There was a Broncos fan watching on television Sunday who knows all about what it’s like for an NFL defense to be lit up for 70 points.

Jim Prestel, a Parker resident who has been living in the Denver area for 43 years, was a starting defensive tackle when his New York Giants were walloped 72-41 by Washington on Nov. 27, 1966, at District of Columbia Stadium. The then-named Redskins set an NFL record for most points scored by a team in a regular-season game.

Prestel, who also played for Cleveland, Minnesota and Washington during a pro career that spanned from 1960-67, worked for Hormel in Denver as a regional manager from 1980 until retiring in 2000 and was a Broncos season-ticket holder for much of that time. He looked on with much interest as the Broncos at Hard Rock Stadium were crushed 70-20 by the Miami Dolphins, who became just the third NFL team to score 70 points in a regular-season game and the first since that 1966 game.

“For sure, I watched,’’ Prestel, 86, told The Denver Gazette. “They had a chance to break the record and they didn’t kick the field goal at the end. That was pretty nice of (Miami coach Mike McDaniel). He didn’t want to rub it in, I guess.”

The Dolphins, leading 70-20 and facing fourth-and-14 at the Broncos’ 27 with 33 seconds remaining, could have kicked a field goal to set the regular-season record of 73 points in a game. They also could have tied the overall mark, set when Chicago drubbed Washington 73-0 in the 1940 NFL Championship Game.

Alas, McDaniel called for backup quarterback Mike White to take a knee, and Washington’s record was safe. But would Prestel have preferred to see the Dolphins boot a field goal to remove the Giants from the wrong column in the record book?

“No,’’ he said. “I thought it was a nice gesture to not kick the field goal. Why beat them to death to break a record that was set a long time ago? It doesn’t bother me (being on the wrong side of the record).”

Prestel doesn’t deny, though, that he felt different after Washington ran wild over the Giants’ defense in 1966. That was his only season with the Giants, and they went 1-12-1.

“It just seemed like we couldn’t stop anybody,’’ Prestel said of the historic loss. “It was one of those days where everything they did went right and everything we did went wrong. (Then-Giants coach) Allie Sherman had a quite a few words with us in the locker room after the game. He called us a few names and said, ‘You quit on me.’ But none of us quit. We just got outplayed.”

Sherman, who coached the Giants from 1961-68 and died in 2015, had one reason to be even more upset after the game. With 3 seconds left and the Redskins up 69-41, Charlie Gogolak had kicked a 29-yard field goal to account for the final margin.

That enabled Washington to set a record. The Los Angeles Rams had defeated the Baltimore Colts 70-27 in 1950 to become the first team to reach 70 in a regular-season game and the second team overall.

Gogolak, 78, is now retired and living in Northeast Harbor, Maine. He said he didn’t find out until years later how it came about that he was called upon to kick the late field goal.

“We were on the sideline and it was fourth down and somebody yelled, ‘Field goal team, get in there,’’’ Gogolak told The Denver Gazette. “Why run up the score at the time when you’re up 69-41? It’s not very sporting. But I wasn’t in position to say no to the coach.”

Yet it wasn’t head coach Otto Graham who had called for the field-goal team. It was future Hall of Fame linebacker Sam Huff, who had played for the Giants from 1956-63 and was mad at Sherman for having ordered his 1964 trade to the Redskins.

“Sam was the one who yelled, ‘Field-goal team, get in there,’’’ Gogolak said. “And now everybody knows it.”

Hall of Fame linebacker Chris Hanburger, who played for Washington from 1965-78, said he also didn’t find out until later that Huff, who died in 2021, had orchestrated the last-second move. He remembers something else Huff said during the game.

“Sam kept telling (quarterback) Sonny Jurgensen to slow down and take his time on drives and stop scoring so fast because the defense needed to rest,’’ Hanburger, 82, said from his home in Darlington, S.C. “I remember being pretty tired after that game.”

Both teams went up and down the field throughout the game, with the Giants actually outgaining the Redskins in yardage, 389-341. Washington was helped by turnovers, picking off five Giants passes and recovering a fumble while the Redskins had one lost fumble and an interception.

Safety Brig Owens had three interceptions, returning one for 60 yards for a touchdown, and returned the Giants’ fumble 62 yards for a score. The Redskins also got a 52-yard punt return for a touchdown by Rickie Harris.

On plays from scrimmage, Washington got three touchdowns by running back A.D. Whitfield, one on a pass from Jurgensen and two on the ground, one from 63 yards out. Jurgensen tossed three touchdown passes while only throwing 16 times, completing 10 for 145 yards.

The Redskins, who would finish the season 7-7, scored 10 touchdowns, with six coming on plays of 45 yards or longer. They also got a 74-yard reception by Charley Taylor and a 45-yard run by Bobby Mitchell.

“We just kept scoring and scoring,’’ wide receiver Fred Mazurek, who returned four kickoffs for the Redskins for 103 yards, said from his home in Chandler, Ariz. “I only played two seasons in the NFL (1965 and 1966 with Washington) and I feel very fortunate to have been a part of the team that is in the record book for the most points scored in a game and is still in the record book.”

With that in mind, Mazurek, 80, was happy to see the Dolphins not try a last-second field goal in an attempt to break the record. Gogolak also was pleased to not see a repeat of his 1966 field goal.

“I’m glad we’re still in the record book,’’ said Gogolak, who was 9 of 10 on extra points against the Giants. “And I think it’s terrific that my brother and I also take some pride in having a record in the NFL.”

The wild 1966 affair remains the highest combined scoring game in league history at 113 total points. While Gogolak scored 12 points for the Redskins, his brother, Pete Gogolak, had five points for the Giants, making all but one of his six extra-point attempts.

“I was happy for my brother,’’ Pete Gogolak, 81, said from his home in Darien, Conn. “We’re very close. But it was an embarrassing loss. And they strictly rubbed it in our nose. It was basically Sam Huff, who had been upset for a long time with Allie Sherman. I don’t even remember if we shook hands after the game.”

Pete Gogolak watched highlights of Sunday’s game, and he also agreed with McDaniel’s decision not to kick a field goal at the end. His mind drifted back to the 1966 game after he saw the Dolphins had reached 70 points.

“I couldn’t believe it,’’ he said. “Miami is a terrific team, but you would never have thought that Denver would give up 70 points.’’

But the Broncos did. It was by far the most points they have allowed in a game, the previous high being in a 59-7 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in 1963 and a 59-14 setback to the Oakland Raiders in 2010.

“It was up to Denver to stop them and they couldn’t stop them,’’ Hanburger said of the Dolphins’ rout. “What are you going to tell them to do, take a snap and just fall down? You don’t do that. You just keep pouring it on.”

Meanwhile, Prestel was looking on from his Parker home. He regularly watches Broncos games and couldn’t believe how bad their defense was being shredded.

“I am a Broncos fan and I don’t wish any bad luck on them, but I think they’ve done a bad job in what they’re doing. They brought in that defensive coordinator despite the bad years he had there before,’’ Prestel said of first-year coordinator Vance Joseph, who went 11-21 as Denver’s head coach in 2017 and 2018. “I thought it could be his last game, if (head coach) Sean Payton was thinking this guy is not getting the job done.”

Despite the debacle in Miami, Joseph remains with the Broncos. And Prestel’s Giants remain in the record book as the team to have given up the most points in a regular-season game.

“I guess I have to live with it,’’ Prestel said.

***

Going for the record

The single-game scoring records in NFL history:

Washington Redskins (72 points) vs. New York Giants (41), Nov. 27, 1966

Miami Dolphins (70) vs. Broncos (20), Sept. 24, 2023

Los Angeles Rams (70) vs. Baltimore Colts (27), Oct. 22, 1950

Los Angeles Rams (65) vs. Detroit Lions (24), Oct. 29, 1950

Chicago Cardinals (65) vs. New York Bulldogs (20), Nov. 13, 1949

Philadelphia Eagles (64) vs. Cincinnati Reds (0), Nov. 6, 1934

Pittsburgh Steelers (63) vs. New York Giants (35), Nov. 30, 1952

Chicago Cardinals (63) vs. New York Giants (35), Oct. 17, 1948

New Orleans Saints (62) vs. Indianapolis Colts (7), Oct. 23, 2011

*Six other teams scored 62 points