Rhamondre Stevenson had his fingerprints on Patriots’ win in Miami
For a while, Sunday’s game looked like it would be yet another weird one to add to the franchises’ annals. Rain made the conditions sloppy, and the performance of the shorthanded Patriots early on deserved to be described the same way.
At halftime, the Dolphins led, 13-3. The Patriots had just 97 yards of offense in the first half. It was all a mess, and there was a decent chance it would remain that way.
The Patriots got their act together in the third quarter, seizing the lead with a pair of spectacular plays by quarterback Drake Maye — a 43-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Williams and a 2-yard touchdown run in which he deked a would-be tackler with a fake pitch to Stevenson that belongs on the highlight reel of your favorite point guard.
But the win would not have been secured without various contributions from Stevenson.
He finished with a season-high 82 rushing yards on 19 carries, becoming just the fourth running back in Patriots history to surpass 4,000 rushing yards for the franchise. Sam Cunningham, Jim Nance, and Tony Collins are the others. They don’t quite have, say, the Cowboys’ history of prolific running backs, do they?
Stevenson also chipped in with three receptions for 8 yards — including a key 4-yard gain on a low Maye throw to convert a third down right before Williams’s crucial long touchdown, which cut the Dolphins’ lead to 13-10.
But his two biggest plays might have come in the game’s final minutes. Stevenson recovered an onside kick with 2:04 left after the Dolphins had cut the Patriots’ lead to 24-19. Then, on the ensuing possession, he clinched the win when, on third and 5 from the Miami 38, he charged for the 5 yards the Patriots needed.
On yet another day when the Patriots had to dig deep on the depth chart, the veteran Stevenson was a rock, delivering when he was needed the most. Wins in Miami are always worth celebrating. So are reliable and clutch performances like his.
Some further thoughts, upon immediate review …
THREE PLAYERS WHO WERE WORTH WATCHING
Players suggested in the Unconventional Preview: Ollie Gordon, Eli Raridon, Christian Elliss.
DeMario Douglas: Patriots wide receivers totaled just two catches for 16 yards in the first half, both by Efton Chism. It was a different story in the second half, with Williams contributing the aforementioned long touchdown and Douglas contributing multiple important plays, including a fourth-and-2 conversion, a 26-yard reception, and a weaving 48-yard touchdown reception early in the fourth quarter to put the Patriots up 24-13.
Cory Durden: Durden and Christian Elliss set the tone on the second play from scrimmage, teaming up to sandwich Dolphins quarterback Malik Willis, one of five Patriots sacks before halftime. The young defensive tackle added another sack all his own later in the half and wreaked further havoc with two tackles for a loss.
Kevin Coleman Jr.: Four Dolphins pass-catchers contributed between 40 and 46 receiving yards, with Coleman setting the high mark on three receptions. Most of his yardage came on a 35-yard touchdown reception with 2:04 left in the game, adding one final bit of tension for the Patriots.
GRIEVANCE OF THE GAME
The Alex Moore-led officiating crew that called Patriots-Dolphins was literally deemed not ready for prime time by the league this week. After several questionable calls in last week’s Lions-Packers game, the crew was moved from its original glamorous assignment this week on “Sunday Night Football” (Commanders-Eagles) to Patriots-Dolphins, which ranked somewhere lower on the marquee of games this week. It didn’t take long to see why, most egregiously with their initially botched call of Williams’s touchdown, which was first declared no catch before being overturned. I’d be fine not seeing this crew again this season. Their relegation to Patriots-Dolphins was a punishment as much for us as it was for them.
THREE NOTES SCRIBBLED IN THE MARGINS
Predicted final score: Patriots 30, Dolphins 20.
Final score: Patriots 24, Dolphins 19.
Maybe it’s partially because he seemed to have played with or for half of the players and coaches involved in Sunday’s game, but I enjoyed former Patriot Logan Ryan as the color analyst on CBS’s broadcast. Ryan, who is teamed with Andrew Catalon on the network’s No. 4 team, had an informative sense for what the Patriots were trying to do on both sides of the ball. When Stevenson failed to pick up Dolphins rusher Joshua Uche on a drive-killing sack in the first quarter, Ryan explained that the Patriots running back “left the driveway too early,” a clever way of describing his missed assignment … The Patriots ended Dolphins running back Ollie Gordon’s streak of a rushing touchdown in four straight games. Gordon is a tough runner who looks like he could be a part of their long-term plans, but he does seem the temperamental sort. He got animated in a Terrell Owens-ish sort of way on the Dolphins sideline after picking up a unnecessary roughness penalty in the third quarter … Kevin Byard hauled in his first interception as a Patriot and 37th of his outstanding career early in the fourth quarter after a Willis pass ricocheted off DaQuan Jones’s helmet. That moved Byard into a tie for 105th place on the all-time list (I thought he’d be higher, to be honest), joining the likes of Richard Sherman, Brian Dawkins, the original Patrick Surtain, and disgustingly, Jack Tatum in the 37 Picks club.
Chad Finn can be reached at [email protected].
