Dolphins wide receiver Mack Hollins downed a punt at the 1-yard line late in the fourth quarter of Monday night’s road game against the New Orleans Saints and began to break into a “Griddy,” a fitting dance coined in Louisiana.
His special teams teammates joined him in the celebration, as the magnitude of their midseason turnaround began to sink in with under 5 minutes remaining.
The Dolphins beat a Saints team decimated by COVID-19, 20-3, the team’s seventh consecutive win after a 1-7 start. It marks for the first time in NFL history a team has had a seven-game losing streak and a seven-game winning streak in the same season.
More importantly, it moves the Dolphins into the seventh seed in the AFC. At 8-7, the Dolphins are in a four-way tie with the Los Angeles Chargers, Baltimore Ravens and Las Vegas Raiders but get the final playoff spot by virtue of a series of tiebreakers.
The Dolphins can become the first team in NFL history to make the playoffs after a 1-7 start if they win their final two games. The team will face the Tennessee Titans on the road on Sunday and then return to Miami for its regular-season finale against the New England Patriots, a game that could be just as pivotal for New England’s playoff hopes. FiveThirtyEight’s projections give the Dolphins a 31 percent chance of making the playoffs after Monday nights win.
New Orleans entered the game with 22 players, many of them starters, and four assistants sidelined by coronavirus protocols amid an outbreak in the week leading up to the game. Rookie Ian Book, the Saints’ fourth-string quarterback, made his first career start and much of the night looked like a player who had been thrown into the starting role midweek.
On Book’s second pass, cornerback Nik Needham intercepted him and returned it for a 28-yard touchdown, giving the Dolphins a 7-0 lead in the first quarter.
The Saints offense finished with 164 yards, the fourth straight game the Dolphins defense has held an opponent to fewer than 250 yards. Book was sacked eight times and finished 12-of-20 for 125 yards and two interceptions.
The Dolphins held a 10-3 lead at halftime and in a game where New Orleans struggled to pick up first downs, that was enough.
A 1-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Tua Tagovailoa to wide receiver Jaylen Waddle gave the Dolphins a 17-3 lead late in the third quarter. Waddle, making his return to the field after a one-game absence because of coronavirus protocols, broke the franchise’s rookie receiving record and inched closer to Anquan Boldin’s rookie reception record, finishing with 10 catches for 92 yards.
Tagovailoa completed 19-of-26 passes for Zz198 yards and a touchdown and an interception.
