The chill that went down the spines of the members of the 1972 Miami Dolphins on Sunday was cold enough to keep their annual stash of celebratory champagne at a comfortable consumption level. And therein lies their problem.
After watching the New England Patriots ransack their sad-sack '07 0-7 successors at Dolphin Stadium, 49-28, the '72 Dolphins must have an unsettling feeling about that champagne, which is cracked open every year whenever the last undefeated NFL team loses its first game. The way Tom Brady is playing, and the way Bill Belichick coaches, there is an excellent chance the '72 Dolphins will be tasting nothing more bubbly this season than some bitter sips of sour grape juice.
In terms of temperament and cold-hearted tenacity, the '07 Patriots (7-0) are nothing like the last team to give the '72 Dolphins a three-month-long worry, the '05 Indianapolis Colts. Those Colts were coached by nice-guy Tony Dungy, who was then cursed by the double burden of desperately wanting to win one Super Bowl in his lifetime and over-thinking everything he thought that might entail.
At 13-0 in mid-December, Dungy had the division championship and home-field advantage iced, so he obsessed about January and early February. Dungy rested his starters in the Colts' 14th regular-season game -- and lost it, not too surprisingly, to the San Diego Chargers.
The Colts also lost their next game, to the Seattle Seahawks. Although they managed to beat the Arizona Cardinals in their regular-season finale, the Colts had let too much doubt and rust accumulate before they opened -- and closed -- their postseason run against the Pittsburgh Steelers. That's the eventual Super Bowl champion Steelers.
The '07 Patriots are not the '05 Colts. Not anything close. They have three Super Bowl triumphs in their portfolio, so they know the course. They are coached by a man who believes "Winning is the only thing" is a sentiment for softies, who had a spy-cam trained on the sideline of the hapless New York Jets, who reigns as the leading lead foot on the NFL's hardest-driving coaches' circuit.
In case the '72 Dolphins, or anybody else, had any doubt: With his team holding a 42-14 lead over Miami, Belichick removed Brady, who had already thrown for five touchdowns, and replaced him with backup quarterback Matt Cassel. Three plays later, Cassel had a pass intercepted by Dolphins defensive end Jason Taylor, who took it in for a touchdown that cut New England's lead to 21 points.
