Image courtesy of New England Patriots
For 30 minutes on Sunday evening down in Miami, it looked like so many other games against the Dolphins over the years.
The Patriots trailed by 10 at halftime, mustering just three points and 98 yards of offense.
Then, they flipped the switch and looked like a team still capable of doing damage in a wide open AFC.
Drake Maye accounted for three touchdowns, the undermanned wide receiver group all made plays and the defense buckled down, leading to a 24-19 win.
With it, the Pats avoided disaster, moved to 5-3 and remained unbeaten in the AFC East at 3-0.
“Just to keep our composure and you know, chip away at it little buddy little,” Mike Vrabel said postgame when asked about his halftime message. “Get connected. Get connected and figure out a way to complement each other. Get some points. Get some stops. Get a turnover. Put ourselves back into it.
“It was a good opportunity for us to not be front-runners and to have…to rely on that, that’s going to be huge as we move forward.”
Trailing 13-3 at the break (with Andy Borregales also missing a field goal early), the Pats didn’t exactly put the message to good use, going three-and-out to open the third quarter. Miami answered with one of its own, punting quickly and that’s when the offense finally woke up.
Maye (16-20, 199 yards, 2 TD, 1 rushing TD) hit Kyle Williams for a 43-yard touchdown five plays into the drive. Williams crossed the goal line with the ball, but his own knee jarred it loose as a defender tried to wrap him up. It was initially called incomplete, despite Willams catching the ball and running about four strides into the end zone, eventually getting overturned.
After an immediate Miami three-and-out again, Maye put together a 13-play, 73-yard drive that took 7:36 and ended with a sick little speed option fake to Rhamondre Stevenson, with Maye walking in from two-yards out. That came moments after a huge 4th-&-2 conversion on a great effort from Pop Douglas. The Maye TD gave New England its first lead at 17-13 heading to the fourth.
“We just started finishing off drives,” said Maye on the turnaround. “We hit some big ones, which helped. And we had some catch-and-runs, which was nice. We started to run the football pretty well. It was nice to see that. We just started playing complementary football.”
Early in the final quarter, a tipped ball that ricocheted high into the air fell into the arms of Kevin Byard for his first pick as a Patriot. Two plays later, Maye rolled right and hit Douglas (3 catches, 76 yards) on the right sideline. Pop did the rest, racing 48-yards to the end zone, suddenly making it an 11-point lead with 12:39 to go.
“I love the preparation that we have when big guys go down,” Douglas said when asked about he, Kyle Williams and Efton Chism stepping up in the absence of Romeo Doubs and A.J. Brown.
“How we prepare, we don’t skip a beat…I’m proud of our group.”
Miami moved just 45-yards in 11 plays its next possession, taking far too much time and ultimately coming away with nothing on a missed 43-yard field goal. The Pats punted and the Dolphins did get a 35-yard TD catch from Kevin Coleman when Charles Woods fell down, cutting it to 24-19 with 2:04 left.
Stevenson (19 carries, 82 yards) recovered the onside kick attempt and got the final first down on 3rd-&-5 to ice it.
Green Bay visits next weekend for a 4:25 national game. It’ll be a special weekend in Foxborough as Rob Gronkowski goes into the team Hall of Fame and the 2016 ’28-3′ team is honored for the 10th anniversary of that magical Super Bowl.
Oh, and Tom Brady will be in the house calling a Patriots game on FOX for the first time.
You’d like to think getting off to another slow start should be virtually impossible with an old school big-game feel in Foxborough.
“Proud of Drake, proud of the offense, proud of this team,” added Christian Gonzalez.
“We’ll stack this one and get back to Gillette. We’ve got a big one coming up.”