‘72 Dolphins rely on defense to shut out Colts, complete unbeaten regular season
DOLPHINS 16, COLTS 0 (Dec. 16, 1972)
In most cases, this Saturday afternoon national television matchup would have been considered a little bit of a snoozer. There were no playoff implications while the Dolphins did the bare minimum on offense while relying on another stellar defensive performance which forced six Colts turnovers.
But there was a great deal of history to be made on this day. Most importantly, the Dolphins became only the third team to date in NFL history to complete a perfect regular season, matching the 1934 Chicago Bears who went 13-0 and the 1942 Bears who finished 11-0.
When Larry Csonka and Mercury Morris grounded out a combined 157 yards on the ground, the Dolphins became the first team in NFL history with two 1,000 yard rushers in the same season. Csonka finished with 1,117 while Morris came into the game needing 86 yards to reach the mark and got exactly that to finish with 1,000.
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Miami also broke the record for most rushing yards in a season, a record previously owned by the 1936 Detroit Lions, by finishing with 2,960.
With its defense manhandling the Colts offense with three fumble recoveries and three interceptions (one each by Doug Swift, Lloyd Mumphord and Curtis Johnson), the Miami offense didn’t need to do much and did just enough.
First came a 40-yard Garo Yepremian field goal in the first quarter followed by a 14-yard Earl Morrall-to-Paul Warfield touchdown pass midway through the second. That score was set up after Morrall had actually been picked off by safety Bruce Laird. But Laird fumbled the ball right back to Miami at the Colts 33 and four players later, the Dolphins were in the end zone on what would be the only touchdown in the game.
Yepremian added two more second -half field goals of 50 and 35 yards to close out the scoring as the Baltimore offense never crossed midfield in the second half as the Dolphins completed their third straight shutout of the Colts.
To a player after the game and including the head coach, the rhetoric was the same. Going 14-0 was nice but unless you get the next three and win the Super Bowl, it meant little. The Bears found that out. The 1934 team lost to the New York Giants in the NFL championship game while the ‘42 team lost to Washington in the title game.
“We’re happy to gain No. 14 and go undefeated doing what no other team as done before [winning 14 regular season games],” said Don Shula. “But whatever we do the rest of the way from this point on is what really counts. Our goal at the start of the season was to get into the playoffs and win the Super Bowl. We’ve only done half of that so far.”
