Giddy. Absolutely, unabashedly giddy.
And I would have been regardless of the outcome of the
game between the New England Patriots and the Miami Dolphins, so long as the
Patriots ran the ball the way I thought they could – and it wasn’t so much that
they did run the ball the way I thought they could, it was more the way they
did it.
And the way they did it was to simply line up and run
the ball straight down the Dolphins’ throats.
Newton’s mere presence turned the Dolphins’ defensive
ends into statues and opened up natural running lanes that were embellished by
the Patriots’ physical offensive line and consistently exploited by their
stable of excellent running backs – the result being everything that an NFL
team needs to win on Sundays.
The Patriots enjoyed a nearly two-to-one advantage in
time of possession, ran for over five-yards per carry and were surgically
efficient in the passing game. In fact, so efficient was the offense as a whole
on Sunday afternoon at Gillette Stadium that they gained 29 first downs on just
63 snaps – an average of nearly one first down every other snap.
All four of New England’s running backs contributed
with surprisingly powerful running from both third-year runner Sony Michel and
undrafted rookie J.J. Taylor, while Rex Burkhead and James White contributed their
usual steady play.
In contrast, only three Patriots’ receivers combined
with White and Taylor to catch 15 of Newton’s 18 offerings.
Shades of Chuck Fairbanks’ Patriots squads in the
mid-to-late seventies and his Steve Grogan-led offenses that commonly featured a
two-to-one balance between the run and the pass, as on Sunday, offensive
coordinator Josh McDaniels called a running play – including thirteen designed
runs for Newton – on seventy-percent of the offensive snaps.
It was straight inside-zone power directly into the
teeth of the Dolphins’ defense – and when Miami’s coaches tried to compensate
by loading the line of scrimmage with ten defenders, McDaniels countered with
short, quick-hitting pass plays that eventually forced the Dolphins to back off.
Running the football on offense and stopping the run
on defense are the most fundamental concepts in the sport, and teams who do
both successfully more often than not earn victory – and not only did the
Patriots plow the row through the Miami defense, the folks in charge of
stopping the opposition’s offense threw up a brick wall against the Dolphins’
running game, holding their runners to a paltry 3.2 yards per carry…
…forcing Miami quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick to the air
thirty times, completing twenty for 187 yards but also tossing three
interceptions
The Patriots were particularly stout against the run,
with the three-headed monster of Lawrence Guy, Adam Butler and Byron Cowart
generally clogging the middle, forcing the play to the edges where Linebackers
John Simon, Chase Winovich and Ja’Whaun Bentley mopped up the mess.
Most impressive, however, was the play of safeties
Adrian Phillips and Terrence Brooks, who platooned in the Big Nickel role –
typically manned by the opted-out Patrick Chung – laying some huge hits in run
support and blanketing tight ends in the pass pattern, Phillips coming down
with one of New England’s thefts.
All was not perfect for the Patriots – some early
missed tackles and late pass interference penalties made things seem a little
dicey at times, and the offense missed the opportunity to nail the Dolphins
coffin shut with a costly fumble inside the one-yard line – but those are
things that can be fixed.
Offensive Players of the Game: Patriots’
Offensive Guards
The Patriots’ guards dominated in the running game,
pulling both inside and out, combining with Newton’s play fakes to open huge
holes for the backs and in anchoring against the pass rush.
Defensive Players of the Game: Patriots’
Strong Safety rotation
The strong safety tandem of Adrian Phillips and Terrence
Brooks delivered nothing but wood in run support all day
long, and Phillips recorded one of the Patriots interceptions playing the
“Robber” role.
It appears that the Patriots are going to be content
to fill Patrick Chung’s shoes by committee, and it appears that they have two
physical options to rotate in and out – with a special shout-out to hybrid
JoeJuan Williams, who had sticky coverage from a safety position as well.