Week 14 Mimai Dolphins vs. Patriots recap: The Miami Miracle
In this week’s recap, the Miami Dolphins had one of the most memorable victories in their history. In a first-half shootout, the Dolphins stared a loss in the face on their last play, yet, pulled a page from Boise State’s playbook and found a victory.
Following the Miami Dolphins match up with the Patriots, we take a broad look at how the Dolphins pulled out an epic victory vs the Patriots via excellent offensive attacks and gritty play by backups and injured players.
Can we start this article up with Ryan Tannehill? What Ryan didn’t do is light up the stat sheet with 400 yards. What he DID do was everything else. Not to immediately take a shot at another Dolphin, but if Devante Parker had one fourth the grit as Ryan Tannehill he would make 4 billion dollars next year when he signs a new contract. Tannehill got crushed today. With the offensive line woes, that was to be expected. But he kept going and producing when Miami needed him to stay alive in a playoff race.
As of today, Miami is officially considered a playoff contender. Sure, they weren’t mathematically eliminated and they were technically only a game away. However, with the Patriots and the Vikings stacked back to back, many experts didn’t give much thought that the Dolphins could pull of one win, let alone both.
Now Miami is looking at week 15 with eyes on pulling off both wins and keeping pace with the Colts and Ravens. Ryan Tannehill is the first player I stand and applaud for his gritty performance, especially when he clearly has a mild to a severe ankle sprain.
The second award winner is Adam Gase. It’s not easy being a head coach that at the age of 40 is battling controversy. On top of dealing with bad press, he is in charge of running an offense and dealing with an offensive line that is playing third stringers and receivers that are now mostly comprised of practice squaders.
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Yet, Miami found a way to score 21 first-half points. Yes… you read that right. 21 FIRST HALF POINTS. The reason is that Adam protects certain plays until the Patriots come to town and then throws the kitchen sink at them. This week that included the play called “Boise”. A hook and latter play that was not nearly as pretty as its predecessor, yet, got the job done. That was just the cherry on top of the cake as Miami’s offense looked better than it has for years and Gase continues getting better at his scripted 1st quarter plays. For that, I raise my glass.
Lastly, the real reason Miami won today was that of the mentality of the team. This team does not break, does not quit, and plays till the end.
Players like Drake who has not seen the touches or plays that he probably deserves, yet, went out and gave 110% on the last play.
To Minkah Fitzpatrick that honestly had the worst game of his young career. Yet he went out and played Swiss Army knife while Xavien Howard recovered.
Finally, to Kenny Stills. Kenny had some mental lapses and dropped passes in this game that saw him dialed up more than any other. Yet on the last play, he made a great snag, broke a tackle, and got the first lateral that started it all.
There are many more who came out and played with a winning attitude and this article can’t cover them all. Hell, I applaud the entire offensive line for not coming out thinking they were going to get killed. (I did) It was because of that attitude that Miami was in a position to win and took advantage of an insane last second play to win.