The Dolphins have been called a soft team at multiple points this season, but they showed some spine on Sunday.
After taking a 15-13 lead into halftime, they gave up 10 straight points to find themselves down eight to the Jets in the fourth quarter. They forced a punt to get the ball back with just over 13 minutes to play and in need of a touchdown that would allow them to keep any hope of making the playoffs alive for at least another week. In his postgame media session, wide receiver Tyreek Hill called that the turning point in the game.
“Yeah, there was. Actually when we were down 23-15, when we were trotting back on the field, everybody knew what was at stake at that moment,” Hill said, via a transcript from the team. “We know if we lose, it’s over. Our season is over. Unfortunately we’ve got a lot of great guys on this team who don’t want to end our season in January and watch other teams play because we have the capability to play with a lot of teams in this league. We just played ball, man, when it mattered the most. We executed.”
Hill would catch a touchdown from Tua Tagovailoa at the end of that drive and the Dolphins tied the game on a two-point conversion. There would be more drama in the final minutes of regulation, but the Dolphins forced overtime and then won on tight end Jonnu Smith’s 10-yard touchdown catch.
The win leaves them with a lot of work left to do if they’re going to wind up in the postseason for the third straight year, but it was a necessary first step for a team that’s playing without any margin for error.
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