New York Jets 27 Miami Dolphins 14

The New York Jets are hoping that lightning can strike twice and that a Wembley victory over the Miami Dolphins can be a springboard to the Super Bowl for a team from the Big Apple.

The Dolphins hosted the inaugural NFL International Series game at Wembley in 2007, losing 13-10 to the New York Giants, who went on to beat the New England Patriots in a Super Bowl upset.

The Jets looked more impressive in their 27-14 victory than the Giants did eight years ago. And afterwards Darrelle Revis, the Jets' cornerback, said that he thought the trip to the UK had helped the team get back on track after last weekend's first defeat of the season.

“London has been awesome,” he said. “We were disappointed last week and we wanted to come to London and play to the standard that we usually play. It's early in the season, and maybe it was good to have the loss so early. Now, at three and one, we're really upbeat. I'm not saying we're going to go 15 and 1, but coming to London was good for us. It improved morale and brought the guys a little bit closer. 

How good can this Jets team be? "This is the best bunch of guys I've been around," said Revis, who won a Super Bowl last season with the New England Patriots. " We've got so much talent and we have confidence in each other. The sky is the limit. It was a division game, which is really important. It was strange to have it over here in London, but we knew what the stakes were.”

It was, in fact, the first divisional match-up in the nine-year history of NFL International Series games at Wembley and the AFC East bragging rights went decisively to the Jets, whose victory felt more convincing than the score suggests. They led 27-7 at the half and their lead was never seriously threatened.

Ryan Fitzpatrick, intercepted three times last week, threw for 218 yards and a touchdown against the Dolphins, running back Chris Ivory rushed for 166 yards and another touchdown, and wide receiver Brandon Marshall caught seven passes for 128 yards – all in all a memorable UK debut for the Gang Green, who became the 18th different team to feature in International Series games in the UK. The Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs will become numbers 19 and 20 later this autumn.

The home-team Dolphins struggled to cope with the Jets either on the ground or in the air, and gave up a series of costly penalties. Afterwards, head coach Joe Philbin, asked whether he feared for his job after three defeats in four games, put up a better defence than his team had.

“No, not at all,” he said. “I'm worried about getting our team straightened out and fixed, ready to play the Tennessee Titans. Sometimes it seems like the walls are closing in on you but you can't panic. We expected to be better than 1 and 3, I expected us to be better, and we've got to do better.”

Asked whether the job of defensive co-ordinator Kevin Coyle is in peril, Philbin would only say: “Kevin Coyle is our defensive co-ordinator.” Asked if he planned to keep it that way, he said “Yes.”

Miami's opening drive, which included a dropped pass by wide receiver Jarvis Landry and a false-start penalty, set the tone for their afternoon. In contrast, as soon as Fitzpatrick got his hands on the ball he found Marshall with a 58-yard pass and two plays later Ivory charged into the endzone for a touchdown.

Fitzpatrick, the Harvard-educated veteran with a hipster beard who is playing for his sixth NFL team, got the Jets into the red zone again on their next possession but three last-ditch defensive plays by the Dolphins forced the Jets to settle for a field goal.

A spectacular one-handed catch by Eric Decker, a pre-game injury doubt, helped set up another field goal, Nick Folk converting from 48 yards to extend the Jets' lead to 13-0. But the New York team must have felt that they should have been further ahead after failing to take advantage of good field positions.

And doubts must have nagged at them when two penalties for pass interference on successive plays allowed Miami to get 58 yards upfield before Ryan Tannehill threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to backup tight end Jake Stoneburner to reduce the arrears to 13-7.

But the Jets restored their 13-point lead late in the second quarter when Fitzpatrick charged 19 yards himself to set up a touchdown pass to Decker. Then third-string running back Zac Stacy ran in to make it 27-7 by half-time.

The Dolphins hit back in the fourth quarter with Tannehill's ten-yard pass to Kenny Stills. But when they threatened to make the later stages of the game interesting by fighting their way to the Jets' two-yard line, they shot themselves in the foot with yet another penalty as Jarvis Landry's endzone catch was ruled out.

“The Jets played better football than we did today, and it doesn't reflect well that we gave up six penalties in the first half,” Philbin said. “But we had chances to win the game in the fourth quarter. We just didn't take them.”