MIAMI — The Miami Dolphins’ surreal opening day of the 2024 NFL season began with an incident involving star wide receiver Tyreek Hill and local police hours before kickoff.

It ended with Jason Sanders booting a 53-yard game-winning field goal as time expired to lift Miami to a 20-17 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars at Hard Rock Stadium. After several highs and lows in between all of that, Miami is 1-0.

The Dolphins won their regular season opener for the fourth consecutive year and erased a 14-0 first half deficit after finding their offensive rhythm just enough in the second half.

Hours before Sanders’ heroics, the Dolphins were faced with a troubling situation outside the stadium.

Hill was handcuffed Sunday morning on his way into the stadium.

Video and photos posted to social media showed a Miami-Dade police officer with a knee on Hill’s back as he was detained adjacent to his luxury sports car, then sitting on the ground in handcuffs.

Hill was later released and as his agent, Drew Rosenhaus declared pregame to multiple reporters, played in the game.

With the Dolphins trailing 17-7 with 2:19 left in the third quarter, Hill would ignite Miami’s comeback when quarterback Tua Tagovailoa found Hill on a deep slant and he sped down the sidelines for an 80-yard score to cut Jacksonville’s lead to 17-14.

Hill, who finished with seven catches for 130 yards and that touchdown, would proceed to do a “handcuff touchdown celebration” with teammates following the score.

That play came one play after the Dolphins defense forced a game-changing turnover that avoided the Jaguars from taking a commanding 24-7 lead.

Travis Etienne appeared ready to score a touchdown, but Jevon Holland stripped him of the ball just short of the goal line. Kader Kohou recovered the fumble in the back of the end zone.

On the ensuing drive, the Jaguars took a big risk going for it on fourth and 1 from their own 32. Etienne rushed to his left and was bottled up, he then reversed field, but the Dolphins defense contained the play and he was stopped for a 2-yard loss.

The Dolphins missed an opportunity to capitalize, however, when Jason Sanders hooked a 42-yard field goal wide left on the ensuing series.

But Sanders redeemed himself at the end of the Dolphins’ final drive, which began with 2:09 left in the fourth.

The Dolphins’ defense set up the winning drive with a huge stop on the Jaguars’ final series as it recorded back-to-back sacks of Trevor Lawrence by Emmanuel Ogbah and Jaelan Phillips.

Tagovailoa completed 23-of-37 passes for 338 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions.

The Dolphins ran for 81 yards, but most of that came in the second half as Miami struggled in the first half.

Another missed opportunity came early in the third quarter when Tagovailoa connected with Jaylen Waddle for a 63-yard pickup to the Jaguars 26.

The next three plays resulted in negative yardage capped by a loss of 14 yards when Tagovailoa tried to spin away from Travon Walker, who made a shoe-string takedown for the sack.

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