The 10 Most Disappointing Dolphins Super Bowl Shortfalls

As Dan Marino has often said, he never thought when he appeared in the Super Bowl in his second season with the Miami Dolphins that it would be his last time in the big game.

But that's the way it turned out, and that Super Bowl XIX appearance also marked the last time the Dolphins have made it to the final game of the season.

The Dolphins now have gone 40 years without playing in the Super Bowl and more often than not they really weren't that close to getting there.

But there have been some close calls along the way, some seasons where it might not have taken much for things to have played out differently.

Here then is our ranking of the top 10 most frustrating seasons in terms of the Dolphins falling short of the Super Bowl goal:

1. 1985, 12-4 record, lost in AFC Championship Game

Yep, the closest call the Dolphins have had since their last Super Bowl game came the very next season. The Dolphins came into the playoffs hot, having won their last seven games of the regular season highlighted by the Monday night win against the Chicago Bears. But they had a tough time in the first round before coming back to defeat Cleveland and then gave the AFC title game away with six turnovers and a missed field goal in a 31-14 loss against the New England Patriots at the Orange Bowl. The loss spoiled a Super Bowl rematch between Miami and Chicago.

2. 1994, 10-6 record, lost in divisional round

The Dolphins probably never let a playoff win slip away the way they did at Qualcomm Stadium when they blew a 21-6 halftime lead against the Chargers, then lost when Pete Stoyanovich missed a 48-yard field goal attempt in the final seconds — after two long incompletions when they had the ball at the 30-yard line with 17 seconds left and two timeouts. Making this worse, San Diego won at Pittsburgh the following week to advance to the Super Bowl.

3. 1990, 12-4 record, lost in divisional round

The 1990 season remains the last time the Dolphins reached 12 wins and this was a Super Bowl-caliber team, except that the best team in the NFL was Buffalo. Still, the Dolphins had a great opportunity to turn the game around trailing 30-27 early in the fourth quarter when linebacker Mike Reichenbach got his hands on a Jim Kelly pass but dropped the interception. The Bills then drove for a touchdown, recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff and the Dolphins were done. Buffalo annihilated the Raiders in the AFC Championship Game, and there's no reason to think the Dolphins wouldn't have defeated them.

4. 1992, 11-5 record, lost in AFC Championship Game

While this was one step away from the Super Bowl unlike 1994, this wasn't quite as frustrating because Buffalo simply was the better team — and that wasn't the case against the Chargers in 1994. It was, however, a shame to waste getting the AFC title game at home after No. 1 seed Pittsburgh was upset in the divisional round.

5. 2000, 11-5 record, lost in divisional round

We don't need to tell Dolphins fans that season was the last time the team won a playoff game, and while they were shut out, 27-0, at Oakland the next week, let's remember that Miami drove to the Raiders 16 on its first possession after the defense forced a three-and-out. So maybe the game plays out differently if the Dolphins score to take the lead instead of having Jay Fiedler throw a 90-yard pick-six.

6. 2002, 9-7 record, no playoffs

Yes, it probably sounds weird to bemoan a lost season that didn't even include the playoffs, but this was a year without a great team in the AFC and the Dolphins had the running game and defense to make some noise in the playoffs. The problem is that Miami went 2-4 while Fiedler was out with injuries and the Dolphins squandered an 11-point lead in the final five minutes at New England in their season finale.

7. 2023, 11-6 record, lost in wild-card round

We're reaching a stage where the Dolphins really weren't that close, but who knows what might have happened if the defense didn't start losing players all over the place before the playoff game at Kansas City.

8. 1993, 9-7 record, no playoffs

This was the year when Marino was lost to an Achilles tendon injury in October, and we can't help but wonder how far they could have gone a year after reaching the AFC title game and after getting off to a 4-1 start.

9. 2008, 11-5 record, lost in wild-card round

This was the last time the Dolphins won a division title, but we can't put this team higher on the list because of how easily the offense was handled by the Baltimore Ravens.

10. 2016, 10-6 record, lost in wild-card round

This really wasn't a Super Bowl type of team, but we're included simply because of the uncanny talent of this team for finding different ways to win in the regular season.