Sports Then and Now

Each week, Sports Then and Now picks one NFL matchup and looks through the history books to find an intriguing past meeting between the two teams. We recap the game and hopefully help reintroduce (or introduce for you younger readers) you to some of the greats (and in some cases not so greats) from the history of professional football.

As rivals in the AFC East, the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets have played some memorable games through the years.

Many of those memorable games, including the game we will feature, included Dan Marino firing passes for the Dolphins.

In 30 career games against the Jets, Marino connected on 58.3% of his passes for 8,651 yards and 72 touchdowns. Those numbers are by far the most of his career against an individual opponent.

Marino passed for 521 yards and three touchdowns in a 1988 game against the Jets, but also had five interceptions as the Jets won 44-30.

The two squads have met in the playoffs only once, with Miami posting a 14-0 shutout in the 1982 AFC Championship Game.

Our Classic Rewind looks at a matchup in 1986 when both Dan Marino and fellow member of the 1983 quarterback class Ken O’Brien were both at the top of their games. The result was an offensive explosion that still ranks among the greatest in NFL history.
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Chad Henne and the Miami Dolphins snatched victory from the New York Jets in an entertaining Monday Night Football battle.

In one of the most enjoyable Monday Night Football games in recent memory, the New York Jets showed that right now they are a very good football team, but not yet elite, as they fell to the Miami Dolphins 31-27.

The normally stout Jets defense expected a run-happy Dolphins offense.  What they didn’t expect was to be beaten by another inexperienced quarterback, Michigan’s own Chad Henne.

Henne was simply brilliant, going 20-26 for 241 yards and two touchdowns, out-playing his much noted counterpart, USCs own Mark Sanchez.  Sanchez had an excellent game as well, helping the Jets put 27 points on the board, a turn-around many expected after last week’s performance in New Orleans.

The Dolphins put a total of 413 yards of offense against Rex Ryan’s vaunted defense.  The Dolphins featured the NFLs latest fad, “The Wildcat,” to move the ball repeatedly against the Jets.

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