Miami Dolphins hang on to victory against the New York Jets

That was Frank Gore catching the big third-down pass from Ryan Tannehill on third-and-19 and the game on the line in the fourth quarter Sunday.

Gore caught the check down pass and ran for 19 yards. And that turned a game that was mostly unsettled finally in the Dolphins direction.

Dolphins 20.

Jets 12.

Big play by Gore.

Big win for the Dolphins.

This was not a thing of beauty in the second half. The Dolphins mostly just survived that half. But they had built a comfortable 20-0 halftime lead that afforded them cushion and, well, a little Dolphins struggles that everyone has sort of become used to from this team.

Those struggles included a fumble by quarterback Ryan Tannehill.

And a center snap from Daniel Kilgore that he basically rolled back to Tannehill and was eventually recovered by the Jets.

But, you see, the Jets are not exactly a championship team right now. So the mistakes were erased by, well, Jets mistakes.

Rookie quarterback Sam Darnold threw two interceptions. The coaching staff basically blew a third down to end the half when they didn’t throw the final pass into the Miami end zone despite having the ball at the Dolphins 14 yard line.

The Jets had no timeouts at the time. So the half ran out with the Jets having the ball at the Miami 1 yard line.

LOL.

Look, this wasn’t beautiful for Miami. But I remember a year ago the team came to New York and got blasted.

This uneven win beats that resounding defeat.

The Dolphins offense had some outstanding moments in the first half.

Tannehill looked sharp as he had a 138.5 quarterback rating. He had a 29 yard touchdown pass to Albert Wilson and a 19-yard touchdown pass to A.J. Derby.

But then that Ryan disappeared.

He had a fumble in the second half.

The offense that was humming in the first half suddenly lost it’s tune, gaining only 47 yards in the second half until Miami’s final drive.

The Miami defense gave up yards. In fact the Jets outgained Miami in the second half.

But Xavien Howard came up with an interception in the end zone. The defensive front pressured Darnold.

It was a solid team effort.

And a solid team win.

Can’t beat that.

This story was originally published September 16, 2018 at 4:11 PM.