Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Dolphins make the grade in game against Patriots Passing game: A Running game: A Defending the pass: A Defending the run: A Special teams: B Coaching: A Stock up Stock down
The Miami Dolphins’ season was on life support two weeks ago, but it appears the 2017 season isn’t a lost cause anymore.
The Dolphins put together a second consecutive strong performance where all three phases of the team showed up, and it allowed Miami to produce a convincing 27-20 win over the New England Patriots.
And the most impressive part is that the game wasn’t as close as the final score made it seem.
Here is the South Florida Sun Sentinel’s report card, evaluating how the Dolphins performed against the Patriots: Omar Kelly
Jay Cutler was at his best against the Patriots. He got the ball out his hands quickly and evaded pressure several times to throw completions or prevent negative plays. Cutler threw three touchdowns against the Patriots, and completed 25 of 38 passes for 263 yards. He produced a 112.1 passer rating. Most importantly, he didn’t throw an interception, halting a three-game stretch where he threw six interceptions.
In his second game as Miami’s featured back, Kenyan Drake rushed for 114 yards on 25 carries. He averaged 4.6 yards per attempt, and produced those impressive stats without one major run to boost his average. Drake was also phenomenal as a pass protector, and caught passes out the backfield (five receptions for 79 yards). The Dolphins rushed for 120 yards on 30 carries, improving the team’s record to 11-1 when rushing for 100 or more yards during Adam Gase’s two-year tenure as coach.
The Dolphins consistently harassed Tom Brady with blitzes, and routinely changed the coverages on the future first-ballot Hall of Famer. The end result was Brady producing a seasonlow 59.5 passer rating, which also was his lowest since 2013. The Dolphins held the Patriots to 0 for 11 on third downs, highlighted by Xavien Howard’s two interceptions.
The Patriots were held to 25 yards on 10 carries, but one of those attempts ended up being a 3-yard touchdown from Rex Burkhead. It was the fewest rushing yards the Dolphins had allowed all season. New England rushed for 196 yards against the Dolphins two weeks ago.
The Dolphins had a solid, but not spectacular day on special teams. Cody Parker made both of his field goals, improving to 15 of 16 for the season. Matt Haack was decent on punts (39.7 net yards on seven punts), which included two that were downed inside the 20 yard line. But the Dolphins missed an opportunity to down a third inside the 20 in the second half.
It has only taken the Dolphins three months, but Adam Gase’s team finally played well in all three phases. Defensive coordinator Matt Burke kept mixing up his coverages and was aggressive applying pressure to Tom Brady.
Plenty is being made of how much Xavien Howard and Kenyan Drake have stepped up their performance levels, but Phillips has done the same for Miami’s defensive front. Don’t let Phillips’ one tackle fool you, he played his best game of the season against the Patriots, producing one sack and one quarterback hit. He consistently owned the offensive guard he was lined up against, and played well late in the game, which is usually when questions about his motor get raised.
Thomas caught two of the four passes thrown his way for 11 yards. Both of the passes he couldn’t bring in would have produced big gains. Thomas, who has caught 39 passes for 373 yards and three touchdowns, hasn’t proven he deserves to play ahead of Marqueis Gray. If his production level doesn’t improve, don’t be surprised if Miami releases him during the offseason to avoid paying his $6.6 million salary in 2018.