Miami, FL

The Top 75 Dolphins Games of the 2000s: Numbers 11-15

Published

2 years ago

July 19, 2024

The Top 75 Dolphins Games of the 2000s: Numbers 11-15

The last two seasons have been generally good ones and often memorable for the Miami Dolphins, who made the playoffs each time mostly behind one of the most explosive offenses in the NFL.

The proof comes in our ranking of the top 75 Dolphins games of the 2000s, which featured seven games from 2022 (the most of any season) plus four more from last season.

Of course, this is all subjective and every Dolphins fan might have a different view of each game. For us, it was about the entertainment value of the game combined with the significance of it, with bonus points awarded for anything unusual that happened like, say, a ridiculous three-lateral finish or a team being called back from the locker room 30 minutes after everybody thought the game was over.

And, yes, the list includes some Dolphins losses purely on the entertainment value and quality of the game.

So here it is, our countdown of the top 75 Dolphins games of the 2000s, continuing with numbers 11-15:

This Sunday night battle between 4-1 teams was an absolute gem, and it featured an NFL first with each team making a field goal of at least 50 yards in the final minute. It was Olindo Mare who had the final and winning 53-yard kick for the Dolphins after Jay Fiedler had completions of 17 and 22 yards, with Patrick Surtain earlier giving Miami a 21-12 lead with a pick-six. The victory was costly, however, because Fiedler fractured a thumb and had to miss the next three games, which Miami all lost.

There’s probably little debate that this was Tua Tagovailoa’s best game in his first two years in the NFL as he passed for 248 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 35 yards. His best work came during a 93-yard touchdown drive after Arizona had taken a 31-24 lead. The defense also chipped in with Shaq Lawson’s fumble return for a touchdown after an Emmanuel Ogbah sack-strip and a fourth-and-1 stuff on future Dolphins running back Chase Edmonds with the score tied 31-31 and 5:20 left. The Dolphins survived a late drive by Arizona when Zane Gonzalez was wide right on a 49-yard field goal attempt after the Cardinals strangely called for a pass on third-and-1.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, this was the biggest upset victory in Dolphins history. Heading into this Week 14 Monday night matchup, the Dolphins were a woeful 2-11, while the Patriots were 12-1 and on their way to a second consecutive Super Bowl title. But after New England took a 28-17 lead with 3:59 left in the fourth quarter, everything went right for the Dolphins: a 68-yard touchdown drive to make it 28-23, a Brendon Ayanbadejo interception of Tom Brady, a 21-yard touchdown pass from A.J. Feeley to Derrius Thompson on fourth-and-10, and another interception of Brady, this one by safety Arturo Freeman.

This one wasn’t quite as massive an upset as the one 15 years earlier, but not by much. Remember that the Patriots came in with a 12-3 record and needing a victory to secure a first-round bye in the AFC playoffs, while the Dolphins were closing out their season and coming in with a 4-11 mark. The Dolphins clearly came ready to play, though, as they jumped out to a 10-0 lead after Eric Rowe’s 35-yard pick-six. And after Brady gave the Patriots a 24-20 lead with touchdown passes to future Dolphins linebacker Elandon Roberts and running back James White, Ryan Fitzpatrick engineered a game-winning 75-yard touchdown drive capped by his 5-yard pass to Mike Gesicki.

Talk about a way to kick off a season! In a battle of teams coming off playoff appearances that featured nine lead changes, it’s the Dolphins who had the final answer thanks to the monster performances of Tua Tagovailoa and Tyreek Hill. There were clutch plays throughout the game, including a fourth-and-7 completion to Durham Smythe late in the first half, Tua’s brilliant on-the-move third-and-10 completion to Hill on the game-winning drive and the defense rising up after a tough afternoon with two sacks on the final three plays on the Chargers’ futile last-shot drive.

— The Top 75 Dolphins Games of the 2000s: Numbers 71-75

— The Top 75 Dolphins Games of the 2000s: Numbers 66-70

— The Top 75 Dolphins Games of the 2000s: Numbers 61-65

— The Top 75 Dolphins Games of the 2000s: Numbers 56-60

— The Top 75 Dolphins Games of the 2000s: Numbers 51-55

— The Top 75 Dolphins Games of the 2000s: Numbers 46-50

— The Top 75 Dolphins Games of the 2000s: Numbers 41-45

— The Top 75 Dolphins Games of the 2000s: Numbers 36-40

— The Top 75 Dolphins Games of the 2000s: Numbers 31-35

— The Top 75 Dolphins Games of the 2000s: Numbers 26-30

— The Top 75 Dolphins Games of the 2000s: Numbers 21-25

— The Top 75 Dolphins Games of the 2000s: Numbers 16-20

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Miami, FL

Miami Marlins C Joe Mack makes MLB debut after promotion

Published

4 hours ago

May 4, 2026

Press Room

Miami Marlins C Joe Mack makes MLB debut after promotion

MIAMI — The Miami Marlins promoted highly-rated catcher Joe Mack from Triple-A and demoted slumping catcher Agustin Ramirez before the club’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday.

Mack, rated the fifth catching prospect in the major leagues and 54th fourth overall, is hitting .244 with three homers and nine RBI through 24 games with the Marlins’ affiliate in Jacksonville.

In ESPN’s latest team-by-team rankings, Kiley McDaniel has Mack rated as Miami’s No. 3 prospect behind pitchers Thomas White and Robby Snelling.

The Marlins are closing a four-game series against Philadelphia and Mack started behind the plate and hit seventh.

“It’s everything that I’ve worked for my whole career, my whole life,” Mack said. “You dream of this as a kid and finally being able to actually be here, it’s just truly amazing. I thank God every single day for it. He’s carried me through everything. Very blessed to be in the spot that I’m at.”

The 24-year-old Mack has ascended through the Marlins’ organization after he was the 31st overall selection in the 2021 draft. The club notably values his defensive skills.

“They called me up for a reason and they called me up to be me,” Mack said. “I’m not going to go out there and be somebody else. I’m going to play my game.”

Mack will split catching duties with Liam Hicks, who also been one of Miami’s top offensive performers this season. Hicks began Monday with a team-leading seven homers and 29 RBI.

“It’s exciting for anybody making their debut,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said. “Joe has earned that on the performance side of things.”

After a breakout rookie season in 2025, when he hit 21 homers and drove in 67 runs, Ramirez was hitting .231 and had two homers before his demotion to Triple-A. Ramirez, who finished sixth in the 2025 NL Rookie of the Year voting, also struggled defensively. He has thrown out two of 20 base stealing attempts and has an NL-leading four errors in 17 games.

“We’re going to continue to surround a lot of support around Agustin,” McCullough said. “This is a hot place, there’s nowhere to hide. You hear the narrative. You start to read about it. Sometimes getting out of the spotlight a little bit and have the light a little bit dimmer can let you reset and get back to the player we all know he has a chance to be.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Miami, FL

Winners and losers of F1 Miami grand prix

Published

16 hours ago

May 4, 2026

Press Room

Winners and losers of F1 Miami grand prix

The fifth edition of the Miami Grand Prix gave Formula 1 another chaotic and competitive weekend around Hard Rock Stadium. The race started three hours earlier than planned because of weather concerns, but the change did not reduce the action on track. Kimi Antonelli turned pole position into another victory, even after losing the lead on the opening lap, while early incidents involving Pierre Gasly and Isack Hadjar reshuffled the field. The result was a race that produced clear winners, painful losers, and another strong reminder that Miami has become one of the calendar’s most unpredictable stops.

Antonelli’s win stood out because it was built on control rather than a perfect start. The Mercedes driver again struggled off the line, but he recovered with a strong strategy call and held off pressure from Lando Norris to win. That made it his third straight Grand Prix victory from pole, a rare sequence in Formula 1 history. McLaren also left Miami with real momentum after Norris and Oscar Piastri both finished on the podium, while Williams, Alpine, and even the broader championship picture all found reasons to leave encouraged. On the other side, Ferrari, Red Bull’s second seat, Audi, Aston Martin, and George Russell all had weekends that exposed problems they still need to solve. Miami was not just a race winner’s story. It was also a weekend that showed which teams are building form and which ones are still fighting for answers.

MORE: How to live stream Jack Link’s 500: NASCAR, TV channel

Winner of the Grand Prix

Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

Kimi Antonelli won the Miami Grand Prix and extended his championship lead to 20 points. He started from pole, lost the lead early, and still recovered to finish first by using a strong undercut and clean race management. The Mercedes driver became only the third racer to win his first three Grands Prix consecutively, joining Damon Hill and Mika Hakkinen. That makes his Miami result another major milestone in a sophomore season that is starting to look like a title fight.

Antonelli also showed more maturity under pressure, especially with Lando Norris close behind in the final stint. He said, “I think I feel much more comfortable in the car, much more in control as well.” His pace and composure gave Mercedes another clear win. Even with the start issues, he is proving he can still deliver when the race gets tense.

Franco Colapinto, Alpine

Franco Colapinto had his best weekend in Formula 1 so far. He qualified eighth, beat teammate Pierre Gasly for the first time this season, and finished seventh after Leclerc’s penalty promoted him one place. For Alpine, that was a strong sign that the upgrades may have worked and that the team can fight in the midfield.

Colapinto drove a clean race and avoided the mistakes that hurt several others around him. He made the most of Alpine’s improved pace and a lighter chassis. It was also a confidence-building result for a driver who has faced criticism since replacing Jack Doohan. The weekend gave Alpine proof that progress is possible when both pace and execution come together.

Lando Norris, McLaren

Lando Norris left Miami with a win in the Sprint and second place in the Grand Prix. That was a strong return for McLaren, especially because both drivers stayed in the podium fight across the weekend. Norris also pushed Antonelli hard in the closing stages and kept the pressure on until the flag. The result helped McLaren strengthen its position in the championship and close the gap to Ferrari.

Even so, his pace and consistency showed that McLaren’s upgrade package is working. With Oscar Piastri also on the podium, the team left Miami with a clear step forward. It was not the victory Norris wanted, but it was still a major positive.

Losers of the Miami Grand Prix

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

Charles Leclerc had one of the most frustrating Sundays of the race. He started strong, took the lead on lap one, and then lost ground after another slow Ferrari pit stop. He still fought back into third before a final-lap spin damaged his race completely. After the stewards gave him a 20-second penalty, he dropped from sixth to eighth in the final classification.

Leclerc said after the race, per SI, “I’m very disappointed with myself, it’s all on me.” That was a harsh end to a race that had once looked like it could produce a podium. Ferrari’s car showed some pace, but the execution again let the team down. If the team wants to stay in the title picture, it needs cleaner stops and fewer self-inflicted errors.

Isack Hadjar, Red Bull

Isack Hadjar’s Miami weekend ended in another early exit. He crashed into the wall at Turn 14 and finished the race as a retirement, adding to a difficult start to life alongside Max Verstappen. The Red Bull driver had already been off the pace in qualifying and sprint qualifying, and the race only confirmed how much work he still has to do. His crash also removed any chance of a useful result.

Hadjar admitted the mistake was his own, and the emotion was visible after the incident. His season has brought only four points from six scoring chances, which is not enough for a Red Bull seat under normal standards. The team will be hoping this is a learning weekend rather than a pattern. For now, the gap to Verstappen remains a major concern.

Aston Martin and Cadillac

Aston Martin and Cadillac both left Miami with more questions than answers. Aston Martin’s best result came from Fernando Alonso in 15th, while Lance Stroll finished 17th in both the sprint and the Grand Prix. Cadillac was more reliable, but both cars still finished outside the points in 16th and 18th. For teams at the back, that is not enough when others are making clear progress.

The future aspect is simple: both teams need more pace before the season slips away from them. Cadillac in particular is still early in its project, but slow progress will not help build momentum. Aston Martin, meanwhile, needs a stronger response after another flat weekend. The data from Miami may help, but the results do not.

George Russell, Mercedes

George Russell came into the season with championship expectations, but Miami was another weekend where he trailed Antonelli. He qualified and raced well behind his teammate, and the gap was clear throughout the event. Russell did recover to fourth after Leclerc’s late problems, but he was never a real threat to the win. That is a concern because Mercedes expects both cars to challenge at the front.

Russell’s problem is not one race, but a pattern. Antonelli has now beaten him in every Grand Prix qualifying and race since Australia. The Miami result made the gap in the standings even harder to ignore. He will need a stronger response in Canada if he wants to stay close in the title fight.

Audi, especially Nico Hulkenberg

Audi had a weekend full of reliability problems and no points to show for it. Nico Hulkenberg’s car suffered issues across the weekend, including a first-lap retirement in the Grand Prix after a fire in the sprint and more trouble in qualifying. Gabriel Bortoleto also had a rough weekend, finishing outside the points despite a better Grand Prix result than qualifying suggested. The team is still learning, but the losses are piling up.

Hulkenberg called it a “proper character building weekend,” which fits the overall picture. Audi says it is playing the long game, but long-term plans still need cleaner race weekends. If the team cannot finish sessions and races, it cannot make real progress. Miami showed the work still ahead.

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Conclusion

Miami delivered a race full of movement, mistakes, and momentum shifts. Antonelli proved again that he can handle pressure, McLaren made a clear step forward, and Colapinto gained real confidence. At the same time, Ferrari, Red Bull’s second seat, Audi, and others left with unfinished work. The season is still open, and Canada now offers the next chance to change the story.

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Miami, FL

Winners and losers from F1’s eventful Miami Grand Prix

Published

1 day ago

May 3, 2026

Press Room

Winners and losers from F1’s eventful Miami Grand Prix

F1’s decision to bring the Miami start time forward by three hours ultimately made no difference, as the expected thunderstorms hit the track in the early hours of Sunday morning but then swerved Miami Garden in the afternoon.

As it was, Miami didn’t need the weather gods to serve up an absorbing display. And while it is too early to judge the recent round of energy management tweaks, on the surface Miami provided an entertaining mix of management tactics and driver-centred wheel-to-wheel skills.

Winner: Kimi Antonelli

With every passing week, young Kimi Antonelli is convincing more and more sceptics about whether he is really ready to take the title fight all the way in what is only his sophomore F1 season as a teenager.

There is no doubt that Antonelli is still a raw diamond rather than a polished product. But he has paired his obvious talent and speed with more maturity this year and has not flinched when the pressure is on, as evidenced by the various wheel-to-wheel battles for the lead in Miami.

Antonelli has spent the April break working on some of those chinks in his armour, like his start difficulties, though a lot of the burden is on Mercedes to simplify its procedures too, with Toto Wolff calling the team’s struggles across both cars “unacceptable” as the competition closes in on Mercedes.

But having won his last three grands prix from pole, it’s hard to argue with Antonelli being every bit the title contender that team-mate George Russell is.

Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Clive Mason / Getty Images

It’s too early to be talking about Red Bull’s second seat curse, not after Hadjar’s impressive start to his Red Bull tenure in Melbourne, but on a weekend Max Verstappen was firing on all cylinders Hadjar has found it much harder to keep up with the mercurial Dutchman.

Hadjar was of course desperately unlucky for his car’s floor to just be outside legal parameters in qualifying, relegating him to the back of the grid. But he was a second off Verstappen in sprint qualifying and eight tenths on Saturday, looking much more like a 2019-2025 spec second Red Bull driver that the team is hoping to have solved. His clumsy crash in the early stages of the race was entirely avoidable, too.

Has the improved Red Bull simply allowed Verstappen to push much harder and bring out the best in him, leaving Hadjar in the dust? Or does Hadjar need more time to get on top of the heavily revised RB22? Red Bull will be hoping it is the latter, with team boss Laurent Mekies playing down any concerns.

“I don’t think we are worried,” he said. “In terms of driving and in terms of rhythm, he still hasn’t got into the right rhythm. I think he would have been strong in the race, and it was strong for the little he could have shown.”

Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Zak Brown, McLaren

A 1-2 in the sprint and a 2-3 in the grand prix? McLaren would have bitten your hand off for a double podium berth after unsuccessfully chasing Mercedes over the first three rounds of the 2026 campaign.

But a first tranche of upgrades to the MCL40, at its historically happy hunting ground around the Hard Rock Stadium, has dramatically changed the outlook of the 2026 season. Both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were legitimate contenders this weekend, even if they were helped by Mercedes getting its deployment strategy wrong over the sprint event, rowing it back to a more normal set-up for qualifying and the race.

The end result is that on pure speed McLaren reckons Mercedes still has the slight edge, and the Silver Arrows are introducing their first batch of upgrades in Canada. But McLaren isn’t done upgrading either, with sources suggesting its own Montreal package amounts to around 40 percent of its total car overhaul across both rounds. Watch this space.

There was little enjoyment to be derived from Sunday’s race for Lewis Hamilton, as he was in the wrong place at the wrong time when Verstappen spun ahead of him at the start and then suffered aero damage after a glancing blow from Franco Colapinto.

Hamilton estimated the time loss at half a second and it dropped him into no man’s land for the remainder of the afternoon while his team-mate Charles Leclerc was having all the fun ahead of him, mixing it up with Russell and Piastri.

Leclerc also suffered a disappointing end to his afternoon courtesy of his last-lap spin, which cost him a certain podium, and he did exceedingly well not to suffer a huge accident that would have cost him a lot more than that. But with a car that refused to turn right any longer, Leclerc decided to redraw some of Miami’s chicanes, which cost him a deserved 20-second penalty.

Winner: Franco Colapinto

Colapinto has come in for quite a bit of flak since replacing Jack Doohan at Alpine exactly 12 months ago, not in the least from his own boss Flavio Briatore. But armed with Alpine’s latest aero upgrades and a slightly lighter chassis, Colapinto appears to cut a more confident figure aboard the A526 and that has translated into getting the better of experienced team-mate Pierre Gasly over Miami’s two qualifying sessions, something which hasn’t happened too often.