This is a historical game for the 2018 Miami Dolphins. You have to go back to September 21, 2008 (The Wildcat Game) to find a Dolphins victory in Foxboro in the last decade. Win this game and remain undefeated, and put some legitimate space between them and the New England Patriots, who were/are the favorite to capture the division crown, as per usghe. On the other hand, it’s game 4, and coaches prefer to break up seasons into quarters, and starting off 3-1, even after a loss to the Patriots, while it would be disappointing, it’s playing .750 ball, and a nice start. There are so many perspectives to view this matchup through, and all the same, I think it’s important to keep perspective. If the Dolphins win this game, the Patriots are not dead and buried, and we don’t get the division crown. If we lose this game, it doesn’t put a black cloud on the season and cause us to spiral into a 3-13 season. 12 regular season games still remain
The way I choose to look at this game is I would like the Dolphins to look like they belong on the same field as the Patriots, that Adam Gase is a match for Bill Belichick, that Ryan Tannehill can be competitive in a big game against Tom Brady. Play a solid football game, fight till the end, and if you don’t win, at least you didn’t look unprepared or outmatched. We’re a touchdown plus underdogs for a reason, this is not a game we usually win.
We all prayed for no injuries this season after last year, and early on we were granted good fortune. However, in the last couple of weeks, we lost our Pro-Bowl LG, Josh Sitton for the season with a torn rotator cuff, and this past week, we lost a valuable member of the D-line, DE/DT William Hayes to an ACL injury. We have to overcome those injuries, we must persevere. The best teams always do, and we can’t let it drag us down. The Sitton injury affected us, we couldn’t run the ball against the Raiders. Ryan Tannehill led the Dolphins with 26 yards rushing on 3 carries, while Gore and Drake combined for 25 yards on 11 carries. The Dolphins did a great job of masking that deficiency last week, but we all know we have to run the ball much more effectively to stay relevant this season.
Last week with William Hayes out, and of course losing DT Akeem Spence to an ejection, really hurt our run defense. The remaining players played well in a much shorter rotation, but it will be great to have Spence for 4 quarters, along with whichever DE we choose to promote to the 46 man gameday roster. The 2018 Patriots don’t really have a feature back, they use a combination of RB/FB Rex Burkhead, Sony Michel and James White, with Burkhead the closest one to resembling Marshawn Lynch, who really ran over us last week. If not for some timely trickeration, we may have come up short last week. Not sure how you feel, but I thought if they never took Marshawn out for a breather, he might have had 200 yards.
Sooooo, on to New England. Brady gets a new receiver, and this guy is a very talented one at that. Don’t short Josh Gordon talent wise. Judgement wise, maturity wise, you can kill the guy, but this guy has top 10 receiver talent. The Patriots offense has been easy to defend this year, and the Lions gave one effective blueprint last week on how to tame the Pats offense, double Gronk, and see if the other guys can beat you. Last week they did not, but adding Josh Gordon changes that somewhat. I don’t know how much of the playbook Gordon can absorb, or if he cares to absorb it, but when he’s on the field, he has to be respected. Julian Edelman remains suspended for this game, so we have to cover 7/11 Chris Hogan, Phillip Dorsett, and occasionally Cordarrelle Patterson. I think the Patriots will use James White a lot in the passing game. He and Dion Lewis used to take turns ripping off big chunks against us, so we have to be disciplined. White, incidentally leads the Patriots in receptions with 14.
Ted Larsen has go to play better, and this O-line in general needs to be more physical. We need to give Drake and Gore running lanes, we didn’t give them anything last week. Don’t expect those trick plays this week to bail us out. We’re going have to play them better straight up, so that might mean Devante Parker getting a little more involved, as well as TE Mike Gesicki. Dont’a Hightower is a very good LB, but he can’t run with Gesicki. I think it’s time for Gesicki to get more involved.
On defense, we need to stay focused on James White, and Phillip Dorsett. They will use Dorsett kind of like how we’re using Albert Wilson, in space, near the LOS, and letting him use his speed to get yardage. Of course Gronk is main focal point, and we;ve yet to find the right personnel to limit him, but my hopes are that Minkah Fitzpatrick helps in that regard. It would be great to have Reshad Jones back this week, he’s questionable at the moment with a shoulder injury. This would be an ideal game to have 3 safeties in there, so here’s hoping Reshad can go on Sunday.
Remember the date, September 30, 2018. The day the Dolphins started a new streak of Dolphins victories in Foxboro. I think the Dolphins are going to win this game, in a closely fought, back and forth battle. We really show our mettle here, and the rookie kicker, Jason Sanders, after being iced by Belichick, puts through a 40-something yard kick for the game winner and huge fist-pump.
MIA 27 – NE 24
Finsmob Unleashed 
We need to bring it, down 10 is bullshit
Drake would have had a TD If there was no PI
Looked offsides
finally called it … gilmore holds every play at that same spot in the route
So FN predictable
I know I said go downfield – but this is ridiculous
Dont we have anything designed to use the middle of the field
No
Shaank
Yuck
what do you do against this press coverage?
go over the top, but they are doing a pretty good job of taking that away too.
I like the idea of going deep but no separation by Stills
We didn’t do it at all last week
Now it’s every throw
How about just using the middle of the field a little
Everything is on the edges
wtf is wrong with haack?
Why did we draft Mike Gesicki again?
Not his blocking!
Where is gesicki in the middle … or Amendola?
We need to start using Gisecki more. If they are going to press cover then theTE up the seam should be there
That last play was something you try on first down, not when you need a first to keep the drive going
at least 2 holding calls
2 holding
1 tripping
All this running they’re doing now is going to hurt us in the second half
Minkah baby
nice hit minkah but you could INT that for a 6
Crush Brady!!!
Good tackle Minkah
patriots cheating on the punt formation again
Laughing my ass off
“That was fucking bullshit”
nice acting by McCain
Smart by McCain
Outcbeated the cheater
Easy for you to say
Amendola has hartline disease. He falls down after 5 yards of running
Ok Offense you can start playing now
FU Bellicheat!!!!
honestly the NFL should do something about the cheatriots using non football crap to gain an advantage
Idiots
Fuck
That is a game killer
substitute center
Fuck and double fuck. Swanson is only good for TV dinners
Bad news bears of football, SMH
I’m about to leave the house
Game over
There’s 7 mins left in the 2nd Hulk!
Ahh we still suck it looked good for a couple of weeks
Can’t do shit
awesome
Stick a fork in us.
Our offense sucks out loud
COME ON YOU MOTHERFUCKERS STOP THIS BULLSHIT
I DO NOT WANT TO HEAR ALL WEEK HOW YOU PUNKS ARE JUST A MIRAGE
Well, this is why I said I want to see that the team can match up with the Patriots, that we belong on the same field with them. We look like we don’t belong in the same fucking league!
ok we’re only down 17.
Let’s get the offense going.
they call that little tap on tunsil?
They ran it. Lol
Terrible
SIGH
Did they even practice this week?
I don’t have a problem with what Tunsil did there
THERE’S THE LACK OF OFFENSIVE LINE DEPTH KILLING US!!!—Kilgore goes out at center, Swanson comes in and completely screws up the snap!!!—Well TIM KNIGHT, PHELONIUS FISH, and all the rest of you guys who thought our O-Line situation was just fine, WHAT DO YOU THINK NOW???
————
DRAKE & GORE combined for 15 yards rushing last week behind this O-Line. How many yards do they have THIS WEEK??? Ya’ our O-Line is OK, right??
The offense has been horrible
why was that not roughing the passer?
Stop telling me how good Tannehill is
I can’t take it
He sucks
Sucks bad
WTF are you talking about????????
He sucks
I have officially turned this garbage OFF. Not wasting my Sunday getting aggravated by our poser piece of shit team. Unfuckingbelievable how disappointing this is. I’ll have to listen to this shit all week, how we were the worst 3-0 team in the NFL, blah-blah-blah, and what hurts is, they will be RIGHT!
nice hit by raekwon
defense
DEFENSE
DEFENSE
Same old same old
FFS
I just turned it to NASCAR. Fuck this shit!
MIKE E: Mrs OD told me to “TURN OFF THAT TV NOW!!”
SHE TOTALLY AGREES WITH YOUR POINT OF VIEW!!
OH-OH, here comes another F-BOMB!!
Lots of time left for us to come back.
NAPLES: Can you play center?
I did play LS.
But NE is too far for me to get there today.
why not chop gronk at teh line?
At least Jacksonville is whooping the jets
jets, bills, colts, titans all losing so that all helps.
I’m tired of having to feel better about who else is losing.
Straight trash
House of cards
HEY, SON. PLEEZE tell me a couple of UCF’s stud O-Linemen will be entering the upcoming NFL Draft!!! Congrats to your boys for crushing PITT and extending their winning streak to 17 games!
dorsett with a freakishly great catch
k
now it might be out of reach
Can’t win against Brady when the offense sucks and the defense gets screwed a couple times by the refs. It’s time to go watch the games from last night. …college football is just so much more enjoyable these days.
Wow, just wow, and not a good wow
DAVID: I HOPE you’re not mad at me b/c I didn’t go to Foxborough today!
Unless You had more money than whoever paid off the refs, it wouldn’t have helped.
If we go 3-1 each quarter we are in the playoffs.
I predicted this to be a loss before the sseason.
Didn’t all of you?
Loss maybe but we look like shit. Stinky shit.
We never had a good hate down Monday for a while. 🙂
It’s coming lol
All this speed and can’t get the ball to any of them.
Can’t run it
Can’t throw it down the middle
Can’t get a first down
Can’t even try to throw it at the sticks down 17
Dink and suck, dink and suck
PLAYOFFS, NAPLES, PLAYOFFS??? In the famous words of Jim Mora, “We may not win another single game this year!!!”
Never thought we would make the playoffs to start with. Bet you we get more than the Vegas wins though.
Team looks completely outmatched by possibly the worst Pats team in a decade. It always sucks to see the real Dolphins but it’s useful before the hype gets ridiculous. This team is bad. Tannehill is not the answer. The draft was full of answers and maybe this year we actually look for one. Terrible effort, terrible game plan, terrible all around. Everyone on this team should be embarrassed.
Time of possession is a joke.
Everyone was hyping Tannehill’s dink and dunks as a 6 year QB. Didn’t you watch Baker last week with a little envy? Mahomes this year with lots of envy? I know I did.
A Pretty rational analysis, New Age. Next week we play at Cincy. That game, too, could get ugly in a hurry.
Tannehill is badly out of synch.
We are getting no pass rush.
We can’t run the ball.
We are not scheming against Gronk correctly.
AND THAT’s THE GOOD NEWS!!!
Lol
OD, not sure about O-line but I’ll take Milton in a second.
YUP!!
patsies were desperate to win this game … might be last hurrah of the dynasty.
I don’t get how our offense can be so miffed by NE this is the team we SHOULD know best. This is the team we spend off seasons trying to build for to beat.
We can’t even get a first down.
Our O today is the worst part for me.
One take had from the first half was that Brady ain’t Brady anymore. He’s still a good QB, but he’s living within what he has left from what he was before. He’s living off his smarts and not his arm.
OD, if we get another first round OL this next year, i’ll probably quit watching the Dolphins until we change ownership. I’ve kinda come around to your side of the aisle. I watch McVay and his explosive offense, then look at Dink and Dunkin Donuts and wonder what the hell we have here. We have speed everywhere…and our QB still can’t hit a 20 yard pass with consistency. Our HC is a ‘offensive genius’, yet we had one great year with a run based offense(which he can’;t even get that going now). It seems like our HC doesn’t know what he needs to win, and therefore he needs to move along and take his below average QB with him.
This game is probably out of reach, so let’s see some grit and hustle in the second half anyway. Let’s see some adjustments by Gase.
Only reason they don’t go crazy is cause Gase doesn’t want to put some of his special plays on tape.
Oh yeah. I remember now.
nice D by Baker.
Where’s McMillan p?
Gase says we need a stop.
We need a GO coach.
Go get a first down
Go score
ok so there’s a stop 3 and out.
Dammit
but the patriots don’t hold on pass blocking
3rd and long
Here comes the dump off
jail break pass rush … and everybody’s covered
Gase is out-coached today.
Not sure why we did not just do what Detroit did.
Another OL injury.
No pass rush
Stick a fork in it.
JuJuan JAMES commits holding penalty on first down and allows sack of Tanny on 3rd and 12!!!–BOY, I’VE GOT TO HAND IT TO TIM & PHISH, our O-Line really is outstanding. The decision to draft NO O-Linemen this year was a stroke of genius. And, of course, taking ASIATA in round 5 last year sure paid off, didn’t it???
SOMEWHERE, MF-13 is saying “I told you so!!!”
Oh yeah bc everything other than the OL is just perfect
This is a game where we miss Landry, He always moved the chains against the cheats. Nobody is moving the chains today on our side