Jets 25-28 Dolphins: a goal-line stand finally gets Miami its first win
Malik Willis and Caleb Douglas built a 21-7 halftime lead, and a fourth-quarter stand at the 1-yard line held off the Jets' rally to lift Miami off the winless list.
Seven weeks in, the Miami Dolphins are finally on the board. Miami beat the New York Jets 28-25 at MetLife Stadium on Sunday for its first win of the season, improving to 1-5 while dropping the Jets to 2-5, per the Jets' own recap and ESPN's final.
A first half that decided it
Miami scored touchdowns on three of its first four possessions and led 21-7 at the break. Malik Willis hit Caleb Douglas for a 7-yard score, Ollie Gordon plunged in from a yard out, and Willis added a 2-yard run before halftime. The Jets never led all day.
The stand at the 1
New York's rally ran through a furious second half — and died at the goal line. Trailing by a touchdown in the fourth quarter, the Jets had first-and-goal at the Miami 1 and went backwards: two runs lost ground before Chop Robinson's third-down sack pushed them out of touchdown range entirely. Douglas then broke the game open with a 63-yard catch-and-run, his second score of the day, stretching the lead to 28-17. Geno Smith (23-of-30, 287 yards, three touchdowns, one interception) kept coming — Mason Taylor's second touchdown of the game, the first multi-score day of his career, plus a two-point conversion made it 28-25 — but Willis converted a fourth-and-1 on the ground inside two minutes to kill the clock.
Omar Cooper Jr. had five catches for 115 yards and a score for New York, his second straight 100-yard touchdown game, and Braelon Allen ran for 104 yards. It wasn't enough to cover for the start: Jets coach Aaron Glenn said afterward he was disappointed with a first-half effort that spotted Miami 21 points.
What it means
The Dolphins leave with more than a number in the win column — a mobile quarterback who closed the game on his legs and a defense that won the game's biggest snap from its own 1-yard line. The Jets, at 2-5, have now lost the kind of game that playoff hopefuls don't.