The 100 Greatest Plays in Dolphins History: No. 73

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 difficult, 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. 73:

No. 73: Lyle Blackwood's interception against Philadelphia in 1981

Setting the stage: The Dolphins and Eagles faced off at the Orange Bowl in a late-November Monday night game with each team tied for first in its division, the Dolphins tied with the Jets at 7-4-1 and the Eagles tied with the Cowboys at 9-3. This was a defensive battle and the score was 10-10 late in the fourth quarter when Lyle Blackwood played the role of hero – with a pretty big assist from the Orange Bowl crowd.

The play: The Eagles started a possession after their 20 after the Dolphins had tied the score when we got a great display of the kind of home-field advantage Miami once enjoyed. It's one of the most epic crowd moments in franchise history, as the crowd got so loud that Eagles QB Ron Jaworski backed away from the line of scrimmage on several occasions, telling the officials he couldn't call out his signals because of the noise. With delay after delay, it took about 7 minutes for the Eagles to run three plays and the third one was a third-and-8. That was when Jaworski tried to hit Harold Carmichael beyond the first-down marker, only to see Blackwood dive in front of the wide receiver to make the pick. The turnover led to a field goal and the Dolphins clinched their 13-10 victory when Philadelphia fumbled the ensuing kickoff.

The No. 100 Greatest Play in Dolphins History

The No. 99 Greatest Play in Dolphins History

The No. 98 Greatest Play in Dolphins History

The No. 97 Greatest Play in Dolphins History

The No. 96 Greatest Play in Dolphins History

The No. 95 Greatest Play in Dolphins History

The No. 94 Greatest Play in Dolphins History

The No. 93 Greatest Play in Dolphins History

The No. 92 Greatest Play in Dolphins History

The No. 91 Greatest Play in Dolphins History

The No. 90 Greatest Play in Dolphins History

The No. 89 Greatest Play in Dolphins History

The No. 88 Greatest Play in Dolphins History

The No. 87 Greatest Play in Dolphins History

The No. 86 Greatest Play in Dolphins History

The No. 85 Greatest Play in Dolphins History

The No. 84 Greatest Play in Dolphins History

The No. 83 Greatest Play in Dolphins History

The No. 82 Greatest Play in Dolphins History

The No. 81 Greatest Play in Dolphins History

The No. 80 Greatest Play in Dolphins History

The No. 79 Greatest Play in Dolphins History

The No. 78 Greatest Play in Dolphins History

The No. 77 Greatest Play in Dolphins History

The No. 76 Greatest Play in Dolphins History

The No. 75 Greatest Play in Dolphins History

The No. 74 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.