The New England Patriots opened their 2021 regular season campaign with a heartbreaking loss at the hands of their divisional rival, the Miami Dolphins. With a final score of 17-16 in favor of Miami, the Mac Jones era in New England has started off with a tough loss, pushing the Pats record to 0-1 early on.
Not all was bad in this one; in fact, the Patriots dominated the proceedings for most of the afternoon. The offense was able to move the ball up and down the field for the majority of the game, and the defense did a good job at limiting the Dolphins offense for the most part.
That begs the question; how on earth did the Patriots manage to lose this contest? The Pats outgained the Phins in total yards (393 to 259), picked up more first downs, and had a better third down percentage. If you missed the game and quickly checked the stats, you’d be surprised to find out New England actually lost this game.
What the stats won’t tell you however, is that this was an incredibly sloppy performance from the Patriots. They may have outplayed Miami in most aspects of the game, but they also beat themselves in the process. Here are the three biggest issues that popped up in the Patriots season opening loss to the Dolphins, and they will need to be fixed quickly if they want to avoid losing two games in a row.
New England Patriots Issue No. 3: A lack of ball security
One of the things Miami did win in this game was the turnover battle, as the Pats lost two fumbles, whereas the Dolphins only had a lone interception thrown by Tua Tagovailoa. In total, the Patriots had four fumbles on the day, showcasing an inexcusable lack of ball security that easily lost the team this game.
The main one that sticks out is Damien Harris‘ fumble late in the fourth quarter. The Patriots were deep in Miami territory, and only needed a field goal to take the lead. But Harris got greedy when he didn’t really have to, and ended up coughing up the football in an attempt to fight his way towards the endzone.
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While Harris’ fumble was certainly untimely, and cost the Patriots a shot at taking the lead, he wasn’t the only culprit. Mac Jones didn’t make too many mistakes yesterday, but he very nearly made a major mistake on his first drive when he decided to try to flip the ball backwards to Jonnu Smith while being tackled by three Dolphins players. Smith was luckily able to pounce on the ball and prevent a touchdown, but it ended up knocking the Pats out of field goal range, and they were eventually forced to punt.
Smith would fumble himself in the redzone a few possessions later, but David Andrews was right on the scene and ensured the Patriots held onto the football. Nick Folk buried a field goal on the ensuing play, so the Patriots avoided catastrophe here.
They weren’t as lucky on their fourth fumble, which was courtesy of rookie running back Rhamondre Stevenson. Stevenson had a nice catch out of the backfield before he lost the ball on his was to the ground. Stevenson seemed to think he was down and provided basically no resistance, and ended up finding himself in head coach Bill Belichick’s doghouse for the rest of the game.
Simply put, you shouldn’t expect to win many games when you fumble the ball four times. New England was lucky that they were able to pounce on two of them, as it very easily could have been much worse. You can bet this is going to be an area of focus for the Patriots as they begin preparations for their upcoming game against the New York Jets.
New England Patriots Issue No. 2: Penalties
Another area the Dolphins beat the Patriots in was the penalty column. New England was penalized eight times for 84 yards, whereas Miami was penalized five times but for just 28 yards. The Pats repeatedly shot themselves in the foot in this one, and had they been more disciplined they would have won this game.
There were a few in particular that were more enraging than others. Isaiah Wynn effectively erased a Damien Harris touchdown early in the second quarter with a holding call. Rather than being at the one yard line, if not in the endzone, the Patriots found themselves outside the redzone, and ended up having to settle for three points rather than seven.
Justin Herron also had a bad hold that wiped out a 33 yard completion to Kendrick Bourne. Herron came in to replace an injured Trent Brown early in this one, but he struggled throughout the contest, and was eventually benched for Yasir Durant.
Bourne had another big gain, this time a 17 yard catch, reduced to basically nothing thanks to an iffy blindside block call on Shaq Mason. Just a play before that, Gunner Olszewski had a nice 14 yard punt return wiped out by an unnecessary roughness call on Matthew Judon. Both these plays hindered a promising drive that eventually ended up with just three points.
The Pats ended up making their lives harder for themselves in this one. Belichick typically runs a tight ship in terms of penalties, and it would be a safe bet to believe that he will get this under control. But it was certainly an issue in their season opener, and it ended up costing them a victory.
New England Patriots Issue No. 1: Failure to punch the ball into the endzone
Despite all the mistakes New England made, they still had a chance to come out on top in this one. Penalties and fumbles aside however, their offense consistently faltered in the Miami half of the field, and it’s the biggest reason that they are 0-1 to start the season rather than 1-0.
New England’s offense was moving the ball all game long in this one, yet they only managed to find the endzone once in this one. They always seemed to make some sort of mistake that was self-inflicted in opponent’s territory that ended up killing them.
Jones fumble on the first drive took a chance at putting three points on the board off the radar. Wynn’s holding call turned seven points into three. Harris’ fumble deep in the redzone effectively ended the game. These are things we have already looked at, but it goes even deeper than that.
On the Patriots final field goal drive of the game, Meyers had a huge drop on third and four with tons of room around him. It wasn’t a great throw by Jones, but the ball hit Meyers hands, and he has to have that. Instead of setting up a first and goal situation, New England was forced to settle for three points again, and that ended up being their final score of the game.
Jones had a couple of poor passes on routes cutting towards the outside of the field. He nearly killed this drive earlier on off of a similar throw, but Hunter Henry made a great catch off his shoelaces to keep the chains moving. Nelson Agholor also dropped an almost identical throw on the same route earlier in the game too.
This small issue for Jones is indicative of a larger issue, and that’s New England’s failure to put the ball in the endzone. Small issues like these piled up all game long, and ended up turning into the biggest issue New England faces as they move onto Week 2. Miami wasn’t as successful moving the ball as New England was, but they managed to score two touchdowns compared to New England’s one, and that’s why they came out on top.
The Patriots had five drives that lasted more than four minutes, but they failed to turn any of those into touchdowns. Methodically moving the ball down the field is nice, but if you don’t end up with a touchdown, it’s ultimately considered a win for the defense. New England’s defense found themselves giving up too many wins to Miami’s defense, and their failure to find the endzone is the biggest reason they walked out of Week 1 with an 0-1 record.