This decision by the Redskins almost led to Miami’s first win of the season. Here’s what happened

The play nearly changed the outcome of the game, and it would’ve meant the Miami Dolphins’ first win of the season.

Miami had only mustered three points through three quarters and trailed the Washington Redskins by two touchdowns. Washington had the ball at the Miami 37-yard line and decided to send its kicking unit out to try the 55-yard field goal.

Kicker Dustin Hopkins’ attempt was wide right, leaving Miami quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick a bit of momentum to work with after entering the game at the beginning of the fourth in the place of starter Josh Rosen, who was benched after completing 15 of 25 passes for 85 yards with two interceptions.

The Dolphins outscored Washington 13-0 after that play, but they fell one failed two-point conversion short of a comeback, losing 17-16 Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium. It was, however, the first game of the season in which Miami was competitive to the end.

“Did we want to win, do we want to win every game? Yes,” Fitzpatrick said. “We haven’t done it yet. But to put yourself in those competitive situations and to have a chance at the end of the game, that’s as much – moral victory, whatever, I don’t know if we believe in those. But it’s much more fun to be involved in a game like that than one when you look up and you’re losing by 40-plus points. So in that regard ... it was much more fun to be a part of that game.”

Washington interim head coach Bill Callahan said after the game that he and everyone on the team felt Hopkins could make the 55 yarder.

“I really felt confident that we’d hit the field goal and obviously have a chance to close them out a little bit earlier,” he said. “But to [Miami’s] credit, I put our defense in a tough position. They were playing really well at that time. I just kind of calculated that this is a chance to go make something happen, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. But we were definitely gonna go for it in that respect.”

The 29-year-old kicker was 4 for 5 on field goal tries heading into Sunday. His only miss was against the Bears in Week 3.

But Callahan pointed to that miss as the swing in the game that prevented the Redskins from being able to seal the win earlier and allowing the Dolphins to score their first second-half points of the season -- a one-yard touchdown run by running back Kalen Ballage on Miami’s first drive of the fourth quarter.

“It was deep enough, long enough, it was just off,” Callahan said of the kick. “But I felt that if we could have gotten the three-possession lead on the team, then we were in a good position to close them out. And it didn’t happen. That kind of reversed the tables on us somewhat.”

This story was originally published October 13, 2019 at 6:53 PM.