Patriots vs Dolphins: Tom Brady Racks Up the Yardage in the Pats' Week 1 Win

Could Tom Brady have been any more perfect? 

The reigning MVP completed 32 of his 48 passes for an astronomical 517 yards while tossing four touchdowns and posting an incredible 121.6 quarterback rating. However, Brady did make one mistake: one lone interception. 

As Brady was near perfect, his lone mistake ended his streak, which stands of as an NFL record of 358 passes thrown without being intercepted.

But, let's be realistic here: Do stats and records mean anything to Brady, Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots? Absolutely not.

As Brady lit up the sky, he led New England to a 38-24 record over their divisional rivals the Miami Dolphins.

What can we take from this game? Well, for starters, Brady looks to be on track for another MVP-caliber season and New England's offense looks unstoppable if all players are clicking. However, Miami's offense was extremely effective against New England's new-look 4-3 defense.

The Patriots may have accumulated 622 total yards of offense, but Miami managed to pile up 488 total yards—definitely not a game that New England's defense should feel good about.

Chad Henne did the best that he could to silence all critics in Miami as he went 30-of-49 for 416 yards while throwing two interceptions and only being intercepted once.

Entering 2011, many believed that New England was going to be able to put tons of pressure on opposing quarterbacks with the new additions of Andre Carter, Mark Anderson and Albert Haynesworth, but the Patriots brought down Henne a total of four times.   

Four sacks may seem impressive, but keep in mind that Henne did throw the ball 49 times, which opens up more opportunities to get to the quarterback. 

If you watched this game closely, you'd notice that Haynesworth was not a factor and Vince Wilfork was double-teamed for the majority of the game. So where were Carter, Shaun Ellis and Mike Wright? They should have brought the heat on numerous occasions.

As New England did a decent job at attacking Henne, the team's offensive line did a phenomenal job protecting Brady. 

Entering this game, it was a known fact that rookie Nate Solder was going to start at right tackle in place for the injured Sebastain Vollmer and that the newly acquired Brian Waters would start at right guard. So, at opening kickoff, New England's offensive line was already depleted and very thin—and it got thinner. 

New England's starting center, Dan Koppen, left the game late in the first half with a serious left leg injury. From pure speculation, Koppen was seen on the sidelines with a walking boot on and I would guess that it's some sort of a broken bone, possibly a broken ankle. 

As Koppen went down, Dan Connolly filled in for him at center as the unit only allowed just one sack. 

Another rather alarming sign from Monday's game is that Chad Ochocinco rarely saw the field as Deion Branch and Wes Welker were the only two wide receivers on the field for the most part. When No. 85 did see the field, he snagged just one pass for 14 yards. 

New England walks away from their season opener with a lot of good and promising signs, such as rookie Ras-I Dowling playing solid coverage, Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski being uncoverable and their running game performing solidly.

However, there are a fair share of negatives: New England had a struggling secondary, lackluster pass rush and an invisible Ochocinco. Koppen could be out for the season, and their run defense was shaky. 

In a nutshell, Brady had a record-breaking night and is now the Patriots' record-holder for total yards in a single game. He led the offense to a phenomenal performance even if the Patriots' defense was rather shaky. However, this showed that it their defense is very flexible and may be a "bend-not-break" kind of group. 

New England will enter Week 2 with an 1-0 record looking forward for the 1-0 San Diego Chargers. It should be a huge test for both teams. 

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