The New England Patriots played their worst game of the season on Monday night, and the Miami Dolphins deserve credit for forcing the defending Super Bowl champions into it. But has the code finally been cracked on how to get the best of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady?
One Dolphins player seems to think so.
Miami tight end MarQueis Gray, who caught one pass for 10 yards and had one carry for two yards, told reporters after the game that he believes the Dolphins showed the rest of the NFL the blueprint for how to take down the 2017 Patriots.
“All three phases playing together,” Gray said, via Joe Schad of the Palm Beach Post. “Especially offense. We weren’t shooting ourselves in the foot like we’ve been doing all year. And defense doing a great job of attacking Brady, staying on him, frustrating him and it showed. Only one phase wasn’t going to win the game tonight. We put out a blueprint of what to do to stop them this year.”
The Dolphins certainly looked like the more prepared and more motivated team. They got consistent pressure on Brady and forced him into bad decisions all night. Brady didn’t look comfortable from the opening snap, and that had a lot to do with the coverages Miami drew up. The Dolphins were also outstanding in man-to-man coverage.
On offense, Miami did an excellent job of protecting Jay Cutler and spreading the ball around. It was Cutler’s best game of the season, and Dolphins coach Adam Gase designed plays for him to roll out of the pocket and buy extra time to get the ball downfield. All around, it was a well-executed game for a team that has grown accustomed to getting dominated by New England more often than not.
But let’s not forget that the Patriots were without Rob Gronkowski. While Gronk is one of the best receiving tight ends in football, he is also an excellent blocker. His role in the running game is perennially understated, and New England certainly could have used him in the trenches on a night where they managed just 25 yards on 10 carries. There’s no question Gronkowski would have made a difference.
The blueprint for beating the Patriots is more about execution than anything. Everyone knows Brady struggles when you get consistent pressure on him, but doing that is a lot easier said than done. The same can be said for being physical with New England’s receivers, erasing the screen game and winning the special teams battle. The Dolphins did all of that, but they weren’t exactly uncovering some long-kept secret.
