NEW YORK _ The Jets proved once and for all that they might stink, but they stink just a little less than the Dolphins.
Sam Fickens' 44-yard field goal as time expired lifted Gang Green to a 22-21 win over Miami Sunday. Adam Gase avoided the indignity of getting swept by his former employer and improved to 5-8.
The Jets were seemingly left for dead on a third-down incompletion on the final drive before the play was ruled pass interference by Nick Needham (against Vyncint Smith) after video review with 43 seconds left.
The Dolphins dropped to 3-10.
Sam Darnold leaned on Robby Anderson on a scoring drive capped by Sam Ficken's 42-yard field goal to give Gang Green a 19-18 lead with four minutes left. Darnold and Anderson hooked up three times for 38 yards on the drive.
Ryan Fitzpatrick used Bless Austin's 38-yard pass interference to get inside the Jets 10-yard for a fourth time on the opening drive of the second half. But they couldn't find the end zone again. The Dolphins settled for Jason Sanders' fourth short field goal to cut the Jets lead to 16-12 four minutes into the third quarter.
Miami squandered a golden opportunity to get closer or take the lead after Darnold was picked off by Steven Parker on the Jets' first drive of the second half. Miami took over at Gang Green's 23-yard line, but Sanders missed a 34-yard field goal after a bad snap.
Miami had seven field goals.
Darnold & Co. marched down to the Miami 14 on the ensuing drive before the Jets turned it over on downs when Bilal Powell was stuffed on 4th and 1. Gase's calculated gamble didn't come back to bite him. The Dolphins went three-and-out on the ensuing drive.
But Sanders' fifth field goal of the day � a 53-yarder � drew Miami to within a point four minutes into the fourth quarter. Sanders drilled a 48-yarder with seven minutes left in regulation to give the Dolphins their first lead since the first quarter.
The Jets held a 16-9 halftime lead thanks, in part, to a stingy red-zone defense. Ryan Fitzpatrick moved Miami up and down the field before repeatedly stalling close to the end zone. The Dolphins, who were fourth in red-zone offense (67.7 percent), managed just three goals despite getting to the Jets 6-, 4- and 10-yard lines in three of their four drives before intermission. Fitzpatrick also lost his top weapon DeVante Parker, who was knocked out in the second quarter with a concussion.
Meanwhile, Sam Darnold threw a pair of touchdown passes in the first half to give Gase's team an edge at the break.
The Jets, coming off an embarrassing loss to the previously winless Bengals, snapped their six-game streak of scoring on their first drive. Gang Green got into Miami territory before the possession stalled.
The good news: Lachlan Edwards pinned the Dolphins down to the 4-yard line to start their first drive.
The bad news: Fitzpatrick orchestrated a 15-play, 92-yard scoring march that chewed up eight minutes. Gang Green tightened up in the red zone before Miami settled for Jason Sanders' 22-yard field goal to take a 3-0 lead with 3:06 left in the first quarter. Fitzpatrick completed passes to five different players against a patchwork secondary to put the Jets in an early hole.
But Gang Green answered with an impressive 10-play, 74-yard drive capped by Darnold's 26-yard touchdown pass to Robby Anderson. The second-year quarterback did a nice job stepping up in the pocket before finding his open teammate for the catch-and-run score. The Jets took a 6-3 lead early in the second quarter after Sam Ficken missed the PAT.
Fitzpatrick made his first costly mistake eight seconds later.
The veteran signal caller tried to squeeze it into Allen Hurns on the first play of the ensuing drive, but Nate Hairston picked it off to give the Jets great field position. Ficken's 37-yard field goal extended Gang Green's lead to 9-3 four minutes into the second quarter.
Fitzpatrick stormed back on Miami's next drive, but Gregg Williams' defense tightened up again inside the 10. The Dolphins settled for Sanders' second short field goal to get within 9-6 with 5 { minutes left in the first half.
Darnold pushed the Jets' lead to double digits by engineering his second touchdown drive on the ensuing possession. He hit Anderson for a 39-yard pickup on third down before hooking up with Demaryius Thomas for a 14-yard score to make it 16-6 with 1:55 left before intermission.
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Fitzpatrick, whose interception on the ensuing drive was wiped out to a Jets penalty, used his feet to help cut into the deficit. He scrambled for 40 yards on three attempts to get to the Jets' 10 on the next drive, but couldn't punch it in. Sanders' third field goal of the first half made it 16-9 at the break.
