The Miami Dolphins heard the talk. After Sunday, they shouldn't have to be hearing it for much longer.
The Dolphins defeated the Dallas Cowboys 22-20 on Sunday afternoon at Hard Rock Stadium. Jason Sanders' 29-yard field goal as time expired delivered the win for the Dolphins.
Although the Vegas point total was among the highest of the Week 16 slate, the game was largely a back and forth, grind it out affair. Miami outgained Dallas 384 (91 rushing, 293 passing) to 350 (97 rushing, 253 passing). Despite only scoring 22 points, Miami had 6 scoring drives that ended with five Jason Sanders field goals. Sanders banged through three field goals of 50+ yards.
With the victory, Miami did something that they hadn't done all game: defeat a team with a winning record. Dallas entered the game at 10-4 and - prior to their loss against Buffalo last week - was one of the hottest teams in the NFL. Dak Prescott was playing at an MVP level and he and CeeDee Lamb were one of the two best QB-WR duos in the league along with Tua Tagovailoa and Tyreek Hill.
Miami looked overmatched earlier this year against two very good teams on the road in the Buffalo Bills and the Philadelphia Eagles. They fell into a 21-point hole that they couldn't quite climb out of against the Kansas City Chiefs in November. Against almost everyone else? World beaters. 70 points on Denver. Games full of highlight reel touchdowns, and end zone celebrations. That's who the Miami Dolphins have been.
As such, many talking heads and media members believed Miami was a paper tiger. A finesse team that wasn't built to take a punch from the league's best. The Dolphins just delivered a message for those folks.
"A lot of people have been saying that we can't beat good teams, and I feel like today we kind of showed that (we can)," Hill said after the win over the Cowboys. "So we can scratch that off the box. Now we're just looking for what Stephen A. (Smith), Shannon Sharpe, and - I wonder what Skip Bayless is going to say on First Take. So, interesting."
It's clear the Dolphins' reputation of being a good but not great team that can't beat the NFL's best has stuck with Hill and probably a lot more of his teammates. And there's good reason to be perturbed. Plenty of good teams often struggle against teams with losing records. Sometimes they lose. So it shouldn't be written off as an afterthought when the Dolphins blow the Jets off the field or throttle the Commanders on the road.
Now, Miami has put the naysayers and the rest of the league on notice. This isn't a finesse team that's going to wilt against tough teams. This is a team that's built to win in more ways than one.
And that can make a team very dangerous in January.
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