10 best Miami Dolphins games of the past decade
3. 10/31/13 Miami Dolphins 22 Cincinnati Bengals 20 (OT)
At the half, the teams had combined for six punts, three turnovers (2 fumbles and 1 INT) and a missed field goal but the Dolphins held a 10-3 lead. That said, it wouldn’t take long for things to heat up in the second half.
The Bengals took the second-half kickoff on a 15-play drive covering 73 yards; getting the ball down to the Dolphins 10 yard line. On 3rd and 4, CB Brent Grimes stepped in front of an Andy Dalton pass at the 6 and took it 94 yards the other way for a touchdown to give the Dolphins a 17-3 lead.
The Bengals answered with two touchdowns by Bengals RB Giovanni Bernard to tie the score at 17 early in the 4th quarter. With the Dolphins offense struggling for most of the night, it looked pretty grim when Bengals kicker Mike Nugent kicked a 54-yd field goal with 1:24 left in the game to give the Bengals a 20-17 lead. With the Bengals defense playing the typical ‘soft zone’, Ryan Tannehill was able to drive the Dolphins 50 yards to set up the game-tying FG by Caleb Sturgis.
The two teams traded punts in overtime. The Dolphins appeared to benefit from a 38-yard pass interference call on their second possession of overtime but went three-and-out. The punt by Brandon Fields pinned the Bengals at the 8-yard line to start their second drive. After two incomplete passes to A.J. Green, Dalton dropped back to pass on third down but Cameron Wake (who lined up inside instead of his usual defensive end position) beat the guard and sacked Dalton for the ‘walk-off safety’ to end it.
What made this game special: You could point to the 3 INTs collected by the defense; including the Grimes ‘pick-six’ but really this was all about the ending. A game ending on a safety just don’t come along very often.
2. 10/14/18 Miami Dolphins 31 Chicago Bears 28 (OT)
The Bears came into the game winners of three straight while the Dolphins were coming off the ‘meltdown’ versus the Bengals. (See #1 on the “10 Worst games of the decade”.)
After a very quiet first half, the Dolphins were leading 7-0 heading into the third quarter. Chicago scored touchdowns on their first three drives of the second half while the Dolphins only managed two Jason Sanders field goals; making the score 21-13 heading into the 4th quarter.
A 43-yard TD reception by WR Albert Wilson, and the successful 2-pt conversion, tied the game at 21-21 with 9:08 left. At that point, the Bears went 75 yards on 11 plays and scored a TD with 3:17 remaining. Often times this decade, this is where the Dolphins would fold. Instead, on the first play from scrimmage, QB Brock Osweiler hit Wilson for a 75-yard catch-and-run TD to tie it back up at 28.
In overtime, the Dolphins took the opening kickoff 74 yards but on 3rd-and-1 from the Bears 1-yard line, Kenyan Drake fumbled the ball and the Bears recovered. The Bears would drive to the Dolphins 35 with two minutes left and line up for a game-winning field goal but former Dolphins kicker Cody Parkey missed ‘wide right’. The Dolphins would then take the ball 28 yards in the final 1:55 and Dolphins kicker Sanders would nail a 47-yard FG as time expired to win the game.
What made this game special: Both these teams needed the win badly and game was a total ‘rollercoaster’ ride in the second half. Each team had victory in their grasp and it came down to the last second of overtime.