Occasionally during the dead points of this offseason, we’ll look back at some of the quirks, highlights, lowlights and follies from recent years. Today, we relive a strange loss for the 1999 Miami Dolphins.
On Sep 21, 2009, the Miami Dolphins became the only team in modern NFL history to possess the ball for more than three quarters of a football game and still lose, falling 27-23 to the Indianapolis Colts.
The Colts scored 27 points that day at home despite possessing the ball for only 14 minutes and 53 seconds.
Amazingly, Indy also won the turnover battle 1-0, but the Colts converted only three third downs behind the hurry-up offense. They scored a touchdown 12 seconds into the game, and they had two other scoring possessions that lasted less than a minute each (a field goal and a touchdown). Like the Dolphins, they had eight drives. But their longest lasted just over four minutes.
Indy had just one eight-play drive, while every single one of Miami’s eight drives spanned at least eight plays. Quarterback Chad Pennington averaged only 5.5 yards per attempt on 33 throws, while backs Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams rushed for a combined 205 yards on 43 carries. They punted only once but they settled for four field goals (missing one) and had an interception inside the Indy 40-yard line.
Ultimately, the Dolphins advanced the ball inside the Indy territory seven times but generated just 23 points on those seven possessions. By doing that and relying on the running game, they fell short again a quick-strike offense.
The Dolphins converted 15 of 21 third downs and set a new team time of possession record, but still lost to Manning and the Colts.
It was a real time of possession anomaly.
