MIAMI GARDENS — The Miami Dolphins took a halftime lead Sunday against the New England Patriots but it wasn’t enough. New England had a furious second-half onslaught and the Dolphins fell, 24-19, on a rainy afternoon.
Miami (1-6) was coming off its first win of the season last week against the New York Jets and led against New England (5-3) until late in the third quarter.
The Dolphins couldn’t get their run game going, and the issues seemed to go beyond rookie left guard Kadyn Proctor, the first-round pick, being out with a concussion. New England’s defense, which entered ranked No. 8 against the run (95.3 yards per game), was ready for a Miami ground game ranked No. 7 (131.5 ypg).
Here’s what we learned Sunday:
Drake Maye crushes Dolphins in second half
New England quarterback Drake Maye was without five of his top weapons — wide receivers A.J. Brown, Romeo Doubs and Mack Hollins, tight end Hunter Henry, and running back TreVeyon Henderson — but he riddled the Dolphins in the second half.
Maye, who helped lead the Patriots to the Super Bowl last season, was just 7 of 10 for 52 yards in the first half. But he was 9 of 10 for 146 yards and two touchdowns in the second half as he hit wide receiver Kyle Williams on a 43-yard touchdown pass and wide receiver DeMario Douglas on a 48-yard touchdown pass.
The Dolphins’ secondary appeared confused and unprepared for Maye’s throws, which were pinpoint accurate. — Chris Perkins
Rain not a factor . . . but it was pregame
This was the Dolphins’ only game played in inclement weather this season, and the rainy weather only lasted part of the way through the first quarter before it came back late in the third quarter and briefly got heavy late in the fourth quarter before subsiding. The rain was fairly consistent for about three straight hours before the game, however. It clogged roads and flooded areas around Hard Rock Stadium but the field held up remarkably well throughout the game.
By the way, every other Dolphins game this season has been close to ideal conditions, especially considering the Las Vegas and Minneapolis games were played indoors. San Francisco and New York were on the cooler side but had good weather. The Kansas City home game was hot but not unbearable, which was also the case for the Cincinnati home game.
Home, sweet home . . . previously
The Dolphins entered Sunday’s game having defeated New England in 10 of their previous 13 meetings at Hard Rock Stadium. Miami’s only home losses during that stretch came last season (33-27 Patriots win), in 2019 (a 43-0 New England win), and in 2016 (31-24 Patriots win).
Included in that stretch were a Dolphins 31-17 win in 2023, New England coach Bill Belichick’s final season, a 20-7 win in 2022 that was ex-Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel’s first game, and a 34-33 win in 2018 that was dubbed the “Miami Miracle” because the Dolphins won on the game’s final play that included a series of laterals.
Lots of Pats fans, but not a Hard Rock “takeover”
There were a good number of Patriots fans at Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday, as usual for a New England game, but it probably wouldn’t qualify as a so-called “takeover” the way Kansas City and Cincinnati fans could declare at Hard Rock in Miami’s first two home games of the season.
Unofficially and anecdotally, a takeover would be when the visiting team comprises about 35% of the crowd. Patriots fans might have been 20 to 25% of the crowd Sunday, which is still significant.
Run game stifled early, faces eight-man fronts
Miami rushed for 74 yards on 23 carries Sunday, ending a stretch of five consecutive 100-yard rushing games. New England played a good amount of eight-man fronts against the Miami run game. Running back Ollie Gordon II, who had two 100-yard games in his past three outings, ended with 69 yards on 19 carries. The Dolphins rushed for just 27 yards on 11 carries in the first half. Gordon only had 22 yards on nine carries in the first half. Fellow running back Jaylen Wright added five yards on two carries in the first half and ended with the same total. Willis had two yards on one carry.
Malik Willis stalls out
Quarterback Malik Willis (21 of 32, 211 yards, two touchdowns, one interception, 92.1 passer rating) had a rough day, starting with a rough first quarter that saw him sacked three times. Willis ended up being sacked five times, which tied a season worst. Willis was sacked five times against Las Vegas in the opener and four times the following week against San Francisco.
Willis was 12 of 15 for 112 yards and one touchdown in the first half against New England with a 120.0 passer rating. But the magic stopped in the second half as Willis went 9 of 17 for 99 yards.
Willis had his best day as a Dolphins starter last week with three touchdowns (two passing, one rushing) and no turnovers. Willis had a small bit of luck Sunday as an offsides call negated a fourth-quarter interception by linebacker Christian Elliss.
It wasn’t a terrible day for Willis overall. But he didn’t do nearly enough to provide the necessary heroics on a day when the run game was stopped cold.
Kyle Louis plays as rookies continue to make impact
Rookie safety Kyle Louis, the fourth-round pick who was converted from linebacker during training camp, ended with three tackles as he saw his participation from scrimmage increase in Sunday’s second half. Louis, who was discussed as a jack-of-all-trades type of player before the season, which would have included being a “big nickel” to defend tight ends, played mostly as a slot defender opposing wide receivers Sunday.
Louis’ presence could help the pass defense as the season progresses and it continued a good showing from Dolphins draftees. Proctor, the first first-round pick, missed the game with a concussion but he’s having a good season, which is also the case for cornerback Chris Johnson, the second first-round pick, linebacker Jacob Rodriguez (second round), wide receiver Caleb Douglas and tight end Will Kacmarek (third round), and safety Michael Taaffe (fifth round). A few draftees, including wide receiver Chris Bell (third round), linebacker Trey Moore (foot injury/fourth round), wide receiver Kevin Coleman, who had a touchdown Sunday, and tight end Seydou Traore (fifth round), guard D.J. Campbell (sixth round) and edge rusher Max Llewellyn (seventh round) are off to slower starts.
Gonzalez vs. Douglas doesn’t materialize
New England didn’t have Pro Bowl cornerback Christian Gonzalez shadowing rookie wide receiver Caleb Douglas (four receptions, 43 yards), who had two touchdowns last week and seems to energize the Dolphins’ passing game.
Douglas had two receptions for 24 yards in the first half with much of that coming on an 18-yard reception.
In 2023, Gonzalez shadowed Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill in front of a three-safety scheme used by Belichick.
Dolphins take the lead . . . again
The Dolphins took a 6-3 lead in the first quarter and held a 13-3 halftime lead, which made it their second consecutive game holding a double-digit halftime lead. Miami led the New York Jets, 21-7, at halftime of last week’s 28-25 win. The Dolphins lost the lead for good against New England late in the third quarter when the Patriots went ahead, 17-13.
Defense causes and recovers fumble
Rodriguez utilized the “Peanut punch,’ (called that because it was made famous by ex-cornerback Chicago’s Peanut Tillman) to cause a first-quarter fumble that cornerback JuJu Brents recovered. It was Miami’s second recovered fumble of the season. The turnover resulted in a 31-yard field goal by kicker Zane Gonzalez and allowed Miami to tie the game at 3-3.
Miami entered the game 29th in the league with five turnovers and second-to-last in the league with one fumble recovery.
Pass rush surfaces then disappears
Edge rusher Chop Robinson recorded two sacks and fellow edge rusher Josh Uche recorded a first-quarter sack for a 12-yard loss on Maye to get the pass rush off to a good start. Unfortunately, it didn’t last. Robinson’s second sack came early in the third quarter and the Dolphins didn’t get another as Maye torched the secondary.
The Dolphins entered Sunday’s game last in the league in sacks (six) despite having two in last week against the Jets. That was only Miami’s second game this season recording a sack, joining their four-sack performance against Minnesota.
Special teams struggles a bit
Kicker Zane Gonzalez missed a 43-yard field goal attempt in the fourth quarter, extending the special teams issues for the Dolphins on a day when special teams seemed to be doing OK.
The special teams personnel shuffling continued Sunday as it’ll likely continue all season. The core players range from linebackers Jackson Woodard and Shaka Heyward to running back Kaytron Allen, Traore, Louis and edge rusher Rodney McGraw. Safety Reese Taylor, who missed the past two games with a quad injury, was back as a core special teams player. Previous special teamers who got heavy work such as cornerbacks Marcellas Dial Jr. and Jaylin Simpson and wide receiver Jared Wayne were inactive Sunday.
Punter Bradley Pinion handled the second-half kickoff Sunday for the second consecutive game and it went for a touchback. He had two kickoffs in the second half last week.
Special teams had its cleanest game of the season last week with its only noteworthy blip being a holding call. However, kickoffs went for touchbacks when desired, kickoff and punts were fielded without muffs and field goals and extra points were handled without an issue.
Dolphins Deep Dive: Perkins and Furones on Gordon’s penalty, loss to Patriots | VIDEO
Dolphins’ offense has been surprisingly able to extend drives
With 15- and 13-play drives in the second quarter, the Dolphins now have executed seven possessions with more than a dozen plays this season, 1.00 such drives per game. For some comparison, the best such percentage the past 25 seasons has been .813, when the 2009 team had 13 such possessions in 16 games. — Steve Svekis
Is Dolphins 2026 draft headed for heady territory?
With the Dolphins first-year players flashing yet again against the Patriots (Jacob Rodriguez, Chris Johnson, Caleb Douglas, Kevin Coleman), it would be fun to look at the Dolphins’ past best drafts. The gold standard is the 1983 edition, which brought in Dan Marino, but also superstar receivers Mark Clayton and Anthony Carter. Additionally solid contributors in linebacker Mark Brown and defensive tackle Mike Charles, who each had more than 50 starts in Miami, were selected. As was four-time Pro Bowl/All-Pro-selection punter Reggie Roby. Using a common denominator of 255 selections in each NFL draft (the recent average as the draft has settled in to a seven-round format — they were 12 rounds long in the 1960s and 1970s), here are the top-five (and ties) Dolphins drafts with the most seasons as a primary NFL starter per pick, and most Pro Bowl/All-Pro selections per pick (through the 2017 draft).
Starters per selection
1983: 7.71;
1997: 4.43;
1976: 4.29;
1992: 4.14;
1990: 4.00;
1982: 4.00;
1968: 4.00;
Pro Bowl/All-Pro selections per pick
1983: 2.86;
1997: 1.43;
1990: 1.43;
1968: 1.43;
1973: 1.14.
Dolphins remained competitive since those first two games
For the fifth game in a row, the Dolphins were either leading or trailing by seven points or fewer at some point in the fourth quarter, after starting the season out west with two uncompetitive games. The last time Miami had a streak of at least five such games was in games 2-6 of last season.
Malik Willis continued a streak the Dolphins haven’t seen in at least a decade
Willis had his seventh straight game with a rushing first down. Miami hasn’t had such a streak in the past 10 seasons, at least, according to pro-football-reference.com.
Buccaneers have become the 1973 Dolphins offense the past two contests
This is incredible. Conjuring Dolphins days of yore, when Bob Griese would be the winning quarterback in couple of playoff games to end 1973 with a combined 13 passes, while Larry Csonka, Jim Kiick, Mercury Morris and Co., averaged 231 rushing yards per contest, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have won their past two games with Baker Mayfield throwing a combined 14 passes. And the run game in that 2-0? 105 carries for, I kid you not, 582 yards.
On deck: Detroit Lions at Hard Rock Stadium, Sunday, 1 p.m.
Dan Campbell makes his first visit to Hard Rock Stadium as a head coach since Jan. 3, 2016, when, as an interim coach after the firing of Joe Philbin, his Dolphins stunned the defending-champion New England Patriots 20-10, taking away their homefield advantage through the AFC playoffs. And it was costly, as the Patriots lost to the host Denver Broncos 20-18 in the AFC Championship Game.
