Image courtesy of The Palm Beach Post

Well, it appears the Buffalo game was simply an anomaly.

The Patriots defense gave up big plays on critical downs all day, the offense couldn’t capitalize opportunities and ultimately, the Pats lost 31-17 to Miami on Sunday afternoon.

Miami out-gained New England 390-218, held the Patriots to 13 first downs and held the ball for over 35 minutes. Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle combined for 15 catches, 233 yards and two touchdowns.

The loss not only drops the Patriots to 2-6 on the year, but probably ends most hope of playing meaningful games in December, even if they do manage to beat Washington and Indianapolis the next two weeks. The Dolphins improved to 6-2.

“Really good team, right? They made some plays out there and it’s frustrating, but at the end of the day we had it at a one score game and couldn’t capitalize from the offensive side either,” said Mac Jones, who was just 19-29 for 161 with two touchdowns and a pick.

Trailing 17-7 at the half, the Pats caught a huge break when Miami fumbled the first snap of the third quarter on a botched handoff exchange and Anfernee Jennings fell on it at the Dolphins’ 19. Jones took a sack three plays later on third down, and Chad Ryland hit a 38-yard field goal to cut it to seven.

On the ensuing Miami drive, a 27-yard catch for Waddle on 3rd-&-9 moved Miami to the New England 31. Five plays later, Raheem Mostert waltzed in from a yard out to push the lead back up to 24-10.

Mac hit Pharaoh Brown for 33-yards on the first play of the next drive, but that was it and New England punted back to Miami with a little over six minutes left in the third, pinning the Dolphins inside the five. Miami worked its way out and picked up 20 on a 3rd-&-13 as the poor tackling and chunk plays continued. An ineligible man downfield flag was thrown and then picked up, but New England did eventually get off the field when Jahlani Tavai nearly picked off Tua Tagovailoa (30-45/324/3 TD/1 INT).

The offense took over at its own 15 in the final minute of the third and Jones immediately took a sack and the Patriots punted early in the fourth quarter. Making matters even worse, Kendrick Bourne was injured on the third down play with DeVante Parker (head) and Ja’Whan Bentley (hamstring) leaving the game earlier.

New England finally put together a nice drive, moving 81-yards in 12 plays and finishing it with a short JuJu Smith-Schuster touchdown catch with 8:30 to go, cutting it to 24-17. But, another methodical clock-killing drive took it down to 2:43 and a wide open Waddle on 3rd-&-1 hauled in an easy 31-yard touchdown for the dagger.

“I don’t think so,” David Andrews said when asked if he’s worried about buy-in at 2-6. “I think we fought to the end. We didn’t quit. Against an explosive team like this, you let one, two, three, four plays get away from you, they can be big plays very fast. So, we just have to do a better job with that. Look, it starts with us in the locker room. Any grown man has to sit there and look in the mirror and say ‘what can I do better?’ You start pointing fingers I think that’s kind of a coward way to do things.”

After an ugly three-and-out to open the game for Jones and the offense, Miami drove to the New England 38 before having to punt. The Pats had to punt again, but after Christian Barmore continued his dominance from a week ago getting to Tagovailoa, Kyle Dugger had an interception thrown right to him on the next snap at the Dolphins’ 30. Three plays later, Jones hit a wide open Bourne over the middle for a 24-yard TD and a 7-0 lead with 3:32 left in the first.

Miami’s quick-strike ability burned the Pats moments later when Tua hit Hill from 42-yards out as the speedy river blew by JC Jackson and Marte Mapu had no chance of catching up in time, tying the game at 7-7 in the final 30 seconds of the quarter.

New England quickly punted again and a Tua 4th-&-4 conversion on the ensuing Miami possession brought the ball inside the red zone. Dugger came up with a second down sack for s six-yard loss, but a 13-yard gain for Waddle on third down moved the Dolphins to the New England nine, setting up 4th-&-1 and another conversion to set up 1st-&-goal. On 3rd-&-goal, Jackson was called for pass interference in the end zone after grabbing the back of Hill’s jersey. Two plays later Tua threw a quick bullet to Cedrick Wilson over the middle in front of Jackson to make it a 14-7 game with 6:10 left in the half.

Desperately needing a sustained drive, Mac hit Demario Douglas over the middle to bring the Pats to midfield after an initial first down plunge from Rhamondre Stevenson. More tough running from Stevenson – putting his head down and breaking through tacklers – and a slant to former Dolphin DeVante Parker soon had the offense at the Miami 23 at the two minute warning. The very first snap out of the break was a worst-case-scenario situation for the Pats as Mac lofted a ball down the left sideline that needed more on it intended for a wide open Bourne and Jalen Ramsey picked him off, taking it back to the New England 40.

A holding call hurt Miami early, but a leaping Waddle grab for 18-yards on 2nd-&-14 put the Dolphins at the Pats’ 16, but Mike McDaniel had to settle for a Jason Sanders 30-yard field goal with 26 seconds to go to make it a 10-point game at the half.

The only question now for New England is how they’ll handle the deadline on Tuesday. With meaningful December games a pipe dream, does Bill Belichick look towards next year? Does he still have final say at this deadline with his future still in question? Will guys start checking out? Don’t forget, there’s still a long trip to Germany on the table as well as a Christmas Eve game in Denver and matchups with Buffalo (New Year’s Eve) and Kansas City.

These are questions Pats fans and players aren’t used to having to ask the first week of November.

“It’s going to be challenging. For someone like myself and a lot of guys on this team, we’re in uncharted waters,” added Matt Slater. “I think this is an opportunity for us to display what kind of character we have, what kind of resolve we have, what kind of commitment to the game of football we have. If you’re going to play this game, you’ve got to be committed to it regardless of what your record is.”