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Patriots’ Week 2 win over the Dolphins was the start of a memorable season
It’s fitting that the Patriots wrap up their remarkable regular season against the Dolphins, against whom they first showed flashes of excellence way back in Week 2.
Welcome to Season 14, Episode 17 of the Unconventional Preview, a serious yet lighthearted, nostalgia-tinted look at the Patriots’ weekly matchup . . .
In a way, it’s fitting that the Patriots wrap up their remarkable regular-season against the Dolphins, against whom they first showed flashes of excellence way back in Week 2.
Oh, no one expected this way back then: A 13-3 record, which included 10 straight victories at one point, an (outside) shot at the No. 1 seed in the AFC, and the emergence of second-year quarterback Drake Maye not just as a Most Valuable Player candidate, but the front-runner heading into the final week.
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No one outside of the Patriots’ locker room expected this season to go so well, especially after an ugly Week 1 loss to the Raiders. I’m not sure anyone in the locker room could have daydreamed this, either.
But their 33-27 victory in Miami in Week 2 was their first building block. Maye threw for two touchdowns and ran for another in the best performance (19 of 23, 230 yards) of his career to that point, Antonio Gibson returned a kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown to provide the go-ahead score, and Milton Williams sacked quarterback Tua Tagovailoa on fourth down to secure the first win of the Mike Vrabel era.
The Patriots lost the next week to the Steelers. They did not lose again until Week 15 against the Bills.
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Now they’ll try to cap off the regular season and head into the playoffs with one more win over the Dolphins, who have had a strange year even by their recent standards. The Dolphins have played better after a 1-6 start, probably saving coach Mike McDaniel’s job. But Tagovailoa was benched for rookie seventh-round pick Quinn Ewers in Week 15. The Dolphins have gone 1-1 in his two starts — including a 20-17 victory over the Buccaneers last Sunday — as they try to figure out if he’s their long-term answer.
The Patriots, of course, already have their answer at quarterback. Maye’s first excellent game of many came against the Dolphins 15 weeks ago. Now the Dolphins are going to discover how much he and the Patriots have improved since.
Kick it off, Borregales, and let’s get this thing started . . .
Three players worth watching other than the quarterbacks
Rhamondre Stevenson: The veteran running back’s redemption from early-season fumbling problems belongs near the top of the long list of positive plot twists in this Patriots’ season.
Stevenson actually had one of his best games of the season against the Dolphins, gaining 54 rushing yards on 11 carries and leading the team with five receptions for 88 yards (including a crucial 55-yard catch-and-run). He also contributed a pair of touchdowns, one rushing and one receiving.
But the fumbling issues reared up the next week with he coughed up the ball twice in the loss to the Steelers, and he fumbled again in the Week 5 win against the Bills. That put him in fans’ doghouse, if not Vrabel’s, and he was more or less out-of-sight/out-of-mind when he missed Weeks 9-11 with a toe injury.
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Lately, though — and perhaps to the surprise of some — Stevenson has offered recurring reminders of how good he can be when he’s healthy and running with confidence. Over the last three games, he has totaled 22 carries for 148 yards and a pair of touchdowns while adding 10 receptions for 109 yards and another score.
The Dolphins’ 24th-ranked run defense (124.5 yards per game) held up well last week against the Buccaneers, limiting them to 53 rushing yards, including just 19 by Bucky Irving. But should Stevenson compiled 70 yards on the ground Sunday, he’ll pass Kevin Faulk (3,607) for fifth place on the franchise’s all-time rushing list.
De’Von Achane: The greatest suspense during the buildup to Sunday’s involves whether one of the most dynamic players in the NFL will play.
Achane missed practice Wednesday and Thursday with a shoulder injury. Should he not be able to go, that would be a massive break for the Patriots, for a huge game from him is a necessity for the Dolphins to have a shot.
Achane has had an exceptional season, one of the best in Dolphins’ history. He has run for 1,350 yards, fifth in the league (Derrick Henry is third with 1,469 yards despite John Harbaugh forgetting he was on the Ravens roster in the fourth quarter two weeks ago). Only Ricky Williams in 2002 (1,853 yards) and ’03 (1,372) have gained more as a runner in a single Dolphins season.
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Yet Achane is just 12th in the league in attempts, which tells you that his yards per carry must be pretty high. And it is — best in the league, in fact, at 5.7 yards per pop.
He’s also a dangerous weapon in the passing game (when he stays inbounds), with 67 receptions for 488 yards and four more TDs.
The Patriots have plenty of first-hand knowledge regarding how dangerous he can be. In the first meeting this season, he contributed 132 total yards and a touchdown, and nearly had more. He appeared to have put the Dolphins ahead with just over a minute left with what would have been a 44-yard touchdown catch, but it was ruled correctly that he had stepped out of bounds at the New England 26-yard line.
In part but not entirely due to injuries, the Patriots’ run defense has regressed over the past several weeks, though it still ranks eighth-best at 104.1 yards allowed per game.
If Achane can’t go and the Dolphins have to turn to Ollie Gordon and Jaylen Wright, that’s a massive break for the Patriots.
Christian Gonzalez: The Patriots’ other Pro Bowl selection (along with Maye, duh) has had his moments of inconsistency this season, which has been an occasional talking point among those who expect him to be a combination of 2003 Ty Law, 2014 Darrelle Revis, and 2018 Stephon Gilmore at all times.
Some of that is valid — the Ravens’ Zay Flowers got the better of him for much of the game two weeks ago, though Gonzalez buckled down and had an elite pass breakup later on. And some of it is a clear case of taking Gonzalez, the best player on a defense that allows 19.4 points per game (fifth-lowest in the NFL) for granted.
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So let me give a prediction that, should it come true, will double as a reminder of how important he is to the Patriots’ hopes going forward: The cocky Ewers will deliver Gonzalez his first career pick-six on Sunday.
The flashback
Inspired by the array of sensational throws Maye has made since the second half of the Ravens game, I took to Bluesky and asked a simple question:
What was the best throw of Tom Brady’s career?
The intent wasn’t to draw a comparison between Maye and Brady, or to imply anything. It was mainly to jostle some memories that might have turned hazy over the years.
I made a few suggestions: His 29-yard strike to Rob Gronkowski midway through the fourth quarter of Super Bowl LIII versus the Rams; a fourth-and-10 lob to Gronk down the right seam with just over a minute left in the vicious 2015 AFC Championship game in Denver; his 23-yard dart to Brandon LaFell for what would be the winning touchdown in the 2014 AFC Divisional Playoff with the Ravens; and roughly 20 different perfect launches to Randy Moss during the 2007 season.
Readers suggested a few I’d overlooked, freeing them from that haze. Among those was one that should have come to mind immediately, and happens to pertain to this week’s matchup.
On Oct. 19, 2003, the Patriots ended a string of 13 consecutive September and October losses to the Dolphins in just about the most thrilling way imaginable.
With the game tied, 13-13, and just under six minutes left in overtime, Brady took the snap, spun, pump faked, floated left, and after what seemed like 30 seconds of holding the ball, let it fly. The bomb found Troy Brown near the 30-yard line, who caught it between a pair of Dolphin safeties and took it the rest of the way for an 82-yard touchdown and a whole lot of Patriots catharsis. (The Globe headline the next day: “Swoon Over, Miami.”)
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“Brady threw that ball as far as he humanly could,” said play-by-play voice Dick Enberg. The first player to greet the rejoicing Brown in the end zone: some guy wearing No. 50 named Vrabel.
After the game, the Dolphins lamented a pair of missed field goals (one blocked) by the usually reliable Olindo Mare. The excuse: The infield dirt at Pro Player Stadium was a lousy kicking surface, left in bad shape by the Marlins run to the World Series title. The Patriots did not empathize: “It’s a blessing,” said Richard Seymour. “Go Marlins.”
Grievance of the week
The feel-good season had a real feel-lousy couple of days, with a pair of prominent Patriots accused of violence against women.
On Tuesday, news broke that star receiver Stefon Diggs was facing allegations of striking and choking his personal chef in early December. A day later, it was revealed that defensive lineman Christian Barmore is facing a domestic assault charge for an August incident in which he allegedly threw the mother of his child to the floor.
The judicial process has to play out, of course, and we’ll probably find out the whole truth in time. But I have to say, it was gross to hear from so many fans and commenters that immediately dismissed the women’s claims because they happened to be against important players on a football team they care about.
Maybe the allegations aren’t true. If they are, do you really want to root for players like that? Actually, don’t answer that.
Prediction, or how did Bob Griese play quarterback while wearing glasses? …
Maye and the Patriots have done a super job of taking care of business since the loss to the Bills. They’ll do so again this week against the Dolphins, despite some weird history between these two teams in late-season games. And with that, they’ll make history, becoming the third team (1999 Indianapolis Peytons, 2008 Dolphins) to improve by 10 wins from one season to the next. Patriots 34, Dolphins 24.
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