Since Tom Brady went down injured (and before, for that matter), I can imagine there’s a countless number of people who have been waiting to see the New England Patriots come crashing down to earth.
And yesterday, those people got their wish, as the Miami Dolphins, a team with one win in their last 21 games, went up north and absolutely dominated the Patriots on both sides of the ball in a 38-13 rout.
The Dolphins? At Gillette? You’d have thought the two teams switched uniforms and identities, right?
The Patriots had gotten by without Brady thanks to excellent play from their defense and efficiency from their offense, but neither happened on Sunday.
Not only was Chad Pennington have an easy time of it (17 of 20, 226 yards), but Ronnie Brown ran for 113 yards and a team-record four touchdowns (and added a touchdown pass to Anthony Fasano), and Ricky Williams (yep, he’s still with the Dolphins) ran for 98 yards on 16 carries, his highest output since the last game of the 2005 season, when he ran for 108 yards in a 28-26 win at New England.
Offensively, things didn’t go any better, as New England managed only 216 total yards. Cassel was 19 of 31 for only 131 yards, and he was sacked four times, three times by Joey Porter, and the rushing attack was pretty tame. Their only touchdown drive came when it was already a blowout (28-6), and they had to drive only 23 yards after Ellis Hobbs had returned the kickoff 81 yards, even then only getting into the end zone on a 4th down. New England actually ran two more plays than Miami (59 to 57), but Miami averaged more than twice as many yards per play (8.1 to 3.7) than the Patriots did.
Considering how New England mercilessly beat up on a lot of opponents last season (including Miami), and how it’s so rare to see them look human play a truly bad game, it’s something to see them go down like they did yesterday, especially to a team that was coming off of getting whipped by the upstart Cardinals.
In the end, it’s just one game, and it doesn’t mean that the Dolphins aren’t back, and that the Patriots are headed for the tank. But, it does show that Miami might have a little toughness, confidence, and resiliency that they didn’t have last year under Cam Cameron, and that’s certainly a step in the right direction, and as for New England, well, you do have to wonder just how vulnerable they might be, and if the AFC East is really wide open, with Buffalo off to a 3-0 start, and the New York Jets suddenly elevated to contender status (not by me, not just yet) with their acquisition of Brett Favre.
What is clear though, is that the Patriots can’t afford to have too many bad days like that on defense, considering that the offense might not be putting up big numbers on a regular basis like it did last year. Along with that, there needs to be regular production from the ground game, because putting the onus squarely on Cassel to do a lot more than to just be efficient, not make mistakes, and make a few big plays here and there might be asking a little much right now.
New England has a bye week coming up, so they have some extra time to regroup and refocus, but when they return to action, they have consecutive road games cross-country at San Francisco and San Diego, before coming back home to face Denver on Monday night in Week 7.
So, watch those games closely to see how they perform, because after that trio, they host St. Louis before a pivotal stretch that sees them go to Indianapolis and host the Bills and Jets in the first three weeks of November. Depending on how things go over the next few weeks, the Patriots could find themselves in an unfamiliar position – as the underdog.
