The 100 Greatest Plays in Dolphins History: No. 56

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. 56:

No. 56: Terrence Fede's punt block against Minnesota in 2014

Setting the stage: The 2014 season showed promise at different points for the Dolphins, who had records of 5-3, 6-4 and 7-5 but never could get three games over .500. By the time they faced the Minnesota Vikings in Week 16, they already had been eliminated from playoff contention, but that otherwise meaningless game produced one of the most unusual finishes, authored by rookie seventh-round pick Terrence Fede.

The play: The Dolphins trailed 35-28 before they tied the game on a 3-yard touchdown pass from Ryan Tannehill to Damien Williams with 1:16 left. On the ensuing kickoff, Dion Jordan tackled Cordarrelle Patterson at the Minnesota 13-yard line. A 2-yard scramble by Teddy Bridgewater, an incompletion and a Cameron Wake sack left the Vikings in a fourth-and-11 situation with 45 seconds left when the Dolphins used their final timeout. The long snap bounced before it got to punter Jeff Locke, but he was able to scoop up the ball to get off the punt, By that time, though, Fede had pushed through the line and he got his right hand on the ball to knock it backward out of the end zone for a safety. The Dolphins then clinched the 37-35 victory on the next play when kicker Blair Walsh's onside kick went out of bounds.

The No. 100 Greatest Play in Dolphins History

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The No. 57 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.


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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.