28-25 at the Jets<\/a>. And the first victory of the Hafley era fit the identity that he and general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan have been stressing since they arrived in Miami of building a team around physicality and toughness.<\/p>\n\u201cWe had the two-minute warning, and I told everybody, I said, \u2018I want to see the O-line,\u2019\u201d Hafley said Monday. “So I called the whole line over and I wanted to look them all in the eye. I said, \u2018Guys, if we get the first down, we\u2019re kneeling and we\u2019re winning this game. So I can either punt the ball where we play defense or we\u2019re going to go for it.\u2019 I said, \u2018what do you guys want to do?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd they looked at me and said, \u2018Coach, we\u2019re going for it.\u2019 And I said, \u2018OK, we better get it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The game-sealing call was the Dolphins\u2019 third successful fourth down conversion of the game.<\/p>\n
One the first, Gordon leapt over the line of scrimmage to convert on fourth-and-1 at the Jets 2 on Miami’s second offensive possession. Willis scrambled for a 5-yard gain on fourth-and-2 later in the first half.<\/p>\n
Both conversions led to touchdowns, and the second score gave the Dolphins a 21-7 halftime lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat needs to be our identity, right?” Hafley said. \u201cWhen things get hard, are we going to go in the tank or are we going to step up and fight? And it\u2019s like when you\u2019re 0-5, you\u2019re going to go fight or you\u2019re just going to go back into a corner. That\u2019s who we are, that\u2019s who we need to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Dolphins had not led in any of their first five games until going up 7-0 on their opening drive on Willis’ first of two touchdowns to rookie Caleb Douglas, who returned after an ankle injury sidelined him for three games.<\/p>\n
They never trailed after that, and Hafley said it was important for his team made up of first- and second-year players to learn how to protect a lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have so many young guys that can do a bunch of stuff,\u201d Willis said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to figure out who we actually are and what we want to be great at. I think we\u2019re doing a great job figuring it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
What’s working<\/p>\n
The Dolphins entered Sunday with the league’s ninth-best rushing offense and ran for more than 100 yards for the fifth straight game, which is the longest such streak in the NFL.<\/p>\n
They’ve mostly accomplished that with Gordon, the physical second-year running back who has three straight games with 85-plus yards on the ground in place of injured starter De’Von Achane.<\/p>\n
What needs help<\/p>\n
Part of Hafley’s approach has been to eliminate the opponent’s biggest receiving threat, and the Dolphins did well with that plan in limiting receiver Garrett Wilson to 26 yards on two catches. But Miami gave up a pair of touchdowns to tight end Mason Taylor, along with 115 yards receiving by Omar Cooper Jr.<\/p>\n
Stock up<\/p>\n
Willis. Hafley called Sunday the best game of the season for Willis, who completed 14 of 21 passes for 208 yards, two passing touchdowns and one rushing score without a turnover. The QB was decisive, got the ball out quickly \u2014 two areas of struggle the first five games of the season \u2014 and made a few key throws in tight windows. He also rushed for 37 yards on eight carries, including the game-clinching gain on fourth down.<\/p>\n
Stock down<\/p>\n
RB Jaylen Wright. He began the season as Achane’s backup but seems to have fallen behind Gordon on the depth chart. Wright played eight offensive snaps on Sunday before leaving in the fourth with a quad injury.<\/p>\n
Injuries<\/p>\n
S Dante Trader Jr. (shoulder) and CB JuJu Brents (stinger) left with injuries but returned.<\/p>\n
Key number<\/p>\n
3 \u2014 The number of touchdowns Miami scored in three trips to the red zone on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Next steps<\/p>\n
The Dolphins host New England Sunday in their second straight divisional matchup.<\/p>\n
See AP\u2019s full NFL coverage here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bozemandailychronicle.com offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced. MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1038386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2051],"tags":[13781,134700,7,226,1917,255,2321,2097,6,498,9],"class_list":["post-1038385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-jets","tag-athlete-injuries","tag-dolphins-analysis-jeff-hafley","tag-football","tag-jets","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-jets","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkjets","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-football","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117512188895246635","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1038385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1038386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1038385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1038385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1038385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}