Dolphins showcase new-look offense vs. Patriots but same-old defense clinches win
The leadup to the Dolphins’ season opener against the New England Patriots was so bloated with story lines — the unveiling of the new-look offense under quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, his reunion with former Alabama teammate Mac Jones, the mystery of the left tackle situation — that maybe one of the few constants from last season had gone overlooked.
A defense that was the best third-down unit in the NFL and led the league in takeaways returned most of its 2020 starters for the 2021 season.
The unit reintroduced itself in the Dolphins’ 17-16 win over the New England Patriots in Foxborough, Massachusetts, on Sunday. The defense forced two turnovers, including the decisive red zone forced fumble and recovery by cornerback Xavien Howard that gave the ball back to the offense with 3:31 remaining in the game.
“I knew they were going to try and run the ball in the red zone. And [it was] putting everything on the line and just punching the ball out, really,” Howard said of the play.
It marked the 23rd consecutive game the Dolphins forced a turnover; the last time the defense didn’t force a turnover in a game was on Nov. 17, 2019, against the Buffalo Bills.
The performance from the defense didn’t come without its share of mistakes. The first play from scrimmage for the Patriots was a 35-yard run from Damien Harris. Raekwon Davis, who started at nose tackle, injured his knee on the sixth play from scrimmage and didn’t return to the game. His absence didn’t help a defense that struggled to stop the run last year; the Patriots rushed for 125 yards on 30 carries as they looked to ease Jones, a rookie quarterback, into the game in his NFL debut.
Jones, the No. 15 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, got more comfortable as the game went on, successfully reading the assortment of blitzes thrown his way and quickly finding his open receivers for timely conversions. The Dolphins registered just one sack and allowed New England to convert 11 of 16 third-down attempts. However, the unit tightened up when it mattered most. The Patriots were 1 for 4 in the red zone. Three of New England’s drives totaled 14 plays and sucked up several minutes of game clock, but the Dolphins held the Patriots to field goals on each of the time-consuming possessions.
“Felt like every time we got a chance to get off the field they made a play or we had a mistake,” Dolphins coach Brian Flores said. “That’s what happens in a division game against good teams. They make plays, too. We knew that. We talked about this being a 60-minute ballgame, and that’s exactly what it was. We talked about playing one play at a time, and we were able to do that and find success at the end.”
It was fitting that a defense that thrived so much in 2020 on momentum-swinging plays such as Howard’s kicked off the 2021 season in a similar fashion. And such plays may need to continue to be a staple of the defense going forward. The debut of the Dolphins’ new offense under co-offensive coordinators George Godsey and Eric Studesville had its positive moments, including touchdown drives to open the first and second halves.
But when the offense faltered and the game was in the balance, the defense showed why it could once again be the engine that drives the team throughout the season.
“We just practice it day in and day out,” linebacker Elandon Roberts said of forcing turnovers. “We talk about it day in and day out. Man, we can be just joking in the locker room and guys like, ‘I’m going to punch one out today.’ It’s just embedded in our defense and even our team.
“It’s just a true testament of taking it from the practice field, the lunchroom and the meeting room because guys can walk around with a football and a defensive guy will just punch it out just trying to be funny. We can’t help ourselves because when we see ball, we want to punch it out. I think it’s just translating to the football field and we are just going to keep working hard on it. Hopefully we can keep that same trend like we had last year.”
