MIAMI GARDENS — The Miami Dolphins’ three specialists had perhaps their finest day together Sunday.

Until, that is, the heavy lifting was complete.

Jason Sanders decided the season-opener with a 52-yard field goal as time expired to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars 20-17. While most Dolphins celebrated at midfield, long snapper Blake Ferguson was on a quest. He ran to the west end zone and retrieved the football, then jogged back to Sanders to present him with a keepsake.

What happened next was a mystery.

“I don’t know where it went, though,” Ferguson said. “I got back in the locker room and Jason didn’t have it, so I don’t know.”

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Ferguson explained why he went the extra 50 yards for his kicker.

“We’ve had a couple of game-winners and you know, those are special moments that you want to remember,” he said. “We don’t get to play this game for very long, so having mementos like that for Jason, to be able to remember the super special ones -- to look back on, to think about how that moment felt. ... ”

If losing track of the ball is the biggest misstep this trio makes, the Dolphins could live with it. Coach Mike McDaniel credited Sanders, Ferguson and punter Jake Bailey afterward.

"We don’t win that game without them," McDaniel said.

Sanders may have forgotten to keep track of the football, but the fourth quarter was one he’ll remember for a while. It began with an uncharacteristic miss from 42 yards. But given a chance for atonement on the next two Dolphins possessions, he made a 37-yarder to tie the score at 17 before hitting the winning kick.

“Whatever I can do to help this team win,” Sanders said. “I just wish it happened earlier.”

Ferguson: “Things aren’t always going to go your way. Fortunately, we got another opportunity — two more opportunities — to redeem ourselves. And I was proud of the way that we responded, given the adversity. This whole team faced adversity today. There was adversity before we walked in the door.”

That was a reference to receiver Tyreek Hill’s incident with police as he attempted to drive into the parking lot at Hard Rock Stadium.

Sanders’ 42-yard try was wide left by a large margin even though he said it felt fine coming off his foot.

“It’s just one of those freak shows,” he said. “I don’t know.”

Sanders was just grateful to get two more chances.

“This team faced a lot of adversity today, so it’s good to see how much fight this team has to be able to come back and win a game like that,” Sanders said.

Bailey had a stat line any punter would love: four punts, 49.5 average, 48.8 net average, three punts downed inside the 20 and a long of 57.

“None of that is surprising given how hard we’ve worked this offseason,” Ferguson said. “I’m so proud of this team. This team is different. This team has higher goals than to be a wild-card team in the playoffs.”

Dolphins reporter Hal Habib can be reached at  hhabib@pbpost.com. Follow him on social media @gunnerhal. Click here to subscribe.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Miami Dolphins' Jason Sanders kicks winner as specialists shine