Miami Dolphins At 50: Records
By Brian Miller
Today we will continue our look at some of the memorable moments or players from the last fifty Miami Dolphins seasons. O.k. 49 seasons. This afternoon we will look at ten statistics that stand out over the course of those 49 seasons. Home and away win loss records, greatest comebacks, and so on. It’s stuff that you normally wouldn’t look at as a whole but more singularly as you read stats and history stories.
More from Dolphins All-Time Lists
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- Every head coach in Miami Dolphins history, ranked
- Miami Dolphins Gerrid Doaks likely competing for practice squad in 2022
- Miami Dolphins: Top 5 games of Ricky Williams’ career
- Five “What If” scenarios in Miami Dolphins history
Record
The Miami Dolphins have played 374 games at home in their 49 seasons and 378 games on the road…makes sense. At home the team is 240 – 131 with three ties. On the road the team is 183 – 194 and one tie. Obviously the team is far better at home than on the road.
The Dolphins are 92-68-1 in the month of September, 110-82-3 in the month of October, 113-91 in November, 104-79 in December, and 4-5 in January.
Primetime has always been a special event for Miami Dolphins football and the last 49 years have really given fans some great games. Who can forget the Monday night game against the 87 Chicago Bears? On Monday Night Football the Dolphins are 41-40 winning last years lone MNF game against the NY Jets. In all other primetime games held on Sunday nights or Thursday nights, the Dolphins are 26-13 winning last years Buffalo Bills Thursday night game.
Largest Crowds
The stadium was built to accommodate one of the largest capacity crowds in the NFL. While it’s undergoing a huge makeover and will lose some seating, that being said, here is a look at the largest crowds the Dolphins have played in front of.
October 27th, 1996 was the largest home game at Sun-Life Stadium. 75,283 fans ventured into the stadium to see the Dolphins lose to the Dallas Cowboys 29-10. In fact of the 10 largest attended games in 49 years, the Dolphins only won two.
On January 2nd, 1972 the Dolphins played in front of their largest home crowd ever. 78,939 fans crammed the Orange Bowl to see Miami beat the then Baltimore Colts. Of the top ten attendance games at the Orange Bowl, Miami only lost one.
On the road the Dolphins played in front of a sell out crowd in Pasadena. 103,667 fans attended the Super Bowl in 1983 against the Washington Redskins. Of the top ten games attendance wise on the road, the Dolphins have only won two of those contests. One a Super Bowl and another a game against the Buffalo Bills in 1992.
Comebacks
We covered the largest margins of victory in another post but what about comebacks? Sadly I can’t seem to shake the Monday night meltdown against the Jets but hopefully if you too have this trouble, some of these games might make you rethink your memory.
In the 2nd quarter of a game on 12-15-74 the Dolphins trailed the Patriots 24-0 and rallied to beat them 34-27.
In 2005 the Dolphins overcame a 21-0 deficit at the half to beat the Bills 24-23.
Twice Miami came back from 18 points down at the half. Once in ’86 and once in ’71. They beat the Browns in the playoffs 24-21 and the Steelers in ’71 24-21.
Four times the team rallied from 17 points down.
The largest 4th quarter comeback was in 1980 when the team rallied to beat the Saints 21-16 after trailing by 16 entering the 4th quarter.
Overtime
At home the Dolphins are 10-11 in overtime games with one game ending in a tie.
On the road the Dolphins are 6-12 for a total record of 16-23-1 in overtime games. They have won the coin toss 20 times and lost it 20 times.
Coaching
We all know that Don Shula has the longest tenure as a Dolphins coach but others have put in a significant amount of time with the team. Shula put 26 years of coaching in the Dolphins history books. Carl Tasseff an assistant under Shula put in 24 years while Mel Phillips put in 23.