San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Miami punishes Vegas for gamble
LAS VEGAS — Ryan Fitzpatrick completed a 41yard pass to Mack Hollins while being dragged down by the facemask and the Miami Dolphins moved one step closer to a playoff berth when Jason Sanders’ 44yard field goal with one second remaining gave them a 2625 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders on Saturday night.
The Raiders ( 78) chose to run down the clock for a goahead field goal instead of trying for a touchdown with Josh Jacobs going down on purpose at the 1yard line and Derek Carr taking a knee to set up Daniel Carlson’s 22yard field goal with 19 seconds left.
But the Dolphins had some lategame magic with Fitzpatrick launching the deep pass to Hollins while being dragged down by Arden Key. The penalty moved the ball down to the Las Vegas 26, setting up Sanders’ winning kick.
The Dolphins ( 105) moved a halfgame ahead of Baltimore in the AFC playoff race and can clinch a wildcard berth with a win next week at Buffalo.
The Raiders were eliminated from playoff contention with their fifth loss in six games and will be out of the postseason for the 17th time in 18 seasons.
The backandforth final few minutes from Fitzpatrick and Carr made up for a game that lacked offensive fireworks for most of the night. After the Dolphins tied the game at 16 with 4: 01 to play, the Raiders took little time to answer.
A holding penalty on first down put them in a hole, but Carr got them right out of it when he scrambled away from pressure despite an injured groin and launched a deep pass to Nelson Agholor, who outjumped Byron Jones for the catch.
Agholor then juked safety Bobby McCain and raced to the end zone for the 85yard score that put the Raiders up 2216 after Carlson missed the extra point.
That looked as if it could be costly when Fitzpatrick answered with a short pass to Myles Gaskin that turned unto a huge gain. Gaskin broke a tackle from Raekwon McMillan and then got sprung from some downfield blocks on the way to a 59yard touchdown. Jason Sanders’ extra point gave the Dolphins the 2322 lead.
That proved shortlived when Jones was called for the penalty on a deep throw to Agholor that gave the Raiders the ball at the 22. Las Vegas then ran out most of the clock but not enough.
Dolphins rookie Tua Tagovailoa struggled to move the ball with his 22 passes gaining only 94 yards. He did connect on a 10yard TD pass to Gaskin that tied the game in the third quarter, but was pulled in the fourth for Fitzpatrick with the Raiders leading 1613.