The 100 Greatest Plays in Dolphins History: No. 33

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. 33:

No. 33: Phillip Merling's pick-six at the New York Jets in 2008

Setting the stage: The 2008 season was one of the most remarkable in franchise history because of the history-making turnaround engineered by Bill Parcells and Tony Sparano. After going 1-15 in Cam Cameron's first and only season as Dolphins head coach in 2007, the Dolphins rebounded from a 2-4 start in 2008 to win eight of their next nine games and put themselves in position to clinch the AFC East title with a victory against the New York Jets at Giants Stadium.

The play: The Dolphins trailed 6-0 late in the second quarter before they turned the game around dramatically on two second plays from scrimmage. After Chad Pennington threw a 27-yard touchdown pass to Ted Ginn Jr. to put the Dolphins ahead, rookie defensive end Phillip Merling got into the passing lane on an intended screen pass and Brett Favre pretty much threw the ball directly to him. After making the interception, Merling rumbled 25 yards for a touchdown and the Dolphins had themselves a 14-6 lead on their way to a division-clinching 24-17 victory.

The No. 100 Greatest Play in Dolphins History

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The No. 34 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.

Published Aug 10, 2021

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.

Follow @PoupartNFL

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