Miami Dolphins: 10 observations from Week 1 vs. Patriots

It wasn’t exactly pretty, but the Miami Dolphins won their season opener on Sunday. Here are ten quick observations from their game against the Patriots.

The Miami Dolphins played host to the New England Patriots on Sunday to kick off their 2022 season, and they came away with a victory in Mike McDaniel’s first game as an NFL head coach.

The win wasn’t exactly pretty. There were times when the defense looked leaky, and others when the offense resembled something that we have seen plenty of over the last couple of seasons. But there were positive takeaways as well, and given their upcoming schedule, they’ll take an opening day win over a division opponent any day.

Here are ten quick observations from the Dolphins Week 1 game against the Patriots:

1. Tua had no throws over 25 yards

The Dolphins won a game by 13 points, against a long-time division rival, behind a first-time head coach, against arguably the greatest coach in the history of the game. So why isn’t my excitement off of the charts like it was a week ago? It probably has to do something with the offense looking oddly similar to the way it did last season, a disappointment given the fireworks that we were expecting. There were no throws over 25 yards made by Tagovailoa.

2. Underrated plays from special teams

The two 40-plus yard field goals by Jason Sanders were certainly instrumental in leading the Dolphins to a victory, but the rest of the special teams unit was solid as well. There was a nice play on a punt at the beginning of the third quarter, in which Thomas Morstead boomed a 58-yard kick, which was followed by a textbook tackle by Justin Bethel to pin the Patriots inside their own 10-yard line.