All Dolphins

The 100 Greatest Plays in Dolphins History: No. 20

Combining the countdown to the start of the Dolphins regular season with the best plays in franchise history

Alain Poupart

To help count down the days to the start of the Miami Dolphins regular season last year, we marked each day with the corresponding jersey number and came up with the three best players to wear that number.

This year, we're counting down to the start of the regular season with a countdown of the top 100 plays in Dolphins history.

Given that the Dolphins have played 849 regular season games and 41 more in the playoffs, it's an awfully difficult task to narrow things down to 100 plays and then rank them. The plays selected were ranked on the basis of difficulty, uniqueness, immediate and long-lasting impact and historical significance.

The countdown initially appeared in Dolphin Digest in 2019 but has been updated.

We continue with No. 20:

No. 20: Garo Yepremian's game-winning field goal at Kansas City in the 1971 playoffs

Setting the stage: There might not be a more significant victory in the history of the Miami Dolphins than the double-overtime thriller at Kansas City in the 1971 playoffs, a game that cemented the young franchise's status as a powerhouse. The upstart Dolphins won their first playoff game on that day, Christmas Day 1971, after scoring a late touchdown to tie the score 24-24 and then surviving two potential game-winning field goal attempts, one wide right and the other blocked by Nick Buoniconti. After coming up short on a 53-yard attempt in overtime, Garo Yepremian would not miss his second opportunity to win the game.

The play: There were eight combined possessions in overtime, which featured the two missed field goal attempts (one by each team) and a Jake Scott interception, and it was a 29-yard run by Larry Csonka (play number 32 in the countdown) that put the Dolphins in position to win. The Dolphins ran three straight times after Csonka gave them a first down at the Chiefs 36 and those runs gained 6 yards. Onto the field came Yepremian, who made the 37-yard kick to end what remains the longest game in NFL history.

The No. 100 Greatest Play in Dolphins History

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The No. 32 Greatest Play in Dolphins History

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The No. 21 Greatest Play in Dolphins History

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Alain Poupart has covered the Miami Dolphins on a full-time basis since 1989. You can follow him on Twitter at @PoupartNFL. Feel free to submit questions every Friday for the All Dolphins mailbag.

Published
Alain Poupart
ALAIN POUPART

Alain Poupart is the publisher/editor of Miami Dolphins On SI and host of the All Dolphins Podcast. Alain has covered the Miami Dolphins on a full-time basis since 1989 for various publications and media outlets, including Dolphin Digest, The Associated Press and the Dolphins team website. In addition to being a credentialed member of the Miami Dolphins press corps, Alain has covered three Super Bowls (for NFL.com, Football News and the Montreal Gazette), the annual NFL draft, the Senior Bowl, and the NFL Scouting Combine. During his almost 40 years in journalism, which began at the now-defunct Miami News, Alain has covered practically every sport at one time or another, from tennis to golf, baseball, basketball and everything in between. The career also included time as a copy editor, including work on several books, such as "Still Perfect," an inside look at the Miami Dolphins' 1972 perfect season. A native of Montreal, Canada, whose first language is French, Alain grew up a huge hockey fan but soon developed a love for all sports, including NFL football. He has lived in South Florida since the 1980s.

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