Dolphins beat Saints on ‘Monday Night Football’ for 7th consecutive win, move into playoff spot
.JPG "Miami Dolphins’ Jaylen Waddle (17) celebrates with teammates after scoring a touchdown against the New Orleans Saints during the second half of an NFL football game Monday, Dec. 27, 2021, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)")
Dolphins wide receiver Mack Hollins downed a punt at the 1-yard line late in the fourth quarter of Monday night’s road game against the New Orleans Saints and began to break into a “Griddy,” a fitting dance coined in Louisiana.
His special teams teammates joined him in the celebration, as the magnitude of their midseason turnaround began to sink in with under 5 minutes remaining.
The Dolphins beat a Saints team decimated by COVID-19, 20-3, for Miami’s seventh consecutive win after a 1-7 start. The victory moves the Dolphins into the seventh seed in the AFC. At 8-7, the Dolphins are in a four-way tie with the Los Angeles Chargers, Baltimore Ravens and Las Vegas Raiders but get the final playoff spot by virtue of a series of tiebreakers. It also marks the first time in NFL history a team has had a seven-game winning streak after a seven-game losing streak in the same season.
“I think this team stuck together really the entire year,” coach Brian Flores said. “I think obviously we dealt with a lot of adversity early in the year and I think it revealed a lot. I would say it revealed the character of the guys in our locker room. Revealed that some people are with you and some people were on the fence and I think our guys just kept fighting. They kept sticking together and I think they support each other, they work hard, they give great effort. And when you do those things you put yourself in position to get the results you’re looking for.”
The Dolphins can become the first team in NFL history to make the playoffs after a 1-7 start if they win their final two games. The team will face the Tennessee Titans on the road Sunday and then return to Miami for its regular-season finale against the New England Patriots, a game that could be just as pivotal for New England’s playoff hopes after losing to the Buffalo Bills. FiveThirtyEight’s projections give the Dolphins, winners of seven straight for the first time since the 1985 season, a 31 percent chance of making the playoffs after Monday night’s win.
“I think it speaks a lot to the character of this locker room,” said quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who completed 19-of-26 passes for 198 yards, one touchdown and an interception. “A lot of the guys, like I’ve been saying, spend time with each other outside of the locker room and I think that’s what helps build the chemistry on the field for us. It can only get stronger from here, I would say.”
New Orleans entered the game with 22 players, many of them starters, and four assistants sidelined by coronavirus protocols amid an outbreak in the week leading up to the game. Rookie Ian Book, the Saints’ fourth-string quarterback, made his first career start and much of the night looked like a player who had been thrown into the starting role midweek.
The Dolphins confused the fourth-round pick with an assortment of pressure packages, sometimes bringing extra defenders and sometimes rushing just four but nonetheless keeping Book under duress.
On Book’s second pass, cornerback Nik Needham intercepted him and returned it for a 28-yard touchdown, giving the Dolphins a 7-0 lead in the first quarter.
The Saints offense finished with 164 yards, the fourth game in a row the Dolphins defense has held an opponent to fewer than 250 yards. New Orleans failed to convert all 12 of its third-down opportunities and Book was sacked eight times, finishing 12-of-20 for 125 yards and two interceptions.
The Dolphins became the first team in the Super Bowl era to record eight sacks, score a defensive touchdown, hold their opponent under 200 yards, as well as allow no touchdowns and third-down conversions.
“We mixed up some looks on him,” Needham said, “so [we] had him a little confused out there and I think that’s what also played a big part in that. We did a good job on first and second down throughout most of the game, just holding them to like one to three yards and getting them on third-and-long instead of third-and-short.”
The Dolphins held a 10-3 lead at halftime and in a game where New Orleans struggled to even pick up first downs, that was insurmountable.
While the defense was having its way with a rookie quarterback and an offensive line missing its bookend tackles, struggles for the Dolphins offense kept the game within reach in the first half. A strip-sack and near Saints recovery on the offense’s second possession almost pushed the team out of field-goal range but kicker Jason Sanders made a 47-yarder to give the Dolphins a 10-0 lead. Another third-down sack in the final seconds of the first half forced Sanders to attempt a 59-yard field goal, which fell wide right as time expired.
The Dolphins needed just one touchdown drive to cement their win and it was their best possession of the night. Tagovailoa led the offense on a nine-play, 86-yard drive that ended in a 1-yard touchdown pass to rookie wide receiver Jaylen Waddle. The drive was boosted by a 40-yard completion to Hollins, the longest play of the game, on third down.
Waddle was the spark-plug for an offense that totaled just 259 yards, the fewest since the winning streak started. Making his return from a one-game absence because of coronavirus protocols, Waddle caught 10 passes for 92 yards, tying Jerry Rice’s “Monday Night Football” rookie reception record. Waddle also broke the franchise’s rookie receiving record and inched closer to Anquan Boldin’s rookie reception record, finishing with 10 catches for 92 yards. He needs just six more receptions to pass Boldin’s 101-catch season.
Multiple players after the game denied being aware of the win-out-and-you’re-in situation the Dolphins find themselves in after a series of advantageous outcomes the day before they played. And the responses aligned with the demeanor of a team whose coach drives a mentality of focusing only on what they can control.
For weeks, those playoff hopes seemed dim, not only bound to a historic second-half surge but a litany of favorable bounces. And now, the Dolphins are two wins away from writing the final chapter of a historic run to the playoffs.
“We’ll enjoy tonight, but the game ahead is going to be as tough as any game we’re going to play,” Flores said. “I’ve already taken a look at Tennessee. Obviously I know [Titans coach] Mike [Vrabel]. I have a lot of respect for him. I know he’ll have his guys ready so we’ll enjoy tonight. It was a hard-fought 60-minute game so we’ll enjoy this one and then we’ll turn the page and get started on our next opponent.”
This story was originally published December 27, 2021 at 11:20 PM with the headline "Dolphins beat Saints on ‘Monday Night Football’ for 7th consecutive win, move into playoff spot."
