Six Takeaways As Patriots Crush Dolphins In Regular Season Finale
The New England Patriots didn’t exactly put together one of their best games, but they took care of business on Sunday.
New England overcame some uninspired play in the first half to eventually come away with a 38-10 victory at Gillette Stadium, closing out their regular season schedule and setting up a playoff matchup with a familiar postseason foe.
I’ve got your takeaways:
WHO’S NEXT?
The Patriots finished as the No. 2 seed in the AFC.
It’ll set up home-field advantage throughout the playoffs against everyone but the Denver Broncos, with their wild-card matchup coming next weekend against the Los Angeles Chargers at Gillette Stadium.
PLAYOFF IDENTITY
The Patriots have been one of the most explosive offenses in football, as they entered this game ranked first in yards per pass attempt (8.8), second in yards per play (6.1), and fourth in total yards per game (374.5) and points per play (0.457).
It’ll be difficult to just throw it all over the place once the playoff roll around, though…
Rhamondre Stevenson and TreVeyon Henderson need to be more involved, and they were exactly that in the regular season finale — with the former ripping off a 56-yard run on the second play of the game and finishing with seven carries for 131 yards, while the latter finished with 13 carries for 53 yards.
If they can average 11.4 yards per carry in a playoff environment, this offense will be extremely difficult to stop.
RUNNING GAME WRINKLE
New England has cycled through different options at fullback, not only using a converted tight end (Jack Westover) but their top backup offensive lineman (Ben Brown) and a rotational defensive lineman (Khyiris Tonga).
Thayer Munford Jr. was added to that list on Sunday.
Munford was used in short-yardage scenarios with some of the other previous options unavailable, and performed extremely well in what has been one of many different roles he’s been tasked with performing since rejoining the organization several weeks ago.
BIG BOOT
Andy Borregales quickly made up for his blocked attempt in the second quarter, ending the period with a career-long 59-yard field goal that extended his club’s lead to 17-10.
Impressive!
DEFECTIVE DEFENSE
I’ve seen better efforts from an individual unit…
The Patriots missed six tackles on the first three drives of the game, two of which ended in the red zone. It’s probably too harsh to say they were disinterested early on, but there was a certain level of execution missing on those early drives.
Robert Spillane and Khyiris Tonga’s impending returns will be big, because you can’t afford slow starts like that when the postseason rolls around.
FIRST TIME, LONG TIME
Stefon Diggs became the franchise’s first player to topple 1,000 receiving yards since Julian Edelman in 2019.
Diggs, who cashed $500,000 in surpassing 1,000, finished the regular season with 85 catches, 1,013 receiving yards and four touchdowns.