After a scoreless first quarter, the Miami Dolphins reeled off 24 unanswered second-quarter points against the New England Patriots, using it as a springboard on their way to a dominant 34-15 victory on Sunday in South Beach. Miami improved to 5-6 while the Patriots fell to 3-9.
Tua Tagovailoa threw for over 300 yards and four touchdowns, while rookie Drake Maye and the Patriots offense struggled to find a rhythm for most of the game. Maye had two second-half turnovers. New England's ten penalties were a major hindrance, while they had few answers on defense for Tagovailoa and Miami's well-tuned offense until the game was out of hand in the second half.
Here's how it all went down in the Rapid Recap.
1. Promising Pats Drive Derailed
The two teams traded punts off their initial possessions of the game, neither able to find an offensive rhythm out of the gate, but the Patriots found a bit of one on their second possession despite racking up 20 yards in penalties that ultimately short-circuited the promising drive.
Antonio Gibson and Drake Maye provided the spark with their legs. Gibson played a pivotal role, showcasing his dual-threat ability with a 14-yard burst through the offensive line and a 14-yard reception that helped the Patriots reach midfield. Maye complemented this effort with two key scrambles, gaining a combined 15 yards, including a nine-yard dash to the Miami 30. The offense moved efficiently at times, with an 11-yard pass to Austin Hooper putting the Pats within scoring range.
However, penalties disrupted the rhythm. Two false starts and a holding penalty negated gains and created long-yardage situations. After reaching the Miami 20, the drive faltered, with an incomplete pass and a short run by Rhamondre Stevenson failing to make up the lost ground. The Patriots settled for a 45-yard field goal attempt by Joey Slye, but his kick struck the right upright, leaving the team empty-handed despite promising moments during their only sustained drive of the first half.
2. Dolphins Strike First… and Second
The Dolphins offense also started to find their stride off the missed field goal, with former Patriot Jonnu Smith emerging as the centerpiece of the team's attack. Miami posted three big plays in a row to get their drive started.
Starting at their 35-yard line, Tua Tagovailoa connected with Smith for 12 yards, followed by a 24-yard strike to Jaylen Waddle that pushed the Dolphins to the Patriots' 29. Another accurate throw to Tyreek Hill gained 10 yards, advancing the Dolphins to the red zone. Smith remained a focal point, adding a seven-yard reception to bring Miami closer to scoring. Though a run attempt by De'Von Achane was stopped for no gain, the Dolphins maintained their momentum with quick, efficient plays.
A costly neutral zone infraction by the Patriots on third-and-3 at their 12-yard line extended the drive, setting Miami up at the seven. Smith then capped off his standout performance with a seven-yard touchdown reception on third down, completing a methodical drive led by Tagovailoa's steady hand and aided by a Patriots third-down penalty.
The Patriots responded with a three-and-out, punting the ball back to Miami and the Dolphins wasted little time adding a second touchdown with a nine-play, 66-yard touchdown drive.
De'Von Achane opened with a seven-yard run, and Tagovailoa then reestablished his growing connection with Smith with a pass of 13 yards to move into Patriots territory. Another strike to Jaylen Waddle gained 17 yards, setting Miami up at New England's 24-yard line. After a short gain and an incomplete pass, Tagovailoa found Waddle again for a critical 14-yard reception on third down, advancing to the 9-yard line.
The Dolphins finished things off as Achane caught a screen pass from Tagovailoa and turned it into a nine-yard touchdown. Miami's two scoring drives seemed almost identical as they grabbed a two-score lead.
Meanwhile, New England's cold start included four first downs and five offensive penalties after four possessions, with three three-and-outs.
3. Miami Keeps Rolling
Miami would continue to roll, scoring a touchdown on a third-straight drive. Tagovailoa overcame an early speedbump on 3rd-and-8 with a 15-yard connection to Jaylen Waddle that took them out to their own 37. A 10-yard run by Jaylen Wright followed, and Waddle continued his impactful day with a 19-yard reception, advancing to the Patriots' 32.
Jonnu Smith also kept his hot game going and contributed two more catches, including a 14-yard gain to the 18-yard line and a 7-yard grab to the 11. On third-and-3, Tagovailoa found Achane on a short pass, and Achane broke free for an 11-yard touchdown, his second score of the day.
New England responded with a third-straight three-and-out and again Miami made them pay with a seven-play, 56-yard drive that tacked another field goal onto their lead just before halftime.
The drive began with a 29-yard deep connection from Tagovailoa to Waddle, setting Miami up at the Patriots' 30-yard line. Tagovailoa followed with a seven-yard pass to Tyreek Hill, and shortly after, Hill made a dynamic 20-yard catch-and-run to reach the Patriots' 3-yard line. Big plays haunted the Patriots throughout the first half.
The field goal made it 24-0 at the half with Tagovailoa completing 20-of-27 passes for 247 yards and three touchdowns for a 139.0 quarterback rating. The Patriots mustered just 83 total yards.
4. Miami Finishes It
The Patriots showed some fight out of the locker room in the third quarter, forcing back-to-back punts to stem the rising tide of Dolphins points. Christian Barmore picked up his first sack of the year, while Marcus Jones came up a key pass defense in the renewed effort that helped force Miami's first two punts since their first possession of the game.
The Patriots offense showed some brief signs of life in response to the defense's stops. Maye made several short, efficient passes, including a 10-yard throw to Kendrick Bourne and a nine-yard connection with tight end Hunter Henry, and adding a scramble for four yards. Despite pressure and penalties disrupting rhythm, Maye led the team to three first downs on their first drive of the quarter and another on the second. But that's when Maye was strip-sacked on third down, resulting in another Miami touchdown, a 23-yard catch-and-run by Waddle that made it 31-0.
Maye would get a touchdown early in the fourth quarter, as the Patriots scrambled to build some positive momentum, throwing a 38-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Austin Hooper on a 4th-and-15 from the Miami 38.
Christian Gonzalez would tack on another score, recovering a fumble and taking it 63 yards to the house. With a successful two-point conversion New England closed the score to 31-15 with 10 minutes left in the game. That score forced Miami to reinsert Tagovailoa into the game and New England even got a fourth second-half punt, but Maye added his second turnover of the day, this one an interception that effectively ended any comeback hopes. Miami added on a final field goal to finish the scoring, 34-15.
5. Patriots are now 3-9
With the loss, the Patriots fall to 3-9 on the 2024 season with a home date against the Colts scheduled for next week before New England finally gets to their long-awaited Week 14 Bye.
After competitive efforts the last four weeks, this was the most lop-sided loss of the year, at least since the 24-3 Week 3 loss to the Jets when they had just 139 yards of total offense. New England showed some fight in the second half, scoring 15 points, but it was too little too late after Miami dominated on the scoreboard in the first half.
Both of those lopsided losses came to familiar divisional opponents on the road, illustrating the strides that the Patriots must take if they're to get back to competing for AFC East titles. Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa remains an enigma the Patriots cannot solve as he moves to 7-0 all-time against New England.
Kickoff between New England and Indianapolis will be 1 pm next Sunday.
DISCLAIMER: The views and thoughts expressed in this article are those of the writer and don't necessarily reflect those of the organization. Read Full Disclaimer
