Dolphins look like playoff team in win over Patriots

The Dolphins followed their best performance of the season with their best performance of the season in dominating fashion over the Patriots.

The Miami Dolphins win over the Denver Broncos in Week 13 was the first game of the season where the Dolphins played a complete game in all three phases of the game. It was easily Miami’s best game of the year, but handing a team their eighth straight loss, even by a score of 35-9, is not very impressive on a national scale. Miami followed that up convincingly though with a surprising upset of the defending Super Bowl champions.

The 27-20 score did not fully tell the tale of how dominating the Dolphins were over Tom Brady and the Patriots, but it’s true. Jay Cutler was terrific with three touchdown passes over 263 yards, finishing with a 112.1 passer rating. The most important stat for Cutler was probably the fact that he had zero interceptions in this one, only the third game this season he’s finished without a pick. If you simply looked at just the stat line, you would think that it was Brady’s you were looking at, but Brady actually finished with two picks, and a passer rating of 59.5.

The two interceptions by Brady made it the first multi-pick game of the season for the future Hall of Famer, and the passer rating was easily his worst this season as well. A huge factor of that was the play of Xavien Howard, who was the recipient of both of those interceptions. Howard was an absolute stud Monday night, shutting down the Patriots #1 receiver Brandin Cooks. Cooks did not record a catch until late in the 4th quarter when New England was attempting to rally, and in fairness, Howard wasn’t even covering him at the time.

It was Howard’s second consecutive game with two interceptions, as he is beginning to show why Miami moved up in the second round of the 2016 NFL Draft to snag him. Howard was easily the player of the game for the Dolphins, but the entire defense deserves a round of applause for their performance Monday. The Patriots had several chances down the stretch to get back in the ball game, but the defense remained resilient, and they would not be denied the upset.

The offense looked fairly solid as well, led by their leader Jarvis Landry, who finished with two touchdown receptions. Cutler, whose consistency always seems to go into question, was very consistent in his decision-making, and constantly kept plays alive. Special teams did well in pinning New England’s offense deep in their own territory, and not allowing any big plays.

All in all, it was the second game in a row where Miami played an all-around game. Given the opponent, it’s easy to see that it was their best performance of the evening. Although they remain on the outside looking in, the Dolphins finally looked like a playoff team Monday that can compete with other playoff teams.