Xavien Howard came through when the Dolphins needed him more

On Sunday, the Miami Dolphins capped their season with a ticket to the playoffs and Xavien Howard struggled throughout the game. Until they needed him to step up.

Howard was often seen trailing Jets receivers and giving up important completions. Clearly, he wasn’t fully healthy after missing the previous weeks game against the Patriots. The Jets were able to move the ball enough to keep the game close and Joe Flacco found Garett Wilson for 9 receptions and 89 yards. Not all of those were on Howard but many of them were.

Howard looked anything but a Pro Bowl player, something he recently said surprised him as well.

While he looked off and not healthy, the final minutes of the game were the most important in a very close game and Howard stepped up and looked like a Pro Bowl player.

After giving up a 12 yard pass to Wilson on the Jets final field goal drive, Howard closed his receivers down giving up no further yards. On several deeper passes to Wilson, Howard kept him from making the reception. Two of those came on the Jets final drive as they tried to get into field goal range.

Howard showed how much this team needs him in the secondary. When he was out of sorts, Miami tended to give up too much yards but when he turned it on, the Dolphins won and advanced thanks to the Bills win over the Patriots.

Howard has been banged up almost the entire season and this week against the Bills will be the biggest game of the year. I don’t expect him to practice at all this week as he works towards getting healthy.

The good news is that when the Dolphins needed big stops, their top defensive corner made them.