Drake's role will expand with backfield depleted
Injuries to Williams, Perry leave Miami hurting for runners.
DAVIE — As the lone healthy tailback on the Dolphins’ roster, Kenyan Drake could draw additional playing time in Sunday’s home game against the Denver Broncos.
The second-year pro finished the 35-17 loss to the New England Patriots following second-half injuries to Damien Williams and Senorise Perry.
Williams, who has shared playing time with Drake in the backfield since Jay Ajayi was traded to the Eagles on Oct. 31, injured his shoulder in the third quarter and is being evaluated. There were reports Monday that Williams had suffered a dislocated shoulder.
“I’m looking at it as dayto-day on (Williams),” Gase said. “He’s tough. What he went through yesterday was very painful. I’m not sure many guys would bounce back as quickly as he does.”
Perry sustained a concussion from a violent collision with Patriots linebacker Trevor Reilly on the opening second-half kickoff.
“I just know it was two guys running really fast that collided,” Gase said. “I just saw the tail end of that. That was a very violent collision.”
With Williams and Perry ailing, Gase said the Dolphins likely will add a running back.
Drake, out of Alabama, scored the Dolphins’ lone offensive touchdown against New England on an 8-yard pass from Matt Moore early in the fourth quarter. He finished the game with 20 yards on nine carries, and caught three passes for 27 yards. He also lost a fumble.
“The fumble was avoidable, and he knows it,” Gase said. “He takes a lot of pride in what he does, and he wants to be what we expect him to be, which is a guy that can help us move the chains in the running game and be extremely effective in the passing game.”
Gase said the Dolphins plan on bringing Drake along as quickly as possible for the game against the Broncos.
“The good thing is, if he does get a crease and hits one, he can be an explosive player,” Gase said.
For the season, Drake is averaging 4.8 yards per carry and 5.9 yards per reception.
In other news from Gase’s press conference Monday:
■ Quarterback Jay Cutler is still in the concussion protocol, and the team will know more about his status today.
■ Defensive end William Hayes may be out for the season with a back injury.
■ The roster doesn’t need to be overhauled. “I like the guys we have on the roster right now,” Gase said.
What happened on fake punt? The Dolphins got off to as good a start as they could have wanted Sunday at Gillette Stadium. On the opening possession, Miami forced what looked like it’d be a three-and-out for New England with less than a minute off the clock.
Didn’t happen. On fourth-and-eight from his own 27-yard line, Patriots coach Bill Belichick called a fake punt that resulted in safety Nate Ebner running free for 14 yards and a first down as Michael Thomas and Neville Hewitt tried to chase him down. Thomas, the Dolphins’ best special teams player, took full accountability for the lapse.
“That’s my job,” Thomas said of recognizing the fake punt. “That’s something I’ve gotta get done. You could say the momentum shifted. The defense was off the field with a three-and-out to start the game. That’s huge. We can’t put them back on the field after that.”
Thomas’ critical error was failing to notice that the Patriots lined up Ebner to the punter’s right instead of his usual spot on the left. That position is known as the personal protector in special teams lingo, and it should have alerted Thomas that something wasn’t right.
“Pretty much, you could put that on me,” he said..
The Patriots scored a touchdown four plays later to go ahead 7-0. They scored on three of their first four chances to build a 21-7 lead early in the second quarter and went on to win 35-17.