Here’s our countdown of the top 100 Miami Dolphins games of the first 25 seasons of the new century.
For ground rules, the plays were picked on the basis of historical significance, impact on a game or season, and uniqueness.
We continue the countdown with games 31-40:
The start of the 2017 season was chaotic, to say the least, for the Dolphins, whose opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was postponed because of Hurricane Irma. Instead, the Dolphins spent a week in Southern California for their Week 2 game against the Chargers and their temporary home of StubHub Center, a soccer stadium with a third the seating capacity of a normal NFL stadium. This was the Dolphins debut for QB Jay Cutler, who threw a TD pass to Kenny Stills, and Jay Ajayi began his post-Pro Bowl campaign by rushing for 122 yards. But this game came down to the kickers, with Miami’s Cody Parker nailing a 54-yard kick with 1:10 left and the Chargers’ Younghoe Koo missing from 44 yards out on the next-to-last play of the game.
This game is well known for its very scary finish (from a Dolphins vantage point), but it also was a fun back-and-forth battle. There were four lead changes in the second half before Charles Clay gave Miami the lead for good with his second touchdown reception from Ryan Tannehill. The scary part came on the final play, which began as a fourth-and-9 for the Steelers from their 21 with 3 seconds left and ended at the Miami 12-yard line when Antonio Brown stepped out of bounds after five laterals. Let’s just say it wasn’t that far from what the Dolphins would produce five years later in Miami. This game also will be remembered for 2011 second-round pick Daniel Thomas’ 111-yard rushing performance, his second and last 100-yard outing for Miami.
After a dreadful start to the 2019 season, the rebuilding Dolphins got interesting in the second half of the season (some might suggest that was a bad thing, but that’s a story for another time) and the Dec. 1 game against the Eagles served as a great example. On a day when Ryan Fitzpatrick passed for 365 yards and three touchdowns, including a 43-yard hook-up with DeVante Parker on fourth-and-4 late in the first quarter, it was the specialists who teamed up for the most memorable play of the game. “Mountaineer Shot,” it was called and it produced a 1-yard touchdown pass from punter/holder Matt Haack to kicker Jason Sanders after the Dolphins switched to a crazy formation with five players wide to the left, four wide to the right, and only Haack (in the shotgun) behind center Daniel Kilgore.
The Dolphins have had pretty good success on Thanksgiving Day through the years, and their rout of the Cowboys in 2003 has to rank near the top of those games. The Dolphins were 7-4 heading into this game against the 8-3 Cowboys, but it turned into a rout after Jay Fiedler connected with Chris Chambers for three touchdown passes. For good measure, Jason Taylor scored on a 34-yard fumble return to make the score 30-14 in the third quarter and the lead grew to 40-14 before Dallas tacked on a late touchdown.
The Dolphins have had their share of 3-0 starts since 2000, and this victory against the Falcons produced one in 2013 that was particularly encouraging because this was Ryan Tannehill’s first late-game comeback. The Dolphins never led in this game until Tannehill threw a 1-yard touchdown pass to tight end Dion Sims with 43 seconds left to cap a 13-play, 75-yard drive that featured three third-down conversions and was highlighted by a 21-yard completion to tight end Charles Clay.
While there was nothing overly remarkable about this game itself, it deserves a high ranking because it was an emphatic way to end an eight-game losing streak against the rival Jets. Ricky Williams was the star of this game with 151 rushing yards, including a 53-yard touchdown that made it 23-3 in the fourth quarter. The defense, meanwhile, came up with three picks and three sacks against Vinny Testaverde (who had engineered the 2000 comeback) and future Dolphins QB Chad Pennington.
Some Dolphins fans will consider this game having been placed way too low in our countdown, but the rationale is that it didn’t change the fact the Dolphins had a miserable 2007 season, only that it kept them from going 0-16, which is why it merits being in the countdown in the first place. Regardless, it certainly was a thrilling finish to watch Greg Camarillo catch a short pass from Cleo Lemon over the middle on third-and-8 and turn it into a 64-yard game-ending touchdown. This was a game the Dolphins were lucky to win, quite frankly, because Matt Stover missed a 44-yard field goal attempt in overtime and Baltimore, which was 4-9 entering the game, strangely settled for a game-tying field goal at the end of regulation instead of going for the win on fourth-and-goal from the 1.
We had the 2003 Thanksgiving victory at Dallas earlier in the countdown, and that came four days after this Sunday night game against Washington when the Dolphins rallied from a 23-10 fourth-quarter deficit. Brian Griese started at QB for the Dolphins with Jay Fiedler nursing an injury, but Fiedler came off the bench late in the third quarter to engineer two touchdown drives that ended with Ricky Williams scores. The Dolphins opened the scoring with an 80-yard touchdown pass from Griese to James McKnight before Washington scored 20 consecutive points.
The Ted Ginn game. That’s all that needs to be said. The Dolphins found a way to win this game despite being outgained 378-104 because Ginn made NFL history with two kickoff returns for touchdowns topping 100 yards. Oh, and Jason Taylor had a 48-yard fumble return for another score. The Jets, who would reach the AFC Championship Game that season, had a chance to pull out the victory after having a first down at the Miami 12 at the two-minute warning, but a Randy Starks sack highlighted the defensive stand that clinched the win for Miami.
The Dolphins have had five coaches, including interim head coaches, win their debut in the 2000s, but Dan Campbell’s first victory was something special. Coming off their bye, the Dolphins went to Tennessee with a 1-3 record but dominated the Titans in every way possible. Reshad Jones had a pick-six, Cameron Wake had four sacks, and Lamar Miller rushed for 113 yards to lead the rout. And for the record, the other Dolphins coaches to win their debut in the 2000s were Dave Wannstedt (2000), Nick Saban (2005), Todd Bowles (2011) and Mike McDaniel (2022).
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