The Miami Dolphins turned on an offensive clinic Sunday, thrashing the Denver Broncos 70-20 in their home opener and scoring the second most points by a team in an NFL regular season game.
The Chicago Bears established the NFL record for a single game with 73 points in the 1940 NFL Championship. Washington set the regular-season record with 72 points in 1966.
The Dolphins had an opportunity late in the fourth quarter to break the NFL regular season record and equal the Bears’ mark, but they chose to kneel instead of trying a field goal from the Broncos’ 28-yard line.
“It felt like we were chasing points and a record, which isn’t what we came here to do.” “It has no bearing on the outcome of the season,” Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel stated. “In those situations, you concede and kneel ten times out of ten.” That was wonderful because there was an achievable record, but the message I expected it to communicate wasn’t in line with how I see things.”
According to ESPN Stats & Info, Miami’s win marks just the fourth occasion in NFL history that a team has scored at least 70 points, including playoffs.
Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa led the club to a 35-13 lead after completing 16-of-16 passes for 206 yards, two touchdowns, and zero interceptions.
Tagovailoa is the only quarterback since 1991 to complete 15 or more throws without an interception and throw for 200 yards or more before halftime.
“This is unlike anything I’ve ever seen or been a part of,” Tagovailoa remarked. “It just talks about our team’s tenacity.” Despite the fact that we were up at halftime, I’m really pleased of the lads and the way they continued to play. No one took their foot off the throttle, everyone kept playing, and that’s what we got.”
Meanwhile, Dolphins running backs Raheem Mostert and De’Von Achane combined for eight touchdowns, breaking the team scoring record by 15 points.
Achane ended with 203 yards running on 18 runs, while Mostert had 142 total yards.
Early in the fourth quarter, Tagovailoa and the majority of the team’s stars were removed from the game. He concluded the game with four touchdown passes on 23-of-26 completions.
Miami’s overall yardage of 726 establishes a club record for most yards in a game.
Sean Payton, head coach of the Denver Broncos, called the game “embarrassing” and “tough to watch.”
“Look, it would be one thing to say, ‘Hey, we’re going to get to the next game,’ but we have to watch that tape, and so tomorrow will be tough for a lot of players – tough for us, too, as coaches,” Payton continued.
Later in the press conference, as he prepared his question, Payton yelled at a reporter who was going over some of the statistics from the record defeat.
In the NFL Championship Game in December 1940, the Bears defeated Washington 73-0. Washington defeated the New York Giants 72-41 late in the regular season in November 1966.
Only the Los Angeles Rams scored 70 points in an NFL game against the Baltimore Colts in 1950.
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