FOXBOROUGH – Bill Belichick hyped up New England’s season finale against the Dolphins at Gillette Stadium as a playoff game. It's a good thing he was exaggerating, although New England's shocking 27-24 loss to Miami certainly makes the team's road to the Super Bowl much tougher.
Falling to 12-4 on the season, New England gave up the No. 2 seed to the Chiefs in the AFC and will now have to play next week on Wild Card Weekend.
It was a struggle from start to stunning, razzle-dazzle finish for Tom Brady and Co.
The Dolphins drew first blood with a 12-play, 80-yard drive to a 27-yard field goal for the 3-0 lead late in the first quarter.
Miami kept the early momentum going in the second quarter when former Patriot Eric Rowe stepped in front of a Brady pass for Julian Edelman and returned it 35 yards for the touchdown and the 10-0 advantage.
In a dogfight, New England finally got to work on offense. First, Brady drove to a 25-yard Nick Folk field goal. Then, a Brady-to-Phillip Dorsett 50-yard completion jumpstarted a drive to a 4-yard Sony Michel touchdown to tie the game 10-10 heading toward halftime.
After a Patriots three-and-out to open the second half, Miami regained the lead marching 83 yards to a Ryan Fitzpatrick 2-yard touchdown scramble and the 17-10 advantage midway through the third quarter.
The back-and-forth continued late in the third quarter as New England broke out a wrinkle play, linebacker-turned-fullback Elandon Roberts releasing down the right side for an impressive catch-and-run (through a tackle even) 38-yard touchdown to tie the game 17-17.
Miami took the lead again, 20-17, midway through the fourth quarter on a 32-yard Jason Sanders field goal.
But Brady had another drive in him, going 60 yards in eight plays to take the lead on a 13-yard screen pass to James White.
So, too did Fitzpatrick. Miami drove 75 yards in 13 plays in the final minute to a Mike Gesicki 5-yard touchdown and the comeback win.
The defense that had been so good all year just couldn't close out the lowly Dolphins, who finish the season winning five of their last nine games.
Before turning the page to next weekend’s Wild Card game at Gillette, here are some of the personnel highs and lows from the season-ending loss to Miami.
Thumbs up
Sony Michel/Rex Burkhead – The Patriots were trailing 10-0 and in a dogfight when Michel helped get the ground game going a bit in the second quarter with three runs of 8, 9 and 9 yards. He then followed Elandon Roberts into the end zone on a 4-yard touchdown, setting a new career high with his seventh score of the season. The numbers weren’t eye-popping against a suspect run defense, but Michel ran well on the way to 18 carries for 74 yards on the day. Burkhead also ran well, picking up 48 yards on his six attempts, continuing to add a spark with his shifty running style.
Pregame helicopter flyover – A Massachusetts State Police helicopter did one of the more memorable flyovers following the National Anthem. It was as low and cool a flyover as ever at Gillette Stadium. It also scared just about every reporter, seemingly clearing the press box structure by about as narrow a margin as physically possible.
Punt/Punt return teams—Patriots coaches spent a lot of time last week talking up the Dolphins third phase and their propensity for fakes. New England was ready. Joe Judge’s punt return group covered a fake punt on Miami’s opening possession to turn the ball over to the offense near midfield. Later in the first half, Jake Bailey boomed a kick that Justin Bethel downed at the Miami 4 after Matthew Slater deflected back to keep out of end zone. It was a good day for the kicking game.
Elandon Roberts – While linebacker-turned-fullback’s legend as a blocker took on a life of its own last week, the team captain took his impact playmaking to a new level against the Dolphins. Sure, he led the way as a blocker on a Michel touchdown in the second quarter. But his biggest contribution came in the third quarter when he released down the right side uncovered on a wheel route. Roberts not only caught the ball but broke a tackle on the way to the 38-yard touchdown. He was actually wide open on the same exact play in the first half but Brady threw elsewhere. With his contributions in all three phases, now including big plays on offense to tie the game, Roberts is earning his paycheck.
Thumbs down
Stephon Gilmore/Overall pass defense – The leading Defensive Player of the Year candidate didn’t have his best day against Miami, especially early on matched up against DeVante Parker. Gilmore allowed a couple 20-plus-yard completions to Parker totaling 49 yards on Miami’s march to a field goal in the first quarter. Gilmore did have a nice pass defense on a target for Parker on third down in the second quarter, staring down the Dolphins’ sideline afterwards. Parker then beat Gilmore for 18 yards on a crossing route in the second quarter. He then picked up 10 yards on a slant past Gilmore to open the second half. Gilmore then allowed Parker to catch a 24-yard pass over him on the Dolphins' late comeback effort. It was by far Gilmore's worst game of the season. Parker finished with eight catches for 137 yards on the day against Gilmore. Fitzpatrick completed 28 of 41 passes for 320 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions for a 99.6 rating, including the late go-head drive.
Penalties – The penalty numbers don’t jump off the stat sheet – five for 39 yards – but the Patriots have been picking up too many flags of late negating too many plays. There was a holding call on Rex Burkhead early that wiped out a pass interference call on the Dolphins. For the second straight week there was an offensive pass interference call on Ben Watson, this one nullifying a nice completion to Mohamed Sanu. Deatrich Wise picked up a horse collar on a tackle. The offense lost a 15-yard screen pass to James White thanks to an illegal shift. Given the limited margin for error the Patriots are playing with heading into the postseason the penalties – mostly on offense – need to be cleaned up.
Tom Brady – A week after one of his better performances of the season to lead the comeback win over the Bills and their solid defense, Brady was back to his somewhat struggling ways against Miami. Visually he seemed to struggle to get his right elbow loose. He had a bad overthrow of Phillip Dorsett early. He was behind Julian Edelman on a crossing route. His worst play came on a ball that apparently targeted Edelman, with Eric Rowe stepping in front for the pick-6 35-yard touchdown. Brady and the passing game failed to find efficiency most of the day, finishing completing 15 of 28 passes (53.6 percent) for 221 yards with two touchdowns and one interception with an 88.5 rating. Brady and the passing game need to be better moving forward or it could be a short postseason.
