The Clock Play was a famous

trick play A trick play, also known as a gadget play, gimmick play or trickeration, is a play in gridiron football that uses deception and unorthodox tactics to fool the opposing team. A trick play is often risky, offering the potential for a large gain or ...

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

, immortalized in what came to be known as the Fake Spike Game, played on November 27, . The contest was played by the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL)'s

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team p ...

and New York Jets that featured one of the most famous comeback plays in league history. Dolphins

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

Dan Marino ran a

, pretending to stop the game clock but instead threw a

pass Pass, PASS, The Pass or Passed may refer to: Places * Pass, County Meath, a townland in Ireland * Pass, Poland, a village in Poland * Pass, an alternate term for a number of straits: see List of straits * Mountain pass, a lower place in a moun ...

that scored the game-winning

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Amer ...

, ultimately giving Miami the 28–24 victory.

Summary

The game itself pitted the 7–4 Dolphins against the 6–5 Jets; entering this game the Dolphins and Jets led the AFC East, but all five teams in the division were within two games of the division lead; the Bills had fallen to 6–6 following a

Thanksgiving Day Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden and ...

loss in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

while the Patriots had begun a late-season surge following victories over the Vikings and

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...

and were 5–6 facing the 5–6 Colts that same Sunday. The Jets were coming off a victory at

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

while the Dolphins had suffered back-to-back losses to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

. The Jets raced to a 17–0 lead before the Dolphins got on the board on Dan Marino's touchdown to

Mark Ingram Sr. Mark Valentino Ingram Sr. (born August 23, 1965) is a former American football wide receiver in the National Football League who played for the New York Giants (1987– 1992), the Miami Dolphins (1993 to 1994), the Green Bay Packers (1995), ...

, but misfired on a two-point conversion. The Jets scored again on

Johnny Mitchell Johnny Mitchell Jr. (born January 20, 1971) is a former American football tight end in the National Football League for the New York Jets, Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints. He played college football at the University of Nebraska. Early ye ...

's touchdown catch before Marino found Ingram again, and this time, connected on another two-point conversion try, this one going to

Irving Fryar Irving Dale Fryar, Sr. (born September 28, 1962) is a former American college and professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for seventeen seasons. Fryar played college football for the Universit ...

. In the fourth,

Boomer Esiason Norman Julius "Boomer" Esiason (; born April 17, 1961) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons, primarily with the Cincinnati Bengals. He was selected in the ...

was intercepted for the first time; this set up a third Marino-to-Ingram score. The Dolphins blitzed Esiason and Tim Bowens forced a fumble recovered by the Jets; this forced a Jets punt, but

O. J. McDuffie Otis James McDuffie (born December 2, 1969) is a former American college and professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for eight seasons. He played college football for Penn State University, a ...

fumbled the punt to the Jets. The Jets drove to the Miami 38 with six minutes left but Esiason was intercepted again. The Jets forced another Miami punt, but with 2:34 left, J. B. Brown picked off Esiason again. Trailing 24–21 with 38 seconds left, the Dolphins had the ball at the Jets' 8-yard line with only one timeout. Running to the line of scrimmage, Marino nodded to Ingram and yelled "Clock! Clock! Clock!" and motioned that he was going to

spike Spike, spikes, or spiking may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Books * ''The Spike'' (novel), a novel by Arnaud de Borchgrave * ''The Spike'' (book), a nonfiction book by Damien Broderick * ''The Spike'', a starship in Peter F. Hamilto ...

the ball to stop the clock. The Jets defense, anticipating a spike, relaxed. Marino took the snap; instead of spiking the ball, he dropped back to pass, while Ingram ran to the corner of the end zone with rookie Jets

cornerback A cornerback (CB) is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in gridiron football. Cornerbacks cover Wide receiver, receivers most of the time, but also blitz and defend against such Play from scrimmage, offensive running plays as sweep ...

Aaron Glenn Aaron Devone Glenn (born July 16, 1972) is an American football coach and former cornerback who is the defensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL). He previously served as the defensive backs coach for the N ...

biting on the fake. With the Jets caught off-guard, Marino threw the pass to an open Ingram in the front-right corner of the end zone. The play was brought to Miami earlier in the year by backup quarterback

Bernie Kosar Bernard Joseph Kosar Jr. (born November 25, 1963) is a former American football quarterback who played collegiately at the University of Miami where he led the team to a national championship in 1983. He subsequently played professionally in ...

, and Dolphins coach Don Shula decided it was the right time to use the trick play. The 28–24 victory moved the Dolphins to 8–4 and despite subsequent losses to Buffalo and Indianapolis the 10–6 Dolphins edged the 10–6 Patriots, who had won their last seven games, for the division title (winning on a season sweep of New England), the twelfth in the team's history. The Dolphins defeated the Kansas City Chiefs in the Wild Card Game 27-17 but lost in the Divisional Round to the San Diego Chargers, 22–21. The comeback was Marino's 29th in his career, and his fifth against the Jets."Dan Marino's Career 4th quarter comebacks and game-winning drives"
Pro-Football-Reference.com

Aftermath

The Jets, meanwhile, went into a tailspin. Coach

Pete Carroll Peter Clay Carroll (born September 15, 1951) is an American football coach who is the head coach and executive vice president for the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL). He was previously the head football coach at USC from ...

called the loss "staggering." It proved to be more than that. The loss set off the Jets' second straight December collapse; they would not win another game for the rest of the season. Carroll was fired after the season, but the Jets' slump continued under his successor,

Rich Kotite Richard Edward Kotite (born October 13, 1942) is a former National Football League (NFL) player and coach. In the 1990s, he had stints as the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles and the New York Jets Playing career Kotite was born in Brooklyn, ...

; they would win only four games during Kotite's two seasons, including a franchise worst 1–15 record in 1996.

Officials

*Referee: Gary Lane (#120) *Umpire: Bob Boylston (#101) *Head Linesman: Sanford Rivers (#121) *Line Judge: Jeff Bergman (#32) *Back Judge: Bill Lovett (#98) *Side Judge: Don Wedge (#28) *Field Judge: Bobby Skelton (#73)

Broadcast call on the play

References

External links