Dolphins end wild year with the upset of the season, crippling Patriots’ title hopes
In the end, the season that would never end wound up ending too soon.
Give the Dolphins another 16 games, and they might be a playoff team.
No. Seriously.
Because with the way they closed the door on the wildest season in recent memory — by pulling off the upset of the year and possibly ending the Patriots’ dynasty — nobody should want to face them.
Think it’s hyperbole?
Ask Bill Belichick, who because of Sunday’s 27-24 loss to the Dolphins, will have to play on Wild Card weekend for the first time since 2009.
Ask Robert Kraft, who saw his team lose at home to the Dolphins for the first time since 2008.
Ask the betting public, who watched the Dolphins win as a 17-point underdog, pulling off one of the biggest upsets in recorded history.
Or even better: Ask the people who made it happen.
Like ...
▪ Dolphins coach Brian Flores, who beat the team who employed him for the previous 15 years: “With adversity, with defeat, when you struggle, I think one of two things happens. It either breaks you, or you get stronger. I think this team got stronger over the course of the season. And I am proud of that.”
▪ Receiver DeVante Parker, who went for 137 yards, mostly against all-world corner Stephon Gilmore: “We wanted to show the world we can do this by playing hard, all four quarters. We didn’t give up or anything. That’s what different about this team. We’re going to fight, until the end.“ (An aside: Parker’s 1,202 yards on the season are the sixth-most in franchise history.)
▪ Offensive tackle Julien Davenport, who had this message for oddsmakers who gave the Dolphins no shot: “Tell them they can kiss our a--.”
▪ Cornerback Nik Needham, who helped keep Tom Brady in check: “That was one of our goals, to ruin it for them, and we did that.”
By “it,” Needham referred to the Patriots’ first-round bye. Brady and Bill Belichick have never won the Super Bowl as a Wild Card round participant. That’s their fate now, however, because they couldn’t handle a Dolphins team with technically nothing on the line.
But Flores didn’t see it that way.
And neither did his quarterback, Ryan Fitzpatrick, who should have silenced any conversation about whether he should return for the 2020 season. Fitzpatrick was the best at the game’s biggest moment, directing a 13-play, 75-yard, game-winning touchdown drive that he capped with a five-yard touchdown pass to Mike Gesicki with 24 seconds left.
Fitzpatrick went 28-for-41 Sunday for 320 yards. He had both a rushing and a passing touchdown. Fitzpatrick finished the season as the Dolphins’ leading passer (3,529 yards, 20 touchdowns) and their leading rusher (243 yards and four scores on 54 carries).
“He’s so electric,” said offensive tackle Jesse Davis. “He bailed me out of a lot of stuff today too. Makes plays, fun to watch.”
Added Gesicki: “That dude is the man. I love playing with him.”
Real quick, an important draft update. The Dolphins, by finishing the season 5-11, will pick fifth next April — exactly the same spot they were in this time last week. Sunday’s win didn’t hurt them. They are still in position to draft Tua Tagovailoa, assuming he goes pro.
But if they do, the Dolphins should be in no hurry to play him. Fitzpatrick wouldn’t commit to returning in 2020, but all signs point to him doing so.
And like the team he leads, he’s proven to be larger than the sum of his parts.
He stood in his locker a half-hour after the game ended, still wearing his blood-speckled uniform. He reopened a gash on his elbow during one of his many scrambles Sunday, but felt no pain in the moment.
“I said it weeks and weeks and weeks ago, I think that I was the perfect guy for this job because of the adversity and because we needed to right the ship and stay steady and practice well,” Fitzpatrick said. “I’ve been through a lot in my career. It was very satisfying, the end of the year, the way that we stuck together, to end it on such a high note.”
This story was originally published December 29, 2019 at 4:07 PM.
