For lifelong Dolphins fans, it’s the 1990’s (and early 2000’s) all over again. During many of those seasons, the Dolphins would find themselves in position to finally meet the high expectations that they had heading into the year, only to fail in some gut wrenching, devastating, and all too predictable way. And while this season has really been more of a pleasant surprise then one whose expectations were high in the beginning, those knots that we used to feel in our stomachs are churning once again today as the ‘Fins get ready to take on the Patriots.
But first a little bit of (brief) history:
- 1990 Season: Lost to the Buffalo Bills 44–34 in the divisional playoffs.
- 1991 Missed the playoffs in an overtime loss to the New York Jets during the final week of the season, losing the AFC’s final playoff berth.
- 1992 Defeated at home by the Buffalo Bills 29–10 in the AFC Championship.
- 1993 Team starts 9-2, Marino blows out Achilles tendon, Scott Mitchell takes over, hilarity ensues.
- 1994 Dolphins go 10-6 and beat the Joe Montana lead Chiefs in the first round of the playoffs. But in the second round they gave up a 15-point halftime lead and suffered a heart-breaking 22–21 loss to the San Diego Chargers. Pete Stoyanovich missed a 46 yard field goal on the last play of the game.
- 1995 The team finishes 9-7 and makes the playoffs as a wild card, losing to Buffalo in the first round. However, this is the start of a long line of seasons where the Dolphins start the season strong, and then falter in the winter months.
- 1996 Team starts strong, finishes poorly. 8-8 Missed playoffs
- 1997 Miami stumbles late and backs into the playoffs with a 9–7 season, losing to the Patriots in the Wild Card round.
- 1998 10-6 (another season where the team finishes poorly late) Stomped by Denver in the second round of the playoffs. In all fairness, Denver was pretty unstoppable that year.
- 1999 …62-7
- 2000 The Dave Wannstedt era begins. Dolphins finish a solid 11-5 but are destroyed by Oakland in the second round of the playoffs.
- 2001 The Dolphins lost in the first round of the playoffs 20–3 to the Ravens.
- 2002 Team starts the season 5-1 and stumbles late thanks in part to Ray Lucas. In week 17, they could have gained a playoff spot by by beating the Patriots in New England. However, despite dominating the New England Patriots for most of the game, the Dolphins blew an 11-point lead late in the fourth quarter of a devastating loss. Due to a tiebreaker, both the Dolphins and Patriots lost out on the playoffs as the Jets took the AFC East title.
- 2003 Late season Losses to the Patriots and the Eagles ended Miami’s postseason hopes. Miami finished 10–6, but was still short of a playoff spot.
- 2004 Ricky Williams “retires” and the team falls apart. This was the end of the Dolphins relevancy in the NFL.
There is no doubt in my mind that many of those seasons, especially late in the 1990’s and early this decade, were greatly affected by the seasons that came before it. When the team would go through its annual late season slide, there was always that feeling of “Here we go again” at the first hint of danger. It wore on all of us. Bill Simmons even once dubbed it the Dolphins annual “Hanukkah Collapse”.
The reason I bring this up is that this game today reminds me of so many games that took place during that time. The Dolphins have a chance to really put themselves in the hunt for a playoff spot or maybe even a division title with a win today. In the past, the Dolphins would loose this game and maybe or maybe not find a way to eek their way in the playoffs, only to be trounced in the first round if they did make it. A win today would be a huge step forward not only in the standings, but in the psyche of franchise. Sure, they would still need to finish the season strong and find a way to beat the Jets in New York. But just getting to that point would be a victory in and of itself.
