Pressure Point: Dolphins give S. Florida a Merry Christmas; New Year brings more challenges

How special was the Miami Dolphins’ last-second win on a walk-off field by Jason Sanders against the Dallas Cowboys?

The last time the Dolphins gave their fans such a Christmas gift was the “Mare Christmas” win of 2000 — dubbed by my former colleague Harvey Fialkov — on Dec. 24, 2000 when Olindo Mare kicked a field goal into the wind with 9 seconds left for a 27-24 win against the Patriots at Foxboro to clinch the AFC East title.

A week later the Dolphins defeated the Indianapolis Colts in a wild-card playoff matchup. They haven’t won a playoff game in four tries since then. They have only one AFC East title since, in 2008.

Sunday, it was again a kicker giving Dolfans a playoff present with a last-second kick in a 22-20 win. It was Sanders’ fifth field goal of the day in which he became the first Dolphin to kick three longer than 50 yards in a game.

That was just a footnote to the bigger picture. This win changed so much for the Dolphins and their quaterback, Tua Tagovailoa.

Finally, the national narrative of the Dolphins beating up on also-rans and getting run over by playoff-caliber teams vanished. Poof!

The Dolphins and Cowboys both came into Sunday 10-4 and leading their divisions. Now there can be no more talk about the AFC East-leading Dolphins having no wins over a team with a winning record.

Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel had a long, rambling answer about what this win meant to the team. The bottom line was: “This team was fully confident and knew it would take all 60 minutes. So it’s a cool one to be a part of. I think a lot of the guys are happy because their Christmas isn’t ruined.”

Dolphins save Christmas

But it was much more than that.

Very important that Tagovailoa, who has been constantly denigrated despite his successes, led the Dolphins on the 12-play, 64-yard drive to set up Sanders’ winning kick over the final 3:27.

It was a signature moment that Tua very much needed, especially after Miami’s previous possession went three-and-out and was followed by a 17-play touchdown drive by the Cowboys which gave Dallas its only lead of the game.

When safety DeShon Elliott was called for pass interference in the end zone on fourth down to give Dallas another set of downs at the Miami 1, the Fox telecast showed a very young Dolphins fan on the brink of despair about the call. Thousands of much older fans who have suffered with this team for decades were feeling the exact same emotions at that moment.

This was every dolphin fan for the past 20 years lmao pic.twitter.com/w5lcuhEB2D

— Splash and Furious 🐬 (@JoshuaClow) December 25, 2023

So many Dolphins dreams have died in December. There was a collective feeling it was about to happen again.

Then came Santa Tagovailoa driven by a battered but game offensive line and his band of swift elves.

The Dolphins’ winning drive included two key third-down conversions, on a screen pass to Tyreek Hill and a run up the middle by Jeff Wilson, Jr.

And finally, there was the No. 1 Christmas elf, Jason Sanders, to deliver the item at the top of South Florida’s wish list.

“I feel like every guy on the team knew what was at stake,” Hill said of the final drive, “and plus it was a big moment for us. We can look back at the course of the game. We have Tennessee being the last game we could have won and we didn’t deliver. So this game right here was kind of like the mentality game for us.

“When everyone on the offensive side, during meetings, we said, look, whenever we have a chance to score or win the game, or end the game with the ball, we’re going to do that. And that’s something that’s been communicated throughout our meetings and stuff like that, because we just can’t be called the best offense, we can’t be called explosive, we have to be able to have good drives and the way Tua orchestrated the last drive, it was a thing of beauty.”

More heavy lifting on New Year’s Eve

So Merry Christmas, Dolfans. As for Happy New Year, well, that’s going to be another big challenge.

The final day of 2023 has the Dolphins traveling to Baltimore vying for the all-important top seed in the AFC, which Miami held briefly before the Monday night collapse against the Titans.

The top-seeded team gets a bye on the first weekend of the playoffs. The second seed has to host a wild-card game.

Plus, the Buffalo Bills are still lurking and dangerous. The Dolphins need a win over the Ravens or a Bills loss to the Patriots to clinch that elusive first division title in 15 years.
Otherwise, that will be decided when the Bills visit Miami in the regular-season finale.

So while the comeback win against the Cowboys freed the Dolphins of some weighty stigmas, there is still some heavy lifting just head.

Craig Davis has covered South Florida sports and teams, including the Dolphins, for four decades. Follow him on the site formerly known as Twitter @CraigDavisRuns.