shmessy

GREAT JOB, man!

Saw many, many Dolphins cramp up all night long. Didn't see one Patriot with the same problem.

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"They (Patriots) may be the greatest team ever" - Chris Mortenson, January 18, 2005 on espn.com

silenthuntr7

I think this was a seriously underrated reason for why we won the game.

On the other hand...I forsee a Dolphin coach looking for a new job soon...

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Hoodie

wag of my finger?

Maybe they hid it from the cameras but I was really surprised to see the Dolphins and not the Pats dropping like flies with cramps.

shmessy

I can't fathom how a Florida team would have such a tough time in the heat. Makes what the Pats did last night all the more impressive.

Evidently, Nash had emphasized the Tampa pre-season game as a precursor to the players and made it their practice exam for last night.

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"They (Patriots) may be the greatest team ever" - Chris Mortenson, January 18, 2005 on espn.com

Walpole Pats Fan

Kudos to Coach Nash!!!! I also noticed that the Patriots were rotating their defensive players on almost every play. IE Dowling came out for one down after a deep ball was thrown in his direction(incomplete btw) and then immediately asked to come out. I saw Fletcher do the exact same thing and a few others. Excellent job by the coaches and players in preparation and execution of this game physically.

reflexblue

Yes what ever he did he did an incredible job. That heat and humidity are killers.

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Tasco

Agreed.
Gotta admit though, that we played mainly a no huddle offense, so we wore them out pretty soon quite heavily. The Fins instead just ran their normal offense without challenging our D physically.

DarrylS

Remember all those wind sprints at the end of each and every practice during TC??? Heat was not an excuse then and was not last night.

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unoriginal

Miami tried to get into a hurry-up several times in the 1st half, but the DTs kept drawing holding penalties from Miami's guards, which gave the Pats time to sub.

jmt57

In my opinion that is because the Pats defense was doing a much better job of getting off the field than the Miami defense was. Maybe that's stating the obvious, maybe it's a chicken-or-the-egg thing, but regardless that part of the home field advantage turned into a home field disadvantage. Similar thing happened Sunday in Tampa when the Lions were on the field for 36 minutes and the Bucs defense was gassed by the second half.

In the first half Miami had that long opening drive, which was a bad sign considering the heat and humidity. But after that the Dolphins went 3-and-out, one first down, 3-and-out, one first down, and a one play kneel down on the rest of their first half possessions. On the other hand the Pats only had one 3-and-out while all the rest of the drives had at least three first downs. There was a no huddle drive that did end up with a punt, but in my opinion it was still effective as it probably helped to really wear the Dolphins down.

In retrospect, even though the score was only 14-7 at the half the Pats were in far better shape (literally and figuratively) than the Dolphins were at that point. The final stats for the number of plays and time of possession are deceiving because Miami had the ball for so much time during the last half of the 4th quarter, and the Pats had the one-play, 99-yard scoring drive in the midst of that.


I agree, I think the benefit of playing at Tampa in preseason is being vastly over looked.