Worst Week 17 "Playoff" Letdown: 2002, 2013 or 2020?

[sap1993]

The Dolphins faced "win and in" scenarios in all three of these seasons in week 17, only to lose and find themselves out of the playoffs. Which year hurt the most?

2002 @ Patriots. Finished 9-7
2013 vs Jets. Finished 8-8
2020 @ Bills. Finished 10-6

For me, it was the home game against the Jets in 2013. The offense **** the bed the last two weeks that year and getting punked by Geno Smith was brutal

 

[Tupac Shakur]

2002 no question. that was the best team and the amount of choking done to end that game was nauseating. shanked punts and kicks. unnecessary pass interference. defensive collapses and breakdowns. horrific playcalling. and overall bad luck.

Miami Dolphins at New England Patriots - December 29th, 2002 | Pro-Football-Reference.com

Miami Dolphins 24 at New England Patriots 27 on December 29th, 2002 - Full team and player stats and box score

www.pro-football-reference.com

 

[Avalanche of Wins]

2002 no question. that was the best team and the amount of choking done to end that game was nauseating. shanked punts and kicks. unnecessary pass interference. defensive collapses and breakdowns. horrific playcalling. and overall bad luck.

Miami Dolphins at New England Patriots - December 29th, 2002 | Pro-Football-Reference.com

Miami Dolphins 24 at New England Patriots 27 on December 29th, 2002 - Full team and player stats and box score

www.pro-football-reference.com

This is no doubt the worst, because that was our best team and also my then GF (now wife) had bought us tickets for my birthday. Ricky was gashing them so I was talking **** waving a huge dolphins flag all day long. But as fate would have it our seats were in the end zone where we were backed up and Wanny decided to throw 3 in a row and then punt, got a great view of that b.s. That was the only game i've ever left early when the kickoff went out of bounds i said F this

 

[BennySwella]

I didnt even want to make the playoffs this year. What for? To get destroyed by another good team?

 

[royalshank]

2002. The Pats weren’t even interested in the game for 57 minutes as Williams rushed all over them for 185 or so. 11 point lead and we give up a TD, 2 PT, flub the kick return and recover at our 1. 3 straight passes / incomplete when Ricky was averaging 7-8 per carry on the day. Shanked punt and NE actually went backwards/ 3 and out but were still in FG range to tie. Then in OT we kick out of bounds. What a disgrace.

 

[Buddy]

2002 no question. that was the best team and the amount of choking done to end that game was nauseating. shanked punts and kicks. unnecessary pass interference. defensive collapses and breakdowns. horrific playcalling. and overall bad luck.

Miami Dolphins at New England Patriots - December 29th, 2002 | Pro-Football-Reference.com

Miami Dolphins 24 at New England Patriots 27 on December 29th, 2002 - Full team and player stats and box score

www.pro-football-reference.com

Absolutely correct, it's not even close. 2002 broke my heart and planted the seeds of hatred for the Patriots and the referees.

 

[Buddy]

2002 no question. that was the best team and the amount of choking done to end that game was nauseating. shanked punts and kicks. unnecessary pass interference. defensive collapses and breakdowns. horrific playcalling. and overall bad luck.

Miami Dolphins at New England Patriots - December 29th, 2002 | Pro-Football-Reference.com

Miami Dolphins 24 at New England Patriots 27 on December 29th, 2002 - Full team and player stats and box score

www.pro-football-reference.com

Absolutely correct, it's not even close. 2002 broke my heart and planted the seeds of hatred for the Patriots and the referees

 

[Adam Strange]

How is this even a question?

2002 wasn’t just about losing the playoffs at the last minute. 2002 broke this franchise; it just took another season for the rot to set in. The bottom fell out after 2003.

By the way, worse than all of these except for 2002: 1991– under 40s should look that one up. Bafflingly poor follow-up to the great 1990 season, the self-destruction of Sammy Smith’s career, and one of the worst slides out of the playoffs I’ve ever seen.

 

[jazz015]

I never cried as hard as I did in 2002. It was because of all the teams that one could make a serious run and everyone knew it. It would also be the killing blow for us as we never recovered from losing that game.

 

[Fred Bear]

As of now last week, only because we gave up so many points and I was looking for a better perfomance.

 

[juniorseau55]

2002 no question. that was the best team and the amount of choking done to end that game was nauseating. shanked punts and kicks. unnecessary pass interference. defensive collapses and breakdowns. horrific playcalling. and overall bad luck.

Miami Dolphins at New England Patriots - December 29th, 2002 | Pro-Football-Reference.com

Miami Dolphins 24 at New England Patriots 27 on December 29th, 2002 - Full team and player stats and box score

www.pro-football-reference.com

Our defense was exposed a lot that year against the elite teams. I imagine the rams ran through us like nothing that year. It wasn't the best team, but perhaps the most hyped teams. We had good players but they weren't breakout players. To make matters worse, Jay Fiedler, Wannestead all just made things worse. Dave Wannestead took all those drafts and instantly made the team so bad that it couldn't recover until Tony Sparano came along.

 

[CONVIGLIONUS]

This is no doubt the worst, because that was our best team and also my then GF (now wife) had bought us tickets for my birthday. Ricky was gashing them so I was talking **** waving a huge dolphins flag all day long. But as fate would have it our seats were in the end zone where we were backed up and Wanny decided to throw 3 in a row and then punt, got a great view of that b.s. That was the only game i've ever left early when the kickoff went out of bounds i said F this

I was in the opposite endzone.

 

[Teenwolf]

2002. I remember it like it was yesterday. Ricky was AWESOME.

 

[Anvil35]

I didnt even want to make the playoffs this year. What for? To get destroyed by another good team?

I agree to a point on that. Always want to make it if you can, if for nothing other than getting first playoff games underneath a very young roster, but was not overreacting to not making it. We were 10-6 - I was not expecting double digit wins this year...

 

[BahamaFinFan78]

There is one thing the Fins are good at, breaking your heart