Super Bowl VIII, 1974: Miami 24 Minnesota 7

Super Bowl VIII was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Minnesota Vikings and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Miami Dolphins to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 1973 season. The Dolphins conquered the Vikings by the score of 24–7 to win their second consecutive Super Bowl, the first team to do so since the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowls I and II, and the first AFL/AFC team to do so.

The game was played on January 13, 1974 at Rice Stadium in Houston, Texas. This was the first time the Super Bowl venue was not home to that of an NFL franchise. At the time, the Astrodome seated just over 50,000, and was considered too small to host a Super Bowl. This was also the first Super Bowl not to be held in either the Los Angeles, Miami or New Orleans areas. It was also the last Super Bowl, and penultimate game overall (the 1974 Pro Bowl in Kansas City played the next week was the last) to feature goal posts at the front of the end zone (they were moved to the endline, in the back of the end zone, the next season).

This was the Dolphins' third consecutive Super Bowl appearance. They posted a 12–2 record during the regular season, then defeated the Cincinnati Bengals and the Oakland Raiders in the playoffs. The Vikings were making their second Super Bowl appearance after also finishing the regular season with a 12–2 record, and posting postseason victories over the Washington Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys.

Super Bowl VIII was largely dominated by the Dolphins, who scored 24 unanswered points during the first three quarters, including two touchdowns on their first two drives. Minnesota's best chance to threaten Miami occurred with less than a minute left in the first half, but Vikings running back Oscar Reed fumbled the ball away at the Dolphins' 6-yard line, and his team was unable to overcome Miami's lead in the second half. Dolphins fullback Larry Csonka became the first running back to be named Super Bowl MVP; both his 145 rushing yards and his 33 carries were Super Bowl records. Csonka broke the previous record for yards rushing (121) and carries (30) set by Matt Snell (who was also a fullback) in Super Bowl III.

Game summary
The Dolphins' game plan on offense was to use misdirection, negative-influence traps, and cross-blocking to exploit the Minnesota defense's excellent pursuit. (The Kansas City Chiefs had used similar tactics against the same Vikings defensive line in Super Bowl IV). Wrote Jim Langer, "All this was successful right away. We kept ripping huge holes into their defense and Csonka kept picking up good yardage, especially to the right. We'd hear Alan [Page] cussing because those negative-influence plays were just driving him nuts. He didn't know what the hell to do." On defense, the Dolphins' goal was to neutralize Chuck Foreman by using cat-quick Manny Fernandez at nose tackle and to make passing difficult for Tarkenton by knocking down his receivers and double-teaming John Gilliam. They were also depending on defensive ends Bill Stanfill and Vern Den Herder to contain Tarkenton's scrambling. Coach Don Shula wrote, "In the case of Tarkenton we wanted to hem him in. In the case of Page, Eller and company, we wanted to try to turn their aggressiveness to our advantage. We decided to emphasize negative influence by misdirection and cross blocking, trying to make the Vikings Front Four commit to the influence of the play and then actually running it elsewhere. The Vikings responded as we anticipated. Then later in the game we found that the Vikings started hesitating, reducing their charge. When they did that, we beat them with straight blocking."

First quarter
As they had the two previous Super Bowls, the Dolphins won the coin toss and elected to receive. The Dolphins dominated the Vikings right from the beginning, scoring touchdowns on two 10-play drives in the first quarter. Said Jim Langer, "It was obvious from the beginning that our offense could overpower their defense." The two drives were very similar, both containing 8 rushes, 2 passes (both of which were complete), one third-down conversion, and four first downs picked up, while Miami did not get penalized. First, Dolphins defensive back Jake Scott gave his team good field position by returning the opening kickoff 31 yards to the Miami 38-yard line. Then Mercury Morris ran right for four yards, Larry Csonka crashed through the middle for two, and quarterback Bob Griese completed a 13-yard pass to tight end Jim Mandich to advance the ball to the Vikings 43-yard line. Csonka then ran on second down for 16 yards, then Griese completed a six-yard pass to receiver Marlin Briscoe to the 21-yard line. Three more running plays, two by Csonka and one by Morris moved the ball to the Vikings 5-yard line. Csonka then finished the drive with a five-yard touchdown run.

Then after Minnesota's offense went three downs and out, Mike Eischeid's punt went only 34 yards. Scott fumbled the return but recoved the ball, giving Miami better field position than the opening drive. The Dolphins then went 56 yards in 10 plays (aided with three runs by Csonka for eight, 12, and eight yards, and Griese's 13-yard pass to Briscoe) to score on running back Jim Kiick's one-yard run (his only touchdown of the season) to give them a 14–0 lead.

By the time the first quarter ended, Miami had run 20 plays for 118 yards and eight first downs, and scored touchdowns on their first two possessions, with Csonka carrying eight times for 64 yards and Griese completing all four of his passes for 40 yards. Meanwhile, the Miami defense held the Minnesota offense to only 25 yards, six plays from scrimmage, and one first down. The Vikings advanced only as far as their own 27-yard line. The Dolphins set the record which still stands for the largest Super Bowl lead (14 points) at the end of the first quarter. It has since been tied by the Oakland Raiders against the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XV (led 14-0) and the Green Bay Packers against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV (led 14-0).

Second quarter
The situation never got much better for the Vikings the rest of the game. After each team traded punts early in the second period, Miami mounted a seven-play drive starting from their own 35-yard line, culminating in a 28-yard field goal from kicker Garo Yepremian to make the score 17–0 midway through the second quarter. On the first play of the drive, Minnesota was penalized 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct on linebacker Wally Hilgenberg. On the previous series, Hilgenberg had thrown an elbow through Csonka's facemask, cutting Csonka above the eye, but had not been penalized. Later in the drive, Mercury Morris ran for 10 yards on a 3rd down play from the Minnesota 40-yard line to allow Miami to get into field goal range.

The Vikings then had their best opportunity to score in the first half on their ensuing drive. Starting at their own 20-yard line, Minnesota marched to the Miami 15-yard line in nine plays, aided by Fran Tarkenton's completions of 17 and 14 yards to tight end Stu Voigt and wide receiver John Gilliam's 30-yard reception. Tarkenton's eight-yard run on first down then advanced the ball to the 7-yard line. But on the next two plays, Vikings running back Oscar Reed gained only one yard on two rushes, bringing up a fourth-down-and-one with less than a minute left in the half. Instead of kicking a field goal, Minnesota attempted to convert the fourth down with another running play by Reed. However, Reed lost the ball while being tackled by linebacker Nick Buoniconti, and Scott recovered the fumble. About the decision to run with Reed on three straight plays, Grant defended the decision since the Vikes twice had converted in the NFC title game against Dallas. "If it's less than a yard, we go for it", he said. "We feel we have the plays to make it." The Dolphins, however, made the stop where the Cowboys had not.

Jim Langer wrote that at halftime, "We definitely knew that this game was over."

Third quarter
Gilliam returned the second half kickoff 65 yards, but a clipping penalty on the play moved the ball all the way back to the Minnesota 11-yard line. Two plays later, Tarkenton was sacked for a six-yard loss by defensive tackle Manny Fernandez on third down, forcing Minnesota to punt from their own 7-yard line. Scott then returned the punt 12 yards to the Minnesota 43-yard line.

Miami then marched 43 yards in eight plays to score on Csonka's two-yard touchdown run through Hilgenberg to increase their lead to 24–0 with almost nine minutes left in the third quarter. The key play was Griese's third-and-five, 27-yard pass to wide receiver Paul Warfield to the Minnesota 11-yard line. It was Griese's last pass of the game, his only pass of the second half and just the seventh overall, and only Warfield's second, and last, catch of the game. (Because of his hamstring injury, Warfield had earlier been limping through primarily decoy routes.) The Vikings might have had the drive held to a field goal attempt when Morris lost 8 yards on a third-and-4 play from the Minnesota 5, but Hilgenberg was called for holding, giving Miami an automatic first down at the 8. From there, Csonka carried twice to a score. On the scoring play, Griese forgot the snap count at the line of scrimmage. He asked Csonka, who said "two." Kiick said, "No, it's one." Griese chose to believe Csonka, which was a mistake; it was "one." Griese bobbled the ball slightly, but still managed to get it to Csonka.

After an exchange of punts, Minnesota got the ball back at their 43-yard line after Larry Seiple's kick went just 24 yards.

Fourth quarter
The Vikings then mounted a 10-play, 57-yard drive, with Tarkenton completing 5 passes for 43 yards, including a 15-yarder to Voigt on 3rd-and-8, and taking the ball into the end zone himself six plays into the 4th quarter on a 4-yard touchdown run. This was the first rushing touchdown by a quarterback in Super Bowl history.

Minnesota recovered the ensuing onside kick, but an offsides penalty on the Vikings nullified the play, and they subsequently kicked deep. Miami went three-and-out, but Seiple boomed a 57-yard punt and Minnesota got the ball back at its own 3-yard line. Eight plays later, along with the only penalty charged to Miami in the game (four yards for pass interference), the Vikings reached the Miami 32-yard line. Tarkenton got there with a 27-yard completion to Ed Marinaro. But after two incomplete passes, his pass intended for wide receiver Jim Lash was intercepted by Dolphins cornerback Curtis Johnson at the goal line. Miami got the ball back at their 10-yard line with 6:24 left in the game, and Csonka and Kiick were the ball carriers on all 12 remaining plays. The Dolphins picked up 2 first downs by rush and 2 by penalty on Minnesota in running out the clock. With less than four minutes to play, a frustrated Alan Page was called for a personal foul for a late hit on Griese, and then two plays later both Page and Kuechenberg were given offsetting personal fouls after getting in a scuffle with each other.

Wrote Jim Langer, "We just hit the Vikings defense so hard and so fast that they didn't know what hit them. Alan Page later said he knew we would dominate them after only the first couple of plays."

Griese finished the game with just six out of seven pass completions for 73 yards. Miami's seven pass attempts were the fewest ever thrown by a team in the Super Bowl. The Dolphins rushed for 196 yards, did not have any turnovers, and were not penalized in the first 52 minutes. Tarkenton set what was then a Super Bowl record for completions, 18 out of 28 for 182 yards, with one interception, and rushed for 17 yards and a touchdown. Reed was the leading rusher for the Vikings, but with just 32 yards. Tight end Stu Voigt was the top receiver of the game with three catches for 46 yards. The Vikings' lethargic performance was very similar to their performance in their loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl IV.

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