Yahoo Movies ‘72 Dolphins find their footing in time to outlast the Giants, go to 13-0
DOLPHINS 23, GIANTS 11 (Dec. 10, 1972)
With their winning streak now at an even dozen, the Dolphins were bucking the law of averages. Surely somewhere along the way of a 14-game regular season, they would come out with less than their best stuff on a given day and get knocked off.
Many thought a Week 13 trip to old Yankee Stadium in New York just might be that spot. At 7-5, the Giants were a pretty good team and right in the thick of the NFC wild card race and of course the Dolphins, for the third straight week had basically nothing to play for other than a perfect regular season.
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When the Giants took the opening kickoff and marched 72 yards on just five plays to grab a 6-0 lead on a Ron Johnson 1-yard touchdown, perhaps some thought, ‘yep, today might be the day.”
But even Mother Nature might have been on Miami’s side as a rainy day in the Big Apple turned the Yankee Stadium field into a muddy quagmire giving the run-heavy Dolphins offense a decided advantage. Earl Morrall immediately answered New York’s score with a long drive of his own resulting in a Mercury Morris 12-yard touchdown run to go up 7-6. Miami would never trail again.
A Garo Yepremian 37-yard field goal late in the first quarter made it 10-6 before the Dolphins stretched their lead to 11 when Morrall found Paul Warfield for a 34-yard strike 2:52 before halftime.
But the Giants weren’t going anywhere. Quarterback Norm Snead executed the two-minute drill to perfection as the Giants drove 81 yards in 13 plays with Johnson scoring again from 1 yard out 26 seconds before halftime cutting the Miami lead to 17-13.
Snead then led the Giants on another long drive to open the second half eventually resulting in a fourth-and-4 at the Miami 16. It was here the game and momentum turned when the Giants tried to fake the field goal resulting in an incomplete pass.
After Yepremian connected on a 31-yard field goal on the first play of the fourth quarter to open the lead to seven, the Giants drove into Miami territory one final time, reaching the Dolphins 28. But on a day where turnovers were the difference in the game, (the Giants committed six to Miami’s one) Bob Tucker fumbled on an end-around run and Bob Heinz recovered. Eventually Yepremian would connect a a short 16 yard field goal with just less than four minutes left to secure the victory.
“The biggest difference in the game today were the turnovers,” said Don Shula after the game. “Anytime you have that big of a difference in turnovers on your side, it should turn your way which it did.”
The 13th consecutive victory tied an NFL record, and the Dolphins were now one home victory over Baltimore away from completing the NFL’s first ever perfect regular season.
