Patriots-Dolphins Week 8 Recap: 21 unanswered in the rain

Patriots win 24-19 on 21 unanswered, and lose Hunter Henry doing it

The bottom line: The Patriots trailed the Dolphins 13-3 at halftime in the rain at Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday, then scored 21 straight points to win 24-19. Drake Maye threw for 53 yards in the first half and 146 in the second, and New England is 5-3 and 3-0 in the AFC East. Miami is 1-6.

Maye: 53 yards before halftime, 146 after

The bottom line: Maye finished 16 of 20 for 199 yards with two touchdown passes, a 2-yard rushing score and no interceptions. After halftime he completed 9 of 10 for 146 yards, three total touchdowns and a perfect 158.3 passer rating, per the Patriots’ own game observations.

The details:

• The scoring swing came in a span of a little over a quarter: a 43-yard touchdown to Kyle Williams with 9:23 left in the third, Maye’s 2-yard run with 59 seconds left in the third, and a 48-yard touchdown to DeMario Douglas with 12:39 to go in the fourth.
• Maye’s average air yards per attempt went from 4.6 in the first half to 9.7 in the second, and he added plus-0.42 EPA per drop-back, per the team’s game observations. EPA per drop-back tracks how much each pass play moved a team’s expected points.
• Maye became the first Patriots quarterback with three or more touchdowns in five straight games since Tom Brady in 2007.
• The Williams touchdown was ruled incomplete on the field and corrected on review, as was a fourth-down catch by Douglas, Pats Pulpit wrote.
• New England went 2 for 2 on fourth down. Miami did not attempt one.

What they said. On his halftime message: “Just to keep our composure and chip away at it little by little,” Vrabel said. “It was a good opportunity for us not to be frontrunners.”

On Maye specifically: “If you want to be a great quarterback in the National Football League there’s not a whole lot of excuses,” Vrabel said. “You go out there and find ways to win for your football team.”

On the Williams touchdown: “It was huge. We needed to open it up a little bit and break the barrier of getting in the end zone,” Maye said. Williams on the same play: “When we called it, I knew it was going to be a touchdown. It’s just something we’ve been trying to get off the call sheet for weeks and weeks, so they gave us the perfect look. We made the call, Drake threw a great ball, the line held up, so shoutout to all 11,” Williams said.

Six starters out, and Henry gone by halftime

The bottom line: New England played without A.J. Brown (ankle, knee), Romeo Doubs (shoulder), Mack Hollins (calf), TreVeyon Henderson (illness), Alijah Vera-Tucker (hamstring) and Mike Onwenu (ankle), and lost Hunter Henry to a foot injury during the game, per the team’s game observations.

The details:

• Douglas led the team in receiving with three catches for 76 yards and the 48-yard score. Efton Chism III caught all five of his targets for 37 yards, the most catches on the team, per Football Nation and Pats Pulpit. Williams had the 43-yard touchdown.
• Chism led Patriots wideouts with 52 snaps, ahead of Williams at 49 and Douglas at 38, per the team’s game observations.
• Chism also fumbled in the first half, punched out by Jacob Rodriguez and recovered by JuJu Brents, per Dolphins Wire. It set up a Miami field goal.
• Rhamondre Stevenson ran 19 times for 82 yards, a season-high in carries, and caught all three of his targets, per Yahoo Sports. Corey Kiner added 38 yards on seven carries, with runs of 20 and 10 yards. New England ran for 131 yards.
• Henry tried to return and could not. Gabe Jacas left with a knee injury and did not return, per Pats Pulpit.
• At halftime the Patriots put Ben Brown in at left guard for Walter Rouse. Maye was under pressure on 57.1 percent of his first-half drop-backs and 38.5 percent in the second half, per Next Gen Stats figures in the team’s game observations. Miami sacked him three times, all before halftime, per Dolphins Wire.

What Vrabel said: “Everybody prepares like a starter,” he said. “We missed Hunter, certainly that leadership and his understanding of tough, close games. He always seems to come up and make plays for us. The guys were ready to go. I thought Josh [McDaniels] and the offensive staff did a really nice job of moving guys around.”

The defense stopped the run and got to Willis five times

The bottom line: New England held Ollie Gordon II to 69 yards on 19 carries and Miami to 74 rushing yards, then sacked Malik Willis five times, per Yahoo Sports.

The details:

• Willis completed 21 of 32 for 211 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. He was 12 of 15 for 112 yards and a score in the first half, per the team’s game observations.
• Cory Durden had 1.5 sacks, two tackles for loss and three quarterback hits. Elijah Ponder and Gabe Jacas combined for two sacks, two quarterback hits and four tackles. Christian Elliss led the defense with nine total tackles including half a sack and two tackles for loss, per Yahoo Sports.
• Kevin Byard’s interception, his first as a Patriot, came after the ball deflected off DaQuan Jones’ helmet in the fourth quarter and set up the Douglas touchdown, per NESN.
• Gordon was stuffed five times, with Elliss and Durden leading the team with two run stuffs each, per the team’s game observations.
• Zone coverage was the soft spot. New England played 70 percent zone in the first half and Willis went 8 of 10 for 93 yards against it; defensive coordinator Zak Kuhr called roughly 50 percent man in the third quarter, and Willis finished 6 of 9 for 36 yards and a touchdown against man. Players said more man coverage was not a halftime emphasis, per the team’s game observations. New England entered the week ranked 30th in pass EPA against zone coverage, per the team’s game observations.
• Miami’s lone fourth-quarter answer was a 35-yard touchdown to Kevin Coleman Jr. with 2:04 left. The two-point try failed and the onside kick did not work, per Football Nation.

What they said. Durden: “I feel like we dominated up front,” he said. “The score obviously doesn’t show it, but we dominated up front. We had a bunch of sacks, a bunch of TFLs. Just a bunch of production from the defensive line.”

Christian Gonzalez on the plan: “We had a plan coming into the game. We knew we wanted to have a lot of vision on Malik [Willis] and make him beat us,” he said. “We were able to mix it up and give him different looks.”

The sloppy parts

The bottom line: Both teams played in steady rain, and the game looked like it. New England was penalized seven times for 46 yards and Miami six times for 50.

The details:

• Andy Borregales missed a 40-yard field goal wide right. Miami’s Zane Gonzalez also missed from 43, per the team’s game observations.
• Through eight games Borregales has missed an extra point and three field goals, per Pats Pulpit.
• Jaylen Wright had kickoff returns of 43 and 36 yards for Miami. Marcus Jones had a 26-yard punt return in the first quarter.
• Ollie Gordon was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct after the Williams touchdown, pushing Miami back 15 yards into a third-and-20, and the drive ended in a punt. The Palm Beach Post’s Joe Schad called it one of the key factors in the loss.
• Each team turned the ball over once. New England finished with 313 total yards to Miami’s 269, and held the ball for 31:57 against Miami’s 28:03.

The backdrop: This was the first of two meetings. The teams play again at Gillette Stadium in the Week 18 regular-season finale, per Dolphins Wire. New England hosts Green Bay on Sunday, Nov. 8, at 4:25 p.m. ET, per Pats Pulpit and Football Nation.

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Our take

Durden said the line dominated up front, and the box score backs him: five sacks, and Miami held to 74 rushing yards. New England still trailed a 1-6 team 13-3 at halftime. The zone coverage didn’t get fixed on Sunday. Kuhr went to man in the third quarter instead, and Willis fell to 6 of 9 for 36 yards against it. That’s a workaround, and the players said man wasn’t even a halftime emphasis. A defense that came in 30th in pass EPA against zone is still that defense. Maye’s 146-yard second half covered for it.