The 100 Greatest Plays in Dolphins History: No. 29
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. 29:
No. 29: Jim Mandich's 19-yard catch vs. Washington in Super Bowl VII
Setting the stage: The countdown already has featured a handful of plays from the Super Bowl VII victory against Washington and everybody should know by now the Dolphins were one win away from completing the first — and to this day the only — perfect season in NFL history. The Dolphins already 7-0 when tight end Jim Mandich came up with the best offensive play of the game.
The play: Three players after linebacker Nick Buoniconti's interception, the Dolphins were facing a third-and-6 from the Washington 21 when Bob Griese looked for Mandich near the right sideline. Mandich went to his knee to bring down the catch, rolling out of bounds at the 2-yard line. Two plays later, Jim Kiick scored a touchdown that would prove the decisive margin in the 14-7 victory. Interestingly, this would be Mandich's only catch of the game.
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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.
