EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – The Miami Dolphins came to New York on Monday night with a bad taste in their mouths. They had memories of last year on their minds, when a 7-8 Jets team spoiled the 8-7 Dolphins’ playoff chances.
“This was a gut check,” safety Jordan Kovacs said. “You can’t let that happen again.”
It nearly did, as the Jets led through three quarters. Had they pulled off the upset, the Dolphins' chances of making the playoffs for the first time since 2008 would have been all but dead.
But the Dolphins pulled it together in the fourth to eek out the 16-13 win against their abysmal division rival. With the win, they take the lead for the No. 6 seed in the AFC wild-card race.
"At no point in this game did I think we wre going to let this one slip away," Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill said after the game. "I had confidence we were going to find a way, and we did."
The turning point came on an 8-yard sack with about six minutes to play. Facing third-and-7, Jets quarterback Geno Smith dropped back to pass. Koa Misi made sure Smith never got the chance, dropping him for the loss and forcing the Jets to go for a 45-yard field goal attempt against the wind.
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As the ball sailed wide left, the Jets’ hopes of an upset seemed to go with it. The Dolphins nabbed a 24-yard field goal on the next drive, putting them up 16-13 with less than two minutes on the clock. Reshad Jones pulled down an interception on the Miami 30 to seal the win. *
“I might not be in the same mood right now if we don’t make those two plays,” Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin said afterward about Misi’s sack as well as an 8-yard sack by Cameron Wake in the third quarter. “They were huge plays in the game.”
The win was anything put pretty, but it puts the Dolphins on solid ground in the AFC wild-card race. They’re now 7-5, the record shared by five other AFC teams, and they lead the wild-card race via tiebreakers. The San Diego Chargers (8-4) hold the No. 5 AFC playoff seed.*
Miami will host the fellow 7-5 Baltimore Ravens on Sunday. After two weeks in which they gave up at least 200 rushing yards – the Jets ran for 210 in the first half, 277 total on Monday – the Dolphins will look to tighten up on defense. If they don’t, they might see the Ravens running away with the wild-card lead. They’ll face another challenge in Week 15 as they travel to the AFC-leading New England Patriots.
“It feels like we get to this position every season," said Dolphins defensive tackle Jared Odrick. "Today we took a step towards closing it out."
After New England, it should be smooth sailing as they host the Minnesota Vikings (5-7) and 2-10 Jets. Then again, Monday night was also expected to be easy.

“We don’t know how this is going to shake out. We just played a team with two wins and they gave us the hardest fight of the year,” Kovacs added. “This is not even close to over, we have a lot of wins to get. But we got the first one in December. That’s big.”
Miami hasn't played for a division title since 2000. If Kovacs has his way, they’ll secure the playoff spot long before the Week 17 rematch with the Jets, eliminating any chance that the Jets could once again destroy Miami’s playoff hopes.
As for Monday night's win, Tannehill said, "It's huge. I think we showed can grind one out... Going forward we have to play better from the start of the game to the end of the game."
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Danielle Elliot is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact her at [email protected] or find her on Twitter.