MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The Miami Dolphins’ 2024 season still has a pulse because the New York Jets on Sunday were their most inept at the game’s most important time.
The Jets lost a nearly unlosable game Sunday, blowing eight and three-point leads in the final 10 minutes to fall to the Dolphins 32-26 in overtime.
In the process, the Jets dropped their seventh one-score game and blew their fifth fourth-quarter lead of the season.
Miami Dolphins Rally Past Bumbling New York Jets
But none of the previous four chokes was as much of a self-own as what went down here Sunday.
The Jets would have been better off kneeling three times on their final three offensive plays and then booming the ensuing kickoff out of bounds than what they ultimately did.
“We got to find a way to finish and close these things out,” Jets coach Jeff Ulbrich said. “We’ve got to be at our best when our best is required and we’re not getting that accomplished and I’ve got to look at myself first.”
Well said.
Dolphins never had less than a 20% chance of winning, per Next Gen Stats. But that seems very low considering the Jets had first-and-10 from the Miami 27 when they snapped the ball with 74 seconds left in a game tied at 23-23.
Since the Dolphins had two timeouts, Ulbrich should have instructed play-caller Todd Downing to run up the middle three times.
That would have left the Dolphins with some 25 seconds to either tie the game or win it after Anders Carlson’s kick.
But the Jets freaked out after Benito Jones tackled running back Isaiah Davis in the backfield on first-and-10. That set up second-and-15 from the Miami 32, which still should have been either another run or a safe throw like a screen.
Instead, Downing had Rodgers take a full dropback, which was a disaster too. Zach Sieler sacked Rodgers, backing the Jets up six more yards and setting up third-and-21 from the Dolphins’ 38.
“It was a great moment,” Sieler said. “Obviously it took all of us out there. I think Calais [Campbell] really made him step up and work back into the pocket. I think it just shows the resilience of our team.”
The Jets had little choice but to throw on third-and-21 from the 38, but again, the execution was suspect. Rodgers audibled out of a draw and targeted Davante Adams on the sidelines, which allowed Kendall Fuller to push Adams out of bounds — stopping the clock in a situation where the Dolphins had no timeouts.
That meant that after Carlson kicked through the go-ahead field goal, the Dolphins had 52 seconds to mount a rally instead of 15 or so.
Still, the odds were strongly in the Jets’ favor until Carlson botched the ensuing kickoff. Instead of booming it through the back of the end zone, he kept it in play, which gave Malik Washington an opportunity at a return. Washington capitalized, returning the kick 45 yards to get the Dolphins’ drive started near midfield instead of at their own 30.
Dolphins get a HUGE return from Malik Washington, who flattened the Jets Kicker 🫢 pic.twitter.com/bL0qwxryjU
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) December 8, 2024
“He missed it,” Ulbrich said. “He missed it. We’re supposed to kick that out of the end zone, we just missed the kick. So went into play, but at the end of the day, we got to cover what’s kicked and we didn’t cover it well enough.”
From there, the Dolphins needed just one first down to get into field goal range. They got it when Tua Tagovailoa found Tyreek Hill for 14 on second-and-10. Jason Sanders, the AFC’s freshly minted Special Teams Player of the Month, didn’t waste the gift, drilling a 52-yarder to force overtime.
The Jets would not touch the ball again. After the Dolphins won the toss and elected to receive, Tagovailoa completed six of seven passes for 67 yards in the extra period, including the 10-yard game-ender to Jonnu Smith.
Coaching decisions played a role in that final Jets failure, as well.
“I’m going to stay up some nights thinking about that last drive because the instinct is to be ultra-aggressive, but I think there were three or four screens on it so he was definitely playing us for pressure and trying to get after him,” Ulbrich said. “Got to provide a better answer for our players.”