Patriots Start 0-1 After Unexpected Phinish in Miami

Good afternoon, Patriots fans! Well, the season is back and I’m sure we’re all excited. Today our Patriots were in Miami Gardens to take on the Dolphins. While we were all anticipating a win, playing in Miami has been a struggle lately for New England. And after blowing a decent lead, instead of seeing the Patriots win another opening-week game, it ended up being a very upsetting loss. The rest of the AFC East won too so technically our Patriots are last but I’m sure that won’t be the case for too long.

The Dolphins won the toss and deferred, but the Patriots couldn’t get anything going. Ryan Allen’s punt was blocked and that eventually lead to a Lamar Miller touchdown, giving Miami the early 7-0 lead. New England responded back with a drive of their own that ended with a touchdown by Shane Vereen. Later, Jerod Mayo forced a fumble, which eventually led to a field goal by Stephen Gostkowski. After Ryan Tannehill was picked off by Alfonzo Dennard, the Patriots drove down the field and Tom Brady found Rob Gronkowski open in the endzone. Great to see Gronk grabbing a touchdown in his first game back! At this point, I thought the Pats were running away with this game. Miller fumbled for the Dolphins (picked up by Darrelle Revis) but the Pats did not score any points. Caleb Sturgis added a field goal for Miami but Gostkowski responded with another field goal with around 5 seconds left in the second quarter. At the end of the first half, the score was 20-10 Patriots.

The second half started really bad for New England. I think we can all agree that the 3^rd quarter was all Miami. The Dolphins started with the ball and were able to get a field goal from Sturgis. On the next Patriots’ possession, Brady was sacked and fumbled the football. This eventually led to a touchdown by Mike Wallace, but it looked as if Revis got burned really badly by Wallace on that play. After another field goal from Sturgis, suddenly the Dolphins lead 23-20 and the Brady continued to get sacked on each Patriots possession. Honestly, I was getting sick of all the 3-and-outs. Now that it was the 4^th quarter, I was just hoping New England would wake up and stop playing around. The defense was mediocre and the offense just wasn’t clicking. The Dolphins found their way deep into Patriots territory and took out a lot of clock. Knowshon Moreno ended the drive with a touchdown and gave the Dolphins a 30-20 lead. Good for him since he played really well and basically carried this Miami team on his back. After the Patriots were unsuccessful in their own zone after going for it on 4^th down, Sturgis added another field goal for the Dolphins. Down 33-20 (shame on the Patriots though for allowing 23 unanswered points), the Patriots tried to get a quick score. Though they got past midfield, they were not able to score and turned it over on downs.

That would be all. Your final score: New England Patriots 20, Miami Dolphins 33. Really poor performance by Brady, the offensive line, and the defense as a whole. I think part of the struggle was the fact that they were playing as a full team for the first time in a while. While I’m highly disappointed, I know that they will gel together soon and we will see the Patriots team we expect to see. Nothing to fear, Patriots fans! New England will play a much better and stronger game in Minnesota next week!