Mike McDaniel has donned the headset for 50 games (including playoffs) as the head coach of the 新澳门六合高手论坛. And yesterday was his first overtime game as head coach. Miami found the winner's circle despite a win probability of just 14.3 percent when Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers completed an 18-yard pass to Allen Lazard to set up the Jets at the Miami 27-yard-line. The visitors had a chance to bleed the clock before a game-winning field goal, but that's not how it played out.
Here's how the Dolphins dug in and found overtime victory 32-26 over the Jets.
- Complimentary Closeout
It takes all 53 to overcome such odds. After the Lazard reception, Miami proceeded to back the Jets up 11 total yards on consecutive plays from defensive tackles Benito Jones (five-yard tackle for loss) and Zach Sieler (six-yard sack). The Jets were looking at a 57-yard field goal from there, but Miami was without a timeout. So, when Davante Adams caught a 14-yard pass from Rodgers, Miami cornerback Kendall Fuller kept Miami's hopes alive by forcing the receiver out of bounds.
Jets kicker Anders Carlson's field goal split the uprights and left Miami with 52 seconds to answer. Had Fuller not pulled Adams out-of-bounds, the Dolphins would've had very little hope with less than 12 seconds to play.
Rookie wide receiver Malik Washington made the Jets pay with a 45-yard kickoff return. Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa went to work finding wide receiver Tyreek Hill for 14 yards, which set up the November Special Teams Player of the Month, Jason Sanders, for a successful 52-yard field goal to send the game to overtime.
Once there, Miami won the coin toss and took possession. The Jets wouldn't see the ball again.
Tagovailoa made Jonnu Smith his primary target. The tight end caught three passes for 44 yards, including a walk-off winner, on Miami's game-winning drive.
All three phases contributed to the win, giving the Dolphins a chance to get back to .500 next week for the first time since Week 2.
"I couldn't be prouder of the fourth quarter, the complementary football," McDaniel said. "When plays needed to be had, some of the biggest plays in the game were on special teams."
- The Most Accurate Passer in Football
Tyreek Hill made his claim three years ago and now the numbers back it up 鈥 the passer with the highest completion in NFL history is a Miami Dolphin. Since Tagovailoa returned to action in Week 8, he's thrown 15 touchdown passes to just one interception. He's completing 73.8 percent of his passes, raising his all-time mark to an NFL-best 68.1 percent.
Sunday, when the Dolphins had to have it, Tagovailoa delivered. The Dolphins scored field goals at the end of both halves and both possessions started with less than 50 seconds on the clock and no timeouts remaining. Then, in overtime, Tagovailoa delivered his best ball of the day on the touchdown to Smith.
On those three drives combined 鈥 when everyone knew a pass was coming 鈥 Tagovailoa threw for 108 yards, a touchdown and completed 67 percent of his passes.
"All of his work is paying off because he's a naturally gifted quarterback 鈥 not only the skill sets but people gravitate towards him," McDaniel said. "He makes people better."
The sweep of the Patriots two weeks ago gave Tagovailoa an all-time mark of 8-0 against one division rival. After Sunday's heroics, Tagovailoa is now 6-0 against the Jets. Five years into his career and Tagovailoa hasn't lost a game to two division rivals, which is pretty remarkable.
- Cheetah and The Penguin
Jonnu Smith's winning touchdown never happens if not for the heroics on the fourth-quarter drive by multiple playmakers that resulted in a Tyreek Hill touchdown and a Jaylen Waddle two-point conversion.
The Dolphins had to find the end zone from four yards out, then do it again from the 2-yard-line. No problem.
Miami went to similar plays to its two most productive players on back-to-back downs. Hill caught the touchdown on a quick out from the slot, only to be followed up by Waddle doing the same thing on the two-point try to tie the game at 23.
"I thought it was super cool that on a fourth down, you've got to find your best player, give it to your best player, and that's what happened," Tagovailoa said. "Then we came back to our next best player on the two-point play."
Hill had his first 100-yard game since Week 1 (115 yards on 10 catches), while Waddle was just one yard shy of the century mark with nine catches for 99 yards.
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