The 100 Greatest Plays in Dolphins History: No. 60

To help count down the days to the start of the Miami Dolphins regular season last year, we marked each day with the corresponding jersey number and came up with the three best players to wear that number.

This year, we're counting down to the start of the regular season with a countdown of the top 100 plays in Dolphins history.

Given that the Dolphins have played 849 regular season games and 41 more in the playoffs, it's an awfully difficult task to narrow things down to 100 plays and then rank them. The plays selected were ranked on the basis of difficulty, uniqueness, immediate and long-lasting impact and historical significance.

The countdown initially appeared in Dolphin Digest in 2019 but has been updated.

We continue with No. 60:

No. 60: Reggie Bush's 76-yard touchdown run at Buffalo in 2011

Setting the stage: The lead-up to the 2011 season was unusual because of the lockout that shut down operations for mid-March to the later part of July. Shortly after business resumed, the Dolphins made one of their best trades of the 2000s when they acquired running back Reggie Bush from the New Orleans Saints for the mere cost of moving down 17 spots in the sixth round of the 2012 draft. Bush ended up rushing for 1,086 yards in his first of two seasons with Miami, closing with four consecutive 100-yard rushing performances before he sat out the finale against the New York Jets. The Week 15 game at Buffalo was his crowning achievement.

The play: The Dolphins were looking to close out a victory at rainy Ralph Wilson Stadium when they took over at their own 24 with 5:52 left in regulation after Ryan Fitzpatrick had thrown a TD pass for the Bills to cut Miami's lead to 23-13. But Bush found himself with a gaping hole in the middle of the offensive line and basically sprinted straight ahead all the way to the end zone for a 76-yard touchdown to cap a 203-yard rushing performance. Bush actually had a more impressive run earlier in the game when he spun on a dime to juke safety George Wilson in the open field, but the long touchdown carried more significance as it made Bush the second Dolphins running back to rush for 200 or more yards in a game after Ricky Williams had done it twice in 2002 (Lamar Smith did it in a playoff game, of course).