFL teams go years without playing another league member. In this case the Dolphins and Patriots have played three times in six weeks.

“After a while, you get to know everything about a team, just by playing them so much,” Patriot linebacker Ted Johnson said.

Then why couldn’t the Dolphins steal the Patriot signals? The Patriots have new ones, implemented by first-year Coach Pete Carroll.

Johnson was blaming--without naming--offensive coordinator Gary Stevens, a holdover from the Don Shula era who has not changed his signals in years.

Strange, though, for Johnson to wait until his first playoff game in Miami to realize the danger in that.

“We tried to change the audibles earlier this year,” Johnson said. “But it messed us up more than it did the other team.”

When told that Johnson said the Patriots knew his plays, Stevens replied, “No, he really said that?”

By now, Stevens has hopefully located his resume. At least one Patriot thought it best if Johnson quit whining and locate his pride.

“By talking about those plays, Jimmy is just setting up a smoke screen,” Byars said. “He’s just trying to cover his behind . . . and not give credit to a lot of good defensive players.”

Credit is certainly due a Patriot defense which eventually earned the respect of Marino late in the game, after safety Lawyer Milloy flattened him near the goal line.

“He said, ‘You really enjoy hitting me, don’t you?’ ” Milloy said. “That Marino, he’s a good guy. He understands.”

Without running back Curtis Martin, who was held out for the third consecutive game but hopes to return from his groin injury by Saturday, the Patriot offense wasn’t much better.

Their first touchdown came in the second quarter on a 24-yard pass play from Drew Bledsoe to Troy Brown that occurred three plays after Chris Slade’s interception.

After Collins’ interception return, the Patriots decided they would try to hold the ball until the end of the game, making frequent use of little-used running back Derrick Cullors.

Things won’t be so easy against Pittsburgh, which has three things the Dolphins don’t: an offensive line, a running game and competent receivers.

Johnson was so mad after this one, he said the Dolphins really didn’t even have a team.

“When you can’t run the football [42 rushing yards], then you cannot have a football team,” he said. “We’ve got to take a close look at a lot of different areas.”

With Marino apparently coming back--hey, Jimmy promised--that means the Dolphins will scour the earth for three offensive lineman and a power running back.

And, of course, somebody to outfit Marino with some new secret numbers.

NFL / THE PLAYOFFS

SUNDAY

New England: 17

Miami: 3

*

Tampa Bay: 20

Detroit: 10

NEXT

SATURDAY

New England at Pittsburgh

Ch. 4, 9:30 a.m.

*

Minnesota at San Francisco

Ch. 11, 1 p.m.

*

SUNDAY

Tampa Bay at Green Bay

Ch. 11, 9:30 a.m.

*

Denver at Kansas City

Ch. 4, 1 p.m.