Re-Watch - Dolphins

Every Monday, win lose or draw, I go back and take a second look at the game. I do my best to separate the passion and emotion of Sunday from the retrospect of Monday.

This game was everything that Patriots nation needed out of week 17. The #2 seed is locked up, and some much needed rest is on the horizon. Unfortunately, all everybody wants to talk about is the potential Denver vs New England AFC Championship. The nostalgia factor is almost too much to handle: Brady vs. Manning, but it the novelty of seeing the clash happen at Mile High that has everyone foaming at the mouth.

These guys are tough, but Seabass and Mankins
will clearly benefit from this bye week.

Not me though. I am focused on the here and now, just like Belichick and Brady. The fact is that we played a phenomenal game yesterday, but nothing we did this month will carry over. We start a new season today. Although it looks primed for the #1 and #2 seeds to face off, there are some good teams that will hope to spoil our love fest. 

We played a great game against a middle-of-the-road team. Any time you are able to shut out a team for 60 minutes, you deserve credit, but the effort was not perfect. Miami was affected by the cold, and they missed opportunities for scores (missed FG, missed open WRs, and fumbled in red zone). Sure, we did a lot of things well, but we need to keep it in perspective. Miami had nothing to play for, and they folded like paper cranes at an origami convention.

Lots of guys made plays, and all 4 of the RBs contributed positive snaps. Stevan Ridley had a really good game in short yardage situations, including a direct snap play on a 3rd and 1. Also, his 10 yard run from the shadow of the goal line was a big play. Danny Woodhead also displayed his skillset as he torched Miami on screens and draws all day. Vereen and Bolden provided an effective change of pace when utilized, but it seems obvious that Ridley and Woodhead are the favored 1-2 punch.

The offensive line played as well as can be expected. The only sack allowed came from a cleverly disguised CB-blitz that went unnoticed on the blind side. Other than that, Brady was only hit once. Brady had lots of time to find the open guy, but he wasn't really able to get Brandon Lloyd going. Troy Brown suggested that Lloyd looked rattled by the weather, and that issues of trust still remain between Lloyd and Brady. Hopefully Lloyd can get over that knee injury, and get back to practice to nail down the reads/timing. As well as things went, the success was limited mostly to the inside passing game. We really need Lloyd to be productive on the outside to complement Welker and Hernandez.

Hopefully this 3 sack performance was merely
a stepping stone to more success

Defensively, everything was working. Brandon Deaderick and Justin Francis were rushing on the inside and the outside, and having success. I am definitely going to review these 7 sacks to illustrate the success of the pass rush. I noticed Francis absorbing double teams at DT, and getting around the corner at DE. Deaderick had a nice bull-rush at DE that produced a sack. The biggest concern is the injury to Rob Ninkovich. I saw Trevor Scott make both positive and negative plays on the edge after Nink went down, and it will be hard to replace the consistency you get with Ninkovich in there.

On the back end, The Patriots played as well as they have all season. Miami lacks quality talent at WR, but even with Chung-Gregory-McCourty-Arrington back there The Pats hung in there. Tavon Wilson got bailed out on an overthrow, but for the most part the DBs kept everything in front of them. Likewise, good coverage was partly responsible for the 7 sacks. We were trying to force Tannehill to execute on 3rd downs and in the red zone, and Miami finished 5/13 on 3rd, and 0/1 in the red zone. Overall, we executed the game plan perfectly. 

As a side note, Reggie Bush did play in this game. He didn't do anything whatsoever, but he played in the game. Many analysts thought Bush was priority #1 for this game, but honestly he didn't make it hard to forget about him. Credit Jerod Mayo and Dont'a Hightower for sticking to him like white on Rice.

We played great, but how did we fare in my keys to victory:

1. Turn Back Into Tom Terrific - This was one of those vintage Brady games. He turned in a quiet, but brutally efficient performance. He constantly put his team in position to run the right play, and he also extended his TD pass streak past Unitas. He only had a 65.0 QBR and a 104.4 QB rating, but his decision making was perfect. Also, let's not forget how difficult it is to throw in cold, driving wind, ask Tannehill, and his 19.8 QBR.

2. Red Zone Defense - Well, we shut them out and they went 0/1 in the red zone. Can't complain.

3. Welker/Hernandez Inside Passing Game - Aaron Hernandez missed a few opportunities, but he also had a few dynamic plays. Wes Welker was the life's blood of the offense once again. Brady and Welker really exploited Miami over the middle, and at times it looked too easy (like on the TD). Overall, Welker and Hernandez combined to produce 47% of Brady's passing yards on the day.

4. Offensive Line Cohesion - I already talked about how good these guys were on Sunday. All the RBs had success, and Brady stayed pretty clean. This was a big step back in the right direction.

5. Pass Rush Revival - Well, yeah, I mean 7 sacks. It stinks to lose Ninkovich, but its encouraging to see big plays by Deaderick, Scott, and Francis. The Chandler Jones injury really helped jump-start these tier-2 guys, who we will be counting on to share the load in January and (hopefully) February. Jermaine Cunningham is still working his way back into the mix, but there seem to be a lot of hungry and capable guys that can play DE and DT. This can't be a bad thing.

*BREAKING NEWS - Tom E Curran is reporting that there is "cautious optimism" that Rob Ninkovich could play in the division round (next game). The Boston Herald is reporting that it looks like "strained muscles" in the hip. The injury looked bad, but the day after reports are better than the initial appearance.