Not Phinished yet: Rookie return man, Dolphins secure overtime win over Jets

Eager to escape the Dolphins’ dog house, Malik Washington redeemed himself on Sunday with 44 seconds to spare. On a pivotal 45-yard kickoff return, the rookie pancaked the Jets’ kicker to set up the kick that sent the game to overtime.

“He doesn’t have a choice,” Washington said regarding his collision with Anders Carlson on the late-game return, per Eric J. Wallace of the Palm Beach Post. “If he’s going to kick to me, I had to make him pay for it.

“You could tell they were going to kick it in-bounds and give us a chance but he tried to put it out to the right so we wouldn’t have a big return … I saw the one squeeze and I was just thinking about getting it back inside and letting him overplay it. It worked out.”

After the 32-26 win, Washington said he had to “flush” last week, when his muffed punt at Green Bay led to a Packers touchdown in a Thanksgiving night loss. On Sunday, quarterback Tua Tagovailoa took that big return and promptly connected with Tyreek Hill for 14 yards, Jaylen Waddle for 6, then watched Jason Sanders drill a 52-yard field goal to knot the game at 26 and send it to overtime.

That’s when Tagovailoa excelled. Miami won the toss and the quarterback went 6 of 7 for 67 yards on an eight-play, 70-yard march. And after targeting Jonnu Smith just once the entire game, Tagovailoa connected with the tight end three times for 44 yards on the game-ending drive, including a 10-yard touchdown.

“We have something to play for,” said defensive end Calais Campbell, whose Dolphins are now 6-7 with four games left. “We’re alive.”

They certainly are, but the road to the playoffs is steep and daunting. Three of Miami’s final four are away from home, including cold-weather contests at Cleveland and a rematch with the Jets. They also have to beat the Texans coming off a bye week and their only remaining home game is against San Francisco.

The Jets (3-10) were officially eliminated from the postseason, extending the longest postseason drought in North American major league sports to 14 consecutive years.

For more information on the Dolphins and Jets, visit the Miami and N.Y. Jets team pages at ProFootballPost.com.