The Miami Dolphins needed to find a way to win those kinds of football games, defensive lineman Calais Campbell said after a 15-10 victory against the New England Patriots on Sunday.
“That’s a character-building win, you know,” Campbell said. “A lot of stuff went wrong, it’s like man, that was a pretty ugly ballgame, especially in the first half. But one thing we didn’t do is we didn’t flinch. We didn’t relax, we just stayed hungry, kept fighting, kept believing, and found a way to get the win when it mattered.
The Patriots and Dolphins entered Sunday with the No. 31 and No. 32 scoring offenses in the NFL, respectively. The exited the weekend in the same spots.
While Miami found a way to rack up a respectable 372 yards of offense without Tua Tagovailoa at quarterback, the team scored its only touchdown with less than five minutes left in the fourth quarter. The Dolphins also botched a pair of field goal tries, cost themselves another try with an errant third down snap, and had a punt blocked.
Yet, the Dolphins hit their bye week just a game out of first in the AFC East.
“When you get a win, especially after we haven’t had a win for a few weeks, I don’t know, you can’t be too frustrated,” Campbell said. “I feel pretty good right now. It could definitely be better. We will grade it, we will clean it up and we will try to improve. But you know, it’s been so long since we’ve got a win, I’m just going to enjoy this one — 24 hours, 24 hours to enjoy it.”
Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel agrees.
“It was a big deal,” McDaniel said after the game. “It’s been 24 days since the Buffalo game. In the NFL, losing streaks are real. They’re not fun. So for the team to have to find a way to overcome a lot of sloppiness that wasn’t to do with intent or preparation, but you know, things that we have to clean up in our game and to be able to still find a way it feels great.”
The Dolphins now have 14 days to get healthy and reset before a Week 7 road game against the Indianapolis Colts.
