First Division Win

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the demise of the New England Patriots may have been greatly exaggerated.

— Jared Carrabis (@Jared_Carrabis) September 30, 2018

With back-to-back losses in Week 2 & 3, this win was very necessary. The Patriots managed to get a huge win against the now 3-1 Miami Dolphins. Despite the win, the Dolphins still lead the division 3-1 to the Patriots 2-2. Following this game, Julian Edelman will be returning to the starting lineup for their Thursday night game against the Indianapolis Colts.

The Patriots were on all cylinders today, with a huge 24-0 lead going into the second half. Tom Brady performed as well as expected. 23-35 attempts, passing for 274 yards, with 3 TDs and 2 INTs. (one of which was in garbage time) While, Brady did expectionally well, the Patriots had a numerous amount of turnovers on defense. The Dolphins were quite honestly, terrible throughout the course of the game. QB Ryan Tannehill was held down to only 100 yards passing, 1 INT and a forced fumble.

Defense Showed Up

Patriots 38, Dolphins 7 (final): Defense sparks turnaround, buying time for still-evolving offense to find its groove in a performance that started with the team's best week of practice. Rob Gronkowski left in third quarter with ankle injury, which bears watching.

— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) September 30, 2018

The Patriots defense this week was nothing but excellent. Compared to last week, this was a night and day performance. Thanks to the defense keeping the Dolphins out of the red-zone, they capitalized on this. The team kept true to their bend-don’t-break philosophy but were able to perform aggressively. DT Adam Butler(whom went down due to a knee injury) was able to get a sack and LB Kyle Van Noy was able to recover a forced fumble.

There were very few penalties on the Patriots as well. The only real noticeable flags were only two. First, was on CB Stephon Gilmore during the second quarter and on special teams during the second half. Compared to the Miami Dolphins, who were heavily penalized on both sides of the field. Overall, the defense was much improved for this game.

Running Backs = Big Time Playmakers

Sony Michel credited his teammates with keeping his confidence level up after his first two games. Said they’re always complimenting him and remaining positive. #Patriots

— Evan Lazar (@ezlazar) September 30, 2018

The offense was the debut of newly acquired WR Josh Gordon. However, the highlights of the game were either James White or rookie Sony Michel. Both running backs were dynamite on offense and were heavily used on screen passes during the game.

James White was 8 attempts, 44 rushing yards, 1 rushing TD and 8 receptions for 68 yards and 1 receiving TD. While Sony Michel has 25 attempts for 112 rushing yards and 1 rushing TD. These two were very complimentary with one another, and it showed on the field. And with the conclusion of this game, Brady’s TD pass to WR Cordarrelle Patterson now has him tied for most TD passes to the most receivers (70) in NFL history with former QB Vinny Testaverde.

With the win, the Patriots are now 2-2 as they head for Thursday night football against the 1-3 Indianapolis Colts on Oct. 4th at 8:20 PM EST.