A night for the past but gift for the present as Tua, defense lift Dolphins over Steelers | Opinion

The Perfect Season continues to be two things for the Miami Dolphins and their fans:

A point of pride for a singular accomplishment in NFL history. And also a constant, relentless reminder of not only how great this franchise once was — but how from that it has gotten.

Both the pride in the past, and the longing for the present to be better, were on full display Sunday night at Hard Rock Stadium.

So this felt good. It was just a regular season victory, but it felt bigger.

The Dolphins weren’t perfect, but for one night, they were good enough and, at times, pretty great.

Miami led the entire game and held on to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 16-10, marking the return of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa from a concussion and also a stellar defensive effort featuring three interceptions.

Coach Mike McDaniel, asked what he thought about winning the turnover battle three-nil, said: “Hooray?”

Pittsburgh was driving for what could have been a one-point win when safety Javon Holland intercepted and returned the ball 33 yards with three minutes left. When Miami soon after had to punt, it was up to the defense once again.

Done.

This time cornerback Noah Igbinoghene intercepted the Steelers’ unfortunately named QB Kenny Pickett in the final seconds at the goal line as Miami ended a three-game losing streak and improved to 4-3.

Not for the first time this season Miami’s point total did not reflect its buoyant yardage total. That had better be corrected; 16 points doesn’t win a lot of games in the NFL.

“We should be scoring more points,” McDaniel put it flatly.

Past and present mingl.ed before the game when Hall of Fame QB Bob Griese and Tagovailoa met for the first time during the ceremonial coin flip.

“Really cool guy,” said Tua. ‘He said, ‘You gonna ball out tonight?’ I said, ‘That’s the plan.’”

Tagovailoa admitted some rust -- he hasn’t had a single full-speed practice since Week 3 of the Buffalo game -- but completed 21 of 35 passes for 261 yards, with one scoring pass and no interceptions.

“A lot of support from the fans and just being out there with my teammates -- it was awesome,” he said.

The juxtaposition of past vs. present played out Sunday as it has increasingly over the past half century for Dolphins fans. But this time it was impossible to ignore as the franchise officially celebrated the 50th anniversary of the club’s 1972 Perfect Season of 17-0 — the pinnacle of the glory days, a singular achievement in NFL history, unique then and still all alone.

But it also came on a night, in prime time vs. Pittsburgh, that marked the return of Tagovailoa after three games out with a concussion. An hour before the game fans in the concourse were chanting “Tu-a, Tu-a!” There were orange T-shirts that read, “Tua’s Back, B------!” His name was chanted again as he completed five straight passes in an opening drive that ended with an 8-yard touchdown pass to running back Raheem Mostert.

Dolphins fans love their perfect past, don’t get this wrong. Perfection is the family heirloom only this family of fans can claim. Even those not alive in ‘72 get to inherit the pride their parents or even grandparents lived.

But oh how Miami — the city, the team, the fans — hungers for a present that will open itself like a gift. A present full of new memories worth celebrating.

The Super Bowls came in ‘72 and ‘73. Don Shula retired in ‘95 and Dan Marino left more than two decades ago.

Will new glory days ever come? Who will the savior be?

On Sunday, the defense was that.

But the anointed savior now is Tua, Miami has decided, at least until he isn’t.

Tagovailoa had the Dolphins at 3-0, the talk of the league, before his injury. He was leading the league in passer rating. He seemed to have shed the two years of lingering doubt surrounding him. Miami lost three in a row with him sidelined. The QB drop-off in his absence made fans await his return that much more.

That return on Sunday was all about present and future even as the club’s 50-year-old crown jewel was polished and admired anew on its golden anniversary.

The game followed an invitation-only Gala celebrating the Perfect Season on Saturday night at the Seminole Hard Rock Guitar Hotel 10 minutes north of the stadium. I was honored (and a bit surprised) to be one of only six journalists nationally invited and the lone rep from the Miami Herald.

I do not like Stephen Ross as a football team owner and have made that clear. He has overseen mostly losing and failure for the product on the field in his many years leading the Dolphins. I have gone so far as to call him a “clown-show owner.” He recently was suspended by the NFL and fined for tampering over his back-channels pursuit of Tom Brady.

But I won’t paint with so broad a brush as to deny him credit where it is due.

His capital improvement of the Hard Rock Stadium complex has been phenomenal. He poured millions of his own money into the stadium itself to keep it in play for Super Bowls, the College Football Playoff and the World Cup. He saved Miami Open tennis by taking it on. Formula One is here because of him.

And this: His treatment of Dolphins alumni is first class, culminating this weekend with the celebration of the 1972 Perfect Season on its special anniversary.

The aging Perfectos were honored during Sunday’s game, too. Larry Csonka, Griese, Larry Little and Paul Warfield were in on the ceremonial pregame coin flip, welcomed with a standing ovation, and all of the living 17-0 players along with family of those passed on gathered at halftime for a bow.

But the main event was Saturday night at the private Gala north of the stadium, emceed by Mike Tirico, in town to call Sunday night’s game. Old videos played, along with music from the era. I was happy to be seated at a table with and reacquaint with the Marks Brothers — Duper and Clayton.

Players from the Perfect Season were invited to share memories, including former foes, like the Steelers’ Mean Joe Greene. He said, “When you were watching the [’72] Dolphins on offense, you were watching artwork.”

In a poignant moment afterward, I was three feet away as Csonka, using a cane, approached Greene for an embrace.

“Each year, it’s like we come back to life,” Csonka told me — meaning the renewed attention paid the Perfect Season when the current season’s last unbeaten team loses. “It’s like the dust blows off and we’re up and we’re talking. It gives you the feeling, as you reach antiquity, that you’re still in there. It’s like we’re still competing.”

There was a memorial video for the 17 Perfectos who have left us, many due to CTE injuries from concussions. Many of the living also suffer. A 1972 Dolphin I won’t name walked slowly through the Grand Ballroom with his hands on the shoulders of an aide walking slowly before him. The heart sank just a bit. Warm applause swelled toward the end when the big screens showed Don Shula, the great coach who passed away at 90 in 2020.

How Shula would have loved Saturday night and this weekend. Not for the attention, but for the embrace of his most beloved old players.

The night was bittersweet and poignant, because it was a last major milepost of a gradual goodbye to the aging Perfectos, to an era, a time.

“We’re passing that quarter-mile post,” said Csonka, of his Perfect teammates now well into their 70s. “It’s coming around the bend. I was still making memories at 55. Now at 75, I’m looking back at them.”

For this proud franchise, the next great memories are up to the current caretakers of the team.

For a half-century now, no iteration of the Dolphins including the ones led by the great Marino have been able to duplicate the championship era topped by the Perfect Season.

It is the beacon on the hill; no, on the mountaintop.

Some team, some time, might reach that pinnacle. But no team will ever climb higher.

For the Dolphins and their fans, 50 years later, forget perfection — they’ll gladly take celebrating playoffs.

Sunday night brought that a step closer.