The 1983 NFL draft was one of the great years for quarterbacks. John Elway, Todd Blackledge, Jim Kelly, Tony Eason, Ken O’Brien and Dan Marino were all selected in the first round.
Marino was the penultimate pick in the first round and went to Miami while Pittsburgh took defensive tackle Gabriel Rivera. Dan Rooney always regretted not selecting Dan Marino who was a born and bred Pittsburgher who attended the University of Pittsburgh.
For the Steelers, Rivera never had the opportunity to confirm his potential. His career ended in October of his rookie season when he was badly injured in a car crash.
When the Steelers play the Dolphins, Pittsburgh has the edge 15-13 overall but when the games are played in Miami the home team leads 9-6. The last time these two teams met in the Hard Rock Stadium 2016 the Dolphins won 30-15.
The Dolphins were originally part of the AFL and began playing the Steelers when the leagues merged in 1970. The early contests were dominated by Miami as they were the team making regular visits to the Super Bowl. The Steelers took over in the mid-seventies before Dan Marino led teams took back control in the eighties.
The Steelers lost their first four games against Marino’s Dolphins before they took a 40-24 win in 1988 built on a ground attack of 305 yards. A year later the schedule produced a November trip to Florida.
After fielding one of the worst NFL offenses in 1987 led by Mark Malone, Coach Noll faced a quarterback challenge at the following year’s training camp. Malone had been offloaded to San Diego while the Steelers traded for Todd Blackledge from Kansas City.
The Steelers’ veteran Bubby Brister had started just two games and played in four during his first two seasons. Brister had worked hard during the offseason as he attempted to get to grips with the team’s offensive system that he found complicated.
Brister was keen to earn the starting job and when he arrived in camp, he made an immediate impact telling reporters, “I’ve worked my butt off since February. If I’m not starting, somebody else is doing a hell of job. I’m here to play. I’m going to play. “I’m the man. Write it down”
Behind quarterback Bubby Brister and their number one draft pick, running back Tim Worley, the Steelers were laboring through the season. When they traveled to Miami, Brister hadn’t thrown a touchdown pass in two games.
Marino had averaged 290 yards against Pittsburgh in the five games he had played against them which saw the Steelers enter the game as 7.5-point underdogs.
The (5-6) Steelers at the (7-4) Dolphins November 26, 1989
After the Dolphins took a 14-point lead in the first quarter, many Steeler fans would have decided the game was over. Sammie Smith’s 1-yard touchdown run was followed by a Marino 66-yard bomb to Mark Clayton.
When it began raining hard in the second quarter, it appeared to dampen the Dolphins’ spirit while precipitating the Steelers into action. The heavy deluge saw the Steelers take control. Bubby Brister led a 9-play drive of 66 yards that finished with Merril Hoge’s 1-yard run, and the Steelers were back in the game.
In slippery conditions, Marino put the ball right on rookie Sammie Smith’s chest while attempting a handoff. It bounced off to be picked up by the Steelers’ Carnell Lake. That turnover turned into six points. Lake lateraled to Dwayne Woodruff and the Steelers’ cornerback found a lane down the sideline, avoiding a tackle from Marino to score a 21-yard touchdown and Miami’s 14-point lead had been washed away.
A Gary Anderson 27-yard field goal ensured the Steelers entered the locker room with a 17-14 advantage at halftime.
After playing two series in the second half, Marino took a hit from Carnell Lake and was replaced by Scott Secules.
While the Dolphins wilted, the Steelers continued to flourish. Brister found Derek Hill with a 53-yard pass in the third quarter during a drive of 62 yards which Hoge finished with a touchdown run of five yards.
Tim Tyrell’s recovery of a Lorenzo Hampton fumble set the Steelers up for another field goal, this one from 42 yards.
The final score came from another Miami turnover. Jim Jensen deflected an easy catch into the grateful hands of Greg Lloyd who returned it 31 yards to the Dolphins’ 5. Two plays later, Hoge’s 1-yard touchdown run completed the Steelers 34-14 victory.
The Pittsburgh Steelers 34 at the Miami Dolphins 14
Dan Rooney was happy with the victory and the way it came about. “What added to the win was the enthusiasm,” he said. “The enthusiasm and the confidence we had today was a big thing for a young team like ours.”
“You can’t make excuses about the rain because it’s raining for them too,” offered Dan Marino. “After it started to rain, we tried to run it and couldn’t very well and we couldn’t throw it at all.”
“They didn’t have any fumbles or interceptions,” said Miami’s coach Don Shula. “We were the team that made the mistakes. The jumped on them and capitalized on them.”
Brister, who didn’t suffer a sack for the first time in the season acknowledged, “The line was blocking for Worley and protecting me.”
Worley made a career high 95 yards and could have made 100, but a pinched nerve saw him take himself out of the game with five minutes remaining. “For any running back, 100 yards means a lot,” Worley confirmed, “but when you’ve a team effort like that and everybody’s playing good, it doesn’t matter if you have 100 yards or not, just as long as you win.”
Merril Hoge revealed the players held a meeting two weeks previously and decided they had to win all six of their remaining games to make the playoffs.
When the regular season finished, the Steelers had lost one of those games, but their 9-7 record still saw them in the playoffs. After winning the wildcard game 26-23 they narrowly lost 24-23 to the Broncos who went on to lose Super Bowl XXIV.
