The Dolphins came in sky-high after two blowouts over Tennessee and Houston.
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Julian Edelman caught a pair of touchdown in the second half to break the game open after the Patriots (7-0) headed into intermission with a 19-0 lead. It was a poor strategy vs the Patriots, who are renowned for their athletic linebacking corps that features Jamie Collins, Dont’a Hightower and Patrick Chung playing as a pseudo linebacker. Though QB Ryan Tannehill completed 28 of his 44 throws for 300 yards, the Patriots never allowed the big plays that had fueled the Dolphins of late.
Brady connected on 26 of 38 passing attempts for 356 yards. Why couldn’t the offense get the run game going? However, for a proud organization and two future Hall of Famers at coach and quarterback, you can’t tell me that coming that close to historical brilliance – and missing – is not a motivating factor. The Patriots have the same level of intensity as that 2007 team had, and with the amount of quality players on this team it equates to the Patriots starting the season 7-0.
Here’s a look at the more impressive of Jones’ two sacks. As LaFell put the brakes on to corral the pass, the defender, in trying to swat the ball away, hit him in the face and made contact before the ball arrived. No flags were thrown on either play. A few observations are more specific to a particular play, while others have more of a long-range viewpoint.
The top political consultant for San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer said Thursday that if the Chargers resume negotiations for a new stadium, they need to come without lawyer Mark Fabiani because he has no credibility with elected officials. Now they were staring at a three touchdown deficit with an offense that hadn’t done anything to that point.
New England ended up punting four times in the first half, but the team still scored touchdowns on a 16-yard reception by running back Dion Lewis and a 47-yard reception by tight end Rob Gronkowski. They weren’t ready. From the start the Dolphins seemed to be unnerved by the Patriots. We just weren’t as clean as we needed to be. But the Patriots suffocating the Dolphins running game, keeping them at 15 yards on 13 carries, was probably their greatest defensive achievement in the performance. Since Brady has entered the conversation of potential greatest of all-time, he has not had a supporting defense anywhere near what he had for those championship seasons. However, in the spirit of the Patriots’ “next man up” mentality, the defense looks as talented if not better than last season’s.
But they were completely overmatched against the defending Super Bowl champions.
The Dolphins stay on the road the next two weeks for games at Buffalo and Philadelphia.
As always, I’ll mention my survivor pool picks as I go. “Yeah, anybody. He can play with high schoolers and still win”. For the second straight game the team was without Jabaal Sheard but Jones and Ninkovich were up to the task.
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Putting aside everything else, Coach Bill Belichick and his team appear to be on a mission this year, like they did back in ’07. Kicker Stephen Gostkowski made field goals of 52 and 36 yards, and he now holds the franchise record for consecutive made field goals with 26. Gostkowski’s National Football League record of PATs has now reached 439.
