Jets-Dolphins on Monday night: What We Learned from Miami's 27-21 win over New York

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• REWATCH: Jets-Dolphins on NFL+ Premium
• READ: Dolphins' Hill suffers gruesome knee injury, taken to hospital
• READ: Miami's Waller has 2 TDs, recovers onside kick in first game since '23 season

1. Waller authors memorable comeback. It had been more than a year since Darren Waller stepped foot on an NFL field for a regular-season game. It had been 708 days since Waller's last touchdown catch. Instead of simply suiting up and taking the field, Waller owned the night -- at least in red zone situations -- catching two touchdown passes from Tua Tagovailoa, including a rather challenging, contested second scoring grab to power the majority of Miami's scoring production. Waller accounted for two of Miami's three end zone trips, tacked on one more catch and confirmed Miami's belief in him when he came out of retirement to play for Mike McDaniel's crew. His performance in these important moments helped the Dolphins seize a 14-point lead they were able to ride to a much-needed victory -- and just might serve as a preview of how Waller could help this group for the foreseeable future.
2. Jets' blunders pile up. New York couldn't get out of its own way on Monday night. The Jets turned it over three times, starting with a Braelon Allen fumble on a play that appeared destined to finish in the end zone for an early 7-3 lead. Instead, the Dolphins punched the ball out, stopped the Jets in their tracks and promptly marched 96 yards over 15 plays, converting the takeaway into a touchdown and a 10-0 lead. That was merely the beginning of the Jets' mistakes, as they fumbled again on their next possession, and facing a 10-3 deficit coming out of halftime, fumbled the opening kickoff of the second half, giving the Dolphins another great scoring opportunity (which they cashed in). The Jets' operation was a mess, their fundamentals disappeared (see: 13 penalties accepted for 101 yards), and despite outgaining the Dolphins by 104 yards, they only took a few brief moments of success back home with them to New York. New York has battled with some good teams in the first month, but Monday night was not one of those examples. 
3. Dolphins get back in their comfort zone. Miami's offense hasn't established a dependable level of production through the first month, but showed signs of starting to figure things out in its second-half showing in a loss to Buffalo. Those strides carried over to Monday night in a game in which Mike McDaniel finally found his rhythm as a play-caller, drawing up plenty of Miami's trademark pre-snap motion and misdirection and reaping the rewards. The result: 300 yards of offense, a largely efficient night for Tagovailoa, a strong outing for running back De'Von Achane (including an excellent touchdown run) and a wide spread of target distribution that the Dolphins will likely need going forward. Miami needed this win in the worst way and did it in the best possible fashion: By controlling the game with a well-paced offensive attack, dominating defensively and racking up takeaways that were missing in previous weeks.  
4. Both sides suffer significant losses. The average football fan understands Tyreek Hill's importance to the Miami Dolphins' chances, and that same fan likely knew how devastating Hill's knee injury was when they watched it Monday night. Hill caught a pass near the sideline and was pushed out of bounds for a gain of 10, falling awkwardly to the ground in an impact that twisted his leg into a gruesome bend, resulting in an ugly injury that immediately required medical attention, a stabilizer, a cart and a trip to the hospital. It's likely that his injury -- a dislocated knee, per NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport and NFL Network's Cameron Wolfe -- will end his season in a significant blow to Miami's offensive ambitions. On the other sideline, the Jets were forced to confront the possibility of a knee injury for Allen, who had his leg awkwardly bent inward while being tackled. We'll wait to see how serious his injury is, but it's certainly not good to see a player of Allen's caliber -- and one who had a strong start to the night before his goal line fumble -- exit with a worrisome injury, especially for a struggling club like the Jets.

Next Gen Stats Insight for Jets-Dolphins (via NFL Pro): The Jets lost 28.6% in net win probability across three fumbles in a Monday night road loss to the Dolphins.

NFL Research: Justin Fields' 43-yard touchdown run was the fourth 40-plus-yard touchdown run of his career, tying Lamar Jackson and Kordell Stewart for the most by any QB in NFL history.