The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

They could have tied or broken it.

It's definitely a scorigami.

I would have tried for the field goal.

I don't blame them for not. I probably wouldn't have either. Opponents don't forget something like that and this isn't college, there are no style points.

NO!

No.  The only reason they were close is because Denver literally gave up and Achane broke that last run to bring it to 70.  At that point Miami was just trying to pound it up the middle and Denver couldn't make a simple tackle, what was Devone supposed to do, fall over?  It was a bit of an artificial score as it is.  They did the right thing.

Weird ass move by Denver keeping Wilson in the whole time.

Let me preface my statement with - I understand why he didn't and I get it.  But, I would have done it, for 2 reasons:

- This perfromance was historic and the players deserve to be memorialized in NFL history for their efforts.

- Sean Payton would have been throwing for the end zone on 4th down, let alone kicking field goals.  I have no doubt in my mind that Sean Payton would have pushed as hard as he could.

All that said, I understand why he didn't, and it showed class.

Payton looked like he was about to cry in the press conference after the game. That dude is washed. He was never as good as people hyped him up to be.

I know why they didn't, but I would have.

I don't think you should go deep and try for the TD that isn't in the natural flow of the game.  But in this particular case, a FG is in the regular course of the game.  I've not (maybe ever) seen a team kneel the ball on 4th down to turn it over on downs.  If it's 4th down and you're in FG range, you kick the FG.

I understand why and it's probably a better narrative for winning the Super Bowl this season, but it would've been nice to stick it to Payton even more.

I find it amazing how not going for it completely flipped the narrative. If the Dolphins hadn't been in a position to kick a field goal for the record, the story would have been all about how they were running up the score. The announcers were already talking about this on the long Chosen TD.

How playing your backups for all but 5 seconds of the 4th quarter can be considering running up the score is another matter, but that would still have been (and was) the story until McDaniel declined to go for the field goal.

The most convincing argument I've heard against going for the FG is that if Sanders misses it - and it would have been about 45 yards, so not a gimme - his seemingly-fragile psyche gets even worse.

The upsides don't match the downsides.

They did the right thing. The game is over. Kneel down, get the W and move on. Records are nice to look back on, but they don't mean much during the season.

Nope pure class for what is essentially a meaningless play. Take the knee avoid injury for made up glory. I was hoping it would have organically happened but it didn’t. Greatest dolphins game I have ever seen. Truly this may be the best offense since greatest show on turf.

This is semantics, but kneeling didn't end the game.  It turned the ball over on downs.

If kneeling ended the game, 100% kneel.  But to turn over on downs, that's like...the unnatural play within the normal flow of the game.

Who cares, I know...I get why he did it.  McDaniel didn't want the record to be the story.  What Spider said about Sanders is true, also.

Well I assume that McDaniel thought the Broncos would kneel in return. The fact they didn't showed a real lack of respect in my humble opinion. I mean they ran a running play so it's not like they really tried to score, but still the classy thing to do would have been kneel. You think Payton was raked over the coals after the game, it would have been a feeding frenzy if someone from either side got hurt on that play.

That's kinda like in chess when your opponent has you beat and he offers his hand as a sign of respect and instead of shaking his hand you move. Seriously? You're not going to admit defeat when you are down by 50 points with 30 seconds left on the clock?

That’s right should have brought out the squib kick would make more sense than kneeling if it didn’t end the game and allows for the potential of an organic chance on getting the record that isn’t deliberately trying to run up the score. I was so juiced by that time I couldn’t focus .

Mike showed class he’s good dude with Denver connections so I think it was a good gesture.

I'm not really trying to argue that he should've kicked it.  I get what he was doing and it's fine.

In terms of "the game was over" -- the game was over after 3 quarters.  We literally could've taken a knee and punted for the rest of the game.  Considering the last 15 seconds as "over" but not the last 2 minutes where we were running the ball or the last 10 minutes where we were airing out 60 yard TDs is just arbitrary.  Again, it's fine.

The only thing I'm trying to say is it's not like we had to do something out of the ordinary to beat the record.  We had to do something out of the ordinary to not beat the record.

^^ agree with this.  taking a knee on 4th down seems deliberate and unusual, considering there were no kneels on 1st, 2nd, or 3rd down.  Why now?  It seems more like a mercy play, like showing "hey, we're not going to embarass you today" all while pointing out that you're losing by 50.

The previous couple of plays Denver started getting chippy on the field - at the prospect of being officially on the receiving end of the biggest spanking in history, you could see they were getting upset. I think it was smart by McDaniel to stop it there and then - that along with his message after the game about not being around to chase records was a pretty good reality check (and hopefully reset) for the team. There are more important goals ahead.