Here’s how the Dolphins executed their improbable game-winner against the Patriots

The Dolphins made the play of the year when they scored a walk-off, double lateral, 69-yard touchdown against the New England Patriots to win, 34-33.

Normally, these last-second desperation plays end well before the team with the ball even threatens to score a touchdown, but with each yard the Dolphins covered, it seemed like they could actually pull off the impossible and knock off the AFC East-dominating Patriots.

Normally.

Watch it again.

The box score makes it sound so simple. Ryan Tannehill threw a pass to Kenny Stills, who lateraled the ball to DeVante Parker, who lateraled the ball to Kenyan Drake who raced through the back of the Patriots’ defense for a touchdown. But a play like this isn’t possible without a plan, everyone being on the same page, incredible effort, and a little bit of good luck — the Dolphins had all of those going their way on the final play of the game.

Here’s how the final, magical play came to be.

Miami calls this play “Boise” because the idea for the play was taken from Boise State’s thrilling win over Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl. Like the Dolphins’ play, this play features a planned pitch between the first receiver to catch the ball and another receiver in the vicinity.

The original design of the play has the player who catches the pitch (in this case DeVante Parker) run in for a touchdown, but the Dolphins needed to adjust that plan on the fly during the play.

Tannehill sat back in the pocket and threw a dart over the middle of the field to Stills. The Patriots were only rushing three defensive linemen while using linebacker Kyle Van Noy as a spy to keep Tannehill in the pocket.

Stills caught the pass, dodged Jonathan Jones, and pitched the ball to Parker — who was barely behind Stills. According to NFL’s Next Gen Stats, Jones was less than a yard away from Stills when he caught the ball.

Parker ran with the ball for a few yards before lateraling the ball back to Drake, who was running down the field after initially staying in the pocket to block for Tannehill. Drake caught the ball in stride and escaped the grasp of Patriots’ linebacker Kyle Van Noy before breaking back towards the middle of the field.

Left guard Ted Larsen ran 40 yards down the field to make the key block that would end up springing Drake loose for the touchdown. He just appeared out of nowhere to block safety Patrick Chung, allowing Drake slipped behind him.

Look at where Larsen started the play ...

... and where Larsen made the block.

That’s an extraordinary effort play for the 323-pound Larsen on the last play of a highly-contested game.

New England must have thought that the Dolphins were going to throw a Hail Mary on the final play — which would’ve been nearly impossible from their own 31-yard line. They had Gronkowski lined up as the deep safety to bat any passes out of the sky, but that scenario didn’t even present itself.

Gronkowski became the last line of defense for the Patriots as Drake was sprinting towards the end zone. Gronk is a Hall of Fame-caliber tight end, but he might not be the right guy to make a game saving, open-field tackle. Drake ran right past him for the touchdown.

The Dolphins seemed pretty confident about their chances to score on this play after they saw Gronkowski lined up so deep.

It was puzzling to see a team as well coached as New England think the Dolphins would try a Hail Mary that would have to travel over 70 yards in the air. An unnamed Dolphins player agreed with that sentiment.

“We weren’t throwing a Hail Mary. They had to know that, right,” that player asked after the game.

Apparently, the Patriots didn’t know the Dolphins weren’t going to try a Hail Mary. Bill Belichick had Gronkowski in the game for All-Pro safety Devin McCourty on the final play of the game expecting a Hail Mary.

“Yeah, well they could throw it deeper,” Belichick said after the game when asked why Gronkowski was in the game. “They could have run the Desperado-type play, which is kind of an in between 20-yard pass, then it turned into a Desperado.”

The Dolphins have now won five of their last six home games against the Patriots, which is a bizarre stat to comprehend when you think about the Patriots’ dominance over the AFC East for the past two decades. Nobody really expected New England to lose this game (they were nine point favorites coming into the game), but they did ... and in unbelievable fashion.

It took a little luck and some hard work on the final play, but the Dolphins capitalized and pulled off their biggest win of the season with an unforgettable play.