The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/sports_seasonticket/2008/09/fins-last-big-g.html

Fins: Last big game?

This was a question that I was pondering today:

What was the last big NFL game at Dolphin Stadium, other than a Super Bowl?

By that, I mean a game that the rest of the country cared about.

I'm drawing a blank, it's been so long.

Has there been one since the last playoff game -- against the Ravens after the 2001 season?

> Posted by Ethan J. Skolnick at 11:17:04 AM

It was the playoff game we played against the Colts when Lamar Thomas had like 240 yards rushing in the come from behind wildcard game.

^^ Lamar Smith

I think that was BEFORE the Ravens game in 2001, maybe 2000.

I think the MNF game against the Patriots when Brady choked and threw like 5 picks was a pretty big game.  I was there.

PHI 34 (11-3) @ MIA 27 (8-6), Monday, 12/15/03
@ MIA 34 (1-0), DEN 10 (0-1), Sunday, 9/11/05 (Saban's first game)

and obviously...

NE 49 (7-0) @ MIA 28 (0-7), Sunday, 10/21/07

Miami's last big game was last season, week 15.

If you don't think the country cared about us going winless last year, I beg to differ. Most of my non-TDMMC friends asked me about it constantly last season.

Miami's last big game at home was the one that kept us out of infamy...last year's home win over the Ravens.

You don't think it was big? Imagine how the last 7 months would have been like if Miami had slipped up there and gone 0-16. Go ahead, close your eyes and think about it. When you're done throwing up, we'll continue.

...there, get it out of your system? Sorry to have to do that to ya, but that one win last year was "that" big.

Without that win, 0-16 would have been our world. Not the rebuilding, not the new management...no talk of Dolphins would go without 0-16 being spat out like the prefix from hell.

That game was pretty damned big...

^^^

Truth has been spoken.

...and if you don't believe sunstroke after that compelling argument...play the new Madden video game...in the "Madden moments" section where you get to play the most compelling games situations from last years football season, the Dolphins OT drive against the Ravens is the first "madden moment" to choose from.  Hell I was dancing on my bar table at the sports bar when we won that game so I'll surely agree with you.

The primary reason I disagree with your assessment is that that game wasn't a big deal until it was over and we had won.  0-13 was not significantly more important than 0-12, or 0-11, or 0-10.  In contrast, the NE game was important before kickoff.

IMO every game was a big game after 0-9,10,11 etc. Miami's imperfection was on the minds and mouths of every GD person almost as much as NE's undefeated run, the pressure was huge. It only became bigger after they won.

  Last Big game in Miami?

I think it was the '92 Miami/Buffalo AFC Championship game.

That game gets my vote. It was great going into my West. Civ. Final (Umass Boston)the next morning wearing Chris Chambers.

QFT

I agree.  You really can't call that game a big deal the way you can call this one a big game. 

I think Skolnick was referring the pregame hype and people wanting to watch it.  The win over the Ravens was seen by as many people as been attending the Marlins midweek day games. 

I would have to say the 2000 Wildcard win over the Colts.     

The game in week 15 last year was huge. If we had lost that, but then won in week 16...then the week 16 game would have been the huge one. Did you miss the point of that post entirely, Spidey? Or are you just goosing the semantics so you have something to argue about today?

Sunstroke I think you are missing the point.  The Jets-Dolphin game is a big deal before the game.  The Raven's game wasn't a big deal until after the game. 

Jet-Dolphins will have a capacity crowd (or darn close) and be on TV on half the stations in the country.  With the Ravens game the stands were empty and only TV stations that were forced to carry it carried the game. 

Or are you claiming that ESPN was hyping the Ravens game before that game as much as they are hyping this one? 

Sorry, Stroke.  I have to agree with Hoodie on this one. 

Here ya go stroke:

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/lordthundergod/Random%20pics/Blank-Picard_Facepalm.jpg)

Basically, when was the last time the Dolphins were the national broadcast game on CBS?

Definitely the Pats game last year, since the entire media had a huge hard-on for everything New England last season.  This Jets game this weekend, I think, far eclipses it because of the Farve/Pennington drama

I feel far more righteous with you on the other side of the argument...so thanks. ;)

The only way that week 15 wasn't a huge game for Miami is if you don't think that going 0-16 would have been a problem. I think it would've been disastrous...so it was a huge game.

You are right it was a huge game for Miami.  That wasn't the question.  Question is: when was the last time there was a game this big for the whole freaken country. 

If they lose to Baltimore, then the final game of the season against Cincy was a huge game.... but the Baltimore game in itself wasn't that big until the outcome was decided.

It's easy to say that the game was big after it was already over.  Right now, DET @ ATL is not a big game, but if Matt Ryan throws for 9 touchdowns, it would make it a big game, wouldn't it?

I think the spirit of the OP is to discuss games that had a lot of hype heading into them, not games that were highly celebrated after the fact.  Were that the criteria, I would have replaced all of the games on my list with the Feeley-led win over the Patriots in '04.

It's hard to call any game other than a Super Bowl a big game before it's over...duh

(I just wanted to bold my text in the same way for emphasis...very cool)

Disagree, Stroke - wasn't Colts/Patriots last year a "big game"?  Cowboys/Packers?

Or Cowboys-Patriots for that matter. 

That comment would probably carry a bit more weight if it weren't in a thread about a big game (NYJ@MIA) that has yet to occur.

Unless you fundamentally disagree with the entire premise of the discussion, and you don't think Sunday is a big game?

Actually, the question was "What was the last big NFL game at Dolphin Stadium, other than a Super Bowl?"

And I made the simple point that week 15 last season was a big game. I didn't compare it to the Jets-Phins game...or any other game. It should be noted that the term "big game" belongs in the hierarchy of hyperbole, and comes, as always, without physical qualifiers... This makes it completely subjective to opinion.

So, in closing, my opinion is...fuck you very much, Miami's lone win last season was a big game to me.

ACTUALLY, the question was (emphasis mine):

"What was the last big NFL game at Dolphin Stadium, other than a Super Bowl?

By that, I mean a game that the rest of the country cared about."

So I guess if you completely ignore his qualifier (a game that people with no vested interest cared about), then sure, every Dolphins game is a big game... to a Dolphins fan!

I'm trying to think of any way that you could possibly be more of a complete stonewalling asshat, but I think you've pretty much maxed out that category. Congratulations...

Every game isn't big to a Miami fan...but the one that kept us from going 0-16 sure as hell was.

You keep over looking: "By that, I mean a game that the rest of the country cared about.""

You are stonewalling.  That was the biggest game of the season for the dolphins...the rest of the country didn't give 2 shits about that game.  The possibility of  the dolphins going 0-16 was an insignificant side show, in a season where everyone was focusing on if the Pats could go 16-0.

   

The Baltimore game was especially uninteresting if you didn't know the outcome.

I highly doubt that someone on the west coast would see that game on TV and say "Oh...the Dolphins/Ravens game is on.  Let's watch."

In hindsight, it meant a lot, and was a big game in that respect, but it was not an ANTICIPATED game by the nation.

People keep bringing new irrelevant elements into the equation. I never said that it was a game that was anticipated to be big beforehand. I said that it was a big game for Miami.

No more for me in this thread...I can't take the forehead bruising from the wall in front of me.

(completely off-topic, but...) 'Stroke, I know you probably won't ever see this comment in this post because you swore yourself from this thread, but I just wanted to say that your sig right now is teh awesome.  I <3 Mr. Ben Folds, and that is indeed a great lyric from a great song.  (hell, pretty much every song on the first two Ben Folds Five albums is awesome.....but I digress)

To actually bring this topic back...well, "on-topic", though, I'm gonna throw one out there that has yet to be mentioned and I don't really know why because even at the time I thought it was a big game (even though the Philadelphia game came a year later and did seem pretty big at the time)--the Oakland at Miami game, Dec. 2002.  That's right, this '02 team was definitely still in tight playoff contention sitting at 8-5 prior to that game, though they would infamously go on to tank out in their "trap" game against Minnesota the following week and the one where we really started to question The Wannstache, the @ NE game to close the season.

That Oakland/Miami game came before all that other mess happened, though, and like I was sayin', we were still right there in the thick of things for the playoff race and were hosting a perennially tough Oakland team (at the time) that would go on to be the AFC representative in the Super Bowl later that winter.  It couldn't hurt that this game ended up being a helluva one "after-the-fact", with if my memory serves me correctly Patrick Surtain coming down with a pretty one-handed pick off of Gannon on a deep throw near the end of the game.  I was pumped before, during, and after that 'Phins game, and it's truly the last time I can remember thinking all those things about any other Dolphins game since with maybe the exception of the first game of the 2006 season, and that's just because it was the Saban-ator's debut game and I had no idea we'd beat the pants off the Broncs like we did that day.

I flipped a coin between "Evaporated" and "Bitches Ain't Shit"... ;)

[/end hijack]