Cote: Miami Dolphins’ win in New England was ugly but sweet for team just trying to survive | Opinion

Part of me wants to be Cynical Guy after seeing the Miami Dolphins’ 15-10 victory in New England on Sunday, a redefinition of “ugly win.”

The NFL’s two lowest-scoring teams showed us why they are that.

Imagine Patriots fans, drunk for two decades on Brady and Belichick and Super Bowl-tier success, having to get used to this. To full-blown rebuild mode.

Imagine Dolphins fans, coming off the exciting offensive juggernaut of last season with a team that scored 70 points in one game — now getting used to the fall of ‘24 with quarterback Tua Tagovailao in a ballcap on the sideline and touchdowns rare finds..

I want to be that Cynical Guy, but I can’t. Not now.

The Dolphins needed a victory in the worst way Sunday, and even if they got that win in the worst way, literally, it lifted a desperate team to 2-3 and kept a season from sinking into some form of football abyss.

Miami is scrambling for answers, trying to get by with third-string QB Tyler Huntley and aching for Tagovailoa to return from his concussion soon. That Huntley is likely not the answer, obvious to state. But because that is so, any win, against anybody, is a good one.

“The kind of game our team needed in terms of winning where everything wasn’t great, and leaning into what we’ve learned to be the strength of our team, which is the defense,” said coach Mike McDaniel. “For 24 days since the Buffalo game ... losing streaks are real. They’re not fun. And for our team to find a way to overcome a lot of sloppiness and still find a way, it feels great. You want to see your team take steps foward, and I thought we did today. The plan was to go toe to toe and win any way you need to.”

McDaniel praised Huntley’s advancement since last week and reiterated, “We needed to find a way to win a football game with adversity r in our face.”

New England led 10-3 early in the third quarter Sunday, and it felt like the Fins were finished.

But a pair of field goals drew Miami within 10-9, and fullback Alec Ingold’s 3-yard scoring run with 4:24 left (a two-point try failed) made the final score.

The second half for Miami could only be better (right?) because the first half was a gross embarrassment in which the Dolphins looked like a preseason team in early August. Miraculously, they only trailed 7-3. The miracle? New England was about as bad.

The highlight? Fins scored first for the first time this season. Lowlights? Here are a few in sad chronology — accurately describing an injury-wracked team in the throes of a bad season:

Huntley throws a bad interception intended for Odell Beckham Jr., whose long-awaited debut carried negligible impact.

Defense gives up a 33-yard scoring run to Rhamondre Stevenson.

Jason Sanders misses a 41-yard field-goal attempt that goes boink off the left upright.

Miami, in one series, takes a 10-yard penalty, has illegal shift and illegal blindside block penalties both declined, then has a punt blocked. (Seriously.)

Dolphins snap the ball over Huntley’s head when the QB is not ready for it, play loses 23 yards and sees a potential field-goal try turn into a punt.

Miami makes a 46-yard field goal that is negated by a false start by lineman Austin Jackson. On the retry from 51 yards, a bad snap muff the attempt.

The TV guy at this point said, “Poorly executed across the board.” I think he meant that play. Could have meant the entire half for Miami.

The second-half rally was enough, but still the win was no work of art.

Rookie Jaylen Wright and the return of Raheem Mostert gave Miami a solid run game. The defense was good enough. But Miami was 2 for 11 on third-down conversions as Tagovailoa’s absence continued resonating loudly.

This is a Dolphins team and a coach in Mike McDaniel desperate to absorb the gut punch of Tagovailoa’s concussion and to survive despite it. To survive in a season of high hopes slipping away.

That made Sunday’s win — no matter how or against whom — impressive on its own merit.