The Dolphins Pulled An Historic Upset With Their Week 17 Win Over The Patriots

The Miami Dolphins weren’t expected to beat the New England Patriots in Foxboro, not by a long shot. The Pats were 17-point favorites, and the thought was that they’d throttle the lowly Dolphins en route to earning a first-round bye and the No. 2 seed in the AFC. But as the saying goes, games aren’t played on paper, and Miami was able to take care of business on the dang field.

Thanks to a 320 yard outing through the air by Ryan Fitzpatrick, the Dolphins were able to pick up their fifth win of the year, knocking off the AFC East champions, 27-24. Fitzpatrick orchestrated a game-winning drive that ended when he found tight end Mike Gesicki in the end zone with less than 30 seconds left to secure the victory.

New England tried playing the lateral game on the final play of the game, but it wasn’t enough. As a result, the Dolphins became the second team in NFL history to come out on top despite being 17-point underdogs, according to OddsShark.

That wasn’t the only bit of weird history made by Miami on Sunday, as the team’s less-than-stellar rushing attack entered the record books for a rather unfortunate reason.

The Dolphins weren’t supposed to be good, and for the most part, they weren’t an especially great squad this season. But all year long, they played really, really hard, and their 5-11 record is better than anyone could have anticipated after their listless 0-7 start to the year. Plus let’s face it: When you’re an AFC East team, nothing’s better than ending the year by knocking off New England and making their path to a potential Super Bowl more difficult.