NFL 2023: Dolphins rout Broncos 70-20, scoring the most points by an NFL team in a game since 1966.

— De’Von Achane could hear the crowd at Hard Rock Stadium chanting “Three more points!” on Miami’s final drive.

The Dolphins had the ball inside the Denver Broncos’ 30 with less than a minute left, and they were three points shy of breaking the NFL’s single-game most scoring record.

Instead of sending out his kicker for a potential record-setting field goal, Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel elected to take a knee and run out the clock.

They almost got there anyway. The Dolphins scored the most points in a game by an NFL team since 1966, overwhelming the Broncos 70-20 on Sunday behind the rookie speedster Achane’s 203 yards rushing and Tua Tagovailoa’s no-look shovel-pass TD.

The Dolphins set a franchise record for scoring and finished two points shy of the NFL’s regular-season record — set in 1966 when Washington scored 72 points against the Giants. They are the fourth team in NFL history to score at least 70 points in a regular-season or playoff game.

Many of Miami’s starters, including Tagovailoa and star receiver Tyreek Hill, were pulled from the game early in the fourth quarter.

Achane caught a 10-yard TD pass from Tagovailoa — the quarterback’s fourth TD — in the fourth, and Jason Sanders converted the extra point that made it 56-13 and broke Miami’s franchise scoring record of 55 set against St. Louis on Nov. 24, 1977.

Hill caught a 54-yard touchdown pass on Miami’s opening drive en route to 157 yards receiving on nine catches.

Miami scored touchdowns on eight of nine drives before Mike White replaced Tagovailoa in the fourth. Mostert had his second straight multiple-touchdown game with three rushing TDs and a TD catch.

Tagovailoa found a wide-open Hill on the Dolphins’ third play of the game for the duo’s fourth touchdown connection of the season. Hill had 9.7 yards of separation from the nearest Broncos defender when the pass arrived, according to NFL NextGen stats.

Tagovailoa, the NFL’s leading passer, looked to his left then flipped a 4-yard pass to Achane, which gave Miami a 21-7 lead in the second. Tagovailoa completed each of his first 17 pass attempts.

UP NEXT

Broncos: At Chicago on Oct. 1.

Dolphins: At Buffalo on Oct. 1.

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