Brady: Patriots Have to 'Dig Deep' After Sunday's Loss to Dolphins
 Tom Brady and the Patriots struggled in Miami on Sunday. (USA TODAY Images) |
On Sunday the Patriots had their fair share of issues down in Miami after the Dolphins handed them a brutal 33-20 road loss to drop them to 0-1 on the season. As a result, heading into week two they'll have plenty of things on film that should haunt them enough for the outcome to hopefully be different by the time they take the field again out in Minnesota.
Obviously at the forefront of their problems were their issues up front on their offensive line, which saw Tom Brady under massive pressure in the second half of Sunday's game. Miami was able to get good penetration, clogging the lanes when the Patriots tried to run, and they had no issue getting in Brady's face despite rushing just four over the course of the final two quarters.
The frustrating was New England tried to adjust and just couldn't do anything about it. Give credit to the Dolphins' players and especially the coaching staff, who made adjustments at the half that the Patriots clearly couldn't adapt to.
 Frustration was evident for Brady on Sunday down in Miami. (USA TODAY Images) |
During the first half of Sunday's game Brady completed 66% of his passes and the Patriots had success moving the football and scoring points, converting 15 first downs and taking a 20-10 lead into the locker room. However in the second half they were all over Brady and held him to just a 37% completion rate over the final two quarters, including 6-of-20 performance in the fourth quarter. They also converted just five first downs.
That's not exactly a formula for a victory, and Brady admitted after the game their inability to sustain a drive was frustrating.
"They’ve got a good front, good players in the secondary, they make you earn it," said Brady on the Dolphins' defense. "We just couldn’t sustain anything. Too many drives where we sputtered. Certainly in the second half, the third quarter … you can’t play football that way."
Defensively they also had their issues. Dolphins running back Knowshon Moreno carried 24 times for 134 yards along with a touchdown and his presence gives Miami another threat that the Patriots are going to have to figure out a way to deal with. As the game wore on, especially in the second half, Moreno got stronger. The veteran racked up 91-yards in the final two quarters, tiring out an already gassed New England defense that spent eighteen of the final thirty minutes of the game on the field.
Dolphins defensive tackle Branden Albert told ESPN after the game that Moreno's intensity is infectious, and it helped lift everyone around him.
“When somebody's got that type of energy and got that type of intensity, that puts it on everybody else to keep pushing,” said Albert. “That pushes us even more.”
Meanwhile the more they struggled, the more the frustration became visible on the Patriots' sideline and the more the Dolphins dialed up the intensity. Tom Brady came off the field on more than one occasion and sat down on the bench with his head hanging down, a bad sign for a team that was in need of matching the energy the Dolphins were playing with.
For now it's back to the drawing board as they get set to head out on the road to battle the Vikings in Minnesota. This is a game they'll need to put behind them and hopefully put up a better effort in the weeks to come. Brady admitted that they did just about everything wrong in this game, and they'll have to try and execute better next week.
"I think all of us have to go out there and play a lot better than we played today," said Brady. "I mean, you can’t play the way the way we played and think that we’ll win a game this season. There’s nothing positive to really take from the things we were doing. I think it’s a good example of if you do the things that we did today, you’ll get beat. ”
"We’re going to get back to work. Nobody’s going to feel sorry for us. The guys in the room have to dig deep and see if we can go out and get a win next week."
