‘72 Dolphins return to the Super Bowl as Griese returns to beat Steelers in AFC Championship

Despite putting together a perfect 14-0 regular season, the Miami Dolphins found themselves having to board a plane and fly to Pittsburgh to play the 11-3 Steelers at Three Rivers Stadium in the AFC Championship Game.

Unfortunately for Miami, home-field advantage in the playoffs was determined by divisional rotation each year at the time and in 1972 it was the AFC Central’s turn for No. 1 seeding.

But perhaps Mother Nature might have evened things out on this day as it was a relative “heat wave” in Pittsburgh as clear skies and a near record-high temperature of 66 degrees greeted the Dolphins.

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That didn’t mean it was going to be easy. The Steelers were clearly the Cinderella team of the AFC, having beaten Oakland a week earlier thanks to the now-legendary Franco Harris Immaculate Reception.

But on this day, none of that mattered to the cool and poised Dolphins. Three hours after they took the field, they had warded off hostile and noisy Steeler sfans and battled their way to a 21-17 victory.

Things did not go well early for the Dolphins as they fell behind late in the first quarter on a terrible break. That when Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw rolled left and sprinted toward the end zone. Just before he crossed the goal line, safety Jake Scott cut him down causing a fumble into the end zone. But offensive lineman Gerry Mullins was in the right place at the right time and fell on the loose ball for a touchdown.

But on the play, Bradshaw sustained a separated shoulder and missed part of the game — a big break for Miami.

Perhaps the biggest moment in the game came early in the second quarter. With Miami in punt formation at midfield and needing a spark to get some momentum, they got it when punter Larry Seiple, with Steelers players having turned in the other direction to head downfield, took off for what turned out to be a 37-yard gain to the Pittsburgh 12. Two plays later, Earl Morrall found Larry Csonka in the left flat for a 9-yard touchdown pass to tie the score 7-7.

Then came halftime and perhaps Don Shula’s biggest and toughest decision of the season. He turned to quarterback Bob Griese in the locker room and gave him the nod as Griese returned for the first time since he fractured his leg in Week 5.

He wasted little time letting Shula know he made the right decision. After the Steelers had gone ahead 10-7 on a Roy Gerela field goal to open the second half, Griese, facing a third-and-6 at his 24, fired his first pass in three months and found Paul Warfield over the middle for a 52-yard catch-and-run to the Steelers 24.

Eight plays and two third-down conversions later, the Dolphins were in the end zone on a Jim Kiick 2-yard run. Miami led 14-10 and would never trail again.

Interceptions by Mike Kolen and Nick Buoniconti of Bradshaw in the final five minutes sealed the win to run Miami’s perfect record to 16-0 and punch their ticket to Super Bowl VII in Los Angeles.

“I went with Bob in the second half because we really hadn’t moved that well offensively in the first half,” said Shula afterwards. “Bob was ready to play and if he couldn’t do it, I wanted to know about it early in the third quarter. That would’ve given us plenty of time to go back to Earl. It feels great to be 16-0, but all I want now is to be 1 and 0 in a couple of weeks. Since last season, winning the Super Bowl has been the goal all along, and now we’ve got another chance.”