Mike McDaniel explains why Dolphins chose not to tie NFL scoring record

"I'm very okay with the decision, and I think the team, notably the leaders of the team supported it, the captains supported it," McDaniel told reporters. "It's not the way you want to get the record. I would hope that if the shoe was on the other foot, the opponent would feel the same way. That's called karma. I'm trying to keep good karma. … To send the field goal team on and squeeze an extra three, that's not really what I'm about.”

From McDaniel’s perspective, there was no need to run the score up. The Dolphins were clearly the better team – they out-gained the Broncos 726 yards to 326, they out-rushed them by 281 yards (350 yards to 69) and they nearly doubled up the Broncos on first downs (30 to 16).

And it’s not like Miami hadn’t already set a number of records by that point. 

The Dolphins became the first in NFL history with five passing touchdowns and five rushing touchdowns in the same game, logged the second-most total yards in NFL history, became just the second team to have multiple players score four or more touchdowns in a game and their 10.2 yards per play was highest of any team to run 70 or more offensive plays in a game over the last six decades. 

"It felt like chasing points and chasing a record — that's not what we came to the game to do," McDaniel added. "That doesn't have a bearing on the overall season outcome, and I just didn't — I saw it as 10 times out of 10, you concede and kneel down in those situations because there was an attainable record that was cool, but the message that I thought it would send wasn't really in line with how I view things."

Following Sunday’s record-setting win, the Dolphins, who lead the league in total offense (550.3 yards per game) and scoring offense (43.3 points per game), are one of just two undefeated teams left in the NFL (Philadelphia and Tampa Bay are both undefeated and play each other Monday night).