Malik Willis, Dolphins fend off Jets late to pick up first win of the season

At long last, Malik Willis and the Miami Dolphins won.

Willis and the Dolphins fended off a late push to beat the New York Jets 28-25 at MetLife Stadium on Sunday afternoon. The victory ends Miami's five-game losing skid to start the season. The win also brought the Dolphins out from the bottom of the league.

The Los Angeles Chargers are the only team in the league without a win.

Though it wasn't great, or even a complete game offensively, Willis and the Dolphins showed stretches of solid football — especially in the first half. They scored a touchdown on each of their first two drives of the afternoon, first on a 7-yard pass to Caleb Douglas and then on a 1-yard punch-in from Ollie Gordon. The opening touchdown was the first of Douglas' career.

The Dolphins pushed their lead to 14 points at the break. Willis scrambled into the end zone from 2 yards out in the final seconds of the second quarter to cap a 91-yard drive. It was easily Willis' best outing this season.

For some reason, that didn't carry over into the second half. Willis and the Dolphins stalled offensively for most of the third and fourth quarters. That left the door open for the Jets, who cut the deficit to a single score after an Omar Cooper Jr. touchdown grab in the third quarter. That was set up by a 60-yard reception he made earlier in the drive.

They should have tied the game in the fourth quarter, and got all the way to the goal line before the Dolphins came up with a huge stand. They stuffed the run twice and then sacked Geno Smith for a 12-yard loss on third down to force the field goal.

Finally, after completing only three passes in the second half, Willis found Douglas one last time. Willis dumped it off short to him on the left side, right before taking a huge hit in the backfield, and Douglass took off. He made it 63 yards up the sideline and into the end zone.

That still wasn't enough to seal the deal. The Jets got back within a field goal quickly, thanks to a Mason Taylor 12-yard touchdown catch and successful 2-point conversion. But the Dolphins quickly ended the game and converted a fourth-down run at midfield to kill the rest of the clock and escape with the three-point win.

Willis ended up going 14-of-21 passing for 208 yards with two touchdowns; all but four of those passes were completed in the first half. Gordon had 103 rushing yards and a score on 25 carries, and Greg Dulcich had 86 yards on five catches.

The victory was the first of head coach Jeff Hafley's career. The Dolphins hired Hafley to replace Mike McDaniel in January, marking Hafley's first head-coaching job in the league after his previous stint as the Green Bay Packers' defensive coordinator.

Smith went 23-of-30 passing for 287 yards with three touchdowns and an interception in the loss for the Jets (2-5). Braelon Allen had 104 yards on 17 carries, and Cooper had 115 yards and a score on his five catches. The Jets have lost five of their past six games, and will need a big turnaround if they are going to make any sort of playoff push in the back half of the season.

Similarly, the Dolphins still have a long way to go to salvage this season. It won't get any easier, either, with Drake Maye and the New England Patriots up next in Week 8. But finally winning a game, and beating a division rival in the process, is a great first step.