No Mistaking It, Dolphins Win

Jay Fiedler keeps making big mistakes and winning big games.

Fiedler passed to James McKnight for a 39-yard touchdown with 6:16 left, giving the AFC East-leading Miami Dolphins a 24-20 victory over the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday.

“It was just a sweet throw by Jay,” McKnight said. “He gave me an opportunity to run up under it. We’ve practiced that for weeks now and we finally got an opportunity to connect on it.”

Fiedler threw his eighth and ninth interceptions of the season, but also threw his sixth touchdown pass and ran for his third touchdown.

He was intercepted twice by Willie Williams in the opening quarter, but he beat the veteran cornerback on his winning touchdown pass to the streaking McKnight.

The veteran from Dartmouth, 14-7 in his two seasons as the Dolphins’ starting quarterback, including 2-0 against Seattle, was determined to keep going to McKnight.

“We’re going to keep coming,” he said. “You saw that in the second half. I threw it up to him again and he made the play.”

The Dolphins (4-2) regained the lead after the Seahawks (3-3) went ahead, 20-17, on a 42-yard field goal by Rian Lindell in the final quarter.

The Miami defense had to overcome the offense’s fourth turnover when McKnight fumbled after catching a pass near the sideline. The Seahawks’ Reggie Tongue returned the ball 21 yards to the Miami 23 with 3:34 left. But Seattle was stopped at the 10 and Lindell missed a 28-yard field goal with 1:56 left.

Seattle Coach Mike Holmgren said his strategy was to make the field goal, get the ball back and then get another field goal to win the game.

“But to do that, we have to kick the first field goal,” he said.

The officials had a busy day. They reversed a goal-line call and gave Lamar Smith a one-yard touchdown run with seven seconds left in the third quarter when the Dolphins tied the score at 17.

Matt Hasselbeck, returning as Seattle’s starting quarterback after missing two starts because of a groin pull, rallied the Seahawks to two touchdowns in the final 3:18 of the first half for a 14-10 lead.