The 100 Greatest Plays in Dolphins History: No. 52

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

Author:
Alain Poupart
Publish date:
Jul 22, 2021 9:56 AM EDT

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. 52:

No. 52: Doug Swift's Game-Clinching Interception vs. Cleveland in the 1972 Playoffs

Setting the stage: After completing a perfect regular season, the 1972 Dolphins began their playoff quest to return to the Super Bowl with a home game against the Cleveland Browns, who proved a lot tougher opponent than expected. The Browns, who had earned a wild-card berth with a 10-4 record, actually led 14-13 before Jim Kiick's touchdown run gave the Dolphins a 20-14 lead with 4:54 left in the fourth quarter. But the Browns later found themselves with the ball at the Dolphins 34-yard line with 1 minute left with a chance to end the Dolphins' season and their run at perfection.

The play: On a second-and-9, quarterback Mike Phipps looked downfield for Fair Hooker, who had scored Cleveland's second touchdown, but linebacker Doug Swift had dropped way back in coverage and he stepped in front to come down with his second interception of the game. It was the fifth pick of the game for the opportunistic Dolphins defense, but obviously the biggest one.

No. 52: Doug Swift's Game-Clinching Interception vs. Cleveland in the 1972 Playoffs

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