WINNING BY LOSING
Two-point conversion fails in final seconds to keep Dolphins winless
Miami Dolphins fans, above, show how they feel about losing during a game at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens on Sunday. Dolphins’ head coach Brian Flores, right, shouts from the sidelines during the game against the Washington Redskins.
The Dolphins lost 17-16 to the Redskins to fall to 0-5 on the season, but it was a win as far as the team was concerned in its quest to secure the No. 1 pick in next year’s NFL draft. The Dolphins are one of just two winless teams left in the NFL, but they will play that other team, the Cincinnati Bengals, in Week 16, and the outcome could decide the first pick.
The Miami Dolphins produced their most exciting sequence of football all season.
Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick provided a spark off the bench, driving the Dolphins downfield during the waning minutes of the fourth quarter and finding receiver DeVante Parker in the end zone for an 11-yard touchdown with six seconds remaining.
Brian Flores, down by a point, looking for his first win as Dolphins coach, went for the win.
But the Dolphins came back down to earth following their poorly executed two-point play with the game — and quite possibly the franchise’s future — on the line.
“This team fought. They fought hard. There’s no issue with effort or issue with going out here and trying to get a win. We just came up short at the end,” Flores said.
Kenyan Drake dropped the final pass from Fitzpatrick, but the play call never stood a chance in Miami’s 17-16 loss to Washington at Hard Rock Stadium.
Redskins linebacker Ryan Anderson saw it all unfold in Miami’s backfield and quickly ran towards
Drake before he even had the ball thrown to him.
Dolphins left tackle J’Marcus Webb never had a chance to attempt a cut-block because Anderson was so far away, already in Drake’s direction. Even if Drake had the football, a roadblock of Redskins defenders would have crowded him far from the end zone.
Maybe the play call was influenced because center Daniel Kilgore left the game before the play with an apparent right leg injury. Maybe the play would have been effective if Drake had practiced it instead of Mark Walton, who was in the lineup for the play during practice this past week. But it was an uneventful ending to an eventful fourth quarter.
“I got to do everything in my power, first and foremost, to catch that ball and get it in the end zone no matter what they throw at us,” Drake said.
Flores was a little more realistic recapping the play after the game.
“It looked like they played it really well,” Flores said. “Drake would have had to make a spectacular play.”
Depending on your point of view of the Dolphins’ overall direction, Sunday’s fourth quarter was exciting, encouraging, uneasy and unrelenting all at once.
The Dolphins disregarded the outside noise and played competitively, showing some fight and pride late in the fourth quarter, including a touchdown drive in the closing seconds.
It was a battle between winless teams that could eventually have major implications on the draft positions of both come next April.
With the competitive loss, the Dolphins (0-5) remain in clear contention for the No. 1 overall pick where a player like Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa could be the catalyst to ignite a franchise that has experienced mediocre football for much of the past two decades.
Now, the Dolphins just have to go through 11 more games — with maybe one or two of them against a comparable opponent — to reap the ultimate reward.
In the interim, on the field, the Dolphins must continue enduring one of the worst starts in team history.
Josh Rosen said this past week he is approaching this season as a tryout to show he can compete and possibly be an answer for the Dolphins in their longstanding quest to find a franchise quarterback.
Instead, he turned in his worst performance of the season against the Redskins (1-5) and was replaced in the fourth quarter by Fitzpatrick.
Rosen threw two interceptions and got sacked five times. He was able to lead just one scoring drive, which resulted in a field goal. But overall, he completed just 15-of-25 passes for 85 yards with a 32.9 passer rating.
Fitzpatrick quickly jumpstarted Miami’s anemic offense, finding Walton and Drake for short passes on a drive that was capped off with a 1-yard touchdown by running back Kalen Ballage to narrow the deficit to, 17-10, with 10:56 left in the fourth quarter.
It was the first time the Dolphins scored in the second half of any game this season.
The Dolphins’ two touchdowns in the fourth quarter matched their total for the season before Sunday’s game.
And it could have sparked another quarterback controversy between Rosen and Fitzpatrick.
“[Rosen] wasn’t having a good day, and I think we’re always going to do what we feel is best for the team and today that was Fitz going in in the fourth quarter,” Flores said.
“Josh is the starter, I would say. But as we continue to move along, there’s always competition.”
It also raised a glaring concern to many that Miami could win this football game, inadvertently putting their future in jeopardy. But the Dolphins could not make the timely plays when needed to get their first elusive victory of the season.
After the Ballage touchdown, the Dolphins tried an onside kick to recover the football. They did so, but a defensive back Steven Parker was penalized for being offsides.
On their next drive, Fitzpatrick threw it away on third-and-6, right to the feet of a fallen Mike Gesicki, resulting in a punt that landed inside the 5-yard line.
Despite pitting the Redskins near the back of the end zone, the Dolphins defense allowed quarterback Case Keenum to find streaking rookie receiver Terry McLaurin, who scored two touchdowns earlier in the game, in stride for a 32-yard completion to flip the field.
Even the final two minutes, when the Dolphins had one more chance to make it interesting on offense, they ultimately failed to convert the biggest play of their season.
Fitzpatrick led the offense into the red zone thanks to 30-yard catch by Gesicki, an 11-yard pass to Allen Hurns and a 10-yard pass to Preston Williams before finding Parker in the end zone with 6 seconds remaining and Drake’s drop that cost them the game.
“That’s the kind of stuff — that’s why I still like being out there and playing this game,” Fitzpatrick said. “That’s the kind of stuff that you love, and I was happy that we decided to go for two. That was the right move, and I wish we would have got in there.”
Flores and the Dolphins are still in pursuit of their first victory this season, with a Week 7 road matchup against the Buffalo Bills (4-1) on tap next week.
The Dolphins may have lost the game to Washington, but to many, they ultimately won.
Miami’s significant franchise overhaul is still intact with one less contender for the No. 1 pick out of the way.