Runupgate! New England Patriots torch Miami Dolphins 49-28 on the road
Top line: New England Patriots improved their 2007 regular-season record to 7-0 by defeating win-less division rivals Miami Dolphins 49-28 on the road. Tom Brady completed 21 of 25 passes for 354 yards and six touchdowns passes, franchise record for one game. Randy Moss had two touchdown catches, Wes Welker two, Donte Stallworth one and tight end Kyle Brady one. Willie Andrews returned a kick-off 77 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter. For the seventh game in a row Patriots scored on their first drive.
The offensive line: The Patriots had their regular starting offensive line with left tackle Matt Light, left guard Logan Mankins, center Dan Koppen, right guard Stephen Neal and right tackle Nick Kaczur. Kaczur finished the game at left tackle, back-up Ryan O’Callaghan at right tackle and back-up Billy Yates at right guard. There were no injuries involved as far as I know, I think the Patriots just wanted to give a couple of back-ups some snaps.
I’ll bring you the specifics tomorrow but on the two-minute drill before the end of the first half Nick Kaczur and runningback Kevin Faulk put on a clinic against Miami’s pass rush on two of the plays.
The line did give up one sack in the game, mostly because Brady couldn’t bring himself to throw the ball.
The gist: With tight end Benjmin Watson out (nominally with a sprained ankle) used a lot of formations with three wide receivers (Moss, Stallworth and Welker) and tight end Brady. That worked well, and wide receiver Jabar Gaffney did a good job as fourth receiver. Welker finished with nine catches for 138 yards, Moss with four for 122 and Stallworth with three for 51 yards. Moss made another two crazy-style touchdown catches, both in the right side of Miami’s end zone, seen from Patriots offense. He was double-covered both times by Miami and out-jumped and outreached them both times. After the game Brady said during his press conference that he wanted to give Moss a chance to make a play for passes instead of trying to hit him in stride. Well, that adjustment couldn’t have worked out better. Stallworth’s touchdown was also a treat: He caught s short pass, broke one tackle before cutting downfield, then broke two more tackles before sprinting into the endzone for a 30-yard score. Kyle Brady’s two-yard touchdown catch came on second-and-goal out of the goal-line clown formation.
The running game was once again more or less an afterthought, garnering 84 yards on 22 carries. Runningback Laurence Maroney did mange a few plays before leaving the field with yet another of his countless hurties. He had one good run, an eleven-yard run to the right behind a pulling Light.
Tom Brady briefly left the game in the fourth quarter but returned after back-up Matt Cassel threw an ugly interception to Mimi defensive end Jason Taylor who returned the ball 36 yards for a touchdown, cutting New England’s led to 42-21. Brady promptly led his offense on drive that ended with Welker’s second touchdown. The next time New England’s offense took the field third-string quarterback Matt Gutierrez played quarterback. I think Cassel’s already shaky hold on the back-up job is history.
The defense wasn’t particularly impressive, perhaps in part because it wasn’t really challenged with the game on the line.
Bottom line: New England is drifting towards becoming an extremely one-dimensional team with a nearly unstoppable passing game and not a whole lot more.
Miami Dolphins - New England Patriots October 21 game stats at NFL.com.
Reactions:
Lawrence Salberg thinks the game showed how the Patriots can be beaten:
We also never saw Brady once out of the pocket today. That is a key for every team - rush early, rush often, hit late, hit often. Keep Brady on the ropes. Clearly, without him, they have no running game, and they have no other quarterbacks who can make significant contributions.
Interestingly, the Cleveland Browns managed to keep the scoring down by putting little pressure on Brady and instead covering the receivers as much as possible.
The running game should show some signs of life again if and when Sammy Morris returns to action, and if and when the Patriots ditch their fruity zone blocking schemes. But for now it is fair to say New England has little in way of running game.
Omar Kelly at Sun Sentinel’s Miami Dolphis blog looks at the bright side of the Dolphins and asks fans to join in the fun. One fan responds thusly:
Well, I went in to today’s game thinking that it would be the low point in franchise history and given the score at halftime I was right.
