The 100 Greatest Plays in Dolphins History: No. 31

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

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. 31:

No. 31: Dan Marino's game-winning touchdown pass to Mark Clayton vs. Kansas City in the 1990 playoffs

Setting the stage: The 1990 Dolphins were one of the best teams in the NFL, finishing with a 12-4 record. The only problem was that Buffalo was even at 13-3, which meant the Dolphins would have to play a wild-card game. The opponents were the Kansas City Chiefs, who came to Miami after finishing 11-5 in the regular season. This proved to be a battle all the way and the Dolphins found themselves on the short end of a 16-3 score at the end of the third quarter, but that quarter ended with Sammie Smith converting a fourth-and-2 from the Chiefs 45-yard line with a 2-yard line. Five plays into the fourth quarter, the Dolphins had cut their deficit to 16-10.

The play: After forcing a punt, the Dolphins began their next drive with a 37-yard completion from Dan Marino to Ferrell Edmunds to the Chiefs 48-yard line. Nine plays later, they had a first-and-10 from the 12 when Marino fired a quick pass outside to his right to Mark Clayton. Cornerback Albert Lewis, who was selected to his fourth consecutive Pro Bowl that year, got overly aggressiveness and went for the pick. He missed, Clayton caught the ball and easily turned and strolled into the end zone. The Dolphins had to weather one more scare when Kansas City drove to the Miami 26 in the final seconds, but a holding penalty pushed the Chiefs back and Nick Lowery came up short on a potential game-winning 52-yard field goal, allowing the Dolphins to escape with a 17-16 victory.

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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.