Patriots on a Roll: Aerial Assault Overwhelms Dolphins

The Miami Dolphins have been a thorn in Bill Belichick’s side since he first arrived in New England. He is only 10-8 against the turquoise and orange Florida fish, and five of his 10 division losses since 2002 have come at the hands of Miami.

Miami’s Wildcat offense, which was averaging a piddly 1.7 yards per play over the past three games, finally found stride against New England on several big plays. On Miami’s three scoring drives, they seemed to move the ball at will. Pat White gashed the Patriots for a 33-yard gain on his first snap of the game. Following this, he led the offense with several plays out of the Wildcat, including a 15-yard pitch to Ricky Williams.

The Dolphins have the winning formula against teams that rely on their quarterback. They’ve been able to win the time of possession battle, and did so again today, albeit by a slim margin of four minutes.

They soaked up a ton of game clock on their third quarter opening drive, a whopping 10:09 to be exact. Running back Ronnie Brown tossed a touchdown to tight end Joey Haynos in the third quarter, and Dan Carpenter kicked the go-ahead PAT.

But the Patriots answered back just over 90 seconds later with a long catch-and-run by Randy Moss, who stiff armed and stumbled his way free from rookie cornerback Vontae Davis for the score.

Thus is the juxtaposition that has plagued the Dolphins all season: soaking up the clock on offense, but unable to make a stop on defense.

Their defense is stout against the run, ranking fifth overall in yards per game, but allows the seventh most points of any team and ranks in the bottom half for passing yards and total yards allowed per game.

Dan Dierdorf, for all of his witless statements, said it best when he mentioned that the Dolphins severely lack an explosive pass attack. Although Ted Ginn, Jr. and Davone Bess are two of the fastest receivers in the league, they drop a lot of catchable balls and run a lot of short routes.

To sum it up, Tom Brady had 13.3 average yards per completion, whereas Chad Henne had 11.5. And today was one of the Dolphins’ better days, statistically speaking, in the passing game. It may not be fair to compare Henne to Brady (though, interestingly, both played at Michigan), but even still, the Dolphins are ranked almost dead last in yards per passing attempt.

They rank fourth in rushing yards per game, and fourth worst in passing yards per game. They’re averaging under six yards per passing attempt and their opponents are averaging over eight. In today’s NFL, a non-existent passing game simply will not suffice, and can’t win ball games.

The Patriots, meanwhile, are finally hitting stride on offense. Although they “only” put up 27 points this week, which pales in comparison to the 59 against the Titans or 35 against the Buccaneers, the Dolphins always play the Patriots close, and they’ve also been much more competitive than either of those winless-at-the-time teams.

Brady threw one touchdown and one interception in today’s win, and completed over 67 percent of his passes. He’s been on a roll over the past few weeks, and though he didn’t provide one of his more spectacular performances, he reached 300 yards passing for the fourth time this season. While it’s hardly on pace with his 2007 MVP campaign, one can hardly be disappointed with his performance following reconstructive knee surgery.

How I, or anyone else, expected him to immediately begin turning in numbers reminiscent of that season is a wonder. Perhaps it was an empty hope? Regardless, New England is back in winning form after starting 3-2 and being dubbed "past their window of success."

For a difficult month of November, where they face two undefeated teams, two of the best offenses in the league and the No. 2-ranked defense, a win is an excellent start. With their offense finally finding stride, the Patriots are primed to maintain momentum in November.