Wednesday marked the two-year anniversary of one of the most glorious days in Miami Dolphins history, the 70-20 romp of the Denver Broncos at Hard Rock Stadium when they came close to matching the NFL record for most points (73) in a game.
It was, to quote a famous novel, the best of times — at least when it comes to the Mike McDaniel era, with the Dolphins’ high-flying offense operating at maximum level against a defense that had no answers for it.
Two years later, though, it’s fair to wonder whether that actually was a good day for the Dolphins.
There’s no other way to say it, but the Dolphins looked scary that afternoon, like a team that eventually simply could outrun its opponents to a Super Bowl title.
But that never came to pass, that once-magical 2023 season turning into a disappointment with late-season losses against the Baltimore Ravens and Buffalo Bills before the ice-cold playoff loss (in more ways than one) against the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Denver game showed what the Dolphins offense was capable of when fully functional, but there was never anything that looked remotely close to it against a playoff or playoff-type opponent.
Yet, the Dolphins never wavered in their belief the speed element was the key to success, even after coming up short in 2023, and maybe what led to that conclusion was a series of injuries down the stretch that helped explain those late-season failures.
Except they didn’t explain all of it.
Regardless, that 2023 season was enough to convince owner Stephen Ross and the Dolphins front office they were on the right track (get it, speed, track?). That led to the decisions in 2024 to sign Tua Tagovailoa to a big contract extension instead of having him play on his fifth-year option, to sign Jaylen Waddle to a contract extension, to sign Tyreek Hill to a restructured contract even though he was under team control for two more seasons, to sign McDaniel to a contract extension even though he had two years left on his deal.
There can be little doubt that September 24, 2023, afternoon came up in the many discussions before those contract decisions were finalized.
Who wouldn’t to sign up for more of that?
This is not only practically impossible to defend, but it was a show. The kind any NFL owner would love to see from his team.
But a year after all those contracts were handed out, how are things looking now?
For those who might have forgotten, the Dolphins that day racked up 726 total yards, 350 rushing yards, De’Von Achane and Raheem Mostert each scored four touchdowns, and Miami wound up with three touchdowns of 54 or more yards, starting with Tua’s touchdown pass to Tyreek Hill less than two minutes into the game.
Oh, and we should mention the Dolphins did all that without the services of Waddle, who sat out the game with a concussion.
The Dolphins would have a couple of other high-scoring games later in that 2023 season — 42 points against Carolina, 45 points against Washington — but the best they could do against the playoff opponents on their schedule was 22 points against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 15 at Hard Rock Stadium.
To be fair, we will point out that Denver game was the only time all season the Dolphins had their starting offensive line of Terron Armstead, Isaiah Wynn, Connor Williams, Robert Hunt and Austin Jackson in action.
But does anybody really think it would have made that much of a difference in those seven games against the Bills (twice), Eagles, Chiefs (twice), Cowboys and Ravens when the Dolphins averaged 16.1 points?
It’s probably more realistic to suggest the high-flying, speed-oriented offense with all the motion and misdirection has its limits and can’t replace good old-fashioned smash-mouth, physical football at crunch time.
The Dolphins of the McDaniel era weren’t built that way, though.
It didn’t stop them from enjoying a degree of success, starting with the back-to-back playoff appearances of 2022 and 2023, a feat the franchise hadn’t accomplished in more than 20 years.
But it didn’t get the Dolphins where they wanted to go, which was to the second round of the playoffs after that elusive postseason victory, and now things are going in the wrong direction after a playoff-less 2024 season and a 0-3 start in 2025.
Given the extraordinary nature of that afternoon, it figured that September 24, 2023, would never be duplicated.
It indeed was a truly spectacular performance by the Dolphins. But in the long run, it also may have created an illusion.
In short, maybe it wasn’t the best thing that could have happened to the Dolphins — no matter how much fun that day was.
