Admit it, you didn’t see this coming
MIAMI GARDENS — Like I’ve been saying for 45 years, if the Dolphins want to look like the ’72 Dolphins, wear the uniforms of those Perfect Season Dolphins.
What, you have a better explanation after the Dolphins beat the Patriots, 27-20?
This wasn’t the team you’ve watched and loathed for so much of this season, Dolphins fans. That was pretty much clear Monday night by the time Jarvis Landry scored his second touchdown of the night to put the Dolphins up, 27-10, in the third quarter and celebrated by:
A) Administering CPR on the football on the ground to suggest a revived season, or … B) Inflating the ball with a tire pump in a taunting gesture for the Patriots’ Deflategate history.
Who knew? In fact, who knew what to make of anything this night? Who saw any of it coming? Who can translate what it really means?
The Dolphins went to the throwback uniforms, and if they technically were the expansion ’66 Dolphins uniforms they also hadn’t changed by the Perfect Season in 1972. And the Dolphins looked that perfect part Monday.
Even ’72 fullback Larry Csonka was tweeting Monday after ’17 cornerback Xavien Howard’s second interception of Tom Brady, “Man that was one of THE best interceptions I’ve seen!”
It might have been, too. And it was against two elites — Brady and Brandin Cooks, too. Howard had zero career interceptions nine days ago. He now has four after two against Denver and these two against New England. And he held Cooks — the Patriots elite receiver — to zero catches for the first time in his career.
But if Csonka’s tweet didn’t provide a snapshot to a night of surprise, the man who produced like Csonka — I can’t believe I’m typing this, either — did on this night, too.
That was Kenyan Drake. He wasn’t just the Dolphins feature back by default again
this game. He was by full production. He had 25 carries for 114 yards and five catches for 79 yards. They all mattered, too, like his third-and-7 catch for 8 yards to the Patriots’ 5-yard line.
Next play: Landry scored scored his first touchdown. That put the Dolphins up, 13-7. That started the spread they barely looked back until New England put up a too-late rally. What, did they miss suspended tight end Rob Gronkowski this much?
Better question: What’s got into this defense? The Patriots didn’t conver a third down until late in the third quarter. That means the defense stopped 25 of 26 third-down conversions going back to the start of the Denver win last Sunday. Who knew?
Or who saw Jay Cutler completely outplaying Brady? Another surprise. Brady looked like the 40-year-old Virgin Quarterback the way the Dolphins seemed to confound him. If it wasn’t Howard intercepting, it was two sacks and enough hoo-doo in the scheme to keep him at bay.
Cutler, meanwhile, looked in command like he hasn’t much this year. He threw for three touchdowns and it would’ve been four if Jakeem Grant hadn’t dropped a deep pass that would’ve threatened to shake apart the stadium’s renovations with noise.
Grant already had a touchdown this game when he outjumped Pro Bowl cornerback Malcolm Butler. Grant entered the game with just three catches this year.
Throw in defensive tackle Jordan Phillips sacking Brady, and you saw development from players who just a few weeks ago were disappointments: Howard. Drake. Grant. Phillips. And DeVante Parker went through a game without causing an interception.
Sure, some experts will say they predicted all this. Despite the Patriots championship pedigree, despite their whipping the Dolphins two weeks ago in Foxboro, there was some glimmer of reason to see this coming. The Dolphins had won three of the previous four games against New England in Hard Rock Stadium.
That said, did you see this coming? And what does it mean? That the Dolphins are really this good? Or that it was the annual one-game tease that happens when the planets align and the ’72 uniforms are worn?
That’s beyond me after watching this team slog through this year. I can’t even figure out what Landry’s touchdown celebration signified.
dhyde@sunsentinel.com