Bye-bye, winless season (and maybe No. 1 pick) as Fitzpatrick, Dolphins stun Jets
You can’t call the Dolphins losers any more.
History’s trash heap? Stuff it. Not a concern after beating Adam Gase’s hapless Jets 26-18 Sunday.
There will be no winless season. And that’s good for the soul of the organization .
Eleven months — eleven! — between wins is an eternity in the NFL.
And so when the Dolphins finally snapped the skid Sunday, emotions rained down like the orange Gatorade shower Miami’s head coach took as the clock hit zero.
Brian Flores thought of his late mother, who died this spring of cancer.
Linebacker Jerome Baker thought of a promised kept. He guaranteed victory Sunday morning, and backed it up.
And quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick? He did it for the kids.
Not all kids, of course, although if it made a bunch of young Dolphins fans happy, all the better.
Rather, he did it for his kids. All seven of them, including sons Brady and Tate, who celebrated with dad in his locker some 15 minutes after Sunday’s win.
The family still lives in Tampa, where Fitzpatrick played last season, and makes the trip across the swamp for home games. Week 9 was the first time they have gone home happy.
“It’s just fun to have them in there,” Fitzpatrick said. “The excitement, the good things that happen, all the emotions. They see a lot of the bad things that happen when we’re not winning and people are asking them questions at school and my fantasy numbers aren’t very high for them. So they have been through plenty of downs and it’s awesome to be able to experience the ups with them as well. Walking into that locker room with all the excitement is good stuff.”
Put another way, Fitzpatrick still plays football three weeks shy of his 37th birthday because there’s no feeling quite like the one that comes after a win.
And particularly a win that Fitzpatrick orchestrated. FitzMagic was back Sunday, and he was beautiful.
His three second-quarter touchdown passes were the most by a Dolphins quarterback since at least 1991.
It gave the Miami 21 points on the day — more than enough even for the Dolphins, who had blown leads in each of the last two games.
Gase’s offense had managed that many just once in New York’s first seven games. And now he’s seemingly in danger of getting fired for the second time in as many years.
“It’s the NFL,” Gase said post-game. “You can’t be embarrassed by s---.”
Fitzpatrick has had his share of embarrassments throughout a 15-year career.
He signed with the Dolphins to be the starter, only to lose that job after two brutal games to start the season. But ever since winning back the job late in the Redskins game, he’s been quite good.
For much of Sunday, he was excellent.
Three-touchdown quarters are rare, so we owe it to Fitzpatrick to break down each one.
▪ Twelve-yard pass to Williams, 14:48 left in second. Williams lined up split out wide and ran a simple post between Darryl Roberts and Jamal Adams, who had some sort of miscommunication that allowed Williams get wide open.
“That first one was so awesome because the play before was very similar. We threw a different route on Preston,” Fitzpatrick explained, “and there aren’t too many that are exactly the way that you thought they were going to happen and that was one of them. So that was a pretty cool feeling.
▪ Seventeen-yard pass to DeVante Parker, 6:14 left in second. Parker drew single coverage by Nate Hairston. Fitzpatrick went back-shoulder, and Parker did the rest, cradling the ball with one hand.
“DeVante made a great catch on his — one-on-one, give him a chance,” Fitzpatrick said.
▪ Five-yard pass to Williams, 47 seconds left in second. Williams again lined up to the left against Roberts and got inside leverage on a slant. Fitzpatrick delivered a perfect ball, which arrived just before safety Marcus Maye did.
“Just a big, physical receiver, beat the guy inside and made a nice catch,” Fitzpatrick said.
Fitzpatrick was gracious enough to spread around the credit, but it’s fair to say that if Josh Rosen, and not Fitz, started Sunday, the Dolphins would probably still be without a win.
“Really since we have inserted him into the lineup in that Washington game, he’s been a real leader,” Flores said. “He’s been somebody who his energy, his enthusiasm, his toughness really – the guys feed off of it. He was definitely a leader today and kind of led the way.”
This story was originally published November 3, 2019 at 4:21 PM.
