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New England Patriots want to quickly forget Monday night loss to Miami Dolphins

By The Sports Xchange
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) heads off the field after the team defeated the Miami Dolphins 35-17 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts on November 26, 2017. File photo by Matthew Healey/UPI
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) heads off the field after the team defeated the Miami Dolphins 35-17 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts on November 26, 2017. File photo by Matthew Healey/UPI | License Photo

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- The defending champion New England Patriots (10-3) had been cruising toward this Sunday afternoon's trip to Pittsburgh for a showdown with the Steelers (11-2) that will likely decide the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoff picture, simultaneously serving as a rematch of last year's conference title game and a would-be preview of what's in store for this January.

But New England's eight-game winning streak and 14-game road winning streak, second-longest in NFL history dating back to the start of last season, came crashing down in Monday night's ugly 27-20 loss in Miami that really wasn't even as close as the final score suggested.

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The Dolphins led wire-to-wire as Tom Brady and Co. lost their fourth game in the last five trips to Miami. Offensively, New England couldn't get anything going on the ground or through the air and went 0-for-11 on third down, the franchise's worst performance in nearly 30 years.

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"Bottom line was we didn't have a good night offensively in really any area and we were probably fortunate to have the points that we had with a couple of big plays and gained a lot of yards in a few plays," head coach Bill Belichick said after breaking down the tape from his team's first loss since Week 4 to the Panthers. "That was probably the best thing that we did, but our overall consistency in the running game and in the passing game wasn't at a winning level. That's obvious."

Said Brady, "It was pretty bad. You can't get any worse than that so ... We couldn't stay on the field and just didn't make enough plays. It's just a bad night. We've had a lot of good nights this year and (this) was a bad night."

Playing without suspended tight end Rob Gronkowski, Brady threw a pair of interceptions, his first multi-pick game of the year, had a season-low 59.5 passer rating and got only 25 yards of help from a ground game that had topped 190 yards rushing in each of the previous two weeks.

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While New England was held to as few as 20 points for the first time since Week 5, the defense allowed more than 17 points for the first time since the loss to Carolina. Dolphins quarterback Jay Cutler passed for three touchdowns with no interceptions, including two scores to Jarvis Landry. And Kenyan Drake hurt the Patriots as both a runner (114 yards on 25 carries) and a receiver (five catches for 79 yards).

As coaches usually describe good team wins, this was a complementary effort with both sides of the ball very much contributing to the loss.

Now New England has a short week to clean things up, get healthy and prepare for its biggest challenge of the season.

"We have to spend a little bit of time on the things that we need to make sure that we correct and address or we'll see them again and they'll be a problem again and also turn the page and move on to Pittsburgh," Belichick acknowledged. "Pittsburgh is schematically quite a bit different than Miami, so we can't dwell on the Miami game. Pittsburgh is a great team. They have their way of doing things and their schemes that they run and we'll have to start preparing for those."

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And try to regain some of the momentum lost in one dismal performance in Miami.

"It's a short week and we have a lot to catch up on," Brady said. "I mean we can't go up there and play as poorly as we did (against Miami). I think we have to do a lot of things better. I certainly have to do a lot of things better and that's what my focus will be this week."

"I'd say everything just centered around consistency," Belichick concluded. "At times we did things well enough in the game in all three phases, but not all the time. We've just got to do a better job of coaching, playing and being more consistent in all situations, really in all three phases of the game."

Because next up is the biggest game of the year with plenty of possible ramifications for New England's would-be title defense on the road to Super Bowl LII.

REPORT CARD VS. DOLPHINS

--PASSING OFFENSE: D-minus - Tom Brady didn't have a completion until the second quarter, was held below 100 yards passing in the first half for the second straight week and threw a pair of interceptions to Xavien Howard while targeting Brandin Cooks, who had just one catch on seven targets. Playing without suspended TE Rob Gronkowski, Brady completed only 24-of-43 throws, 13 of those to his running backs, for a mere 233 yards and a season-low 59.5 passer rating. New England was 0-for-11 on third downs, its worst performance in nearly 30 years.

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--RUSHING OFFENSE: F - New England trailed most of the night and never really got the ground game going, running just 10 times for 25 yards. Dion Lewis had an 11-yard run and Rex Burkhead had a 3-yard touchdown run. The running game was simply a non-factor for the Patriots against Miami's 21st-ranked rush defense.

--PASS DEFENSE: D - Jay Cutler played a clean, efficient game against a Patriots pass defense that seemed to be playing catchup to Miami's targets all night. Cutler finished completing 25 of 38 passes for 263 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions for a 112.1 passer rating. He moved around at times and spread the ball to six different targets with multiple catches. Jarvis Landry led the way with eight catches on eight targets for 46 yards and a pair of scores, while running back Kenyan Drake took advantage of New England's linebackers for five catches for 79 yards, including a 47-yard long. CB Malcolm Butler struggled, allowing a 25-yard touchdown to Jakeem Grant.

--RUSH DEFENSE: D - Drake ran the ball 25 times for 114 yards (4.6 average) with a 31-yard long. He made a couple different defenders, most notably safety Patrick Chung, look silly with sharp cuts and ran through others, including linebackers Elandon Roberts and Eric Lee. With Miami's 30 attempts for 120 yards (4.0 average), the Dolphins became the sixth opponent in seven games to top 100 yards and average better than four yards a carry. New England's undermanned front seven continues to be unable to set the edge on outside runs.

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--SPECIAL TEAMS: B - Stephen Gostkowski hit his two field-goal attempts (46, 33) and was again solid on kickoffs, putting them high to the goal line to help hold Miami to a 15.7-yard average on returns. Punter Ryan Allen had a season-high seven kicks and was impressive with a 46.4-yard net that included three boots downed inside the 20. New England's coverage units were their usual solid selves, although the group did little in the return game and couldn't come away with the onside kick in the attempted comeback.

--COACHING: D - Bill Belichick's team looked lethargic and ill-prepared all night. Offensively, the Patriots couldn't adjust to life without suspended tight end Rob Gronkowski and coordinator Josh McDaniels' unit had no efficiency. Defensively, the variety of personnel coordinator Matt Patricia put forth in a banged-up front seven failed to set the edge in the run or cover with any consistency. Miami dictated play on both sides of the ball in this second battle between the teams in a three-week span.

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