Best Chargers/Dolphins game besides 'Epic'?
Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2018 7:28 pm
That very Classic '81 AFC divisional round affair is obviously not only tops between these two teams but, according to many, is one of the greatest games of all-time-period. What seems to be lost in it all is that the very year prior to the 'Epic in Miami', 1980, a 6-5 Dolphins team hosted the 7-4 Chargers on a Thursday Nighter that also went into OT. Like the following year, the Chargers won. After such a snorer that would be the rematch between both teams (same place) in the '82 playoff tournament, both would play in another OT game in '84 (third in four games between the two) - this time at the Jack - Chargers winning again in a comeback, scoring 20 unanswered-pts to hand Miami its first loss of the season. In each of these three OT games, Fouts would play against a different QB: vs Woodley in '80, vs Strock in the 'Epic' itself, and vs Marino in '84.
Each those two other OT games mentioned serve as a good '2nd-place' candidate, but my guess is their '94 divisional (SD 22, Mia 21) will take it instead if only due to it being a playoff game. If an even lower scoring match is what you'd prefer, you do have the early 2008 affair between two playoff-bound teams (Rivers vs Pennington): a 17-10 Miami win that involved a goal-line stand at Ladainian's expense. There's also the 12-9 field-goal duel of '99; and, in '88, a forgotten Marino overcoming two 11-pt deficits vs Mark Malone, putting up back-to-back TDs in the 4th to win, 31-28.
I, personally, am going to biasedly not place the '94 divisional at '2nd' knowing what would come next. I'll go 10 years earlier. Fouts-vs-Marino, 'Air Coryell' still intact if, however, SD no longer playoff-caliber as an overall squad, game going into OT and a comeback at that, Dolphins being handed their first defeat after starting 11-0...enough good reasons!
Each those two other OT games mentioned serve as a good '2nd-place' candidate, but my guess is their '94 divisional (SD 22, Mia 21) will take it instead if only due to it being a playoff game. If an even lower scoring match is what you'd prefer, you do have the early 2008 affair between two playoff-bound teams (Rivers vs Pennington): a 17-10 Miami win that involved a goal-line stand at Ladainian's expense. There's also the 12-9 field-goal duel of '99; and, in '88, a forgotten Marino overcoming two 11-pt deficits vs Mark Malone, putting up back-to-back TDs in the 4th to win, 31-28.
I, personally, am going to biasedly not place the '94 divisional at '2nd' knowing what would come next. I'll go 10 years earlier. Fouts-vs-Marino, 'Air Coryell' still intact if, however, SD no longer playoff-caliber as an overall squad, game going into OT and a comeback at that, Dolphins being handed their first defeat after starting 11-0...enough good reasons!
