Dolphins clinch playoff berth, beat Cowboys with walkoff field goal

The Miami Dolphins hadn’t topped an opponent with a winning record in 15 weeks prior.

Sunday, leaning heavily on kicker Jason Sanders, they escaped the Dallas Cowboys to get their first victory over a plus-.500 team this season and clinch a playoff spot.

Sanders made his fifth field goal of the day as time expired to lift Miami over Dallas with a 22-20 win.

Don’t bother telling Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa about the team’s track record.

“I think if we were to listen to any of the narratives, I don’t think we’d be in the position we’re in,” he told Fox’s Erin Andrews postgame on the field.

The Dolphins improved to 11-4, their AFC East lead extending to two games over the Buffalo Bills. The Cowboys, meanwhile, fell to 10-5 and cleared the way for the Philadelphia Eagles to take an NFC East lead on Monday and run with it.

The Cowboys also fell to 3-5 on the road, in contrast to their 7-0 split at home.

Neither team’s performance reflected its offensive potential, Dallas settling for one touchdown in three red zone trips while the Dolphins finished 1-of-4.

The Cowboys started strong after electing to receive, tracking 73 yards on 15 plays across 7:43 as they moved the ball with relative ease. Wide receiver CeeDee Lamb attacked on the edges and up the middle, both carrying and catching passes. Fullback Hunter Luepke managed both a chain-moving carry on third-and-1 and a catch, Prescott also finding tight end Jake Ferguson for 19 yards on a wheel route on fourth-and-1.

But in the red zone, the Cowboys’ season-long comedy of errors returned. Running back Tony Pollard managed to get his body over the goal line but not the ball. The Cowboys returned on first-and-goal attempting to ride Luepke’s hot hand. Instead, a seeming miscommunication resulted in a fumbled handoff from Prescott to Luepke. Dolphins safety Brandon Jones recovered.

Soon, Tagovailoa burned veteran cornerback Stephon Gilmore with a 50-yard dart down the right sideline to Jaylen Waddle. The speedy Miami attack threatened to thwart the Cowboys’ emphasis on starting with a lead, a trend that has resulted in a 6-0 split for them this season. Dallas’ defense ultimately held Miami to a field-goal attempt, which Sanders was good from 57 yards out.

That would set the tone for a day in which Miami didn’t need a heavy end-zone presence to win.

Cowboys threatened late but Dolphins rebounded

The Cowboys briefly took a first-half lead when receiver CeeDee Lamb lined up in the slot to Prescott’s left, cutting toward the middle before shifting to running back mode as he sped upfield around one defender and inside another. The result: a 49-yard, go-ahead touchdown to make it 7-3.

Dallas’ advantage wouldn’t last as the Dolphins kicked a field goal and scored their only TD of the game to take a 13-7 lead into halftime. Each team also was called for an ambiguous roughing-the-passer penalty, though the Cowboys’ was far more costly.

Miami’s Christian Wilkins held his arms out as he fell on Prescott in a sign of his aim not to land his bodyweight on the quarterback, as the rulebook indicates. The call helped Dallas get out of its own end zone but Prescott and Co. failed to sustain the drive.

Dallas, meanwhile, paved the way for a Dolphins’ go-ahead touchdown. Tagovailoa missed Wilson on a touchdown try from the 1 but Cowboys edge rusher Micah Parsons pushed Tagovailoa in a move flagged by the official. Fox rules analyst Dean Blandino doubted the penalty, on account of Parsons’ making contact within two steps of his pursuit, before Fox analyst Howie Long speculated the call was more about the hit than the legality of contact.

Regardless, one play later, Miami cleared the way for a 4-yard Raheem Mostert touchdown around the left side.

Both teams struggled to get home in the second half, settling for third-quarter field goals after a Dolphins drive was stunted by a DeMarcus Lawrence pressure and a Cowboys drive sputtered with an illegal shift penalty.

Each team notched a pair of field goals to follow, before Dallas’ defense got its first sack of the day 48 minutes and 12 seconds into the game.

Dallas’ best and lengthiest drive of the game followed. The Cowboys somehow surviving a fourth-and-2 from Miami’s 43-yard line (Prescott found Lamb after no such connections in the second or third quarter) and then a penalty-escaped fourth-and-goal.

On the 17th play of the drive, Prescott threw a cross-body pass to a tightly covered Brandin Cooks and found his veteran receiver on a back-shoulder fade in the left corner of the end zone.

The Cowboys took a 20-19 lead with 3:27 to play.

But Miami wasn’t fazed. Tagovailoa and five different skill players escaped the Cowboys' defense to set up Sanders’ final field goal on his game ball-worthy day.

“I think the key was the guys just having competitive greatness,” Tagovailoa said. “The defense did a great job. The offense did a great job. This is a great team win.”

The Dolphins were playoff bound.

What’s next for Cowboys, Dolphins

Tagovailoa completed 24 of 37 pass attempts for 293 yards and a touchdown, with Tyreek Hill his top receiver after missing a game to heal an ankle injury.

Hill returned to catch nine of 14 targets for 99 yards, important on an injury-heavy day for Miami in which Waddle and Robbie Chosen were hurt. The Dolphins still played a primarily air game, Dallas allowing 91 rushing yards a week after ceding 266 to the Buffalo Bills.

Prescott completed 20 of 32 pass attempts for 253 yards and two touchdowns, in addition to five carries for 25 yards.

Lamb led all receivers with six catches for 118 yards and a score.

Dallas next hosts the Detroit Lions, who clinched the NFC North on Sunday with a win over the Minnesota Vikings. That could be the Cowboys’ last home game as their hold on the division is slipping.

The Dolphins close the season with tough contests against the Baltimore Ravens and then the Bills.