Fortune .500: Duuuuke, sackfest & Tua’s redemption as Dolphins beat Jets for 6th win in row | Opinion
The most improbable little comeback story in the NFL chugged on Sunday afternoon, the Dolphins’ early holiday gift to South Florida.
The sound of it: “Duuuuuke,” sweet as a carol as fans serenaded running back Duke Johnson, the old Miami Hurricane, after every big play of his including two touchdown runs. (“Reminded me of college!” he said. “I enjoyed it.”)
The merry snapshot: 310-pound defensive tackle-turned-receiver Christian Wilkins, after a 1-yard scoring catch, showing vertical hops with a Lambeau Leap and ho-ho-heaving himself up an aqua-padded wall and into the cheering crowd.
There might not be much to brag about in a 31-24 home win over the lowly, lousy New York Jets, except, well, has a 7-7 record ever looked finer? Has Fortune .500 ever felt better?
Once 1-7 and flatlining, the Dolphins won a sixth consecutive game on Sunday to keep alive slim but breathing playoff hopes entering the final three games of the regular season. No team in the NFL’s hundred-plus years has ever been 1-7 and made the playoffs. No team has ever followed a seven-game losing skid with six wins in a row.
The desperate Jets deployed all the gimmicks and gadgetry in their playbook — “They threw the kitche sink at us,” said coach Brian Flores — but Miami rallied and prevailed.
A miserable season has turned memorable.
Sunday even had some drama just for fun, as the winning streak nearly ended slap-in-the-face hard.
Miami, trailing most of the game, finally has gone ahead, 24-17, only to see quarterback Tua Tagovailoa throw a pick-six interception returned 20 yards for a tying fourth-quarter touchdown. Suddenly the Fins faced losing in the worst ways possible — with a resurgence of inevitable new fresh doubts about Tua as the team’s long-term solution.
Tagovailoa had his redemption, though. He threw a 9-yard scoring pass on third-and-11 to DeVante Parker for the winning points with 3:37 to play. He ended with 196 yards in the air, two scoring passes to offset two picks, and a run in which he lowered his helmet and bowled over a Jets defender to the delight of home fans.
“Remind me not to ever do that again,” the QB joked with the media afterward.
Tagovailoa and other Dolphins mentioned best wishes after the game to injured Jets safety Elijah Riley, who was carted off the field after a neck injury.
Tua engineered Miami’s second highest-scoring game of the year despite missing security-blanket favorite receiver Jaylen Waddle to illness.
The balance of this season will be a game-by-game referendum on Tagovailoa, passing grade or failing with every result.
On Sunday, he was not his best. The two interceptions in particular were bad throws. Really bad.
But he won. He did enough for that.
Again, hey, it was only the Jets, but this is a Dolphins team that somehow managed to lose to Jacksonville this season, before the surge.
You do not apologize for winning, or say yeah-but for who you beat. You celebrate and move one.
In this case you celebrate offensive balance such as we have not seen this year, with a season-high 184 yards rushing led by Johnson’s 107 on 22 carries. He kept the football after his second TD, an early gift-souvenir to himself.
“Definitely gave us a spark,” said Flores of the Duke of Gables.
Said Johnson: “It meant a lot, but meant even more because we won.”
Miami’s blitz-heavy defense also arose to sack Zach Wilson six times, including a pair by Jerome Baker. From an early 17-7 deficit, Miami’s D gradually began to assert itself.
The finish of the regular season toughens now, with next week’s game at New Orleans, then an even harder one vs. old friend Ryan Tannehill in Tennessee, then a final back at home vs. longtime nemesis New England.
It stretches plausibility to a breaking point to imagine the Dolphins might win all three games left.
Just as it did to think a team once 1-7 might be surfing a six-game winning streak into Christmas Week.
Greg Cote: 305-376-3492, @gregcote
This story was originally published December 19, 2021 at 4:38 PM.
