Core of 2020 Dolphins helped extend Patriots’ dynasty. Sunday, they will try to end it
Everything’s upside down in 2020.
Even the stakes of Dolphins-Patriots in December.
For the past 12 seasons, the Patriots largely used their late-season division games as a tune-up for the playoffs or to improve their seeding.
The Dolphins, most every winter, have tried to play spoiler.
Last year’s Dolphins win in the season finale earned coach Brian Flores a shipment of Kansas City barbecue from a grateful Chiefs coach Andy Reid.
The game’s result cost the Patriots a first-round bye.
And accordingly, the Chiefs didn’t have to win a postseason game away from Arrowhead Stadium to reach the Super Bowl.
When the Dolphins and Patriots meet Sunday for the 111th time, the stakes are different, but still high.
This time, it’s the Patriots with little to play for but spite.
And this time, the Dolphins must guard against their season getting wrecked.
Miami entered the week as the AFC’s seventh seed, but because of the way tiebreakers would fall, the Dolphins probably cannot afford a loss this Sunday — or the two Sundays that follow.
“I only know a few things,” said center Ted Karras, who won two world championships with New England before signing here in the offseason. “I know that [the Patriots] are working really hard. I know that they’re going to be prepared and they’re going to be tough, smart and physical, and it’s our job here this week to prepare ourselves to outdo them in all of that.
“We have a lot of guys that know kind of how they’re working up there and we’ve tried to get it going down here,” he added. “... Ultimately we’re going to have to play our best when it counts the most Sunday afternoon in Hard Rock Stadium.”
There’s something more historic going on Sunday than simply the fortunes of two teams, this year.
The Dolphins can finally accomplish something the rest of the AFC has fantasized about for a generation:
Finally, and officially, end the Patriots’ dynasty.
“It’s a crucial game on both sides,” said Dolphins safety Eric Rowe, another ex-Patriot. “They’re trying to keep their playoff hopes alive. At the end of the day, we’re trying to keep our playoff hopes alive, too. If we lose these last three, I’m pretty sure we’ll be out. We’ll be 8-8. So it’s a big game for both us and then not just that but it’s a division game, too. Those are always that little bit — adds a little ‘oomph’ to it.”
In reality, the Patriots’ generational run all but ended months back, when age, financial constraints, COVID-19 and Tom Brady’s wanderlust broke the team up.
The Patriots technically could still reach the postseason this year. But any path must include a win Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium.
So it would be strangely fitting, then, if New England’s run finally ended at the hands of Karras, Flores, Rowe, Kyle Van Noy and a bunch of other former Patriots.
“I learned so much,” said Flores, who is 1-2 against his former team since taking over as Dolphins coach in 2019. “I started in personnel. Scott Pioli hired me there as a scouting assistant. Those four years in personnel were very valuable. There are a lot of guys in that department who have gone on and done well for themselves — Jon Robinson, Thomas Dimitroff, Matt Russell, Marvin Allen was on the staff there when I was there. Lionel Vital. So I learned a lot from that group.
“Then going into coaching, working on special teams with Brad Seely who just recently retired and Scott O’Brien who retired a few years ago as well in the kicking game. Going over to offense, working with Bill O’Brien. When I went over to defense, obviously working with [Belichick], Matt Patricia, obviously Josh Boyer, Pat Graham. A lot of really good coaches on both sides of the ball. I would say one of the guys who I learned as much about coaching as anyone is Dante Scarnecchia. I know he’s the O-line coach over there, but just the relationships he built with players and how demanding he was. I think I’ve tried to take a lot of what he did because he had a lot of success. Then just team building and being around a lot of very good players, very good coaches. I had some great experiences there.”
