Dolphins, Moreno Dominate Patriots, Roll 33-20 Quick Observations
 Chandler Jones was flagged twice for personal fouls against Ryan Tannehill in the Pats loss in Miami. (USA TODAY Images) |
The Miami Dolphins rode on the shoulders of Knowshon Moreno in the season opener and dominated the second half scoring 23 unanswered points, beating the New England Patriots 33-20 in Miami.
Prior to the game much was made of the Dolphins new offense under coordinator Bill Lazor and their ability to push up the tempo. In the end it was much ado about nothing as Miami simply just pinned their ears back and dominated on both sides of the line. Moreno, who ran for 224 yards last season in New England and picked right up again rushing for 124 more as the Patriots defense resembled the one that was gashed so badly in 2013.
The Patriots offensive line fared little better, as Tom Brady was hurried, harassed and pounded relentlessly in the second half. Until the final drive, the Patriots had allowed more sacks (4) than first downs gained(2) and anytime your QB is throwing the football more than 50 times, your balance is out the window and means the running game isn’t getting the job done.
Tom Brady in the second half was 10-27 for 62 yards….ugly numbers.
Bill Belichick who always is so good at half-time adjustments, had zero answers in this one as Miami who were minus their entire starting linebacker core completely dominated the second half against the Patriots. Some other observations in this one:
Edelman Has Huge First Half: Prior to the second half melt-down, Julian Edelman picked up right where he left off in 2013. Edelman had 6 catches for 95 yards and 21 more rushing doing his best Percy Harvin imitation to put the Pats up by 10. On a day where the offense struggled, he stepped up in a big way.
Run Defense Gashed: One of the things we expected to see with Vince Wilfork and Jerod Mayo back in the fold was a much better performance than we did in Miami. The new re-tooled offensive line in Miami dominated the point of attack for the majority of the game. And when they did break thru, the tackling was poor as Moreno and Lamar Miller broke tackles again and again making something out of nothing.
Things don’t get any easier as the team travels to Minnesota next week and takes on the Vikings and perhaps the best running back in the NFL in Adrian Peterson. The defense was helped by Miami’s lack of ability to hold onto the ball in the first half, but were pushed around all game forcing only one three and out.
The energy and aggressiveness we expected to see from the Patriots defense was non-existent on Sunday afternoon. They didn’t attack Ryan Tannehill much and other than throws he’d like to have back, the defense didn’t dictate the pace at all.
Offensive Line Dominated: The Miami front four of Cameron Wake, Randy Starks, Jared Odrick and Olivier Vernon took it to the Patriots offensive line in one of the most dominating displays to see New England suffer in the past several years.
One question was answered at least for the time being, on who would fill in for Logan Mankins at left guard after his trade to Tampa Bay as Marcus Cannon played the entire game at LG. Dan Connolly played center and right guard and the team chose to keep their starting tackles intact with Nate Solder and Sebastian Vollmer. Jordan Devey filled in at RG and consistently pushed back forcing Connolly to move and Ryan Wendell to come in at center but he was consistently overmatched as well.
The running game was virtually non-existent and Tom Brady’s protection broke down continuously in the second half. Back to drawing board for OL coach Dave DeGuglielmo.
Special Teams Breakdown: After Miami forced a three and out to start the game, Long snapper Danny Aiken’s snap to Ryan Allen skipped on the ground and resulted in a blocked punt. That set up Miami on the 12 yard line and an easy touchdown drive.
Allen had a couple of other punts that were short but was fortunate to get a nice roll on a couple of punts. The kick return game consisted of Pat Chung and Matthew Slater and was once again a non-factor.
Gronk Returns and Scores: Rob Gronkowski returned to action and although rusty chipped in with 4 receptions for 40 yards and a touchdown. He played in 20 snaps in the first half which was about we expected to see him for the entire game but was a frequent target of Brady.
As he was seeing his first game action of the season, both he and Brady weren’t on the same sheet of music on a couple of occasions but those issues are easily fixed with some more reps.
Brandon LaFell had a rough day; he was targeted six times by Brady and couldn’t come down with a catch. He was also flagged twice, once on an off-side on a kickoff and the other a pass interference call.
Follow me on Twitter @SteveB7SFG or email me at [email protected]
Listen to our Patriots 4th and 2 podcast on blog talk radio as the writers Russ Goldman, Derek Havens and I from PatsFans.com discuss the latest Patriots news Wednesdays at 12 noon.
