Miami Dolphins Mt. Rushmore - Kickers

[Dave Gray]

Discuss.

[Fau Teixeira]

Olindo
Pete

[dolphins4life]

Olindo
Pete

NO WAY

Olindo couldn't kick against the Patriots.  Cost Miami dearly

No way he gets in

Nedney
Uwe Von Schannon
Feely
Franks

[Dave Gray]

Mare is the most obvious one.  He's our leading scorer and was pretty much the best kicker in the league for a while.  He was on the team for a lot of years.
I have a soft spot for Stoyo.

You'd probably have to say Garo, because he was on those legendary old teams with the Super Bowls.

Then I'd go with Sanders, maybe?
Dan Carpenter has pretty identical stats for a the same amount of time.

[dolphins4life]

Mare is the most obvious one.  He's our leading scorer and was pretty much the best kicker in the league for a while.  He was on the team for a lot of years.
I have a soft spot for Stoyo.

You'd probably have to say Garo, because he was on those legendary old teams with the Super Bowls.

Then I'd go with Sanders, maybe?
Dan Carpenter has pretty identical stats for a the same amount of time.

2002: Mare misses a third quarter field goal and shanks a kickoff out of bounds in Week 17 against NE

2003: Mare misses two field goals that cost Miami that game and their season and changed the course of that season for both teams.

2005: Mare misses a field goal in a 23-16 loss to NE

Wait, you say, that would not have made a difference.

Wrong.

NE was up 15-10.  Miami scored a touchdown to make it 16-15.  If it was 19-15, Miami could have kicked the extra point to make it 20-15.  Then, they could have tied it with a field on their last drive, in which they reached well into field goal range.

Cost Miami that season

2006:  Missed two field goals against NE

[Fau Teixeira]

Player X isn't literally perfect, news at 11.

[masterfins]

D4L I'm surprised you don't have Wes Welker topping this list, he has 100% accuracy for field goals while playing with the Dolphins, AND he later played for your favorite team.

[masterfins]

NO WAY

Olindo couldn't kick against the Patriots.  Cost Miami dearly

No way he gets in

Nedney
Uwe Von Schannon
Feely
Franks

Sorry but you have terrible picks.

Nedney had only 29 FG attempts, with a lowly 62.1 % accuracy.
Feeley had only 23 FG attempts, but at least had 91.3 % accuracy.
Franks had only 37 FG attempts, with only 78.4% accuracy.
Von Schamann had 149 FG attempts, with a lowly 67.8% accuracy.

All together these guys had 238 FG attempts combined, about equal to Stoyanovich's 222 attempts who had a 79.3% accuracy rate.  Mare with 303 attempts is far ahead of all these guys combined, with an accuracy rating of almost 81%.

[dolphins4life]

It’s the timing, Fau.  If you are going to miss kicks, miss them at non-critical times. Mare failed far too often when it really counted.  Plus, he did it against the Patriots.

This set back some very talented teams.

[Downunder Dolphan]

Garo - his addition at the very start of the Shula era was very important to those Dolphins success

Stoyanovich - seemed like he could nail it from impossible distances out (he tried often enough, and did it enough to be on my list)

Olindo Mare

After that you could possibly toss a coin for the fourth.

[masterfins]

2002: Mare misses a third quarter field goal and shanks a kickoff out of bounds in Week 17 against NE

2003: Mare misses two field goals that cost Miami that game and their season and changed the course of that season for both teams.

2005: Mare misses a field goal in a 23-16 loss to NE

Wait, you say, that would not have made a difference.

Wrong.

NE was up 15-10.  Miami scored a touchdown to make it 16-15.  If it was 19-15, Miami could have kicked the extra point to make it 20-15.  Then, they could have tied it with a field on their last drive, in which they reached well into field goal range.

Cost Miami that season

2006:  Missed two field goals against NE

2002 Mare's 3rd quarter miss was a 47 yarder, not exactly a chip shot. at the time Miami was leading 21-13, and Mare subsequently made a FG to give Miami 24 pts.  The Dolphins defense gave up 11 points in the last 5 minutes of the game to force OT, which NEP won with a FG.  The blame for this loss was on the defense, not Mare.  The Dolphins finished the season in 3rd place in the AFCE with a 9-7 record, hardly stellar.

2003 Miami finished 10-6 in 2nd place  This season started badly when the Dolphins lost to the 2nd year Texans thanks to a couple interceptions from Jay Fiedler, when the Dolphins had been leading.  For the game you want to point out (week #7 against NEP) I'd grant that part of the loss goes on Mare, but one of the kicks he "missed" was actually blocked and the other was off of the atrocious dirt infield.  Another OT game, which Miami lost 13-19.  The game concluded after Fiedler threw an INT, that was recoverd at the Miami 18 yard line, then Brady threw a 82 yard TD to win the game.

2005  Miami went 9-7 in their 1st Saban led season, going on a 6 game winning streak to end the season, with Gus Frerotte as their QB. The last game of the season Miami won 28-26, in an upset win over NE (who were back to back SB Champions), they won this game with 2 extra points by Mare, and field goals of 36,38,41, and 42 yards.  The last 42 yarder was with 1:55 left in the game to put Miami in the lead.  But somehow you think Mare sucked.  Yet you focus on a 15-10 loss earlier in the season which if a FG was made THEN 2 other things COULD have happened which MAY have let Miami win, however you ignore the fact that the Patriots game plan would have changed had any of those other things have happened.

[dolphins4life]

2002 Mare's 3rd quarter miss was a 47 yarder, not exactly a chip shot. at the time Miami was leading 21-13, and Mare subsequently made a FG to give Miami 24 pts.  The Dolphins defense gave up 11 points in the last 5 minutes of the game to force OT, which NEP won with a FG.  The blame for this loss was on the defense, not Mare.  The Dolphins finished the season in 3rd place in the AFCE with a 9-7 record, hardly stellar.

2003 Miami finished 10-6 in 2nd place  This season started badly when the Dolphins lost to the 2nd year Texans thanks to a couple interceptions from Jay Fiedler, when the Dolphins had been leading.  For the game you want to point out (week #7 against NEP) I'd grant that part of the loss goes on Mare, but one of the kicks he "missed" was actually blocked and the other was off of the atrocious dirt infield.  Another OT game, which Miami lost 13-19.  The game concluded after Fiedler threw an INT, that was recoverd at the Miami 18 yard line, then Brady threw a 82 yard TD to win the game.

2005  Miami went 9-7 in their 1st Saban led season, going on a 6 game winning streak to end the season, with Gus Frerotte as their QB. The last game of the season Miami won 28-26, in an upset win over NE (who were back to back SB Champions), they won this game with 2 extra points by Mare, and field goals of 36,38,41, and 42 yards.  The last 42 yarder was with 1:55 left in the game to put Miami in the lead.  But somehow you think Mare sucked.  Yet you focus on a 15-10 loss earlier in the season which if a FG was made THEN 2 other things COULD have happened which MAY have let Miami win, however you ignore the fact that the Patriots game plan would have changed had any of those other things have happened.

2002:  Those are the kicks that make the difference between playoffs and not making them.  The best example is the Patriots who won countless close games with Ghostowski and Adam V.  Again, like I said, make that kick, miss a field goal against a team you are blowing out or getting blown out by.  Then, shanking the OT kick out of bounds.  It would have been nice to see if the defense could have made the stop if they'd had more margin for error.  If he makes that kick, it's 27-20.  The Patriots would have had to go for it on fourth down on their tying field goal drive.  Jason Taylor was actually yelling at BB to "Keep Trying" instead of trying the 43 yard field goal to tie.

That team was Super Bowl quality.  They lost Fielder early in the year and went 2-4 with him gone.  They impressively defeated the eventual AFC Champion Raiders in Week 15. 

2003:  The blocked kick, from my recollection, was very low.  The one in OT, I waver on because it only happened after a HORRIBLE call on a Derrius Thompson catch where he clearly was out of bounds, which, for some reason was not reviewed, (Dave and Spider don't seem to remember that play, no surprise), but he still missed an overtime kick.

That was also a Super Bowl quality team.  Most of their losses were close.  Even the 12-0 loss to the Patriots, they had a clear shot at victory but Fiedler couldn't hold on to the ball.

2005: Again, that kick mathematically cost them the game and was a huge miss against NE.  Things could also have been different for Miami if he makes that kick.  What if they are down 15-13, score the TD, go for two, and get it?

[FinFanCR]

Uwe Von Schanmann
Pete Stoyanovich
Olindo Mare
Garo Yepremian