Half-great: New England Patriots swat aside Miami Dolphins, 28-7
Top Line: New England Patriots put in 30 minutes of great football that mixed efficient passing and big-play running against the rabble of the league, the Miami Dolphins. The Patriots offense got lazy and sloppy on the second half, but the outcome was an easy 28-7 victory. Runningback Laurence Maroney had a career-best game with 14 carries for 156 yards and one touchdown. One of his runs was of the kind that no other of the team’s runningbacks could have done, Maroney’s first such run of the year. Quarterback Tom Brady finished with a pedestrian 18 completions on 33 attempts for 215 yards, mostly because of a very weak second half. He did, however, throw three touchdown passes in the first half, leaving him two short of setting new record for touchdown passes in a season. Wide receiver Randy Moss snagged two of the scoring throws, leaving him two from breaking Jerry Rice’s record for touchdown grabs in a season.
Offensive line: Right guard Stephen Neal was out for the third week in a row. Otherwise it was the usual lineup, meaning Matt Light at left tackle, Logan Mankins at left guard, Dan Koppen at center, Russ Hochstein at right guard and Nick Kaczur at right tackle.
The Gist: Patriots rolled up 304 yards on offense in the first half and scored four touchdowns to take a commanding 28-0 lead. They scored on four of their first five drives and their sixth possession of the half consisted of a kneel down to end it.
Patriots moved the ball 70 yards on 10 plays - all of them out of the shotgun - on their first drive which ended with an 11-yard touchdown toss to Moss who ran a square from the right side of shotgun spread formation. Moss made the catch in spite of having been pushed by a Miami a linebacker before making the in-cut.
Their second drive was topped when Kevin Faulk was stopped for no gain on third and one by Dolphins Joey Porter (yes, the loudmouth formerly of Pittsburgh Steelers). Faulk would have gotten the first down had Kaczur not failed to hold his block.
Dolphins pounced on the swing in momentum by driving all the way to their own 45-yard line before having to punt a mere seven yards short of a first down.
Patriots then fielded a formation they don’t often: Three wide receivers and two runningbacks with Brady in the shotgun. Perhaps the Dolphins expected a deep pass to Moss, but what they got was the longest run Maroney had ever ripped off in the pros. Fullback Evans was lined up to Brady’s left, Maroney to Brady’s right. At the snap Evans ran right to seal off Miami’s left defensive end while Maroney took the hand off from Brady. Kaczur blocked Miami’s left inside linebacker while Koppen took on the right inside linebacker after helping Mankins turn the right defensive tackle to the outside of the play. Hochstein drove the left tackle down the line of scrimmage, leaving Maroney with a huge gap to exploit. Maroney headed downfield, then wheeled back to his right after getting by the linebackers. Outside the right hashmark he found uncontested ground thanks to Moss chasing a cornerback in front of him. By the time Porter chased him down Maroney had picked up 51 yards and moved the Patriots to Miami’s 28 yard line.
Four plays later Patriots found themselves at Miami’s one yard line after a pass interference on Moss in Dolphins’ endzone. New England sent in a rarely if ever before seen goal line package tht featured Evans as fullback, Kyle Eckel as halfback, offensive tackle Ryan O’Callaghan as right tight end and tight end Stephen Spach as offset tight end right and Moss as split end left. Brady faked a hand off to Eckel, then turned to his left and hit Moss for a one-yard touchdown pass.
Maroney topped his career-long run on New England’s fourth drive of the game. Facing third and one at their own 41 yard line Patriots went big with a beefed up version of the Power-I formation they had so much success with last year but haven’t used much this season. With the regular tight ends out of the game Britt and O’Callaghan took the end position, Britt to the left and O’Callaghan to the power side with Spach. Dolphins put six men on the line of scrimmage and five on line behind them. The Patriots steam-rolled them with an off-tackle run to the weak left side where Britt kicked out veteran defensive end Taylor, Evans manhandled a linebacker trying to fill the gaping hole and Light secured the inside of the gap. Maroney sprinted through for a 59-yard touchdown, his longest run ever and his third 100-yard game in the NFL.
The first half scoring deluge also included a 48-yard pass from Brady to Jabar Gaffney along the left sideline. Brady threw a fastball that safety Lance Schulters somehow, someway managed to miss even though he had positioned himself perfectly to intercept the pass. Brady was lucky on that play. Or maybe Schulters is just that bad. There’s got to be some reason for why the Dolphins are 1-14 on the season. The play came on a 3 wide receiver, two runningback set
Brady got sloppy and a bit lazy, or perhaps simple minded, in the second half, looking for Moss far too often and holding on to the ball for far to long in the pocket. The Dolphins got enough chances to eventually stumble into New England’s endzone in spite of their quarterback at one point chickening out on a fourth and goal play and stepping out of bounds short of the end zone instead of diving in for the score.
The Maroney Moment: So finally Maroney looked like a first-round runningback. The play that inspires the most hope for the future was not his touchdown run but his 51-yard run in the first quarter. There are two reasons for why that play is of greater importance. The first is that Maroney has struggled mightily with squeezing yards out of zone-blocking plays, either because of his poor field vision or because of poor decision making in terms when to make the cut downfield.The second reason is that he made a play that perhaps no other runningback on the roster could have made, including the injured Sammy Morris. I don’t Evans, Eckel or even Faulk could have picked up 51 yards on that play.
Maroney’s touchdown dash was nice but not particularly spectacular given the picture-perfect blocking. Also, he’d already demonstrated that he is comfortable running behind a lead blocker.
The Beef: The Patriots are short on tight-ends right now, just as they were during training camp, when O’Callaghan, Britt and other offensive linemen took snaps as linemen. The video clip below shows #65 Britt in action as tight end last July. You can see him driving some poor defensive end - LeKevin Smith, I think - into the ground.
Extras: Mike Reiss has a good analysis of how Brady pressed to get the ball to Moss in the second half.
