After erratic year, Sanders sends Dolphins to playoffs with 50-yard FG. ‘I owed them one’
The only superstition Jason Sanders has, the kicker said, is, “I don’t admit to having a superstition.” It’s how he tries to stay steady, no matter what the season throws at him.
This season brought a rare bout of erratic field-goal attempts, especially from longer than 50 yards, and it made him — for the first time in his career — something of a liability for the Miami Dolphins, with his six misses tied for sixth most in the league coming into Sunday.
“I felt like I owed them one for a while,” the specialist said.
In the biggest moment of the season, he made it up to them. With 18 seconds left and the Dolphins’ season on the line, Sanders drilled a 50-yard field goal to beat the New York Jets, 11-6, in Miami Gardens and send the Dolphins into the 2022-23 NFL playoffs.
With its starting quarterback and Pro Bowl left tackle both injured, Miami (9-8) needed every scoring contribution it could find at Hard Rock Stadium and Sanders, with three field goals in three attempts, gave the Dolphins just about all of them, save for meaningless a last-second safety.
Clinched: Dolphins snap skid, edge Jets, get assist from Buffalo to secure playoff berth
In the second quarter, he hit a 37-yard field goal to put the Dolphins up 3-0. In the third, he hit another from 37 to give Miami a 6-3 lead. After the Jets (7-10) tied the game 6-6 with 11:59 left, the Dolphins set up Sanders for a shot at redemption from the tricky 50-plus range.
When he was a first-team All-Pro three years ago, Sanders was one of the best in the league from 50-plus, going 8 of 9. This year, it has been a bugaboo, going 1 of 5 to start the season before this weekend. Miami, however, placed its faith in the 27-year-old.
“He’s a shooter,” offensive lineman Connor Williams said. He’s got it every time.”
Said coach Mike McDaniel: “To come through the way he did and have all the points, especially that last one — you have to be built different.”
After a 15-yard penalty pushed the Dolphins across midfield and a 7-yard run by running back Salvon Ahmed got them into reasonable field goal range, McDaniel took a timeout to make sure the Dolphins’ process went completely smooth.
“Wen that penalty hit, it was just one of those kind of things like, It’s time,” Sanders said. “We’re going to have an opportunity.”
Sanders went through his simple pre-field goal routine. He drilled one ball into the net, then walked from the opposite side of midfield, stopped near New York’s 40-yard line and backed up the get ready to kick.
“I just told him today it was going to come down to him, and it did,” said punter Thomas Morstead, who doubles as the holder. “It was no doubt when we went out there. We knew we were going to make it.”
All year long, he and Sanders kept faith in their process. It paid off in the end.
“How good these guys are now, it’s the mental pressure to come through and hit 90 percent of your kicks. It’s just so hard and it takes special people to work through that,” Morstead said. “I said, Dude, there’s nothing to fix. It’s like getting on a bad run of coin flips. Sometimes, it’s just things don’t work out and he smoked the ball.”
