Cote: Dolphins finally win, Hill hurt, and wolves at door haven’t left | Opinion
The howling, snarling wolves are at bay. They have quieted, for now, but what holds them in is weak.
They are not gone.
The Miami Dolphins climbing from winless to 1-3 on “Monday Night Football” was a low bar to hurdle on the excitement scale, but there likely aren’t many Dolfans complaining today about that. They would have taken a one-point margin on a last-second prayer, a win by forfeit — anything.
Still, the Fins’ 27-21 home victory over the still-winless New York Jets was pyrrhic, at high cost, befitting this difficult Miami season still in need of rescue.
Star receiver Tyreek Hill left the game with a left knee injury said to be severe in the third quarter and did not return after a productive six catches for 67 yards. He left on a cart, almost always a very ominous sign, then was to spend the night hospitalized. The fear is he will be lost for the season.
“He was smiling, making jokes,” said De’Von Achane afterward. “That’s his spirit.”
Embattled coach Mike McDaniel said the injury hit him hard personally but added, “There was an entire team, a stadium and an organization that didn;t have time for my feeelings.” That was especially after Hill told the coach, “Make sre the guys get this win.”
Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa mentioned Hill’s injury first postgame, mentioning “thoughts and prayers,” before finally turning to the win and calling it “the best deodorant for what we’ve gone through. Now we have to stack those wins.”
The overriding emotion in South Florida should be less feel-good than feel relief, but all of it surely dampened by Hill’s injury.
There was good to take from the win (besides the win itself), and that was tight end Darren Waller catching two touchdown passes Tagovailoa in Waller’s first action of the season. Better grab him from free agency for your fantasy team, pronto. Wait. Probably already too late.
But even Waller’s sudden emergence from retirement and injury that could not lift the pall cast by what could be Hill’s long-term absence.
Such a fragile thing, where the Dolphins are right now. This was the NFL’s Game of the “Weak,” the AFC East’s Battle for the Basement. Still, a desperate win is a desperate win.
Now what, though? Can this be built on, at least? Or might a loss at Carolina next Sunday immediately spring open that pen and let the wolves back out full-throated? (Rhetorical; you likely know the answer.)
McDaniel and general manager Chris Grier should not feel much safer by this about their job status beyond this season. Then again men who may be facing a firing squad do not turn down a reprieve of any sort, temporary or otherwise. Even if it came against a division rival whose fans already are thinking “tank” -- against an opponent Miami has now beaten 10 straigth times at Hard Rock Stadium.
The Dolphins, remarkably and abetted hugely by three Jets turnovers all on lost fumbles, never trailed.
Miami wore special “Nike X NFL Rivalries” uniforms, black with splash of aqua.
They hardly looked like the Dolphins at all.
Just as well on that.
The two Waller scoring catches and then a 9-yard TD run by Achane were enough to top the fumblin’ Jets.
“A lot of emotion to be honest,” said Waller of his return. “A little fear, a little bit of everything.”
Miami gave up a 43-yard scoring run to QB Justin Fields and a late TD catch by Garrett Wilson and a two-point conversion inside of two minutes left for the final score. The Fins’ defense dearly needed those three Jets turnovers and fumble recoveries by Minkah Fitzpatrick, Jaelan Phillips and one Dante Trader to eke out the win. As it was the end was more harrowing than it should have been.
Miami did have its best drive of the season: 96 yards on 15 plays across almost nine minutes, capped by Waller’s 4-yard back-of-the end zone scoring catch. Tua’s 28-yard strike to Hill and 25 to Jaylen Waddle led that series.
Tagovailo played well, including leading a score three plays after Hill’s injury and later three plays after he’d taken a big hit and come up smiling.
“You want guys to come together and thrive even when the odds are against you,” said McDaniel.
The Dolphins’ progress since a nausea-inducing opener at Indianapolis has been steady. Better vs. New England, competitive at mighty Buffalo, now a blessed victory. They have stuck with it through all of the noise and the airplanes flying overhead. They deserved this win, the feeling.
Again, though ... what’s next?
The schedule toughens after next week at Carolina, and now with Hill lost?
The wolves have not gone. They’re just quiet. For now.
This story was originally published September 29, 2025 at 10:17 PM.
