Patriots Week 18 Recap: Miami Remains a House of Horrors for Team
New England was coming off absolute steam rolling off the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 17.
The final week of the NFL regular season came and went and the New England Patriots wanted to try to come in and play disciplined football before going into Wild Card Weekend.
Well, that wasn’t exactly the case as the team looked lethargic and slow in the final weekend of the season.
FUN FACT: The Patriots are 2-7 in Miami since 2013, 101-35 against everyone else (Ryan Hannable)
So, what exactly happened? Well, for one last time in the regular season, let us break down the game!
The Team Fell Flat on Their Faces Right out of the Gate…
The defense started the fun as they allowed a touchdown on the first drive of the game. Putting the Dolphins up 7-0 early.
Next drive, first offensive drive, Mac Jones threw a Pick-6 to give the Dolphins a quick 14-0 lead.
It would only go downhill from there… penalties and bad plays would plague both the offense and defense. The Patriots had 8 penalties for 78 yards, two of them being very costly one being a “roughing the punter” on a 4th and 3 that led to a first down and a touchdown. The second is a Pass Interference on Jalen Mills in the end zone that put the Dolphins on the one-yard line, eventually leading to yet another touchdown.
It was just a brutal day all around for all aspects of the game, and it was not until late in the game when the Patriots started to push the Dolphins within three, but falling short on stopping Tua on a 3rd and 8.
Offense Was as Poor as Could be…
Like I stated, the offense was able to pull of some at the end, but all in all everything just fell short.
Mac Jones ended his day going 20 for 30 with 261 yards, a touchdown, and an interception.
Hunter Henry led all receivers with 86 yards, with Jakobi Meyers right behind Henry with 70 yards.
Brandon Bolden had the lone receiving Touchdown
On the rushing side of things, Brandon Bolden led the Patriots with 86 yards and a touchdown. While Damien Harris and Rhamandre Stevenson each had 30 plus.
Defense Wasn’t Any Better…
The defense did not do much better, as they only amounted one sack, and no interceptions. They were able to clamp down better after the opening drive touchdown, but the pick six by the Miami defense proved to costly of a hole to climb back from in the end.
Maybe the biggest loss though for the defense was rookie DL, Christian Barmore who went down with an injury and had to be carted to the locker room, still no word on the severity of the injury quite yet.
That is the biggest thing to come out of the defense, minus the poor play all around.
Wrapping Up a Patriots Week 18 Loss…
In the end does this loss mean a lot playoff wise? Not at all, but it was just an overall frustrating game. From the get-go nothing seemed to go the way of the Patriots, and as the game went on, it became more apparent.
A 10-7 regular season with a rookie QB at the helm is impressive within itself, the New England Patriots went above and beyond expectations, and now they are playoff bound after only one year removed from missing them.
So, now we put the loss to Miami behind us and look forward to what should be a thrilling Super Wild Card Weekend.
In that weekend, the New England Patriots will face the Buffalo Bills on Saturday Night at 8:15pm on CBS
PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Reaves/Getty Images
-Jeff Hoak (@jeffhoak1)
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