That’s all, folks! Last one out, please remember to turn out the lights. The Miami Dolphins are finished playing football in 2019 — and they’ve gone out in style, shocking the New England Patriots in Foxboro with a 27-24 victory. The win, which moves the Dolphins to 5-11 on the season, will keep the New England Patriots from entering the postseason on a bye week for the first time in a decade.
For Miami, this was a culmination of all the preaching Brian Flores and his coaching staff have done for months. All of that team culture? All of that player development? It all came to a head as the Dolphins won on the road in New England for the first time since 2008, a game in which the Dolphins utilized the Wildcat offense to shell shock New England.
For New England? The Patriots will enter the postseason at 12-4 but with more questions than answers after Miami’s paper thin roster challenged the Patriots all game long and, in crunch time, drove the length of the field to score when QB Ryan Fitzpatrick laced a ball to TE Mike Gesicki for a touchdown with :24 seconds remaining to take the lead for good.
The Dolphins seized the win via aggressive play calling throughout — emptying the bag of tricks with double passes and fake punts throughout the game, all to position themselves for a chance at the end. It all paid off, and now Miami will ride into the offseason with a winning record over their final 9 games of the season (5-4) despite starting the season 0-7.
The icing on the cake for Miami? The Dolphins’ NFL Draft status was unchanged by the victory — the New York Jets defeated the Buffalo Bills to clinch Miami’s status as the #5 pick in the NFL Draft in April, no matter the result of the Jacksonville Jaguars’ game against the Indianapolis Colts. That means Miami will be the second highest QB-hungry team in the initial draft queue and will have every opportunity to aggressively attack a pick for a quarterback of their choosing, so long as that quarterback isn’t LSU’s Joe Burrow.
This season was an odd one for Dolphins fans, a year that inspired conflicting rooting interests and complicated fan interests. But there’s no questioning the sweetness of this victory from the Dolphins, who will carry momentum into the new year and offer hope to fans that, with a more talented roster, this is just the beginning.
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