MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. \u2013 All week long, the talk was about\nAntonio Brown. He shoots his way out of\nOakland, is picked up by the Patriots a minute later, and then gets hit with a\nfederal civil lawsuit alleging rape and sexual assault.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Patriot Nation has a lot to think about regarding the\nsigning of Brown. The rest of the NFL\nhas another problem to deal with, that being the Patriot defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Miami Dolphins were blasted at home last week by the\nBaltimore Ravens, 59-10. The immediate\nimpression was that the Dolphins intend to tank the regular season, and get\ninto a position to draft Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (or perhaps Oklahoma\nquarterback Jalen Hurts or Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence), prompting\nseveral Miami players to contact their agents to try and get them traded away from\nthe Dolphins. The Patriots came into\nthis game a 19-point favorite at Miami, a remarkable spread given how poorly\nthe Patriots play here, and the fact that it is in hot and humid September,\nwith the heat index at 100 degrees at kickoff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No such problem for the Patriots. The Patriots were able to withstand some\noffensive yips and substandard placekicking and still blast the Dolphins 43-0\nat Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday. The Patriots\nshut out the Dolphins in Miami for the first time in franchise history. Miami was held to 184 total team offensive\nyards and only 11 first downs for the entire game. The Patriots picked off four passes, two of\nwhich went for pick-sixes. If you picked\nthe Patriot defense in fantasy football, you were rewarded with a whopping 35\npoints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were some interesting backstories in this game, but\nthe overall feeling you get from this game is that this may be, barring injuries\ndown the road, the best defense in Patriot history. Combined with holding the Steelers to only 3\npoints last week, and the carryover from holding the Rams to 3 points in Super\nBowl LIII, this defense is off and running and looking like a defense for the\nages. It is early, but the Patriot\ndefense, especially minus Brian Flores, looks like a monster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Flores, now the Miami head coach, may have been the\ntarget of some bad sportsmanship by Bill Belichick late in the game. On the final offensive possession of the game\nfor the Patriots, Belichick left Tom Brady in up 37-0 and needing only to run\nthe ball and run out the clock. Instead\nof what would have been a perfect time to indoctrinate Jarrett Stidham into\nsome real game action, Brady was in there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brady lined up in the shotgun on some occasions, and he\ncame out slinging as if it was the final moments of Super Bowl XXXVI. The Patriots drove 59 yards in five plays,\nwith Brady hitting a wide-open James White for a 10-yard screen pass for a\ntouchdown to make it 43-0. This was\nclearly an unnecessary touchdown, and it looked like running up the score. Then on the ensuing drive, the last one for\nthe Dolphins, keeping the shutout was a priority for the Patriots. Belichick called time with 10 seconds left and\nthe Dolphins at the Patriot 25. Josh\nRosen hit Jakeem Grant in the left flat for 17 yards, which nearly ended the\ngame. Flores called time with one second\nleft. On the final play, a tipped ball\nwent to Jamie Collins to end the game and preserve the shutout, but the\nexchange of time outs by both coaches was also telling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his press conference, Belichick gruffly said \u201cWe play\nfor sixty minutes.\u201d On a local postgame\nshow, Bert Breer of Sports Illustrated<\/em> opined that Belichick was more\nupset with Flores taking assistants with him (Chad O\u2019Shea, Jerry Schuplinski)\nthan he was with Flores simply going to Miami. \nBelichick was in a difficult situation in the offseason with his\ncoaching staff, not helped by the sudden retirement of new defensive\ncoordinator Greg Schiano. Belichick, as\nhe has shown in past years, is easily angered by former players and coaches who\nseem to diss him on their way out the door, such as Eric Mangini when he bolted\nto the Jets and took assistants with him a decade ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Collins and Stephon Gilmore both had pick-sixes. Both came in the fourth quarter on\nconsecutive drives. Gilmore jumped the\nroute when Ryan Fitzpatrick tried to hit DeVante Parker in the right flat and took\nit 50 yards to the house. On the next\ndrive, Fitzpatrick hit Kalen Ballage in the left flat with a perfect throw, but\nthe ball caromed off his stone fingers and landed in the arms of Collins. He lumbered 69 yards for the score, and\nseemed to run out of gas after 50 yards of more running than he is used to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brady managed some good numbers nonetheless, despite an\noffensive line missing both starting tackles as the game went along. Marcus Cannon was an injury scratch due to a\nsore shoulder, and Isaiah Wynn left the game in the first half with a sore\nfoot. But Brady finished with 20 of 28\npassing for 264 yards, two touchdowns and a 124.7 rating. He was sacked twice but otherwise looked in\ncontrol and anything but a 42-year-old. He\nspread the ball around nicely, hitting seven different receivers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brown started fast and had a good first half, but fizzled\non a third quarter drive and wasn\u2019t heard from again. Brown led the Patriots with four catches for\n56 yards and a touchdown, the scoring play coming in the second quarter on a\nnice timing throw to the left pylon with Brady releasing the ball before Brown\nmade his hook, the play covering 20 yards. \nHe and Brady have a long way to go as far as chemistry, but for the\nfirst game, especially the first half, Brown deserves a lot of credit for\nlooking so good so early in his Patriot career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stephen Gostkowski had a bad day with his\nplacekicking. He missed two extra points\nand a 48-yard field goal in the second quarter. \nHis kickoffs were all touchbacks, so the length is not lacking. Historically Gostkowski kicks poorly here in\nMiami, so a bad game like this isn\u2019t unexpected nor should be interpreted as a\nred flag. But it is annoying at worst,\nsomeone of his pedigree consistently playing substandard here in Miami.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The last time the Patriots played in Florida in September,\nthey were smacked around by Jacksonville last year, 31-20, on a hot and humid\nday worse than this. For the Patriots to\ncome down here in a stadium which has been inhospitable to them and weather\nthat really bogs them down, to win 43-0 against an obviously bad Miami team is\nstill a good thing. They come home to\nthe Jets next weekend, minus Sam Darnold who is ill with mononucleosis. Assuming Brown survives this week and doesn\u2019t\nget put on the commissioner exempt list, he will get a full week with Brady and\neveryone else, learning this offense in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, Flores might tuck this loss away and plan for\nthe day when he gets even. It likely won\u2019t\nbe this year, but he won\u2019t forget the last three minutes of this game. He will remember this longer than he will\nanything Antonio Brown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Patriots were able to withstand some offensive yips and substandard placekicking and still blast the Dolphins 43-0 at Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":24933,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_pfeai_meta_description":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[2119,45,44],"class_list":["post-24927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-patriots-commentary","tag-2019-nfl-season","tag-miami-dolphins","tag-new-england-patriots"],"yoast_head":"\n