The 100 Greatest Plays in Dolphins History: No. 94

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

Author:
Alain Poupart
Publish date:
Jun 10, 2021 10:00 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 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. 94.

No. 94: Chuck Klingbeil's fumble recovery for a TD in Don Shula's 300th victory

Setting the stage: Legendary Dolphins head coach Don Shula entered the 1991 season with 298 career victories and saw his team begin the season 1-2 with a home victory against the Colts in Week 2 sandwiched around road losses against the Bills and Lions. Shula would get victory number 300 against the Green Bay Packers in Week 4 thanks in large part to a most unlikely hero, nose tackle Chuck Klingbeil.

The play: The Dolphins offense had a tough time against the Green Bay defense on this September day in Miami, but punter Reggie Roby was a major factor as he averaged 52.7 yards and put two kicks out of bounds near the Packers goal line. One of them came on the next-to-last play of the third quarter when the Dolphins trailed 13-6. The ball went out of bounds at the 1 before Klingbeil stuffed running back Allen Rice for no gain on first down to end the quarter. Klingbeil then got a gift on second-and-10 when quarterback Don Majkowski simply dropped the ball in the end zone when he went back to pass. Klingbeil, who was getting some pressure on the play, simply fell on the loose ball for the first and only touchdown of his five-year NFL career. More importantly, the touchdown paved the way for a 16-13 victory that helped Shula reach another significant milestone.