Tom E. Curran looks at some Hard Truths of the Patriots' 38-7 demolition of the previously unbeaten Dolphins
FOXBORO -- Every problem the Patriots had on offense prior to Sunday wasn’t directly traceable to their inability to run the ball consistently. Just most of them.
They couldn’t sustain drives because they couldn’t pick up short yardage. They couldn’t get defenses to commit less attention to Rob Gronkowski because they didn’t force defensive coordinators to commit more people to the box. They were one-dimensional and that dimension -- trying to throw the ball -- was compromised by a lack of separation by outside receivers.
BEFORE THE GAME, WE SAID . . .
Sunday against Miami, they made the blocks they’d been missing, they cleared room for unfairly maligned Sony Michel, they got the ball in the hands of James White near the line of scrimmage (which allowed him to do his thing), and almost all of that came because of better blocking. And not just on the offensive line but at wide receiver, tight end and from hammer-headed fullback James Develin.
The Dolphins, who were yiedling just 3.3 yard-s per carry coming into the game, allowed 175 yards on 40 carries. Michel went for 112 on 25 carries. White had another 44 on 8 carries. White also caught 8 passes for 68 yards. The Patriots scored on four of their six first-half possessions with drives of 13 plays and 15 plays bookending the half. They followed that up with two more touchdown drives on their next three possessions -- 9- and 12-play drives.
MORE HARD TRUTHS
The effectiveness of the running game took the heat off Tom Brady, who was a bit inaccurate to start -- throwing behind Gronk in the end zone on the first drive, then high to Cordarelle Patterson at the goal line before throwing a pick on the second drive of the game. He had plenty of good throws too, his rainbow touchdown to White in particular. But execution in the passing game was a factor as well. The 55-yard touchdown for Patterson came because White delivered a perfectly legal pick at the line of scrimmage to free him. The much-anticipated unveiling of Josh Gordon came and it signaled he might be very useful. He had two third-down conversions and drew a defensive holding call. With Julian Edelman back on Monday, the arrow is pointing up.
New England Patriots
The Patriots were so good on offense, it took this long for me to mention Gronk’s day. He had four catches for 44 effective yards. There were times Brady stared him down but the entire fortunes of the offense didn’t rest on whether or not he and Brady could get linked up. It was because the Patriots could run it.