The Dolphins died an ignoble death against the Jacksonville Jaguars yesterday, losing by the disastrous score of 62-7 in Jacksonville. There is no point in going over the game, since the Dolphins played terribly from the first play to the last. Suffice it to say that if there was a mistake that could be made playing football, the Dolphins made it.

This is not to take anything away from the Jaguars, who were clearly the better prepared and more talented team in every way, but the Dolphins committed 7 turnovers from the first offensive play to the end of the game and you aren't going to be competitive against any team in the league if you commit 7 turnovers.

There were a few plays by the Dolphins that were good. Tim Bowens bull-rushed over Zach Weigert in the first quarter for a sack and Oronde Gadsden made a beautiful reception of a Dan Marino pass at the end of the first half for the Dolphins' only touchdown. But other than those two plays, the Dolphins looked totally inept and incompetent.

I know that some of the fans out there will want to know how Dan Marino played if you didn't have a chance to watch the game. Well, Dan did not play well at all. His first pass of the game was an interception thrown directly to a Jaguar's defensive back that should never have left his hand. He threw behind, over and in front of his receivers all day long.

Having said that, I'm not trying to single out Dan or blame the loss on him. Every player on the team made mistake after mistake and all deserve equal shares of the blame. Defensive players consistently missed tackles, offensive players dropped passes or fumbled and didn't block and defensive backs were roasted all day long. Every player on the team stunk yesterday.

In the aftermath of this debacle, several things are likely to happen for the Dolphins. First of all, Jimmy Johnson is likely to resign as head coach. There was a good chance he was going to resign anyway, but this defeat will merely hasten his decision.

The second thing that's going to happen is that Dan Marino will most likely not play in a Dolphins uniform again. I believe that the Dolphins will "encourage" him to retire. At the very least, he will be asked to take a huge pay cut. The rumors are flying hot and heavy that he'll leave Miami and play somewhere else, but I don't believe that. I think he'll just retire.

As for my personal feelings - well, I know that it is human nature to want to blame some individual for this disaster. We all like to have some person to blame when things go wrong. But, like most human disasters, it isn't that simple. It isn't all one person's fault. Nearly everyone associated with the team deserves their fair share of blame, from Wayne Huizenga down to the ball boys.

So before we all go shooting Jimmy Johnson or Dan Marino or the offensive line or the defensive backs or the coaching staff - lets take a few days to calm down. Most people can't make intelligent judgments when they're upset and I don't know about you - but I'm very upset right now.

But as bad as you and I feel, I can assure you that every one of the Dolphins' team members feels far worse. Everything they've worked for all year has just been destroyed in an afternoon of humiliation that was worse than their worst nightmares.

So, before you jump on the blame bandwagon, regardless of which bandwagon it is, just remember that it could be worse. You could be Dan Marino this morning, faced with a dismal end to everything you've worked for your whole life.

As for my feelings about Dan - well, I believe that it is time for him to retire. For whatever reasons, he is no longer capable of playing the game at his former level. Yes, sometimes he still comes through with an amazing pass or even a whole drive, but he is inconsistent and mistake prone. He has become just an average NFL quarterback and "average" will never be good enough for him, or for his fans.

For those of you who want big changes to the team following the game, I don't think you have to worry about that. It's pretty clear that there will be big changes to the team in the off-season, perhaps as soon as today.

It was a dismal way to end the season, but I don't think that we'll have to endure another year like this one again.