NFL: Kick-off!

The Miami Dolphins caused a big surprise on Monday evening. The 27:20 win over the New England Patriots was an excellent game in all three phases. The shattered patriots didn’t even find their way into the match for a long time. On the defensive side there was no answer against Kenyan Drake and even Tom Brady made some unusual mistakes.

Without the suspended Rob Gronkowski, the Patriots got off to a very weak start in the game. Brady (24/43,233 YDS, TD, 2INT) threw an interception in the first drive and nothing happened in the second drive. The defensive side could not hold back Miami and only a good red-zone defense protected New England from a bigger backlog. But Brady didn’t only have to give up Gronk, the receivers didn’t make it in the first round either. There was no reception for Danny Amendola, Brandin Cooks and Chris Hogan after 30 minutes.

On the other hand, not only Miami’s defense showed that they were well prepared for the game against Division rivals. Also the offense around Jay Cutler (25/38,263 YDS, 3TD) played very well. The Dolphin’s Playcaller found it a great pleasure to stage Running Back Kenyan Drake. Several Big Plays have reached the back, which now does a good job of replacing Jay Ajayi after some initial problems.

With big problems in the Pass Protection Brady and New England’s offense continued to produce big problems. The patriots recorded no less than seven Three and Outs. None of the eleven third downs could be used. A completely used day before the big duel against the Pittsburgh Steelers next weekend.

The Dolphins were able to land a few Big Plays in the second half. Without Kyle Van Noy and David Harris, the patriots could neither exert enough additional pressure in the center nor fall into coverage. Jarvis Landry was mostly used as a short pass receiver, catching all eight of his targets and two touchdowns to decide the game.

Miami Dolphins (6-7) – New England Patriots (10-3)27:20 (6:0,7:10,14:0,0:10) BOXSCORE

Xavien Howard:

“I knew Brady was gonna throw in my direction. That’s why I wanted to play aggressively and leave no room for my opponent. I tried to make my plays and contribute my share to a win for my team.”

Bill Belichik (New England Patriots):

“You did a better job in every part of the game than we did. We haven’t been good enough. Nowhere constant enough. You scored points, we didn’t. We have to pay them a compliment for that.”

The major problems of the Pats came to light especially in third down situations. With the shaky pass protection, Brady had far too little time to find his receivers. Accordingly, they hardly played a role in the whole game. The Dolphins already stopped the Broncos last week at one of 13 Third-Down-Conversions. It was rather inconceivable that something similar would be possible against patriots. However, New England held the ball over 23:51 minutes of play time.

On the other hand, Cutler was exposed to little pressure on the other side. The Pass Protection of the Dolphins worked very well. Miami only allowed 2 sacks and 2 more quarterback hits, after 7 sacks and 9 QB-hits in the duel two weeks ago. Cutler had plenty of time in his pocket and was able to dictate an offense that won the downfield game against the patriots.

The Running Back of the Dolphins has finally left its footsteps on the Ligandan map. As one of the modern all-purpose-backs he was not under control for the Pats. Drake showed the full repertoire of his skill set. The cuts were excellent to watch, a spin move put Patrick Chung on the bottom of his trousers and even in blocking Drake proved to be physically resistant enough. With 114 yards on the ground and 79 yards as a receiver, it was the pivotal point in the offense of the Dolphins.

A completely disappointing game for cooks. Against Xavien Howard the Wideout was completely collapsed. Howard achieves two interceptions with targets for cooks. Only one of his five other targets he was able to secure, and at the end of the day he only booked one additional pass-interfernece-penalty.