Miami Dolphins shock New England with victory

The Miami Dolphins have done the improbable and handed Tom Brady his his 9th loss in Miami on Monday Night Football.

Miami is now 9-7 against Tom Brady’s Patriots in Miami after dispensing the Patriots in front of a national crowd and keeping their playoff hopes a live. Miami didn’t even need a lot of drama to do it.

Miami squandered two early first quarter touchdown opportunities and settled for field goals while the defense forced the Patriots to two three and outs to start the game. Miami gave up a 2nd quarter touchdown and was behind one point early in the second quarter. Then they took the game over for good.

Miami answered the Patriot touchdown with one of their own and finished the game with Tom Brady and the Patriot offense being unable to convert a single 3rd down conversion. Overall it was the Dolphins best performance of the season bar none.

The Dolphins entered the game 11 point underdogs but from the start took over the game. Cutler had his best game as a Dolphin but unfortunately was outshined by two other Dolphins players.

Kenyan Drake took over the Dolphins offense both on the ground and in the air with a combined 193 yards. 114 on the ground and 79 on five receptions. Drake is quickly making fans forget Jay Ajayi. His hard running tonight kept drives alive the only thing missing was the end-zone.

Drake was by far the offensive MVP but the defensive MVP clearly goes to Xavien Howard. Matched up with Brandon Cooks, Howard became a shutdown corner. Give the man an island for goodness sake.

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Three plays into the Patriots first offensive series, Howard intercepted Brady and then added another later in the first half. He has four interceptions in the last two games but more importantly tonight, he made plays to keep the ball from moving down the field. His lone pass interference call was a bogus call. Howard is playing at a pro-bowl level the last two games and it has made all the difference.

While the final score, 27-20 appears close the game was Miami’s from the 2nd quarter until the 4th quarter. Miami abandoned the press coverage and went prevent and that allowed the Patriots to climb back in but with a ten point deficit, the ball on the Dolphins 1 yard line, Miami’s defense stepped up and forced the Patriots to kick a field goal with under two minutes left in the game.

By far this was the biggest win of the season for the Dolphins who improve to 7 wins on the season and keep their post-season hopes alive. They play the Bills next week in Buffalo while the Patriots will face the Steelers in Pittsburgh. For now, an incredible upset for a team who has been hindered all season long by poor play.  Oh, and Adam Gase? He called a near flawless game on offense.

Under Adam Gase, the Dolphins are undefeated in their retro uniforms. Tomorrow we will be sure to tell Stephen Ross about that.