Unlike Mercury Morris, who was kinda pissy on the TV last night when asked about Indianpolis’ chances of a perfect season, former Dolphins coach Don Shula — whose ’72 Fins were 14-0 in the regular season prior to beating the Redskins in Super Bowl XII — had nothing but praise for the Colts.
“The Colts are doing things no other team has done and they’re looking good doing it,” he said Tuesday during an NFL conference call. “I think this team has a real chance of running the table.”
Shula (above) acknowledges this isn’t the first time he’s had such thoughts.
He remembers the 1985 Bears, who lost only to Shula’s Dolphins, on the way to a Super Bowl title and the 1998 Denver Broncos, the last team to begin a season 10-0. Only five other teams, including the Colts, have started 10-0 since the league went to a 16-game schedule in 1978.
“The ’85 Bears were a great football team and aside from that one game, they played exceptionally well all year,” Shula said. “Denver at 13-0 was tremendously strong in all areas, too.”
The Colts have rallied from early 17-point deficits, demonstrated they can protect the big leads and have only trailed once in a fourth quarter this season – 3-0 to the Jaguars. Indy eventually won 10-3.
Even the ’72 Dolphins weren’t this dominant.
“One of the closest games we had that year was against Minnesota in the third game of the season,” Shula recalled. “We won 16-14 but we trailed 14-6 in the fourth quarter. We kicked the field goal first, then had to score the touchdown. And then there was the 1-point game we had at Buffalo.”