At long last, Malik Willis and the Miami Dolphins have picked up a win.
Willis and the Dolphins fended off a late push to beat the New York Jets 28-25 at MetLife Stadium on Sunday afternoon. The victory is their first this fall after what has been a very rough start to the season, and ended a five-game losing skid. Now, the Los Angeles Chargers are the only team in the league still without a win.
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The victory was also the first of head coach Jeff Hafley’s career.
Willis and the Dolphins got off to just about the perfect start on Sunday, too, and looked like a very competent football team in the first half. They scored a touchdown on each of their first two drives of the afternoon, first on a 7-yard pass to Caleb Douglas and then on a 1-yard punch-in from Ollie Gordon. The opening touchdown was the first of Douglas’ career.
The Dolphins pushed their lead to 14 points at the break, too. Willis scrambled into the end zone from two yards out himself in the final seconds of the second quarter to cap a long 91-yard scoring drive. It was easily Willis’ best outing so far this season.
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But for some reason, that didn’t carry over into the second half. Willis and the Dolphins completely stalled out offensively the rest of the way, and suddenly couldn’t move the ball much at all. That left the door open for the Jets, who cut the game to a single score after an Omar Cooper touchdown grab in the third quarter. That was set up by a 60-yard reception he made earlier in the drive.
They should have tied the game up in the fourth quarter, too, and got all the way to the goal line before the Dolphins defense came up with a huge stand. They stuffed the run twice and then sacked Geno Smith for a 12-yard loss on third down to force the field goal.
Finally, after only completing three passes in the second half, Willis found Douglas one last time. Willis dumped it off short to him on the left side, right before taking a huge hit the backfield, and Douglass took off. He made it 63 yards up the sideline and into the end zone.
That still wasn’t enough to seal the deal. The Jets got back within a field goal quickly, thanks to a Mason Taylor 12-yard touchdown catch and successful two-point conversion.
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But the Dolphins quickly ended the game and converted a fourth down run at midfield to kill the rest of the clock and escape with the three-point win.
Willis ended up going 14-of-21 or 208 yards with two touchdowns in the win, though all but four of those passes were completed in the first half. Gordon had 103 yards and a score on 25 carries, and Greg Dulcich had 86 yards on five catches.
Smith went 23-of-30 for 287 yards with three touchdowns and an interception in the loss for the Jets, who now sit at 2-5 this season. Braelon Allen had 104 yards on 17 carries, and Cooper had 115 yards and a score on his five catches.
The Dolphins admittedly still have a long way to go to salvage this season. But finally winning a game, and beating a division rival in the process, is a great first step.
